WASHINGTON – President Bush is scheduled Wednesday to make his 15th and likely last visit as chief executive to South Louisiana since hurricanes Katrina and Rita, with plans to speak in New Orleans on Gulf Coast recovery progress.

Gordon Johndroe, a Bush spokesman, said Friday that Bush plans to travel from his Crawford, Texas, ranch to Orlando for a convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and then travel to New Orleans to mark the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Johndroe didn’t offer any specifics, but said the president will talk “about his commitment to rebuilding the Gulf Coast.”

After his New Orleans appearance, he plans to travel to Mississippi for a dinner with community leaders – another event geared to the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Bush was last in New Orleans in April for the North American Leaders Summit, an event he brought to the city to encourage post-hurricane redevelopment.

Bush, who leaves office on Jan. 20, 2009, when his successor is sworn into office, has said that hurricane recovery remains a top priority for his administration. But the administration’s response to the hurricane, especially in the immediate aftermath when thousands awaited rescue at the Superdome, Convention Center and on rooftops from a slow-responding federal bureaucracy, brought criticism from both Democrats and Republicans.

Bush has admitted that the initial response to Hurricane Katrina was insufficient, and, after much criticism, he removed the man he appointed to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Michael Brown.

His upcoming visit is scheduled 12 days after he won praise from Louisiana officials for agreeing to give the state 30 years to pay its $1.8 billion share of the cost of hurricane protection levees in the New Orleans area. Until the announcement from the president’s Gulf Coast Recovery coordinator, retired Maj. Gen. Doug O’Dell, the state had been given only three years to pay off the debt – a requirement that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said would have delayed planed coastal restoration projects.

RB END ALPERT

(Bruce Alpert can be contacted at bruce.alpert(at)newhouse.com.)

2008-08-15-BUSH-NEWORLEANS

AP-NY-08-15-08 1845EDT