Congressman Questions Katrina Recovery Spending

WASHINGTON (AP) - A key congressman is questioning why
Mississippi has failed to spend more than 1 billion dollars in
federal public assistance funds to help it recover from the
devastation of Hurricane Katrina.
Representative Bernie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who
chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said that the state
has spent just 1.6 billion of the 2.9 billion dollar public
assistance funds provided by the federal government. Thompson cited
information provided to his committee by the Federal Emergency
Management Agency.
Public assistance funds are used for tasks such as removing
disaster debris and restoring roads, bridges, sewers and harbors.
Also, Thompson wrote, through the end of last year, Mississippi
has spent just 28 million of 142 million dollars from FEMA's Hazard
Mitigation Grant Program, which can be used for things like
elevating flood-prone homes and buildings.
He asked FEMA to provide a full report to the committee on
Mississippi's use of these two funds by February 23rd.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)