Lobbies Line Up For Relief Riches

The change for hospitals would not apply only to those damaged by Katrina. Coorsh said the group would like Congress to grant for-profit hospitals permanent access to FEMA funds wherever a natural disaster occurs. The federation sought the same change, unsuccessfully, following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Other industries have been careful to focus their proposals on the people and businesses of the Gulf Coast. The Travel Business Roundtable, a coalition of chief executives of hotel, restaurant and other travel-related companies, is campaigning for a host of grant, tax-cut and loan relief proposals, all specific to the storm-affected region and time limited. "We're not going to be irresponsible," said Charles L. Merin, the roundtable's chief Washington representative.

Nonetheless, the list, if fully enacted, would be very expensive -- several billion dollars.

Lobbyist Anne C. Canfield, like almost everyone else on K Street, is also angling for hurricane assistance. In an e-mail to her clients in the mortgage business two weeks ago, Canfield noted that with so much money flowing, "Why not have some of those funds be used to actually help the mortgage industry and its consumers?" Her suggestion: Make every waterlogged homeowner in the Gulf Coast region eligible to receive federal flood insurance payments of up to $250,000, even if they had never bothered to buy the coverage. Bush officials aren't happy with the plan.

Not all of the lobbying is in search of benefits. Some of it is defensive, trying to fend off changes that are also related to the hurricanes such as potential tax increases. The oil industry is reminding lawmakers that price controls aren't a good idea. A highway-building trade association is asking lawmakers not to reduce gasoline taxes as a way to help consumers. The reason: Lower gas tax revenues might squeeze the federal trust funds that are used to build roads and bridges.

Lobbyists have submitted so many suggestions that lawmakers "will have to be more vigilant and take a hard line," said John Scofield, spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee.

Nonetheless, they likely will get much of what they want. "The climate is very favorable to further spending and further tax cuts, especially for Katrina, and Hurricane Rita will only increase that tendency," said Gregory R. Valliere, chief strategist of Stanford Washington Research Group. "Neither party wants to be seen as uncaring."

A lot of lobbyists' pleas dressed in hurricane clothing are for things that Congress has rejected for years. John M. Engler, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, has called for the opening of oil and gas drilling on the ocean's Outer Continental Shelf as a way to increase the availability of energy. Why now? Because Katrina is a reminder of how fragile the country's energy infrastructure is, he said.

The proposal in the past was dismissed as environmentally risky, and it still faces an uphill climb. But now Jack N. Gerard, president of the American Chemistry Council, sees hope for it. "The unfortunate tragedy in New Orleans," he said, "has sharpened the focus on our unfinished business."

Staff writer Amy Goldstein contributed to this report.