Doing "What It Takes"

George W. Bush, Sept. 15, 2005:

To every person who has served and sacrificed in this emergency, I offer the gratitude of our country. And tonight I also offer this pledge of the American people: Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes. We will stay as long as it takes to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives. And all who question the future of the Crescent City need to know: There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again.

Today:

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration came out Tuesday against a key portion of a bill mandating the replacement of every government-subsidized apartment in New Orleans that meets the wrecking ball.

That portion of the bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Mary Landrieu, D-La., also took a shot from Landrieu's home-state colleague, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., who said the one-for-one rebuilding requirement would "re-create the New Orleans housing projects exactly as they were." Landrieu's staff called the assertion "misleading."

The objections come just days after the Department of Housing and Urban Development approved the demolition of 4,500 public housing units in the city and sparked outrage among Democrats and housing advocates charging that the administration was trying to keep poor people out of the city.

What would give anyone that idea?

Orlando Cabrera, an assistant secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, suggested that there is little demand for vacant public housing in New Orleans. He told a Senate committee that 400 apartments in New Orleans' public housing complexes remain unoccupied.

"We can't get people into them. They won't come home," Cabrera testified before the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees housing.

Really? That seems odd.

"When he says he can't find people, we think he is frankly wrong," said James Perry, executive director of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center. "We need more public housing now."

Asked why the 82,000 people living in FEMA travel trailers across the region couldn't move in, Cabrera said that none of them qualify for traditional HUD housing programs. Perry, the housing advocate, estimated that 20 percent did.

And 'traditional HUD housing programs' are all that matter, because, like, nothing untraditional happened a couple years ago? Might someone want to think about maybe being a bit creative about housing solutions? Not Cabrera.

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., asked Cabrera to reconcile the vacancies with estimates of homelessness in New Orleans that have been placed as high as 12,000.

"I can't," said Cabrera, who oversees HUD's public housing programs. "I don't know enough about the issue of homelessness post-storm. I can't answer the question honestly."

See, he's in charge of housing, not worried about people who don't have housing. Why should he know anything about homelessness post-storm?

Landrieu expressed surprise at the administration's opposition to the Gulf Coast Housing Recovery bill given that similar legislation glided 302-125 through the House this year with strong bipartisan support, including from the entire Louisiana delegation. Landrieu and Dodd introduced their bill in the Senate in June.

"I'm operating for a year and a half with congressmen on both sides of the aisle with the idea that HUD is supporting our efforts," Landrieu said. "I am perplexed after a year and a half to hear you are not supporting this bill."

Tell me again about how the President says he supports bi-partisanship in Congress? Speaking of partisanship:

Gulf Coast lawmakers have overcome White House objections to hurricane-recovery bills before, but Vitter's opposition presents a more significant hurdle because Senate Republicans are unlikely to throw their support to legislation if a colleague from the region is against it.

In a strongly worded statement, Vitter sought to portray the Dodd-Landrieu bill as an attempt to rebuild the crumbling, crime-ridden developments that dotted New Orleans' landscape before Hurricane Katrina.

"This bill wants to recreate the New Orleans housing projects exactly as they were, but they were poorly designed, offered barely any quality services to residents and, most importantly, isolated the residents from the rest of the city," Vitter said in a press release.

But Landrieu said at the hearing that the bill isn't intended to remake the old housing complexes, most which have been shuttered since the storm and some of which were slated for redevelopment anyway. She said her intent is to ensure that there are safe, affordable places to live for people who want to return to the city.

Of course, Senator Vitter has had a bit of an honesty problem before, so I'm not inclined to believe him on this. (Particularly since the bill provides not for exact replacement, but for a mix of subsidized housing solutions, including vouchers, to be determined by local authorities, and Vitter is just making stuff up.)

Whatever happened to "help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives,", Mr. President?