Billions in hurricane aid remain unspent
More than three years after Hurricane Katrina, billions of dollars that could go to rebuilding the Gulf region remain bottled up by bureaucratic red tape, Louisiana lawmakers say.
As USA Today reports:
As USA Today reports:
...a massive effort to fix public works destroyed more than three years ago by the Gulf Coast hurricanes remains largely stalled, leaving more than $3.9 billion in federal aid unspent and key repairs far from complete.State and local lawmakers argue that FEMA has put too many restrictions on how the money can be spent, which bogs down the process. City officials in New Orleans also complain that FEMA regularly underestimates the cost of repairs, and even when a project gets done, it's unwilling to pay the bills, reports USA Today.
...
Nearly 3Ω years after those storms hit, new FEMA accounting reports show two-thirds of the money to pay for permanent rebuilding work still has not been spent, the latest bottleneck in a recovery long beset by criticism that it has been too slow and inefficient.
