Politics > Congress Approves $10.5B in Katrina Aid

Congress Approves $10.5 Billion Down Payment in Hurricane Relief Aid

President Bush, speaks to the media at a news conference as Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, right, listens, Friday, Sept. 2, 2005, at the White House in Washington. Facing blistering criticism for his administration's response to Hurrican

The bill passed the House by voice vote after Senate approval late Thursday. It comes as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the government's front-line responder in natural disasters, is spending more than $500 million a day on Katrina.

The new aid averts the possibility that money might run out before Congress reconvenes on Tuesday.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said the bill was only the first step toward a "comprehensive, long-term response to the Katrina disaster." He promised Congress would provide more humanitarian aid, combat gasoline price gouging, provide assistance to businesses and the unemployed, rebuild infrastructure and utility systems, and help local law enforcement.

"Make no mistake, this $10.5 billion is initial relief," DeLay said.

"I want to thank the Congress for acting as quickly as you did," Bush said of the $10.5 billion measure, which he was signing into law later Friday. "But I've got go to warn everybody that's just the beginning."

The bill combines $10 billion in new FEMA funds enough to last just a few weeks and $500 million for the Pentagon's role in the relief mission. The FEMA funds, among other uses, will finance food and emergency shelter, medical care, debris removal, generators and cash payments to hurricane victims. FEMA will also funnel funds to other federal agencies such as the Army Corps of Engineers, responsible for repairing levees around New Orleans and pumping out the flood waters inundating the city.

Long-term costs were anyone's guess. For starters, it could be months before New Orleans is cleared of flood waters, and until then, it's impossible to determine long-term needs. Many areas have yet to receive visits from federal officials.

Frustration with the rescue effort and the continued lack of help for many of the mostly poor and black victims in New Orleans reached a boil as the Congressional Black Caucus blasted Bush's handling of the crisis.

"I'm ashamed of America. I'm ashamed of our government," said Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick, D-Mich. "I'm outraged by the lack of response by our federal government."

To help ease some of the economic pain from the storm, the Department of Labor announced Friday that it is providing an emergency grant of up to $50 million to create 10,000 temporary cleanup and recovery jobs for displaced workers in Mississippi.

"Workers in these temporary jobs will be involved in the provision of food, shelter and other services to fellow Mississippians," said Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.

An increasingly polarized atmosphere has defined Washington this year, but as in response to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror assaults, erstwhile political adversaries teamed up to ensure speedy passage of the aid legislation.

A skeleton crew of lawmakers was all that was needed to advance the bill; to hold recorded votes could have delayed it as lawmakers would have had to scramble back to Washington from their August vacation.

Still, at least one prominent politician got off script Thursday House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill.

Asked in an interview with the Daily Herald, a suburban Chicago paper, whether it makes sense to spend billions rebuilding a city that lies below sea level, a reference to New Orleans, Hastert replied, "I don't know. That doesn't make sense to me."

Hastert later issued a statement saying he was not "advocating that the city be abandoned or relocated," but he did not travel to Washington to preside over the debate.

2005-09-03