Landrieu Scores Extra Aid For Housing
By Humberto Sanchez
CongressDailyAM
July 8, 2008
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., was the only senator to get an earmark into the war supplemental that was not also requested by the administration when she secured $73 million for housing aid.
That was in addition to $5.8 billion in funding for Corps of Engineers’ flood control and restoration projects for the New Orleans area and elsewhere in Louisiana jointly requested by Landrieu, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., and President Bush, according to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
A previous incarnation of the war supplemental — drafted by Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd and approved by the Senate in May — had included $10.4 billion in hurricane-related projects, but was reduced to $5.8 billion after negotiations between lawmakers and the administration.
The Landrieu-only earmark will be used to provide housing aid to the elderly, disabled and low-income citizens directly affected by 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.
Landrieu characterized the inclusion of the provision, which would fund 3,000 low-income housing vouchers, as bittersweet because much more is needed.
“It is a … victory, but, literally, at that rate, it is going to take us two decades to replace the housing stock in the Gulf Coast,” Landrieu said. “While I am grateful and very thankful my colleagues, it is just a drop in the bucket.”
Nevertheless, she stressed that “this is going to be a big step forward to help the most vulnerable of the population, which are disabled individuals, mentally handicapped, disabled seniors who were living in substandard housing … to begin with and the storm decimated so much of that.” She added that HUD has been quick to demolish damaged housing but slow to replace it.
Landrieu vowed to continue to push Senate Democratic leaders to provide the aid that was ultimately dropped from the emergency spending package, such as the funding for hospitals and the criminal justice system, as well as spending to speed the closure of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet.
Landrieu, who won election with 50 percent in 1996 and 52 percent in 2002, faces another potentially tough race this year against John Kennedy, a Democrat-turned-Republican now serving as the state’s treasurer.
Landrieu also has threatened to keep the Senate in session over the August recess to ensure the passage of a provision dropped from the supplemental that would have given Louisiana up to 30 years to cover its share of the cost for repairing federal levees that were overrun during Katrina.
“The biggest piece of that recovery package that we have got to figure out a way to get — they are all important — but the extended repayment terms for the levees; I will have that or we will not be leaving for August,” Landrieu said. “I am not going home without it.”
Landrieu is also eyeing as a possible legislative vehicle a second supplemental Democratic leaders have said is needed.
In a statement she released after passage of the supplemental, Landrieu said “Chairman Byrd, however, has not forgotten the Gulf Coast, and has announced his intention to move a second, domestic emergency supplemental that will include the lost funding and flexibility.”
“[Senate] Majority Leader Reid has also said he supports a second supplemental that would include our funding,” she said. “I am working with them to get this bill done … Our communities cannot wait any longer.”
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