Some say Congress going overboard on aid
(usatoday.com)
Updated: 2005-09-12 22:16

As the government rushes to respond with billions of dollars for Hurricane Katrina's victims, there are beginning to be a few voices of caution.

"We are in this sort of knee-jerk reaction mode," said Tom Tancredo, one of 11 House members, all Republicans, who voted against the latest emergency spending bill.

Lawmakers are being stampeded by their emotional reactions to Katrina's victims, as well as "the political dynamic that says if we don't show that compassion, people will think the Republicans in power are not compassionate," he said in an interview. "There is a lot of pressure to overreact."

"There's understandable pressure to get money out quickly," said Clark Kent Ervin, the former inspector general at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is in charge of the relief effort. "But there inevitably will be waste and fraud."

Last week's votes on a $51.8 billion spending bill seem to bear that out. The Senate vote was 97 to 0; in the House, it was 410 to 11. The action pushed to $62.3 billion the amount allocated so far for Katrina relief, with more to come.

That's more than this year's discretionary budgets for all but two Cabinet departments, Defense and Health and Human Services. And it's more than the total federal spending for homeland defense. Washington has been burning through $2 billion a day in its flood-relief efforts, even before reconstruction begins.

The federal government has a long record of responding quickly to disasters, only to see money diverted for questionable uses that have little or nothing to do with its intended purpose.

For example, Ervin's successor, acting DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner, is investigating why the government bought new clothing, furniture and appliances after last year's Florida hurricanes for residents of Miami-Dade County, which mostly escaped damage.

There was waste, as well, in money spent after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to improve security. Small business loans meant to help recovery from the attacks went to a day care center, a veterinarian's office and a golf course hundreds of miles away in Georgia, the Associated Press found. Grand Forks, N.D., got more biochemical protective suits than it has police officers. And a contractor hired to help find airport screeners drew $5.4 million for nine months' work, according to a federal audit.

"Trust me, there will be abuses" in this spending, said Sen. Jeff Sessions (news, bio, voting record), R-Ala., who is from the hard-hit Gulf Coast city of Mobile. "I believe that the Senate is now in a bit of a hurricane mode, that all of Congress is, maybe even the White House. And that mode is that we do not need to be too careful."

Sessions appealed to President Bush to choose an overseer for the hurricane response with experience who can make sure money is spent wisely.

"This is so massive and the potential for fraud and abuse is so great, we are going to have to watch it," Sessions said. "The government will spend your money before you know what happened to it."