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Bush Requests $51.8 Billion More for Relief
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Also yesterday, FEMA launched its own $1.4 million investigation of its hurricane response. Democratic leaders responded to the joint congressional investigation by calling again for an independent inquiry similar to the investigation of the 2001 attacks. "An investigation of the Republican administration by a Republican-controlled Congress is like having a pitcher call his own balls and strikes," said Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.).
Reid demanded to know how Bush's vacation had affected hurricane relief, while House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) pressed for the sacking of FEMA Director Michael D. Brown.
"There were two disasters last week: first, the natural disaster, and second, the man-made disaster, the disaster made by mistakes made by FEMA," Pelosi said.
"While countless Americans are pulling together to lend a helping hand, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are pointing fingers in a shameless effort to tear us apart," Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman responded. GOP leaders would not say how long they would delay consideration of the tax-and-spending-cut packages, the cornerstones of their fall agenda, asserting that the cuts will be passed eventually.
But pressure is mounting from lawmakers of both parties to make the delay indefinite. Of the $35 billion in cuts planned over five years, up to $10 billion would come from Medicaid, just as Republicans are suggesting that all Katrina survivors be granted access to the key federal health program for the poor.
And the hardest-hit states are the most dependent on Medicaid. Medicaid enrollment in Louisiana has shot up since 1998, from 532,032 to 945,087 last year, according to a report due out Friday from the Kaiser Family Foundation. About 23 percent of non-elderly Mississippians are on Medicaid, the highest percentage in the nation.
"There's a growing awareness that Katrina has changed not only the agenda but all the circumstances we find ourselves in," said Rep. Heather A. Wilson (R-N.M.). Sens. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) and Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) teamed with Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) to circulate a letter imploring GOP leaders to set aside the measures. Wilson said similar discussions are underway in the House.
Staff writers Timothy Dwyer in New Orleans and Spencer S. Hsu in Washington contributed to this report.
