Chris Christie comes to Washington

New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie was in Washington, D.C. Thursday for meetings with President Barack Obama, House Speaker John Boehner, and other officials regarding relief for Hurricane Sandy, aides to the governor said.

Christie's visit follows a similar trip to Washington earlier this week by New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, while both men push for federal funding to aid their states after the late October storm ravaged parts of the Northeast.

The New Jersey Republican left Capitol Hill shortly before 2 p.m. ET after a scheduled meeting with Boehner, according to a Boehner aide, and a senior aide said Christie would be taking a train back to New Jersey.

Earlier he met with Obama and held a separate meeting with other administration officials, including White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew, as well as members of the Office of Management and Budget.

On Capitol Hill, he also met with the U.S. senators from his state, as well as the members of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Shaun Donovan, the Housing and Urban Development secretary who Obama appointed to lead Sandy recovery efforts, told CNN Thursday "we're still working on" details of the recovery package, and "we're gonna make sure that we get to a place where we can help the region recover as quickly as possible."

Cuomo has asked for $42 billion in aid for New York while Christie has asked for $36.8 billion for the Garden State.

Boehner spokesman Michael Steel would not comment on the speaker's meeting with Christie, but said, "We are waiting for the administration to send up a request. We'll take a look at the request when we get it."

On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the Obama administration has "obligated more than $2.3 billion to support response and recovery efforts."

However, he said it was too early to put a price tag on the White House's expected request for relief money.

"I'm not going to get ahead of this process," Carney said at the White House. "I would anticipate that we would get a request up this week, and we can certainly discuss it further then."

FEMA Director Craig Fugate said the agency's Disaster Relief Fund will need refilling as part of a supplemental spending bill. During a Senate hearing last week, Donovan said the administration is finalizing its request based on information coming from New Jersey and New York.

The spending requests come amid an intense debate over spending levels as both parties are embroiled in a standoff over the fiscal cliff.

But presidential politics are also a bit at play with Christie and Cuomo, both high profile and popular governors, considered potential 2016 presidential candidates.

The Christie-Obama relationship landed in the spotlight when the two showed a united front in the wake of the storm, just days before the presidential election. Christie was an early backer of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and had served as a top surrogate for the GOP nominee during the presidential campaign.