[StBernard] Money earmarked to rebuild Louisiana stripped

[Westley Annis]

Money earmarked to rebuild Louisiana stripped

By Bill Walsh 
Washington bureau

WASHINGTON - Leaders of the House Appropriations Committee have stripped
President Bush's request to earmark $4.2 billion for housing recovery in
Louisiana, throwing the state's rebuilding plan into question and unleashing
a scramble among hurricane-damaged Gulf Coast states for a cut of the money.


The committee is scheduled today to begin combing through the
administration's $92 billion supplemental spending request, $19.8 billion of
which is for hurricane disaster relief and the rest for military operations
in Iraq and Afghanistan. But in a draft already put together by the
committee Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., Bush's intention to steer housing
money to Louisiana was removed. 

"We have never done state-specific earmarks for disasters," committee
spokesman John Scofield said. 

The move coincides with a stepped-up campaign by the state of Texas to get a
larger share of hurricane financing than it has received in the past. With
five members of the House committee from Texas, the state has far more clout
than Louisiana, which is represented on the panel only by Rep. Rodney
Alexander, R-Quitman. 

The earmark change jolted Louisiana leaders who have written a housing
rehabilitation plan for 168,813 flood-damaged homes - promising as much as
$150,000 for each - that counts on getting the entire $4.2 billion in
Community Development Blocks Grants. Officials involved with the rebuilding
say they will try to convince Congress to repeat what it did last year and
increase the overall size of the president's request. 

"I'm really concerned about whether we will be able to hold on to the $4.2
billion," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Tuesday. "There seems to be a lot of
competition for that money and not a lot of will in Congress to go above the
president's request. That is a bottom-line need for us." 

It was evident that a behind-the-scenes battle among the Gulf Coast states
is well under way for hurricane recovery aid. 

At a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Texas Gov. Rick Perry made an
impassioned plea for a larger share of federal hurricane recovery spending
than the state has so far received. Of $11.5 billion in federal grants
allocated in December, Texas got $72 million. 

Six months after Hurricane Katrina, he said the need in is state is great.
He asked the committee for a $2 billion cut of the spending package for
housing, infrastructure and schools. 

Texas has about 38,000 Louisiana children enrolled in its public school
system and, despite what Perry said were promises of full reimbursement, he
said Texas is getting shortchanged. He said the per-pupil cost is about
$7,500 and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is reimbursing $4,000 at
most. Perry also said Texas communities get 75 percent of their debris
removal paid by FEMA while the agency picks up 100 percent of the tab for
those across the border in Louisiana. 

"Mother Nature treated people on both sides of the border with equal wrath,"
Perry said. "Congress should give them equal financial assistance." 

Texas sustained its heaviest damage almost a month after Hurricane Katrina,
when Hurricane Rita slammed into its coast. Perry called Rita "the storm no
one in Washington wants to remember." 

"I know there are great needs in Mississippi and Louisiana," said Perry, who
sat alongside his fellow Gulf Coast governors at the witness table. "Don't
forget the state that continues to host many of their citizens." 

In her pitch for a share of the federal disaster money, Blanco once again
told senators that the damage in her state is a federal responsibility
because breaches in the levees - which were federally designed and built -
led to much of the flood devastation during Katrina. She also said that at a
time when Congress is considering $72 billion for operations in Afghanistan
and Iraq, "surely we can spend $1.5 billion to strengthen the levees (in
southeastern Louisiana), $4.2 billion to allow people to come home." 

She sought to ease senators' concerns about possible fraud in the
distribution of federal dollars by telling them the state had hired the
accounting firm Deloitte & Touche to keep an eye on the spending. 

Blanco and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., heaped praise on Appropriations
Committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., who is seen both as a powerful
ally and a potential opponent as he presses for his own state to get a share
of the proposed disaster financing. More than anyone else, Cochran was
responsible for increasing the size of the president's last disaster
spending package in December. But Blanco gently chided him for limiting
Louisiana's share of $11.5 billion in housing grants to 54 percent. 

"Fifty-four percent does not allow us to enact a plan sufficient to cover
Louisiana's 75 percent share of devastation," Blanco said. 

As the states stake their claims to additional hurricane relief spending,
the relative damage has become an important, and controversial, issue. After
the Senate hearing, Blanco's Louisiana Recovery Authority released data,
compiled by the federal Office of Gulf Coast Rebuilding, showing the state
bore the overwhelming brunt of housing damage classified as "major and
severe," at 67 percent. 

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour took issue with the numbers. 

"I've seen figures that do not add up to that," he told the committee. 

With the confidence of a man whose home-state senator chairs the key money
committee, Barbour struck a calm tone telling the senators that he wasn't
asking for environmental restoration money because he hadn't fully vetted
the proposal yet. 

Barbour did ask for "proper consideration" of two other projects: rebuilding
the Port of Gulfport and relocating a railroad away from the Mississippi
coast. 

As the governors from Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi politely positioned
themselves for a share of Bush's fourth supplemental spending package, it
was Alabama Gov. Bob Riley who was notable for declining to put his hand
out. Riley said states should have more flexibility in how they spend
federal resources. But when asked by Landrieu if the $72 million in housing
financing Alabama got in the last disaster spending bill was enough, he said
it was.

Bill Walsh can be reached at bill.walsh at newhouse.com or (202) 383-7817.