Posted on 09/07/2005 1:58:44 PM PDT by COUNTrecount
WASHINGTON, DC. - Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) wrote a letter to Speaker Hastert, urging him to direct federal hurricane relief aid through channels other than Louisiana public officials. Citing incompetence and a history of corruption, Tancredo said a bipartisan select committee of the House should administer the aid and provide accountability for the $52 billion requested. The letter is reprinted below:
Dear Mr. Speaker,
Given the abysmal failure of state and local officials in Louisiana to plan adequately for or respond to the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the city of New Orleans, and given the long history of public corruption in Louisiana, I hope the House will refrain from directly appropriating any funds from the public treasury to either the state of Louisiana or the city of New Orleans. Instead, reconstruction and relief funds dedicated to the people of New Orleans should be administered by a private organization or a select committee similar to the historic Truman Commission.
Public corruption is a well known problem in Louisiana. The head of the FBI in New Orleans just this past year described the state´s public corruption as "epidemic, endemic, and entrenched. No branch of government is exempt." Over the last thirty years, a long list of Louisiana politicians have been convicted of crimes; the list includes a governor, an attorney general, an elections commissioner, an agriculture commissioner, three successive insurance commissioners, a congressman, a federal judge, a State Senate president, six other state legislators, and a host of appointed officials, local sheriffs, city councilmen, and parish police jurors. Given the documented public corruption in the state, I am not confident that Louisiana officials can be trusted to administer federal relief aid.
Clearly the federal response from FEMA in the aftermath of the hurricane was hampered by bureaucratic ineptitude. Making matters worse, the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana have demonstrated mind-boggling incompetence in their lack of planning for and response to this disaster. According to one recent media report, "A year ago, as Hurricane Ivan approached, New Orleans ordered an evacuation but did not use city or school buses to help people evacuate. As a result many of the poorest citizens were unable to evacuate. Fortunately, the hurricane changed course and did not hit New Orleans, but both Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin acknowledged the need for a better evacuation plan...[but] did not take corrective actions. In 1998, during a threat by Hurricane George, 14,000 people were sent to the Superdome and theft and vandalism were rampant due to inadequate security. Again, these problems were not corrected."
The city of New York, by comparison, had no advance warning of 9/11. Yet Mayor Giuliani and Governor Pataki displayed tremendous leadership in managing a chaotic situation in the city. Their leadership inspired confidence in their ability to manage the emergency and coordinate federal aid In contrast, despite knowing days in advance about the coming hurricane, Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin seem to have done little beyond encouraging residents to leave the city or gather at the Superdome. City school and transit buses could have carried 12,000 persons per run out of the city, yet they sat idle in parking lots under water - while both the Mayor and Governor criticized the federal response.
In the coming days, tens of billions of dollars will likely flood Louisiana to address the costs of rescue, clean up, and rebuilding. The question is not whether Congress should provide for those in need, but whether state and local officials who have been derelict in their duty should be trusted with that money. Their record during Hurricane Katrina and the long history of public corruption in Louisiana convinces me that that they should not.
Sincerely,
Tom Tancredo
Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark.
Pity it won't work politically. Shifting money away from those who actually live there? The Dems would welcome the fight. Not gonna happen.
Nonetheless, strong oversight and strict ethics enforcement (with mandatory federal prison time) tied to the money might work.
Bump
Thanks for explaining. Do they live in a border state and all the problems it presents? Might change their minds.
What exactly is your problem with this letter? Unless you both live under a rock, you know LA has been corrupt for eons. Where exactly does Tancredo, in this particular letter, bash the Bush administration? NO and LA government has nothing to do with Bush. We need good presidential material for the 2008 run. Bush cannot run again. The field is open, gentlemen.
Are you paying attention to the excellent job Bush is doing, or do you both just search keywords in order to post snarky comments?
They already demanded (yesterday) that the money all run through the black caucus or ACLU.
I used to live in CO years ago ... Trancredo was good then ... and he's good now. He nailed it.
Huh? One doesn't have to hate Bush to agree with Tancredo's views.
Even if his letter was a fundraiser, that doesn't invalidate the fact that it's a huge mistake to send multi-billions of $$$ into the most corrupt area of the country without oversight.
Can the foxes assure the safety of the chickens?
bump
Absolute correct call. All federal taxpayer aid needs to be more diligently accounted for in these times, particularly this type of money.
If he did he would have to change his whole message. Instead, look forward to '06 and '08. Bush won't be there; who will be there? Is corruption an issue that can win in '08? How can corruption possibly win when the vast majority are already heep dip in it? Where should the line be drawn? There aren't ten people in the whole country over age 12 who aren't corrupted already somehow.
TeeHee! Good to see a pol with the guts to tell the truth.
No. They are corrupt, maybe even more corrupt.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1476911/posts?page=16
As far as I can tell they were still operating off the Emergency Plan published in 2000. Witt's company was contracted in June 2004 to develop a new plan, and no one in the media has inquired about it's completion and implementation date.
Wes Clark works for this company too.
I also wonder if Witt's most recent contract was awarded through whatever competitive bidding processes LA law requires. heh..heh..
That's hysterical! LOL!!! I agree fully.
Any foe of DeLay's is a foe of mine. Period.
Tancredo knows this has ZERO chance of even being considered, so it's nothing more than grandstanding.
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