House Turns Down Bills to Aid Housing, Finance Levee Work
By GERARD SHIELDS
House turns down bills to aid housing, finance levee work
WASHINGTON – House Republicans voted down two amendments Thursday that would have added $2 billion to the pool of money dedicated to rebuilding hurricane damaged housing.
The chamber also voted along party lines in denying Louisiana more money to shore up its crippled levee system.
“It’s up to the president now to see if he’ll keep his promise to us,” said U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, who offered the housing amendments. “The Congress is forcing the Gulf states into a food fight over money that the president committed to Louisiana.”
Jefferson was referring to President Bush’s September speech in Jackson Square in New Orleans in which he pledged to do what is necessary to rebuild the city. Bush dedicated $4.2 billion in housing money to Louisiana as part of a $98 billion Iraq and hurricane relief package that he recently sent to Congress.
However, the House Appropriations Committee last week stripped the sole designation of Louisiana for the Community Development Block Grant funding. The move left other states affected by the disasters, mostly Texas, clamoring for a share.
Jefferson had offered one amendment to the bill that would have shifted $2 billion from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the block grant fund to accommodate other states.
“We have a plan that we submitted to the White House,” Jefferson said while introducing the amendment late Wednesday night. “Without housing, our city cannot rebuild.”
But U.S. Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., said raiding the $9.75 billion FEMA fund was not the way to go.
“I’m not saying that CDBG doesn’t need the money,” Rogers said. “This ain’t the place to get it.”
The amendment failed Thursday 248-174. A second Jefferson amendment would have taken $1.9 billion from FEMA’s remaining $3.7 billion from previous legislation and added it to the block grant funding. Rogers called the proposal “disastrous.” The amendment failed 212-210.
Even two Louisiana Republicans – U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander, R- Quitman. and U.S. Rep. Jim McCrery, R-Shreveport – voted against it.
U.S. Rep. Charles “Charlie” Melancon, D-Napoleonville, also ran into the Republican wall in proposing an increase to shore up levees. Melancon wanted to raise the levee funding from $170 million to the $430 million originally requested by Bush.
“The people of southern Louisiana need the levees to protect them,” Melancon said. “We are in an emergency situation.”
But House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Cal., said the funding was unnecessary. The current funding levels are sufficient to get the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers through the year, Lewis said.
The Melancon amendment failed 215-199 along party lines with Alexander and McCrery voting against.
“It’s absolutely absurd,” Melancon said about the House vote. “The votes are starting to expose who wants to help and who doesn’t.”
The House approved an amendment by U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal, R- Kenner, granting $2 million for emergency radio interoperability in the disaster area.
Jindal withdrew an amendment that would have restored $50 million for the rebuilding of the New Orleans VA Medical Center after receiving assurances from Appropriations Committee members to work with him on the matter.
He withdrew a similar $142.2 million amendment to restore National Guard facilities after receiving the same pledge.
The supplemental package will now go to the Senate and likely will be hashed out in a conference committee of both chambers. Sean Reilly, a member of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, wasn’t deterred by the loss on the Jefferson amendments.
“He was just trying to put in some insulation,” Reilly said. “I think it’s good that he started the debate.”
Reilly, instead, hailed Republican House leaders for helping to beat back an amendment by U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Tex., that would have stripped all hurricane relief funding from the measure.
The amendment failed overwhelmingly.