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Lincoln cites Arkansas tornado to bash Bush budget Thursday, Feb 7, 2008 By Aaron Sadler Stephens Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - The deadly tornado outbreak that struck Arkansas and Tennessee illustrates the importance of federal emergency management funding, but that money is cut in President Bush's new budget, Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., said Wednesday. Lincoln and other rural-state Democrats charged that President Bush's budget plan fails small town America on every level, including emergency planning and response. Meanwhile, in the aftermath of storms that killed 13 Arkansans, Lincoln and Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., said they urged the Bush administration to send federal aid to the state. Both lawmakers spoke with Federal Emergency Management Agency director David Paulison. He promised quick action, Pryor said. President Bush, in a phone conversation with Gov. Mike Beebe on Wednesday morning, pledged federal help for the storm-ravaged regions of the state. Lincoln used a scheduled news conference Wednesday to rail against a Bush budget that would reduce emergency management grants by a third. The White House proposed reducing a grant program from $300 million to $200 million nationwide. Lincoln said the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management received $2.5 million from the same program last year. "These cuts mean a state like Arkansas' ability to plan for and respond to natural disasters like the tornadoes that hit us yesterday is seriously diminished," Lincoln said. As in previous years, Bush received all Fs on the "rural report card" delivered by Senate Democrats. Lincoln, chairwoman of Democrats' rural outreach, said the president doesn't take into consideration that federal grants account for 80 percent of the emergency management budget for Arkansas. "There is nowhere else for those dollars to come from," she said. Without federal help, communities like Atkins, Clinton and Gassville cannot rebuild, Lincoln said. State officials learned in December that the Bush administration intended to cut the federal emergency performance grant program. At that point, Arkansas emergency management director David Maxwell warned that budget cuts might shutter many county-level offices. In relation to Tuesday's storms, Pryor said he trusts FEMA will do better this year than last February, when the agency angered Arkansas officials in its response to a tornado in Dumas. Lawmakers saw FEMA as sluggish in its decision to reject federal assistance to Dumas tornado victims. "I do not want to see a repeat of what we saw with the Dumas tornado where we waited and waited for 12 days and they said 'No' on the disaster declaration," Pryor said. White House officials said FEMA dispatched staffers and resources overnight to affected areas, where they are working with state and local emergency workers. In addition, the National Guard has assisted in recovery efforts in Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee. The National Guard Bureau said 28 soldiers from the Fort Smith-based 142nd Fires Brigade were sent to Atkins where they helped remove debris. |
