Bill Would Help With Hurricane Rebuilding

WASHINGTON, DC - Alabama, Mississippi and Texas would become eligible for more hurricane-related rebuilding money under a plan by U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., aimed at jump-starting a housing bill stuck in a congressional committee for eight months. Under her blueprint, the three states could potentially tap the federal treasury for programs "to rebuild, repair, or develop affordable housing" in areas covered by federal disaster declarations resulting from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which struck the Gulf Coast in 2005.

The proposal is of keen interest to some south Mobile County residents frustrated by what they see as official indifference to the needs of unincorporated areas walloped by Katrina. In September, a handful traveled to Washington, D.C., to take their case directly to U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, and other lawmakers. Since then, "nothing has been delivered at all except lip service," Jim Fuller, a Coden resident who is president of South Bay Communities Alliance, said Tuesday.

Landrieu's proposal would only authorize federal spending for the three states and does not include a dollar figure. Landrieu spokesman Adam Sharp suggested that it would up to Shelby, the top Republican on the Senate banking committee, to name a specific number.

Jonathan Graffeo, a Shelby spokesman on banking issues, had no immediate comment Tuesday on the plan. Last September, Shelby did not endorse the pleas of residents for several hundred million dollars targeted to south Mobile County. Landrieu had outlined her proposal in a Thursday letter to Shelby and banking committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. A Dodd spokeswoman also had no comment Tuesday.

The additional money for other Gulf Coast states was among a number of changes that Landrieu recommended for the housing bill, which has been awaiting banking committee action since June. Sharp attributed the hold-up to objections from U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican who has said the bill would continue failed public housing policies in New Orleans. In a Tuesday statement, Vitter spokesman Joel DiGrado said the senator "looks forward to reviewing these proposed changes as this is his first time receiving them."