Katrina Funds Keep Flowing on Capitol Hill

tags:Politics

WASHINGTON - Congress is moving quickly to provide tax cuts and health care benefits to victims of Hurricane Katrina as government money continues to flow in response to the devastation.

Lawmakers were working on that aid as President Bush planned his fourth trip to the region to give a nationally televised address Thursday night on his recovery and reconstruction plans for New Orleans and other stricken areas.

An amendment adopted Wednesday by the Senate on a voice vote would provide more than 350,000 families left homeless by Katrina with emergency housing vouchers averaging $600 a month for up to six months.

Any displaced family, regardless of income, would be eligible for the program, which is slated to cost $3.5 billion over six months.

The measure was attached to a spending bill covering the departments of Commerce and Justice. The Senate was to pass the overall bill Thursday; a final version needs to be worked out with the House, which has not voted on the housing amendment. Democratic and GOP aides said the expensive housing plan might not survive talks with the more conservative House.

Next, the House and Senate hope to rush through a tax bill that, among other steps, waives penalties for hurricane victims who tap into their retirement savings accounts, helps the working poor hold onto an earned income tax credit, and provides a tax break to anyone who houses evacuees for two months or more.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley planned to introduce a bipartisan $5 billion to $7 billion plan to speed health care to those displaced by Katrina by easing rules for the Medicaid federal health care program.

And the Senate is likely to pass and send to Bush a House-passed bill to temporarily ease rules requiring welfare recipients to work 30 hours a week for their benefits while extending the overall welfare program through the end of the year.

Also Thursday, Michael Brown, who resigned under fire as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was quoted criticizing the state of Louisiana's response to Katrina.

"I never received specific requests for specific things that needed doing," Brown told The New York Times.

Hours after the hurricane struck, Brown said, he told the White House that the situation was "out of control." The next night, Aug. 30, Brown said he called again in desperation: "This is bigger than what FEMA can do."

"Maybe I should have screamed 12 hours earlier," said Brown, who insisted the White House was not at fault.

The spate of Katrina-related bills comes as Congress and Bush are in the initial phases of responding to the desperate needs of the Gulf Coast. Long-term rebuilding and recovery efforts are still a work in progress, but are expected to cost at least $200 billion.

Lawmakers competed to demonstrate how seriously they are taking the Katrina tragedy, with Senate GOP leaders urging a "Marshall Plan for the Gulf Coast as soon as possible."

Grassley said he thought the Medicaid measure could pass this week. The bill would provide Medicaid care in some instances to able-bodied single men, a big departure from current rules. And unemployment benefits would be extended for 13 weeks for people in Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama whose benefits have run out.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is announcing Thursday that it will pick up all costs of Medicaid care for low-income evacuees who fled to Texas. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas, received a phone call late Wednesday from CMS Administrator Mark McClellan about the forthcoming aid, said her spokesman, Chris Paulitz.

An estimated 250,000 refugees from the flooding, an overwhelming majority of whom are believed to be qualified for Medicaid, are now in Texas. For five months state matching funds that are part of the Medicaid program will be waived, said Paulitz.

The public supports the expensive recovery efforts, according a CBS/New York Times poll released Wednesday. By a 56-37 margin, those surveyed said they would be willing to pay higher taxes for Katrina recovery. By wide margins, the public says rebuilding New Orleans is more important than cutting taxes or reforming Social Security, two top items on the Bush agenda.

Meanwhile, by a party-line vote, the Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday rejected a Democratic proposal to establish an independent, bipartisan commission — similar to the one launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks — to examine what went wrong in Katrina's wake.

Also Wednesday, Republican leaders tapped Rep. Peter King (news, bio, voting record), R-N.Y., to chair the House Homeland Security Committee. King, in his seventh term, replaces former Rep. Chris Cox of California, who was appointed chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.