NEW YORK--You probably noticed that words that never issued from the mouths of victorious Democrats, either on the campaign trail or in victory speeches, included "Katrina" and "New Orleans". It is as if the biggest man-made engineering disaster in American history never happened. So let's suppose there's something, besides hearings, to be wished for from the voters' angry decision (and how come, conspiracy fans, Rove couldn't steal this one away from them?). I suggest the Dems' agenda include this simple premise: to make good on the hollow promise President Bush delivered in Jackson Square last year while New Orleans still lay below water.
The very short-term part of this agenda would include two major provisions: the first would be speeding up the process of grants, already in motion (but slow-motion), to homeowners to rebuild what the Federally caused floods damaged. According to the Times-Picayune, a year and two months after the disaster, less than $700,000 has actually been placed in the hands of homeowners in the "Road Home" program. The second provision would be to extend similar aid to landlords and renters. A high-ranking Louisiana official told me two weeks ago that, early in the post-disaster period, feds adamantly and specifically refused to include renters in any program of aid. The policy exists in fact, since there are neither grants nor interest-free loans for the regeneration of rental housing. These are the evacuees for whom, as of yet, there is no Road Home.
The longer-term part of this agenda would be to create a Gulf Coast Recovery and Flood Protection Commission or Board, composed of professional engineers, hydrologists, geologists, and other experts--tasked with the responsibility of a holistic program to restore the coastal wetlands that have been destroyed in Louisiana over the past half-centjury and to build world-class levee and flood protection systems. The Corps of Engineers, blinkered by its build-big and damn the consequences outlook, should be thanked for its dismal efforts and asked to leave the project. The new agency should be accompanied by a separate and independent oversight board, to insure that the insularity and contractor cronyism that mark the Corps' efforts are not replicated in a new location. Funding for this work should come, in large part, from the sharing of federal royalties from oil and gas drilling in the Gulf off the Louisiana shore, since taking that oil to market occasioned the building of roads and canals and pipelines that helped to destroy the coastal wetlands. That funding mechanism may well come up for a vote during this month's lame-duck session of Congress.
Do I hear a Democrat, any Democrat, saying "aye"?
UPDATE (12:10 PM EST): Nancy Pelosi, in her news conference, outlines an agenda that doesn't mention New Orleans or the Gulf Coast. She votes "nay".