A.M. in the Morning!

Monday, October 22, 2007

Canceling Barbour's Reverse Robin Hood Robbery

by Ana Maria

Look, I grew up right here at ground zero for Katrina. No, that isn’t New Orleans—though as a kid, I spent plenty of time there visiting my ton of relatives that live in that internationally beloved city which is but an hour’s drive west of the real ground zero. That city’s problems are definitely because of poorly constructed levees that crumbled under Hurricane Katrina., crumbled because engineers, bureaucrats and politicians failed to develop world class levees. When I talk of Katrina’s ground zero, I’m talking all about Mother Nature’s doings—hurricane force winds ripping apart houses that were 50, 100, 200 years old and tearing up the beautiful trees equal in age with which this region had been so blessed.

I grew up in Bay St. Louis, Miss. This is about a good 20-minute ride from a new ground zero for Katrina—the hotbed of dispute over housing money. After Katrina, Congress appropriated $5.5 billion for our recovery, including housing—as in for people, families, kids, the elderly, the disabled, the sick and the healthy.

Seems our Republican Governor Haley Barbour cannot figure out the difference between housing Mississippians whose homes Hurricane Katrina substantially damaged or destroyed and housing multi-national and multi-billion dollar corporations that use the Port of Gulfport. While the port is another aspect of our recovery, that is not the point. Rather, this is a straight out matter of fiscal responsibility, of Barbour’s failure to comply with the purpose of those monies. Period.

Just last night, I mentioned to a relative who comes down here regularly from his home in another state that to this day I can cross the bridge that connects my hometown of Bay St. Louis to the rest of the Gulf Coast. I can drive along Highway 90 from the other side of the bridge which puts me in Pass Christian and continue for at least 40 miles until I reach Biloxi. Not a single gas station has been rebuilt. Not a single one. Yes, I almost ran out of gas when I attended a fundraiser in Biloxi for the now Democratic nominee for Insurance Commissioner, Gary Anderson. I make certain that my gas tank is full before I leave the Bay. Upon hearing the revelation that no gas stations exist, my relative became aghast.

I told him that not that long ago there was an article in the local Sun Herald telling of a man pretending to be a cop. He’d turn on police lights on his fake car, pull them over, and well, the rest isn’t so pretty. The advice from one law enforcement officer was to turn on our emergency lights and keep driving until we get to a gas station. The follow up comment was that we wouldn’t have to drive more than five miles.

Oh yeah? Where? He must have reverted to pre-Katrina memories. That happens. We forget that we live in a world where basic things we all take for granted—like gas stations—just don’t exist for the time being.

Hardly any construction along the beach for that entire stretch. Now, folks, if there is no boom along those fabulous beach front properties, there is no construction boom for the rest of the communities here either and that includes for those with fewer resources for housing. The miles and miles of land along the beach are barren save for some trees that survived Katrina’s hurricane winds. The question is not whether the pre-Katrina residents will survive. Breathing alone is the definition of mere survival. The question is how they will survive, how will they get the opportunity to thrive.

This is America. We’re Americans. We can do better than all of this. As cynical as too many of us have gotten, we still harbor a desire to do better in our own lives, our communities' lives and the life of our country. We took Hurricane Katrina as an opportunity to channel all those pent up feelings that the best of America existed in the days before the stolen presidential election of 2000 and we poured them into compassionate volunteering of time and energy and money all across the U.S.

The thing that gets me is that there really should not be any federal government money for Governor Barbour to swipe for his corporate cronies. Every one of those housing dollars should have already been spent or encumbered for housing.

Barbour is smooth-talking, back slapping, glad handling former lobbyist who is used to sweet talking or strong arming his way into whatever he wants. I’m sure that he can find other ways to fund the port’s refurbishing. The Los Angeles Times reported

Reilly Morse, a senior attorney for the Mississippi Center for Justice's Katrina Recovery Office, says officials are operating according to a "reverse Robin Hood logic." Port officials, he said, have enough insurance and FEMA funding to recover from Katrina damage, and can explore further funding sources. "They do not need to rob the poor," he said.

And that is it in a nutshell. Reverse Robin Hood.

Our funds do not allow us to provide assistance to all of those 169,000 homes," said Donna Sanford, director of disaster recovery for the development authority. "We have to make difficult decisions."

Most of us outside of Katrina Land fully anticipated that everything would have long ago been completed. To think that most of the recovery hasn't begun and to realize that here in Mississippi the money is stuck in the state's capitol where Governor Barbour, a Republican, is doing his best to develop his Reverse Robin Hood skills . . . well, this is crazy!

There has long been plenty of money appropriated to help rebuild those 169,000 homes. Our federal government sent money for disaster relief for housing. The foundations should have long ago been poured, the 2x4s erected, the roofs and walls put on. Paint stores should have a steady stream of trucks unloading boxes of paint cans. That housing money would cycle through this area again and again and again. A vibrant recovery would ensue.

Rather than the headache of yet another Republican Reverse Robin Hood stealing money from the poor to hand to his rich buddies, we’d be complaining of the joyous noise from construction hurting our ears and then laughing about the headaches from all the banging and hammering and clanging. For over two years now, we’ve been looking forward to those headaches.

Before we can begin to raise hell about the GAWD-awful construction noise at all hours of the day and night, we need to raise a little political hell to shake those dollars lose from the hands from these Reverse Robin Hoods. These are federal dollars. Let's channel our energy into pouring a bit of fuel on the fire in the belly that Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) and Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) have already demonstrated. Each

have asked the Department of Housing and Urban Development to deny Gov. Haley Barbour's request to divert $600 million in Hurricane Katrina housing money for homeowners and spend the money repairing, expanding and improving the Port of Gulfport.

These two strong Democrats with backbones of steal have no need for a dose of Spineocrat. Mark Fiore, San Francisco Chronicle's fantastic video cartoonist, created this fabulous piece on Democrats and backbone.

Contacting Frank and Waters will encourage them to keep the pressure on HUD to spend the money on housing families.

This is how we can help to cancel Barbour's plans for his public Reverse Robin Hood robbery.

© 2007 Ana Maria Rosato. All rights reserved.
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Housing funds for the port?

Many of Mississippi's poor still await financial help with Katrina damage. But Gulfport has other plans for HUD money.

By Jenny Jarvie, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 22, 2007

GULFPORT, MISS. -- Most days, Luvenia Thomas sits in a wheelchair outside her dank bungalow on 21st Street. She says she cannot breathe inside.

More than two years after Hurricane Katrina tore up her roof and flooded her home, brown water stains darken her ceilings, and her floors are bare. She has pulled up most of her carpeting, but still she says she cannot rid her home of mold.

"I don't know what to do," said Thomas, 54, who is disabled and living on a fixed income. She has not been able to receive state assistance because the damage was caused by wind rather than flooding. "The roof needs fixing, the walls need fixing, the floors need fixing. The whole house needs fixing."

In low-income neighborhoods across coastal Mississippi, many homeowners are still patching their roofs with blue tarp, positioning plants to collect drips from living room ceilings, and taping paper over window cracks. Most say they have yet to receive financial assistance from Mississippi officials.

Advocates for the poor have long argued that Mississippi has skewed federal hurricane recovery funds toward the wealthy. But criticism has become particularly charged since the Mississippi Development Authority announced plans to divert $600 million in federal housing funds to restore and expand the port of Gulfport.

With nearly 15,000 Mississippi families still living in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers, and many more struggling to repair their damaged homes, a growing number of ministers, aid workers and attorneys say the plan shortchanges the poor.

Reilly Morse, a senior attorney for the Mississippi Center for Justice's Katrina Recovery Office, says officials are operating according to a "reverse Robin Hood logic." Port officials, he said, have enough insurance and FEMA funding to recover from Katrina damage, and can explore further funding sources. "They do not need to rob the poor," he said.

Yet many local and state officials say that housing is no longer the region's most critical priority. They say redirecting funds to the port will reinvigorate the coastal economy.

"We can give someone a little money for new shingles or we can give them a job for the rest of their life," said Gulfport Mayor Brent Warr. "Most people in Gulfport want this because it means jobs, jobs, jobs. The city could become the corporate headquarters of the state of Mississippi."

The plan, which has yet to be submitted to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, would create 1,300 direct jobs in the next 10 years -- 528 more than the port had before the hurricane. The Mississippi Development Authority is requesting a waiver from the requirement that one full-time, permanent job is created for every $35,000 of HUD funds used. Critics estimate that only one job would be created for each $460,000 spent.

Investing $600 million in the port, valued at $127 million before the hurricane and estimated to have incurred $50 million in damage, represents a significant expansion. Already, the port has hazard insurance coverage of at least $108 million, and it expects an additional $54 million from FEMA.

"We don't want to recover just to the point where we were on Aug. 29, 2005," said Donald R. Allee, executive director of the Mississippi State Port Authority. "We plan to get bigger and we plan to get better."

Development authority officials say that enough housing money will remain to give grants to an estimated 30,000 homeowners to restore or rebuild property. This represents fewer than a fifth of the estimated 169,000 Mississippi homes damaged or destroyed.

"Our funds do not allow us to provide assistance to all of those 169,000 homes," said Donna Sanford, director of disaster recovery for the development authority. "We have to make difficult decisions."

Advocates for the poor have repeatedly questioned the manner in which the development authority has distributed the $5.4 billion it received from HUD through the Community Development Block Grant program.

Established to improve housing and economic opportunities for the poor, the program requires that at least 70% of funds benefit people with low or moderate incomes. After Katrina, Congress lowered that requirement to 50%. Mississippi has gotten this requirement waived for 80% of its programs.

Last year, attorneys with the Mississippi Center for Justice considered suing after state officials announced the first phase of their program to distribute federal aid. By offering grants of as much as $150,000 to homeowners who had insurance but lived outside the flood zone, they argued, officials denied help to many in the hardest-hit areas.

The second phase of the state's program provided as much as $100,000 for people who had flood damage, regardless of whether they were insured. Yet the program in Mississippi did not cover wind damage, so tens of thousands of homeowners did not qualify.

Although nearly half of Gulf Coast residents lived in rentals before Katrina, only about a tenth of housing aid has gone toward rebuilding rental units. Now there is a shortage of units, and rents have increased by 30%.

Last week, U.S. Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) urged the federal government to deny Mississippi's request, describing it as an "unwarranted diversion of funds and a disservice to displaced Mississippians still in need of affordable housing."

Yet patience is wearing thin among some residents who have rebuilt their homes.

In Gulfport's dilapidated business district, Jerry Maddox, 56, said it was time to invest in encouraging businesses back to the city. "Some people just want the government to do everything," he said. "I wouldn't wait if it was me. I would be moving on."

Several blocks west, William Janas, 65, walked through a FEMA trailer park, clutching a letter notifying him that the park would close by month's end. "I got nowhere to go," he said. "I don't give a damn about the port. The housing recovery is not over."

jenny.jarvie@latimes.com

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No money for the FEMA trailer park children

Sunday, October 21, 2007
Letter to the editor

A 6-year-old child, Blake Pendergrass, was struck and killed by an automobile in Escatawpa the other day. Escatawpa is about 20 miles from my home in Ocean Springs. I didn't know him. I would imagine something like that happens somewhere in America every day -- at least every week. But this one hurt me. Hurt me bad. You see, the little boy lived in a FEMA trailer park -- a Katrina FEMA trailer park in Escatawpa. Escatawpa is -- well, if you were plotting out a Monopoly board, it ain't Boardwalk. It's more like one of the purples right past "Go" -- you know, the ones where the rent for landing on the space is $2.00.

I visited the scene where Blake was killed. The park in which he lived has no playground. Blake was killed while he was crossing the street attempting to get to his "playground." The trailers are stacked in compactly, like sardines in a can. There is no room for a playground, just trailers. And more trailers. All identical. That's how you identify a FEMA trailer park. The trailers have no amenities -- no "identities." Every one is just the same. Twenty-four feet long. Eight feet wide. White. Stacked right together. No thought is given to the children. No parks, no playgrounds, no sidewalks -- the park just screams, "You're just a bunch of poor kids and we don't care."

Immediately across the street from the trailer park sits an abandoned convenience store, complete with a parking lot -- unused. The children of the trailer park have adopted the parking lot as their unofficial playground. Only to get to it they have to cross the street. The "street" is a highway. So 6-year-old Blake Pendergrass was killed while crossing the highway to get from his FEMA trailer home to his abandoned parking lot playground. And on that same day our governor, Haley Barbour, was busy taking $600 million that the people of this nation gave to my community for housing for Katrina victims, people just like little Blake, and turning it over to the business interests at the port of Gulfport, about 30 miles away -- so Dole Pineapple and other multi-million dollar business entities could have that money instead of Blake. You think maybe the people of this nation expected the money given for housing following Katrina would be given to Blake, and not Dole Pineapple?

The people of this great nation gave the victims of that horrible storm $5 billion so we could provide housing for the children like Blake. But it hasn't happened that way. Five billion dollars is enough money to buy 60,000, $80,000 homes -- we lost 65,000 homes (and yes, one can still buy a home for $80,000 in Mississippi). I invite you to drive around my community and I ask you if you see anything that looks remotely like 60,000 homes. Or 30,000 homes. Or even 10,000 homes. Our governor has been so busy passing out money to his friends and cronies, he has managed to build not a single home to cover the needs of a child like Blake -- and there are thousands of children in just the same situation as Blake. The governor gave a lawyer friend of his in Moss Point $1 million. Northrup-Grumman, a major defense contractor was given $250 million. The Hancock Bank, our largest, got the benefit of hundreds of millions. The business entities at the port of Gulfport, $600 million. All diverted from the funds intended to provide housing for Katrina victims.

There are flowers on the side of the road marking the spot where little Blake was killed -- a tribute of sorts I guess. I started crying when I saw them. Oh the horror, the horror. I'm so sorry little fella. I've tried so hard. I've written letters to the editors of dozens of newspapers. I've called Congressmen, Senators. But I am an old man now -- I am tired -- and for the first time in my life I have to own up to it -- I am beaten -- I have failed. I am so sorry Blake. My governor went to Washington, D.C., and got $5 billion. But all he got for you was those damn flowers.

Briley Richmond

Ocean Springs

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Barbour's agenda on Gulf Coast drawing fire

By Ellen Ann Fentress
Special to The Clarion-Ledger

Post-Katrina, Gov. Haley Barbour has kept his Teflon aura, certainly longer than George Bush managed to do post-9-11.

Yet Barbour's agenda is gathering its critics, too. Several legislators complain Barbour's administration isn't forthcoming on specifics of spending the $5.5 billion in aid appropriated by Congress. Also frustrated are Coast community advocates who keep butting up against the reality that the state's recovery is being engineered by an astute politician with more affinity for the well-to-do than those at the bottom.

Barbour chapped both groups recently by proposing to move $600 million in federal relief funds to the state port at Gulfport from its current purpose for housing efforts. The money is part of the $5.5 billion in Community Development Block Grants, the vehicle Congress used to channel hurricane aid to Mississippi.

In defense, Barbour says that the $600 million was intended for the port all along, offering a general breakout for the $5.5 billion, port included. The initial thought was to seek $500 million from the Department of Transportation and $100 million from the Corps of Engineers, he wrote in a letter to House Speaker Billy McCoy. "Congress decided to lump most of our various requests into one pool of money from one department, Community Development Block Grant," the letter said.

PORT MONEY IN QUESTION

That is subject to dispute. After Congress acted in December 2005, port repair money was still considered up in the air in July 2006. A front-page Clarion-Ledger story on July 16, 2006, was headlined "Miss. still without funds to fix port." In the article by Ana Radelat of the paper's Washington bureau, port authority director Don Allee acknowledged he was unsure how much the port would get. That report indicated port money was no done deal.

Even now, the Mississippi Development Authority Web site labels the port proposal as an amendment "redirecting $600 million of the $2.15 billion allocated for Phase I of the Homeowner Assistance Grant Program to the Port of Gulfport Restoration."

"There is no question that that money was appropriated for housing," said Rep. Cecil Brown, of the Legislative Budget Committee. He agrees the port needs funds, but complains neither Barbour nor the port authority offers specifics on spending the $600 million.

During the 2007 session, some House Democrats pushed Barbour for more transparency on doling out the funds. The House passed a bill, which died in the Senate, calling for a legislative advisory committee on recovery spending.

Neighborhood activists - including the Mississippi Center for Justice and the NAACP - have complained that recovery a la Barbour favors the well-to-do over the less fortunate. Phase I of the Homeowners Assistance Grants, by definition, targeted homeowners, and insured ones to boot. Phase II was for homeowners as well. Owner-occupied housing is coming back faster than rentals-perhaps 40 to 1, according to construction permits - and more expensive homes faster than modest ones, found a report last month by the non-profit Rand Corporation. Further, stalled recovery in the rental market has driven rent prices up by 20 percent.

HOUSING STILL LIMITED

The findings came out, ironically, as Barbour's critics complained about rerouting the housing money. Rand stated affordable housing "remains limited - a factor that has, no doubt, slowed the overall pace of economic recovery along the U.S. Gulf Coast."

Rep. Diane Peranich agrees the state port is important to the Coast's return. "But you won't find anybody say it's at the expense of the homeowners," says Peranich, who moved back into her Delisle home only a few weeks ago after two years in a trailer. Peranich's mother remains in a trailer.

Barbour's letter noted the plan, under discussion, to transfer the present shipping container area inland, would make the port safer in future hurricanes. He did not mention that moving the containers inland would also help clear out a 45-acre tract of the port property, a prospect that has drawn the interest of condo and casino developers.

Meanwhile, an estimated 17,000 households, perhaps 50,000 people, remain in FEMA trailers.

Wouldn't it be nice if when Coast residents hear the phrase "trickle down," it refers to what their new roofs keep out when it rains? "Trickle down" shouldn't be the architecture of the recovery.

Ellen Ann Fentress is a regular contributing columnist to The Clarion-Ledger.

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Friday, October 19, 2007

Reps ask HUD to reject port request

By Ana Radelat
Clarion-Ledger Washington Bureau
October 19, 2007

WASHINGTON — Two Democratic lawmakers have asked the Department of Housing and Urban Development to deny Gov. Haley Barbour's request to divert $600 million in Hurricane Katrina housing money for homeowners and spend the money repairing, expanding and improving the Port of Gulfport.

In a letter to HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson released Wednesday night, Reps. Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Maxine Waters of California said the move "would constitute an unwarranted diversion of funds and a disservice to displaced Mississippians still in need of affordable housing."

But the lawmakers' request may be premature.

HUD spokesman Brian Sullivan said the agency has not received Mississippi's proposal, which has been in the works for more than a year.

Barbour spokesman Pete Smith said the proposal has not officially been submitted to Washington.

The governor proposed giving the port $600 million because it is "crucial to the economy of our state and essential to the revitalization of the Gulf Coast region."

Barbour also said enough money is available in the $2.25 billion Community Development Block Grant program for hurricane victims to divert the money to the port.

About 27,000 homeowners in Mississippi have applied for grants, designed to help hurricane victims rebuild their homes or pay off their mortgages.

The proposal to divert housing money to the port provoked dozens of critical responses during a public comment period in September.

Residents, advocacy groups and pastors said they want to keep the money in the housing program.

Franks and Waters said housing for low- and moderate-income families in Mississippi "remains a critical issue for the state's recovery."

They said 13,800 small rental units were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina but only 6,000 units would be repaired under state recovery plans.

The Democratic lawmakers also said more than 17,000 individuals and families in the state are still living in travel trailers and mobile homes.

Frank has authority over HUD programs as chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, but the agency may not be able to comply with his requests.

Under certain conditions, Community Development Block Grant money can indeed be spent for economic development.

Barbour already has received permission from HUD to give millions of dollars in grant money to Mississippi utility companies hurt by Katrina.

Congress last year approved a total of $5.5 billion in HUD Community Development Block Grants for the state. But Sullivan said Mississippi has spent only about $1.6 billion.

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Thursday, October 18, 2007

Schumer Vows Push To Add Wind Coverage To Flood Insurance Program Overhaul Approved By Senate Banking Committee

Reports Estimate That One Million U.S. Homeowners in Northeast Have Had Homeowners' Insurance Policies Cancelled Since 2004

Plan To Cover Wind Damage Would Help Provide Affordable Insurance Policies for Coastal Residents—Proposal Has Already Passed House

October 17, 2007

WASHINGTON—Following the Senate Banking Committee’s passage today of a bill to update the federal flood insurance program, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer vowed to continue to push for the program to include wind damage. The provision—omitted in today’s unanimously approved legislation—would address the rising tendency of insurance companies to deny homeowner insurance policies on coastal areas in the aftermath of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina.

Schumer said adding wind damage to the flood insurance program—as a House-passed measure would do—would offer protection to homeowners on coastal areas like Long Island, and keep insurance premiums there low. He noted how just this week, published reports estimated that since 2004, one million homeowners in the Northeastern United States have seen their policies cancelled.

“This bill takes important steps towards upgrading the flood insurance program, but covering wind damage is a logical, necessary next step,” Schumer said. “Winds from coastal storms can often inflict even greater damage than rising water, but private insurers are leaving homeowners high and dry.”

In recent years, at least half a dozen companies have either stopped writing policies on Long Island, or refused to renew existing policies, some of which were decades old. Allstate, MetLife, Travelers, Liberty Mutual and Nationwide are among the insurers who have begun to pull out of Long Island, citing overexposure and risk due to a potential hurricane strike. Despite a state law that prohibits companies from dropping more than 4% of policies in a year, some companies have found a way around the rule, convincing customers to move to other companies, or offering bonuses to agents who persuade “high-risk” customers to drop coverage. However, for those homeowners that are able to maintain coverage, the spiking premiums can be equally devastating.

To address the crisis, Schumer has proposed a series of updates to the nearly 40-year-old National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which is administered by FEMA. Schumer has said the Senate should consider increasing the maximum coverage level above the current limit of $250,000, which he said was “simply too low for areas with higher construction and rebuilding costs.” Significantly, Schumer also called for the NFIP to cover losses caused by wind, not just water. After Hurricane Katrina, many homeowners suffered uncovered losses when companies sought to classify the damage as caused by rising water, which is covered by the federal program, instead of by wind, which isn’t.

Both measures are contained in a bill that has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives.

Late this summer, at the start of the hurricane season, Senator Schumer called for a bipartisan Commission on National Catastrophe Risk Management and Insurance. The Commission would be comprised of 16 members with backgrounds in emergency management, engineering, financial markets, insurance, construction, meteorology, and policy ownership, and would be required to submit a report on their findings and recommendations to the Senate Banking Committee, of which Schumer is a member.

###

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Senate drops wind from insurance bill

Posted on Thu, Oct. 18, 2007
By MARIA RECIO
SUN HERALD WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Banking Committee approved a flood insurance reform bill Wednesday that does not include wind damage, as Gulf Coast lawmakers had hoped, after key senators decided not to offer an amendment expanding the federal program to cover wind.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., dropped their plans to amend the bill with a wind provision when it became clear that the chairman, a ranking Republican, and others from non-coastal states opposed it.

"We weren't going to get it through," said Martinez. "We're going to try and do something on the floor." The Florida Republican said that he was disappointed "but I never had my hopes extremely high."

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., said during the "mark-up" of the bill that he had concerns about the costs of adding wind coverage. "The problem here is we don't know the implications of that," he said. Dodd prefers to rely on the findings of a study commission, already approved by the panel, to look at all-perils coverage.

"It's a very legitimate issue," said Dodd of expanding the program to cover wind damage. "We couldn't answer the implications of cost."

The flood insurance program had to borrow nearly $20 billion from the U.S. Treasury after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which the bill would forgive FEMA from having to repay. The flood insurance program is part of FEMA.

Sen. Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., who lobbied banking panel members, said he would continue to press for wind coverage. "We're going to assess if we can even get it up for consideration," said Lott. "I'm interested in results."

Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Bay St. Louis, the prime mover behind a House-passed flood insurance reform bill that includes "multiperils" of wind and water, remained optimistic.

"That particular committee was a tough audience," said Taylor. "I think the trend is in the right direction, with support from Lott and Sen. (Thad) Cochran, the home builders, the bankers and the Realtors." Cochran is the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"It's trending our way," said Taylor. "We always knew it was a fight but I'm encouraged."

The Senate bill reauthorizing the flood insurance program, approved unanimously by the banking committee, would strengthen the flood zone mapping program, forgive FEMA's $20 billion debt and institute mandatory coverage areas. The House version of the bill does not forgive the $20 billion debt.

© 2007 Sun Herald. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.sunherald.com

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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Senate committee votes today on flood bill

By MARIA RECIO

SUN HERALD WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Banking Committee today votes on a flood insurance reform bill Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Mel Martinez, R-Fla., will try to amend to include wind damage - an explosive issue that has roiled coastal communities since Hurricane Katrina.

The House passed a flood insurance bill last month 263 to 146 that included the "multiperil" provision giving policy holders the option to purchase wind coverage, but the bill the Senate Banking Committee will consider or "mark up" will not include the wind provision.

Martinez, however, will offer the wind amendment, said spokesman Ken Lundberg, because "it's a great idea. It would help Florida and other coastal areas."

Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., who lost his home in Katrina, said he had spoken with Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and ranking member Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and "Dodd said he needed to do more research and Shelby's against it."

Asked about Schumer, who raised the wind issue during a committee hearing, Lott said, "I hear he's pushing it. I hope he's successful." The New York senator has been angry about insurance companies' refusal to write wind policies on Long Island.

Martinez is concerned Florida's property insurance agency, Citizens Property Insurance, created after private insurers stopped writing policies, would be hurt by a catastrophic storm.

Gulf Coast residents have been battling private insurers over wind damage since Hurricane Katrina, with companies maintaining water, not wind, caused most of the destruction. Water damage is covered by the federal government's program, a part of FEMA.

Lott sued his insurer, State Farm Fire and Casualty Co., and settled earlier this year.

Opponents of the bill, including Shelby, insurers and some public interest groups, say the flood insurance program is essentially bankrupt and adding wind would deplete the government-sponsored program.

The flood insurance program, which is administered by the insurers, had to borrow $17.5 billion more than it took in because of hurricanes Katrina and Rita claims.

The Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2007 has bipartisan support for changes in the program, which would increase premiums, phase out subsidized rates paid by vacation-home owners and raise the flood insurance fund's borrowing authority.

The Schumer-Martinez amendment mirrors the House-passed multiple-peril bill by setting a residential policy limit at $500,000 for the structure and $150,000 for contents. Nonresidential properties would be covered up to $1 million for structure and $750,000 for contents and business interruption. The bill increases the maximum coverage for flood insurance policies from $250,000 to $335,000 for residences.

The wind program would be paid for from actuarially determined premiums.

© 2007 Sun Herald. All Rights Reserved.

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Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Cutoff contradicts congressional order

Friday, October 12, 2007
By Bill Walsh

WASHINGTON -- Despite a congressional directive to make mental health services for the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast a financial priority, the Bush administration has rejected an application by a prominent children's program in New Orleans that now faces cutbacks.

The co-director of the Louisiana State University program, which evaluates and treats children in areas hit hardest by Hurricane Katrina, said services will be scaled back "very considerably" without the $400,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"The children are the most traumatized in the United States," said Howard Osofsky, chairman of the psychiatry department at LSU Health Sciences Center. "If we are going to prevent the scars and give them the best chance to succeed, they really need these services."

The administration said it is still looking into what occurred but said Congress' failure to approve a spending bill last year for the Department of Health and Human Services might have played a role.

"That would certainly have a big influence on it," said Kay Springer, spokeswoman for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which awards the grants.

Key services lacking

As the recovery from the 2005 hurricane season grinds on, the mental health of Gulf Coast residents has been a major concern, as has the shortage of services. A survey of 2,757 children returning to the New Orleans area within a year of Katrina found that 49 percent met the criteria for a mental health referral, 20 percent had been touched by a hurricane-related death or injury, and 33 percent had been separated from parents or guardians.

Concerned about the need, Congress in the $605 billion fiscal 2007 spending bill for the health department directed the agency to give "high priority" in awarding grants to programs treating victims of the Gulf Coast hurricanes as well as families and children of troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.

However, when the agency issued its call for applications earlier this year, it said priority would be given to the treatment of children from broken homes, refugees, those with life-threatening illnesses or those who had relatives serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. It made no mention of Katrina.

Osofsky learned in late September that his application had been rejected.

"I don't want people to panic," he said. "But without the funding we will have to cut back very considerably."

Landrieu blasts denial

The Louisiana Rural Trauma Services Center received a four-year grant in 2003 from the Bush administration and has been held up as a model program. It helps pay to send LSU mental health professionals into schools, courts and Head Start programs in Orleans, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes to evaluate and screen youngsters for signs of mental illness and provide follow-up treatment. The program also trains school workers to spot symptoms of mental illness.

Since the storm, Osofsky said, the need has never been greater. He has seen a rise in the incidence of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, bullying in the schools and unusually risky adolescent behavior in the parishes still struggling to recover.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., blasted the administration for rejecting the program when the region needs it most.

"It is shocking that during a time of ongoing hurricane recovery in New Orleans, the Department of Health and Human Services would deny funding to this renowned program that provides essential mental health services to the city's children," Landrieu said. "It is further troubling that the agency would disregard the expressly stated intent of Congress to give priority for children's mental health grants to facilities that help children along the Gulf Coast handle the post-traumatic stress of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita."

Agency blames Congress
However, the federal health department said Congress might be partly to blame.

Though the House and Senate, controlled by Republicans at the time, each passed their own versions of spending bills for the health department in 2006, Congress failed to reconcile the two versions and pass a final appropriations bill for the agency. Instead, it passed a continuing resolution, which had the effect of maintaining 2006 financing levels throughout fiscal 2007.

Springer, the spokeswoman for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, said the agency didn't have Congress' directive to prioritize mental health grants to the Gulf Coast when it put together its program earlier this year.

"We did not have an approved appropriations bill, only a continuing resolution," Springer said. "Any language that would be included in an appropriations bill wasn't available to us."

However, Landrieu spokesman Adam Sharp noted that the agency chose to give priority to children and families of returning war veterans, a directive that was contained in the fiscal 2007 spending bill, but somehow left off hurricane victims. He said that despite Congress' failure to pass all the spending bills last year, some agencies followed Congress' policy directives anyway.

"They chose to use the Iraq language from the fiscal 2007 bill but ignore the Gulf Coast language," he said. "They were clearly picking and choosing. They can't have it both ways."

Landrieu said she hopes to remedy the situation next week. She plans to offer an amendment to the fiscal 2008 spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services when it comes to the Senate floor. The amendment would direct $400,000 in grant financing to the LSU mental health program.

Bill Walsh can be reached at bill.walsh@newhouse.com or (202) 383-7817

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Anderson Says, If Elected, He'll Open Insurance Office On The Coast

Oct 4, 2007 07:08 PM

Gary Anderson says if he's elected Mississippi's Insurance Commissioner, he will open an office here on the Coast to help speed up existing claims against insurance companies.

Anderson made that promise, during a campaign stop in Biloxi Thursday.

Anderson continues to pledge not to take money from insurance companies. Thursday, he also shared his plans to reduce fraud, lower insurance rates, and remove confusing language from those insurance policies.

"For so long, the policies may say one thing on the front cover and then when you flip it over on the back, and use a magnifying glass and three lawyers to interpret, it exempts the very thing that it says it will do on the very front side. I want to make sure that when the citizens of this state purchase insurance, they know exactly what it covers and what it will not cover," Anderson said.

Anderson faces Republican Mike Chaney in the November general election.