By Michael Oneal,Chicago Tribune

Only two months ago Congress doled out $62 billion in Hurricane Katrina relief and President Bush flew to New Orleans to launch “one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen.”

But as lawmakers left for a long weekend on Friday stymied over major budget legislation, gridlock and skepticism in Washington have combined to slow continued Katrina aid to a crawl.

The conservative branch of the president’s own party has risen up in open revolt against unchecked Katrina spending. And even moderates are raising questions about what should and shouldn’t be rebuilt.

“As the majority party we’re committed to helping the people of Louisiana rebuild,” said Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., who sits on the House Appropriations Committee. But “we’re not going to rebuild homes that are going to be destroyed in two years by another flood. We’re not just going to throw money at it.”

For New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region, the dithering in Washington seems to spell trouble. A waning appetite for spending raises questions about the essential first step in the rebuilding process: reconstructing the region’s troubled hurricane protection system so it can handle a Category 5 storm – by conservative estimates a $20 billion proposition.

Without official assurance that such a system can be built, state officials say, the region will remain caught in a vicious cycle. Residents and businesses will be afraid to come back, tax revenue will continue to dry up, governments and enterprises will starve and the area will become an even less attractive place to live or do business.

Each day that passes without a sense of confidence in the region’s future, officials fear, is another day a resident or business chooses not to return, preferring to settle somewhere that seems more secure.

“That’s why we’ve said Category 5 protection and coastal restoration are absolutely our top priority,” said Andy Kopplin, executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, a commission formed recently by Gov. Kathleen Blanco to manage Louisiana’s response to the crisis.

“What we need is a clear signal from the federal government that it will commit to that. That would breathe oxygen into the recovery,” Kopplin said.

Clear signals from Washington are always hard to come by, but especially so these days. Part of the problem, said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is that nobody in Washington knows for sure what Category 5 protection would cost. Even if they did, it is not clear another big spending package could clear Congress, especially the House of Representatives.

After four years of massive spending on Sept. 11 relief, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the new Medicare drug program, GOP conservatives in the House have pushed back hard against Republican moderates who are more dovish on spending. And even though House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., was taken to task in September for suggesting publicly that it might not be wise to rebuild New Orleans on the same flood plain, other Republicans lately have been saying so openly.

“To what extent are we going to take tax dollars and rebuild parts of a city that is below sea level?” asked Arizona Rep. Jeff Flake, a member of the Republican Study Committee.

Flake explained that a revolt within the Republican Party erupted soon after the president’s speech in New Orleans’ Jackson Square on Sept. 15. It didn’t help that Louisiana’s delegation asked for more than $200 billion in aid – a package containing requests that seemed to have little to do with hurricane relief.

Conservatives insisted that any new spending be matched by cuts elsewhere to avoid adding to a burgeoning deficit. That has led to a battle among the conservative and moderate wings of the GOP over a budget reconciliation bill seeking to shave at least $50 billion in spending by cutting back on Medicare and food stamp programs.

, among other things.

But because the GOP leadership pulled back the budget bill on Thursday, for now the measure – and further discussion about aid for the Gulf Coast – is being held in suspension.

Similar disputes have hobbled legislation in the Senate. On Thursday, Republicans had to withdraw a tax bill before the finance committee that contained about $7 billion in Katrina relief, when moderates such as Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe balked at an extension of tax cuts on capital gains and dividends.

Durbin said that in the short term, the $62 billion already allocated should meet the needs of the Gulf Coast, especially since much of it has yet to be spent. But in the long term, he said, the debate raging in the Republican Party over spending will determine how much aid flows and how quickly.

“This is a fight for the heart and soul of the Republican Party,” said Adam Sharp, an aide to Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., “and it has left the people of Louisiana stuck in the middle.”

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Former Louisiana Sen. John Breaux, a Democrat, admits that the state has made some mistakes in its approach to Washington. Even though he doesn’t fault Louisiana Sens. Landrieu or David Vitter for trying, he said the request for $200 billion in aid was probably a tactical error.

“You ask for everything hoping you get half of that,” he explained. But a Congress preoccupied with the deficit was in no mood for big numbers.

Now, however, Blanco has asked Breaux and Walter Isaacsson, former head of CNN and Time magazine, to help smooth things over in Washington and coordinate the state’s efforts.

Indeed, Louisiana officials are trying hard to make up for the past. Addressing the concern that Louisiana has historically been awash in corruption, Blanco’s administration has created an auditing system for federal funds. Vitter and others have labored to explain that the state isn’t asking for a blank check to build a Category 5 levee system. It simply wants a commitment from Congress that such a system will be built to create confidence in the recovery.

Breaux chafes at the notion voiced by some Republicans that rebuilding the region’s levee system to Category 5 strength is a form of charity or largess. The Mississippi River is an artery that supports the nation’s economy, he said, and the Louisiana wetlands protect much of its vital energy infrastructure.

“We’ve been talking about the importance of (wetlands and levee rebuilding) for years in Washington,” said Sidney Coffee, head of the governor’s coastal policy office. “After all this time – and after what’s happened – if we still need to satisfy their need for justification, I’m out of arguments.”

“This is about real people, real Americans,” she added. “It’s infuriating.”

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(c) 2005, Chicago Tribune.

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AP-NY-11-11-05 1931EST

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