New Jersey and New York senators launched a task force Tuesday aimed at overhauling the federal flood insurance program in order, they said, to avoid the problems that their constituents confronted after Superstorm Sandy.

“Your government failed you, plain and simple, and you deserve much, much better,” Sen. Bob Menendez (D., N.J.), the Sandy Task Force leader, said as he opened the group’s first hearing. The aim, he said, is to “bring justice” to victims who were underpaid by the federal insurance program an make sure that “never happens again.”

Around 50 people attended, largely from Ocean and Monmouth counties along the Jersey shore, according to Menendez’s staff.

The task force includes Sens. Cory Booker (D., N.J.), Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) and FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate.

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