[StBernard] House lawmakers visit N.O., evaluate Road Home bail out

[Westley Annis]

House lawmakers visit N.O., evaluate Road Home bail out
Posted by tortenzi August 14, 2007 7:14PM
By David Hammer 
Staff writer 

In what she saw as her last chance to collect the Road Home money to rebuild
her Lower 9th Ward home, Valeria Schexnayder made her way through a gaggle
of officialdom and corralled House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during a
congressional visit to the area Tuesday. 

She sought to seize the attention of the highest-ranking female politician
in U.S. history, just as she was about to leave the working-class
neighborhood's now-fabled wasteland. "They even told us last night that they
ran out of money," Schexnayder said, tears welling up as Pelosi hugged her
and thanked her for sharing her story. "This is my last chance. My only
chance." 

The lawmakers are visiting Louisiana in part to learn what needs to be done
to bail out the Road Home program, which is an estimated $5 billion short of
serving an estimated 150,000 eligible applicants. 

The local congressman, William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, assured the
distraught Schexnayder, 60, that the congressional group would announce
tomorrow that Road Home "is not going to run out of money." 

Jefferson later explained in an interview that the group would be announcing
that it is prepared to work to deliver whatever amount the Road Home needs,
now that the state has committed $1 billion to the cause. 

Although the federal lawmakers presented themselves as ready to help, they
also signaled that the federal largesse would have limits. 

"They're here to differentiate the needs from the wants," said Rep. Charlie
Melancon, D-Napoleonville. 

And while Gov. Kathleen Blanco said the Democratic House leadership had
fulfilled every promise they had made during Blanco's lobbying trip to
Washington in February, the Senate hasn't always agreed to certain Gulf
Coast recovery provisions -- and President Bush has recently threatened to
veto a water resources bill that includes major funding for levee
protection, coastal restoration and other water projects. 

Schexnayder, whose house floated away in Hurricane Katrina, said she's
living in a FEMA trailer "full of mold and full of formaldehyde" and faced a
whole new stress with the Road Home when she learned her $150,000 award
would be reduced to $100,000 because the state halted paying elevation
grants. 

Pelosi said she would also work the elevation grants issue, tied up in a
dispute over federal rules for spending about $1.2 billion in FEMA funds
designated for "hazard mitigation." 

On the other end of the Road Home spectrum, the Washington lawmakers made a
planned choreographed to the Chalmette home of Karen Vinsanau. She recently
closed on her Road Home grant, but she's struggled to get out of her FEMA
trailer and fix her house after the death of her husband, Darryl Acosta. 

"It is her tenacity that will ignite the rebirth of a region," said House
Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., the head of the House Katrina task
force. 

In a trip meant to showcase House Democrats' dedication to Gulf Coast
rebuilding, and to gather details about specific needs, the delegation also
toured the last remaining health center in St. Bernard Parish and Mary
McLeod Bethune Elementary School on the west side of New Orleans. 

With help from some high school students at McDonough 35, school employees
and leaders worked late over the weekend to get the once-flooded school
ready for Tuesday's first day of classes, and a little extra clean for the
distinguished guests from Washington. 

"All last night we cleaned it up," said Mary Haynes Smith, principal of the
pre-K-through-6th grade accelerated school, which has 300 students. "Not for
you all really -- mostly for the kids." 

Clyburn and Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., a member of the House Education
Committee, touted changes Democrats have proposed to the No Child Left
Behind program. 

Scott said his committee wants to make it easier for schools that show
improvement to comply, even if they don't bring students fully up to
national grade level standards, something he believes will reward strides
made in a devastated district like New Orleans. 

He also said the federal Department of Education should be empowered to
react immediately to a catastrophe like Katrina, which severely damaged more
than 60 of the Orleans Parish School Board's 120 facilities. "I don't know
why we can't come in and get a school system at least temporarily up and
running," Scott said. "I'm trying to get something into No Child Left Behind
to address that and I've asked (White House Gulf Coast Recovery Czar) Don
Powell to come up with a template." 

Another major sticking point in the area's recovery is health care, with the
loss of 3,000 physicians. 

In St. Bernard Parish, where officials say the population is now 30,000,
compared with 67,000 before the storm, only eight doctors work at the lone
health center -- a cluster of trailers in a Wal-Mart parking lot. It
struggled getting aid because it is privately owned and operated by the
Franciscan Mission of Our Lady Health System, but Louisiana Gov. Kathleen
Blanco gave it a rural health designation to get around some of the
limitations on public funding for private institutions. 

Pelosi and the local congressman, Rep. Charlie Melancon asked the gathered
doctors and nurses for particulars of what they need moving forward. 

Health system CEO and President John Finan said money was needed for
electronic health records. 

Dr. Bryan Bertucci, who is on staff and is also the parish coroner,
explained that they have received sufficient help with many of the
infrastructure and buildings, but they desperately need a way to attract
more health care professionals. They also said they need funding to build a
higher facility to guard against future flooding, with at least the first
two floors for storage. 

St. Bernard Parish President Henry "Junior" Rodriguez said he would provide
all the data Congress would require, but lamented that he had to keep
justifying his parish's needs. 

"Why we got to keep begging? If you didn't see (the devastation) on TV,
there's something wrong with you," he said to Pelosi. 

Pelosi said the trip meant only to nail down specifics, not question local
needs. 

"We have make sure when we write the laws, we get what we intended," Pelosi
explained. 

"When we're asking for particulars, it's not with any doubt that you're
doing the Lord's work." 


David Hammer can be reached at 
dhammer at timespicayune.com or (504) 
826-33