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Katrina response funds continue to flow
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-15 18:33
Congress is moving quickly to provide tax cuts and health
care benefits in response to Hurricane Katrina as the money continues to flow on
Capitol Hill for victims of the devastation.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., call for creation of an independent
commission to investigate the response to Hurricane Katrinia during a news
conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2005.
[AP] |
Congress is acting Thursday as President Bush makes his fourth trip to the
region to give a nationally televised address on both his short- and long-term
recovery and reconstruction plans for New Orleans and other stricken areas.
A House bill 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.
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 401(k)
retirement savings accounts and provides a tax deduction to anyone who houses
evacuees for two months or more.
Also Thursday, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley planed 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.
The spate of Katrina-related bills comes as Congress and Bush are in the
initial phases of responding to the desperate needs of the hurricane-ravaged
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."
The housing plan, by Sen. Paul Sarbanes (news, bio, voting record), D-Md.,
was attached on a voice vote to an unrelated spending bill covering the Commerce
and Housing and Urban Development departments. The Senate was set to pass the
overall bill Thursday, but a final version will have to be worked out with the
House, which passed a similar spending bill for the two departments last June.
"Any person or family displaced as a result of Hurricane Katrina ... could
get a temporary housing voucher. This is without regard to their income
situation," Sarbanes said. "It recognizes the storm hit rich and poor alike, and
this is an effort to give them some immediate, short-term help so they can move
out of the situation in which they find themselves."
Senate Democratic and GOP aides said the generous housing plan might not
survive talks with the more conservative House.
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.
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