NJ Mayors Frustrated Over Sandy Relief Delay [AUDIO]

House Speaker John Boehner has assured lawmakers that the house will vote on $60 billion in aid related to Superstorm Sandy by January 15th. New Jersey mayors say any delay will be costly.

"This will hurt municipalities because any delay means that we will pay more in interest, because while we know we will be reimbursed from the federal government, that delay means we will have to borrow the money for a longer period of time than we had originally anticipated," said Belmar Mayor Matt Doherty.

He said there are still hundreds of families who are homeless and businesses that are struggling to get up and running post-storm.

• Full coverage of the Sandy aid delay

"It just seems like Congress abandoned them and its really unfortunate that we have to play these games in Washington when people are hurting," he added.

Seaside Heights Mayor Bill Akers, who's town was one of the hardest hit communities, expressed his frustration over the delay.

"We need the money because we can't not have a season and this partisan politics back and forth just gets so tiring after awhile. We were there for the people during Hurricane Katrina, our legislators voted for relief for that part of the country and the northeast deserves the same," he said.

The mayors' say with or without the federal government's help they are moving ahead with rebuilding.

"We have already removed over 700 tons of debris, our boardwalk plan has been approved and we start construction on that next week. We can't wait for them to help, we need to get this done soon," said Mayor Doherty.

"The people and the businesses are working hard to get back up and running with or without aid from Washington, but it is something that the town would like to see sooner rather than later. I mean there are 145 days until Memorial Day and we need to be back and ready to go for the tourist season," added Akers.