The region that was devastated by Hurricane Sandy last October is close to getting the federal aid that has been requested to help rebuild, but other disaster-hit areas of the country may be left waiting.

Colorado watersheds devastated by last June’s wildfires still need protection from melting snows, spring rains and mudslides. And Alaska fishermen are still looking for federal aid to cope with a fishery disaster and with industrial contaminants and debris from Japan’s 2011 tsunami.

But the chance to get emergency federal funds for those pressing needs is slipping away.

Susan Walsh / AP

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. walks out of the House Chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Jan. 4, 2013, following the counting of Electoral College votes.

Next week the Senate is slated to take up the Disaster Appropriations Relief Act to aid individuals and businesses recovering from Hurricane Sandy. The House overwhelmingly passed the $50.7 billion bill Tuesday night.

“While the House bill is not quite as good as the Senate bill, it is certainly close enough. We will be urging the Senate to speedily pass the House bill and send it to the President’s desk,” said Sen. Charles Schumer, D- N.Y., a member of the Senate leadership whose state suffered massive damage from Sandy in late October.

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Congress was never legally barred from providing funds in that bill for other disasters far away from New York, even as far as away Alaska.

In fact, the disaster spending bill which the Senate passed last month to respond to Hurricane Sandy did provide $125 million for the Emergency Watershed Protection Program, some of which would have been used to restore Colorado watersheds damaged by last June’s wildfires.

“No one questions that we need to help the hurricane victims in the Northeast, but wildfire-relief is not ‘pork,”” said Sen. Mark Udall, D- Colo., Wednesday.

In the past, emergency spending bills enacted in the immediate aftermath of one catastrophe have included funds for other disasters.

Related: House OK's $50.7 billion in Sandy emergency funding

Case in point: the emergency spending bill President Barack Obama signed in July of 2010 included $5.5 billion not only for recovery from the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil discharge off the coast of Louisiana, but also for hurricanes Katrina (2005), Rita (2005), Gustav (2008), and Ike (2008) as well as the 2010 floods in Rhode Island, Tennessee, and other states.

But members of Congress from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut want the $50.7 billion which the House passed on Tuesday to be available immediately.

Including funds for disaster relief in places that Sandy didn’t hit is a tough sell: any amendment added by the Senate would necessitate sending the amended bill back to the House for another vote.

“Sen. Begich is talking with Senate leadership and other senators affected by unaddressed disasters about amending the House bill to ensure fishermen in their states get their needs addressed,” said Amy Miller, Begich’s spokeswoman. “Historically, disaster-aid funding bills include multiple disasters, and that’s how Sen. Begich thinks it should be done,” she explained. “He may propose an amendment to make a point about how he thinks disasters should be funded, but if it’s not getting any traction he’s not going to make a big stand that winds up delaying aid to Sandy victims.”

Udall said Wednesday the House's decision this week to not include money for wildfire relief in the Sandy bill was “unbelievable.” He added that communities in his state “are now vulnerable to floods and other long-term effects of the 2012 fires. The long-term costs and damages will make this now-rejected relief funding seem like mere peanuts.”

Udall spokesman Mike Saccone said Wed that “We suspect this (the disaster relief bill) will be sent through by unanimous consent,” which would mean no opportunity for adding amendments.

Just as New Yorkers such as Schumer can make the case that Sandy funding is urgent – in order for homeowners to hire contractors to rebuild homes, for instance – so, too, time is of the essence in the aftermath of Colorado’s wildfires: spring rains means clogged streams and reservoirs and more outlays by local water districts.

Of course, another disaster need not wait until the spring tornado season or the late summer hurricane season. It may be just a few weeks away.

For example, on Jan. 30, 2010 Obama signed a disaster declaration for the state of Oklahoma after a severe winter storm hit the state two days earlier.

But in an era of fiscal strain, with Obama and GOP congressional leaders struggling over spending cuts and an increase in the government’s borrowing limit, a new disaster might not necessarily mean a new disaster relief bill any time soon.

Two and a half months after Hurricane Sandy ravaged the Northeast coast, the political fight over federal spending to assist the recovery efforts continues in Congress.

In the end, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will almost certainly get more than $60 billion in federal aid to help them recover and rebuild.

But efforts by some House members even as late as Monday night to add unrelated funds to the Sandy emergency aid bill provided an object lesson in why such emergency bills are perfect vehicles for adding more spending.

The House on Tuesday will be voting on both a larger Sandy bill, costing $33.7 billion, offered by Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R- N.J., a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, and a smaller one, costing $17 billion, offered by Appropriations Committee chairman Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky.

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If the House were to pass both those bills and if one adds the $9.7 billion that the House OK’d on Jan. 4 in additional borrowing authority for the National Flood Insurance Program, the total aid, at least for now, would be $60.4 billion.

At Monday night’s hearing of the House Rules Committee that considered 92 amendments to the bill, Rogers explained that his version was “Sandy only. We tried to rifle-shot money to this immediate catastrophe…. We kept everything out of my bill except Sandy.”

Rogers reminded committee members that tens of billions of federal dollars have already been spent on helping people hurt by Sandy. “So far FEMA has been able to award states a total of $3.1 billion for the immediate needs that have been taking place while we were scouring the numbers (in the big Sandy relief bill),” he reported. “For example, New York has received $2.1 billion and New Jersey almost $900 million, Connecticut $38 million.”

Among the differences between Frelinghuysen’s bigger bill and Rogers’s smaller one: Frelinghuysen would provide more funding for the operations of federal agencies in the Sandy-affected states – even if the agency is not directly engaged in helping people or businesses hit by the storm. For instance, Frelinghuysen’s bill would provide $50 million to the National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Fund for “expenses related to the consequences of Hurricane Sandy” and another $10 million for Sandy-related building and construction expenses for the federal prison system. Rogers’s bill does not include this funding.

Some House Republicans are still balking at the sheer size of the bills and at the near certainty that some money won’t be going directly to victims or towns hit by the storm.

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, walks to a strategy session with GOP members, on Capitol Hill, Friday, Jan. 4, 2013, at the start of the first full day of business for the new 113th Congress.

Rules Committee member Rep. Rob Woodall, R- Ga., said Monday night, “If we have an urgent need, let’s agree on that number we can agree on and let’s get it out the door with haste, but if we have a giant need, then let’s give it the slow and thoughtful scrutiny that we owe folks back home.”

He noted that a $60 billion bill for Sandy – to be given just a few days of debate -- would be larger than the normal appropriations bills for the State Department or the Homeland Security Department on which Congress deliberates for months.

Disaster relief bills are massive, have emotional appeal, and aren’t subject to as much scrutiny as spending bills that go through the normal Appropriations Committee process.

This bill has particular momentum since House Speaker John Boehner was so harshly criticized by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and House members from the Northeast for not allowing a vote on a Sandy relief bill on New Years’ Eve.

And the bigger the emergency, the better the opportunity to add more money. Last June’s wildfires in Colorado and the 2011 tsunami in Japan both occurred months before Sandy and hundreds or even thousands of miles away from Sandy, but emergency bills are an opportunity to get aboard a moving train and get money for disasters in one’s own district.

For example:
• Rep. Cory Gardner, R- Colo. and other Colorado members proposed $125 million for watershed protection and flood mitigation around the nation, including about $20 million for areas in Colorado burned by last summer’s wildfires. This watershed protection money was in the Sandy bill that the Senate passed last month.
• Rep. Rick Larsen, D- Wash. proposed an amendment to allow the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration greater leeway over the $290 million in Sandy marine debris cleanup funds so that Pacific Coast states could get some of that money to cope with their own marine debris from the March 2011 Japanese tsunami.
“Just last month, an entire Japanese dock washed up on the Washington state coast,” Larsen said in a statement. “Our state and local governments do not have the resources to deal with this problem, which can cost as much as $4,300 per ton of debris that comes ashore.”

Ultimately the Rules Committee did not allow those two amendments to proceed to the House floor for Tuesday’s debate. It did allow a few amendments to try to offset the cost of the Sandy aid.

For example the House will consider a proposal by Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R- S.C. to offset $17 billion in Sandy funding by a 1.63 percent across-the-board cut in non-Sandy discretionary funding.

“I’ve lived through a hurricane myself; I’ve had my office destroyed by a flood; I think this (emergency aid) is a proper function of the government….I just want to try to find a way to pay for it,” Mulvaney told the Rules Committee. “This is important; there is no question. Is it important enough to borrow money from China to do it, especially when we’re already borrowing money from China to do so many other things?”

Ramping up meetings with key groups in the gun control debate, Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the administration is "determined to take action" in the wake of the Newtown shooting spree that left 20 children dead.

"If our actions result in saving only one life, they're worth taking," Biden said at a meeting of victims and gun control proponents at the White House. "But I'm convinced we can affect the well-being of millions of Americans and take thousands of people out of harm's way if we act responsibly."

Biden indicated that President Barack Obama is considering executive action to address the gun issue, although he noted that it's not yet clear what options may be plausible outside of legislative movement.

"The president is going to act," Biden said. "There are executive orders, executive action that can be taken."

White House spokesman Jay Carney today declined to specify what types of executive action the administration may consider. 

"I'm not going to get into specifics because I won't get ahead of the president or the vice president, but also because the process is ongoing," Carney said, adding that legislative action is also "certainly part of this."

"Decisions have not been made," Carney said.

The meeting was the first in a series scheduled for this week with the task force led by the vice president. On Thursday, Biden will meet with sportsman's organizations, gun sellers -- including Wal-Mart -- and the National Rifle Association. Biden is also expected to meet with representatives of the entertainment and video game industries this week.

The series of stakeholder meetings is intended to help administration officials shape new policies to prevent gun violence. But while some of those proposals -- like instituting universal background checks -- could garner some support from big sellers, other proposed ideas -- like reinstituting a ban on certain types of weapons -- are likely to encounter tough opposition from gun rights supporters.

Larry Downing / Reuters

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (R) speaks to representatives of gun safety and gun violence victims' groups in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington, January 9, 2013.

On Wednesday, Biden said that even a piecemeal approach is preferable to inaction.

"I want to make it clear that we are not going to get caught up in the notion of 'unless we can do everything, we're going to do nothing,'" Biden said. "It's critically important that we act."

Megastore Wal-Mart announced Wednesday morning that it will send a representative to a Thursday session after facing criticism for reportedly declining the invitation yesterday.

"Knowing our senior leaders could not be in Washington this week, we spoke in advance with the Vice President's office to share our perspective," a Wal-Mart spokesman said. "We underestimated the expectation to attend the meeting on Thursday in person, so we are sending an appropriate representative to participate."

Updated 7:48pm ET In the storm-ravaged states of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, officials have moved some Election Day voting locations, although many remain unchanged.

As of noon Monday, Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill said that utility companies in her state have reported that electricity has been restored to all but two of 773 voting precincts in the state.

Her Web site posted the two voting place changes:

· Bridgeport’s Longfellow School polling place has been relocated to Aquaculture School, 60 St. Stephens Road, Bridgeport.

· New London’s Ocean Beach polling place has been relocated to Harbor School, 432 Montauk, Ave, New London.

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In New Jersey, storm-displaced voters who are temporarily staying in a part of the state where they are not registered, are permitted to go to any polling place in New Jersey on Election Day and vote by using a provisional ballot. The ballot will be forwarded to the county of the voter’s residence.

Tim Aubry / Reuters

Utility trucks and first responders navigate flood waters on the main stretch of road in Peahala Park, N.J., in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, in this photograph taken on October 30, 2012 and released on Oct. 31.

Displaced New Jersey voters also have until 5 p.m. ET on Election Day to fax or e-mail a request for a mail ballot to their county clerk.

More information is available at the New Jersey Division of Elections website, on voting by fax or e-mail.  The voter must transmit the ballot to the county board of elections no later than 8 p.m. ET on Election Day.

Some counties in New Jersey have posted changes in voting locations or have alerted voters about the status of voting locations in their area.

Here are a few:

· Union County: County officials have posted an announcement that “almost all polling places are expected to be open on Election Day, Tuesday November 6. An updated list will be available later today.”

·   Ocean County: The county has posted a list of changes in voting locations here.

·  Atlantic County: The elections board has posted a list of changes in voting locations here.

·  Monmouth County: The county has posted a list of locations here.

The county also says: “Provisions have been made for residents in two of the most severely storm-ravaged boroughs to vote in neighboring communities. Sea Bright residents will vote at the Fair Haven Fire House on 645 River Road in Fair Haven. Loch Arbour residents will be voting at the Allenhurst Fire House on 311 Hume Street in Allenhurst. All other residents will vote in their own community.”

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In New York, as of Monday morning, some counties were still in the process of finding new voting locations but had not yet posted them on their Web sites.

Suburban Nassau County, which was hit especially hard by last week’s storm surge and flooding, has posted a list of the voting locations that have been moved or consolidated, here.

In addition, Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order on Monday that will allow displaced voters from one of the federally-declared disaster counties, such as Nassau, who may temporarily be in a county other than where they live to vote by affidavit ballot.

The affidavit ballot will be sent to the board of elections where the voter is registered. According to Cuomo’s press office, these votes by affidavit ballot will count for the office of president and United States senator “and for any other candidate and ballot initiative that appears on the official ballot where the voter is registered.”

Listed below are links to the polling place search tools that each state offers, but be aware that in some cases changes in polling locations might not be reflected in the voter lookup tool databases.

· Search tool for New Jersey voters here.

· Search tool for New York state voters here.

· Search tool for New York City voters here.

· Search tool for Connecticut voters here.

For voters who want to use early voting or an absentee ballot, here’s some information:

· In New York, a voter needs a specific reason to vote by absentee ballot, such as being out of the state on Election Day, having a disability, or being in prison due to having been convicted of a non-felony offense. The State Board of Elections has announced that the deadline for applying in person for an absentee ballot is Monday. Absentee ballots must be postmarked no later than Monday, Nov. 5. Those mailed ballots have until Nov. 19 to arrive at the local Board of Elections.

· In New Jersey, any voter can vote by mail. A voter may apply in person to the County Clerk until 3:00 p.m. ET Monday. Vote by mail ballot must be received by the County Board of Elections no later than 8 p.m. ET on Election Day.

· In Connecticut, voting by absentee ballot is limited  to the sick and disabled, those in active service in the armed forces, and those absent from their town for all of Election Day. The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot is Monday and the deadline for returning the absentee ballot is 8 p.m. ET on Election Day.

Updated at 7:45pm ET The destruction brought by Monday’s hurricane is forcing election officials in New York City to look for new places for voters to cast their ballots next Tuesday.

New York City Board of Elections commissioner J.C. Polanco said in an interview Wednesday night that the ten commissioners are working with Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Michael Bloomberg to find suitable substitute sites to voting places that have been inundated by sewer water, have no electrical power, or are too damaged to use on Election Day.

He said one option officials are weighing is to combine polling locations, while another is “having tents near the polling sites where the voters have normally voted, with state-funded generators, where our machines will be able to be placed, and our workers will be able to serve the voters.”

The ten-member bipartisan Board of Elections faces a massive logistical task since there are four million voters in New York City; in the 2008 election, 2.6 million cast ballots.

“Thankfully we’ve been able to secure the many scanners (for optical scan voting machines) in low-lying areas. For example in the county of Staten Island, Richmond, we were able to bring all those scanners to an armory,” he said.

An additional layer of complexity in New York City next Tuesday: the use of optical scan machines which for people who only vote in presidential elections will be a new experience, “the first time in over half a century” that voters will be facing new voting technology, Polanco said.

In neighboring Connecticut, Secretary of State Denise Merrill said Wednesday that despite the after-effects of hurricane Sandy she’s optimistic that normal voting will be taking place on Election Day.

After conferring with about 240 local election officials in her state on a conference call Wednesday morning, Merrill said in a phone interview, “We are prepared to go forward with the election. There are probably about 100 polling places at this point that are without power, but it looks like most of them could be moved if needed, but we’re hoping a lot of them will come back on line (before Election Day). Even in the towns most devastated, which were along the shore, places like Greenwich, Old Saybrook, Stonington – those were the towns that were hardest hit – most of the town halls are up and running. Even though there’s widespread damage to homes, the official polling places are probably going to be fine and we’re making alternate arrangement for a lot of the processes that we have to do before Election Day.”

She said the local officials seemed hopeful that polling locations “will be up and running by Election Day. CL&P (Connecticut Light & Power) is lot better on this then they were in the past. We’re in constant communication and they’re making these polling places a priority (for restoring electricity). And most of them are fire stations and schools and town halls which are going to the first priority anyway.”  

She said Connecticut does have provisions in state law for local election officials to consolidate or move a polling place “but it’s a very last resort. Fortunately or unfortunately, we have had practice: last year we had the storm (Hurricane Irene) on exactly the same day and there were towns that had to move polling places because they were so devastated by downed trees and power lines that they did move polling places.”

Pool / Reuters

An aerial view of the storm damage over the Atlantic Coast is seen in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in Seaside Heights, New Jersey October 31, 2012.

Merrill said one challenge if polling locations are moved is to inform voters in the towns or cities affected. “It has to be handled very carefully. They did it through reverse 911 calls to people which have been used already by local officials to notify people about downed power lines and that sort of thing. You have to post notices — it’s a very extensive process.”

Merrill noted that due to the hurricane, the state has extended the voting registration deadline by two extra days (until Thursday at 8 p.m.) and “we still have registrations pouring in so there’s still a lot of election activity going on.”

Connecticut does not have early voting or no-excuse absentee balloting.

Elsewhere in storm-affected states:

• New Jersey officials were still assessing polling site conditions. Jason Varano, assistant supervisor of the Ocean County Board of Elections, said workers were still in the process of checking on conditions at poll locations in the hard-hit county. He emphasized that New Jersey does allow for voting by mail and that although it’s too late for voters to request that a ballot be mailed to them they can go in person to the Ocean County Administration building in Toms River, N.J. and request a ballot. In Cape May County, Michael Kennedy, the registrar at the board of elections said officials surveyed polling locations Wednesday and found only one municipality, Ocean City, to be affected: two polling centers there cannot be used. One is under water and the other has water damage and no electricity. The county will combine those districts with others and inform residents about the changes in polling locations.
• In New Hampshire where thousands lost electric power due to the storm, a spokesman for Secretary of State Bill Gardner said reporting from emergency services agencies indicated that power would be on line in time for Election Day.
• In West Virginia, as early voting continued, the storm’s impact was felt in a tragic way: the name of one state legislative candidate, Republican John Rose, will remain on the ballot after he was killed during the snowstorm Tuesday by a falling tree limb. Rose’s death necessitated a special write-in candidate filing period with candidates needing to file by 5 p.m. on Thursday. If voter choose Rose the governor will select a legislator from a list of three candidates submitted by the Republican Party executive committee in Rose’s home county.

NBC News’s Natalie Cucchiara contributed to this report.

Brian Snyder / REUTERS

Supporters cheer as they wait for a speech by Mitt Romney in Manchester, N.H. on April 24, 2012.

Updated 9:48 p.m. ET - Mitt Romney declared victory in his quest to become the Republican presidential nominee on Tuesday and kicked off his general election campaign against President Barack Obama in earnest following a clean sweep of primaries in the Northeast.

Romney's performance in Connecticut, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island allowed him to cap a tumultuous GOP primary cycle that extended longer than many expected. Romney's march toward the 1,144 delegates needed to secure the nomination appeared, at this point, to be all but a formality.

And, eager to begin prosecuting his case against Obama, Romney took a victory lap in the general election swing state of New Hampshire -- rather than appearing in any of the states hosting nominating contests tonight or in the future -- to declare, "a better America begins tonight."

"Tonight I can say thank you, America," Romney told a cheering crowd in the Granite State. "After 43 primaries and caucuses, many long days and more than a few long nights, I can say with confidence -- and gratitude -- that you have given me a great honor and solemn responsibility. And, together, we are going to win on Nov. 6."

Romney faced only token opposition from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Texas Rep. Ron Paul in Tuesday's contests. The former Massachusetts governor had all but assumed the status of presumptive Republican nominee two weeks ago, when his principal conservative rival, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, suspended his campaign.

Major Republican figures had finally begun to rally around Romney and offer their endorsements since that point, but he must still work toward winning the 1,144 delegates needed to formally secure the nomination. Romney had entered Tuesday having secured 698 of the necessary delegates, according to Associated Press projections, putting him on pace toward crossing the threshold in late May or early June.

Tonight's primaries may also signal the last gasp for Gingrich, as well, who had pinned his hopes of continuing his campaign on winning Delaware. But the ex-speaker offered no hint as to his future plans in brief remarks.

"I think it's a very substantial mistake for Gov. Romney to give a general election speech tonight in New Hampshire," Gingrich told reporters Tuesday. "He is not the nominee. I think it's a little insulting to people in these states." But he did indicate at a North Carolina event that "over the next few days, we're going to look realistically at where we're at."

Romney spent the evening focusing not on his remaining primary challenges, and instead trained his sights instead on the task of unseating Obama this fall.

"This has already been a long campaign, but many Americans are just now beginning to focus on the choice before the country. In the days ahead, I look forward to spending time with many of you personally. I want to hear what’s on your mind, hear about your concerns, and learn about your families," he said, promising to tell voters more about himself.

For Romney, that re-introduction is a delicate and important task. The most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that more Americans -- 36 percent -- had a negative impression of Romney than the 33 percent who said they viewed the former Massachusetts governor positively.

On tests of whether he or Obama is seen as more easygoing and likable, or more in touch with the middle class, the president badly outpaces Romney.

Mindful of that, Romney kept his speech keyed in closely on pocketbook issues, warning of "diversions and distractions" from the central issue of the economy.

"It's still about the economy, and we're not stupid," Romney said, referencing the famous political maxim first employed by Bill Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992.

Obama's re-election team has been eager to reuse fodder from the primary season against the former Massachusetts governor in the context of the general election, underscoring the urgency for Romney to put the GOP contest to bed.

"Mitt Romney has spent the past year out on the campaign trail tearing down the president with a negative message that even Republicans who have endorsed him have criticized," said Ben LaBolt, Obama's campaign spokesman. "This marks the end of that monologue. Now he must put his record and his agenda next to the president’s."

Although Santorum dropped out two weeks ago, he’s among the conservatives who are yet to have thrown their support to Romney. NBC News learned Tuesday that the two men will meet on May 4 at a to-be-determined destination, though the meeting wasn't expected to produce an immediate endorsement.

That Romney had not yet won an endorsement before the primary in the state that Santorum had represented in Congress suggests that the rift between conservatives and the presumptive nominee has not yet fully healed.

Gingrich's persistence poses a minor challenge to that effort to unify the party, though the former speaker hints that he may soon address his future as a candidate.

Paul is also promising to forge ahead with his own campaign, perhaps through the late May primary in his native Texas. But Romney might have won the delegates he needs by that point.

NBC's Andrew Rafferty contributed to this report.

Brian Snyder / Reuters

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign stop at Alpha Graphics in Hartford, Connecticut April 11, 2012.

HARTFORD, CT-- Mitt Romney pushed back aggressively on Wednesday afternoon against the notion of a Republican-led "war on women," repeating his argument that any such suffering by women is actually the result of President Obama's economic policies.

"This is an amazing statistic ... 92.3 percent of all the jobs lost during the Obama years have been lost by women. 92.3 percent!" Romney said, holding a new piece of campaign literature produced today displaying various dismaying economic statistics. "Now the president says, 'Oh, I didn’t cause this recession' -- that’s true. He just made it worse and made it last longer, and because it lasted longer, more and more women lost jobs."

And while independent fact checkers have questioned the veracity of that number, Romney came prepared with other damning numbers he said were the result of the president's poor stewardship of the economy.

"Under President Obama, 858,000 more women are out of work. 858,000 out of work under this president. And finally the total female unemployment rate has gone from 7 percent when he took office in January 2009 to 8.1 percent in March of 2012," Romney said. "This president has failed America’s women and if I’m the next president of the United States I will go to work to get American women good jobs, rising incomes and growing businesses."

While Team Romney has pushed back on the idea that the all-but-official GOP nominee has a problem with female voters, his campaign has begun an aggressive outreach effort -- surrounding the candidate with women on stage, as they did today, and having him meet with female business owners, as he did yesterday.

Democrats have touted stories of the GOP's gender gap, and today seized on a comment by a Romney surrogate on a conference call that called into question whether Romney would have supported the Lilly Ledbetter Act of 2009, which extended the statute of limitations for women to file wage discrimination lawsuits.

As the back-and-forth between the Romney and Obama campaigns flared over social media, the Romney campaign sent three press releases from prominent female surrogates focusing on the economy -- not the Ledbetter act, (which a Romney aide later said he would not change), a strategy Romney appeared to double down on towards the close of his remarks here today.

"This president will do, in his campaign, anything he can to deflect from his record. What I'm going to have to do every day is bring him back to his record. I have to show, for instance, that the policies of this administration have led to 92 percent of the people who have lost their jobs being women in this country," Romney said. "When he says, ‘Oh, there is a war on women,’ let's bring him back to the fact that it is the real war upon women that has been waged by his economic policies. Let’s hammer day in and day out what has happened under his policies, and recognize those policies, those things he believes, do not work."