Exhibits
February 26, 2008March 29 Frank Davis Book Signing (Thibodaux)
February 29, 2008
U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-Napoleonville) was in Houma Thursday to give an update to Terrebonne and Lafourche parish officials and business leaders on recent federal funding for local hurricane protection efforts.
Melancon said he has concerns about obtaining money for hurricane protection, even though the multi-billion dollar Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) was passed by Congress in November authorizing the Morganza-to-the-Gulf project.
Morganza would provide around $1 billion for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build 72 miles of hurricane protection levees in Terrebonne and Lafourche and locks on the Houma Navigation Canal.
WRDA only authorizes Morganza; the legislation did not appropriate any money for the project.
Melancon said the Corps usually takes about 21 years to break ground on projects after first conceiving of them. For that reason, he hopes to have language expediting the process placed into WRDA.
“We are already about 20 years behind schedule,” he said. “The big money doesn’t show up until 2016, then we get meaningful money.”
Melancon was much more optimistic about the Houma Navigation Canal locks receiving funding.
“We’ve authorized the locks,” he said. “They should be a go. I’ve got a good basis for the argument to push them forward on the locks portion. The sooner we get the locks in, the sooner we’re protected from a surge.”
Adding to the worries about funding, the Bush administration has called for a reevaluation of Morganza to the Gulf because the administration believes the project will cost more than the $888 million the Corps projected.
Federal law mandates a reevaluation if projected costs are more than 20 percent of original estimates, according to Morganza Action Coalition president Dan Walker, a Houma lawyer.
Walker said to Melancon, “Congress was misled – whether through ineptitude or bad faith, I don’t know. The project was evaluated during the authorization. They verified they were comfortable with those figures. It looks like it (Morganza) will be increased over the authorized cost.”
Walker told him that Melancon could get Congress to authorize canceling the reevaluation of Morganza.
“I feel confident we can push,” Melancon replied, but funding for all or part of Morganza would face PAYGO rules unless the money would come through a supplemental bill in Congress.
PAYGO, or pay-as-you-go, refers to paying for expenditures with funds that are made available as a program progresses.
Supplemental bills have fewer restrictions on expenditures because they generally fund more urgent needs.
Last May, Gulf Coast states affected by the hurricanes of 2005 received billions of dollars from Congress in a supplemental bill, which mainly paid for the Iraq War.
Melancon said Congress will probably pass another supplemental to fund the war.
“There’s no other place to get the money,” he said.
However, south Louisiana still has to battle negative images held by a few Congressmen from other parts of the country.
Tennessee Representative Jim Cooper, who criticized levee-building in New Orleans, “thinks we’re not purists,” Melancon said.
Melancon had a particularly pointed comeback to a comment made by Ed Markey. The Massachusetts Congressman said federal hurricane relief money flowing to Louisiana is “a boondoggle. You’re pulling off the biggest heist.”
Melancon responded, “How’s the Big Dig going?” The two-mile underground road in Boston could be the most expensive public works project in U.S. history, running billions of dollars over budget.
“That’s the mind-set,” he said. “It’s like, ‘You’re going to take all the money from us.'”
However, the leadership of Congress, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, has been more supportive of south Louisiana, according to Melancon.
A couple of attendees at the meeting complained about New Orleans receiving hurricane relief funds at the expense of the rest of south Louisiana.
Ted Falgout, Port Fourchon director, said New Orleans is using $1.8 billion in state budget surplus funds to pay federal matching money.
“New Orleans ends up getting every dollar and we end up with nothing,” Falgout said.
Another attendee said, “In Terrebonne, there are no levees. In New Orleans, they are getting things done.”
(Terrebonne does have a small stretch of hurricane protection levee, paid for through local funding, but the height needs to be raised. Federal Morganza funding requires a 35 percent match from local and state governments. Terrebonne voters passed a sales tax in 2006 to help pay for Morganza.)
Melancon further highlighted the traditional antagonism between New Orleans and the rest of the state. He said Carleton Dufrechou, the executive director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation in Metairie, was critical of Morganza.
“I told Dufrechou, ‘You start screwing with our levees, we’ll start screwing with your lake,'” the congressman said. “I don’t mean to be vindictive.”
But Melancon is keeping his eye on the bigger picture.
“This White House does not seem to want to spend money on south Louisiana,” he said. “I am a superdelegate (his vote for the Democratic Party presidential nominee at the national convention is not tied to his presidential primary vote). “I won’t commit (to a candidate) until I hear the things I want to hear about levees and the coast.”
