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DC DIGEST/Congress approves additional Katrina relief Sunday, Sep 11, 2005 By Alison Vekshin and Elizabeth Piet Stephens Washington Bureau WASHINGTON -- Congress last week approved an additional $51.8 billion in relief to Hurricane Katrina victims. The Senate voted 97-0, while the House voted 420-11. "This emergency supplemental is the next installment in the long road to establishing the industries and communities of the Gulf Coast," said Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La. Approval came a week after Congress hurriedly passed an initial $10.5 billion in hurricane assistance. The money will be used for evacuation, clean up, emergency repairs, flood control, medical care and other hurricane-related expenses, congressional leaders said. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was targeted to receive $50 billion from the latest aid package, while $1.4 billion was to go to the Defense Department and $400 million to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. While the legislation passed by a wide margin, some lawmakers expressed worry that Katrina spending would strain the nation's budget while others called for an investigation into what Bush administration officials have acknowledged was an inadequate federal response to the hurricane. "Our budget deficit, after we pass this bill, will be $670 billion this year," said Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. "That comes to over $2,000 per man, woman and child in this country this year alone. So we have two disasters." Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, D-Ark., voted for the hurricane rescue funds. Reps. John Boozman, R-Rogers, Mike Ross, D-Prescott, Vic Snyder, D-Little Rock, and Marion Berry, D-Gillett, also voted for the bill. FEMA change blocked House Republicans blocked an effort to pull the Federal Emergency Management Agency from under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security and return it to being an independent agency. As the House debated the disaster relief bill, Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., attempted a procedural maneuver that would have created an avenue to consider the reorganization. "The problem is that the agency that we are appropriating most of the money to has demonstrated with great clarity that it is spectacularly dysfunctional," Obey said. Obey's proposal would have the emergency management director report directly to the president, require the director to have extensive experience in disaster management and limit the director's term to five years. The agency was an independent Cabinet-level agency until 2003 when it became part of the newly created Department of Homeland Security. The agency and its director, Michael Brown, came under mounting criticism for their response to the hurricane that devastated the Gulf Coast and submerged New Orleans. Brown was removed from hurricane responsibilities on Friday. Opponents said the disaster relief bill was not the appropriate place to discuss reorganizing the emergency management system. Obey's move was defeated in a partisan vote of 221-193. All votes for it came from Democrats, while all votes against it came from Republicans. Ross, Snyder and Berry voted for Obey's proposal. Boozman voted against it. -- 30 -- |
