President Pleges Another $40 Bln. in Katrina Aid
resident Bush plans to seek $40 billion to cover the next phase of relief and recovery operations from Hurricane Katrina, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
The move follows an initial $10.5 billion approved by Congress late last week. It will cost at least $1.5 billion to rebuild highways in the region, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta told AP in an interview.
He said that amount would be necessary just to restore Interstate 10 and U.S. 90, the two major arteries leading into New Orleans.
Bush invited congressional leaders to the White House for an afternoon meeting, their first since the hurricane hit the Gulf Coast and left much of New Orleans flooded, AP said.
After the meeting congressional leaders said the White House pledged to investigate an initial federal response that has been widely condemned as woefully inadequate, AP reported.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she intended to hold a hearing of the Governmental Affairs Committee next week into the government’s initial response to Katrina’s aftermath.
Katrina’s flooding and fallout has unknown number of people dead that some officials have said could top 10,000, uncounted thousands of homes and businesses damaged or destroyed and turned hundreds of thousands of Americans into evacuees seeking shelter in other states and regions of the country.
