Melancon: Priorities are recovery, levees, health care

U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-Napoleonville), who visited the Tri-parish area last week, has been one of the spearheads on actions taken in Congress for the financial relief of Louisiana’s Gulf Coast following the hurricanes of 2005.

His district takes in all the parishes fronting the Gulf Coast from Iberia to Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes.

Melancon has a good deal to be happy about in recent months. The biggest item placing a smile on his face was the passage in November of the $23 billion Water Resources Development Act, which includes funding for hurricane protection levees in Terrebonne Parish and flood control locks on the Houma Navigation Canal within the Morganza-to-the-Gulf project.

Louisiana’s Congressional delegation was also able to bring in $3 billion last month to continue funding for the Road Home program.

Additionally, $7 billion was included for hurricane recovery in the May Iraq supplemental bill.

But, considering the current federal deficit, Melancon is concerned that the money received by Louisiana for hurricane rebuilding is being perceived as pork barrel spending by taxpayers in the rest of the U.S., who are footing most of the bill.

The third-term congressman wants his legacy to be the revitalization of hurricane-stricken areas of south Louisiana, and he intends to use his negotiating skills to bring about results.

“Our priorities are hurricane recovery, levees, health care,” Melancon said. “I don’t want to be accused of pork barrel spending. The Houma Navigation Canal locks, Morganza are not pork barrel.”

“We’ve been spending to such a deficit, we’ve had to go through the Emergency Supplemental process,” he said.

The accusation that Louisiana is receiving pork instead of needed funds for storm recovery is particularly offensive to Melancon, since he firmly sees himself as a southern conservative Democrat.

“I’m for pay-as-you-go,” he said. “I’m Blue Dog. If you don’t have it, you don’t do it. We’re talking about billions of dollars. You have to stay on it day in and day out.”

Melancon said St. Mary, Terrebonne, Lafourche, St. Bernard, Plaquemines and Iberia parishes all have ports, and each one can use federal dollars.

“My job,” he said, “is to help all of them, and not play one off against the other.”

Liberal spending in recent years by ostensibly tight-fisted Republicans in Washington has made funding hurricane recovery in Louisiana more difficult.

“Five years ago, we had a surplus,” he said. “If we had continued pay-as-you-go, we would have money.”

“America has ignored a lot of its needs,” he said. “Levees should’ve been built correct the first time. We could only find money without offsets in supplemental bills (and in two other bills).”

Melancon claimed the change in power from Republicans to Democrats in Congress earlier this year has been good for Louisiana. The Democrats overrode President Bush’s veto of WRDA in November.

But he is only guardedly hopeful.

“The change in the majority is like someone opened the door again, but there’s still the need for money across the country,” he said, pointing to the bridge collapse in Minneapolis. “With the change, it’s, Tell us what your needs are for reasonable requests.”

“But what’s a reasonable request?” he asked.

Taxpayers in the U.S. have had sympathy for Louisianans, which can only last so long.

“As time wanes, empathy fades,” he explained. “Half of Congress has not set foot in New Orleans. They don’t want to blindly help. They say they’ve given us a fortune. But the levees were a man-made disaster. Lower Terrebonne, St. Bernard, Plaquemines didn’t stand a chance, but the upper parts had a chance.”

“There’s adversity from Washington on Morganza-to-the-Gulf,” he warned. “They’ve rejected us on a number of occasions-said it looked like pork.”

Melancon asserted that access to property insurance is one of the keys to south Louisiana’s recovery.

He is co-sponsoring legislation creating a mechanism for states to bundle their catastrophic health insurance, which could then be sold to bond speculators. He is also pushing to have water and wind damage coverage joined together in federal flood insurance policies.

In hammering out legislation like the insurance bill and WRDA, Melancon feels his strongest quality is his non-confrontational approach.

“There are only so many places where I can take a leadership position,” he said. “Finding (niches), negotiating, telling what our needs are. I don’t jam things down their throat.”

However, he is not above taking a sardonic swipe at Washington’s sometimes ham-handed enforcement of elevation requirements for homes to participate in the federal flood insurance program.

“Washington was built on a swamp,” he said. “The White House is supposed to be mitigated (raised to prevent flood damage). If they don’t, they violate the law.”

He was also vocal about New Orleans being passed over as host of one of the presidential debates.

“They need to focus on what happened down here,” he said. “I asked the debate commission for an explanation.”

Still, Melancon will never be mistaken for a firebrand.

“I hope to have a president rebuilding the Gulf Coast,” he said about the 2008 presidential election. “If there’s somebody in the election who supports Louisiana, I’m for him.”

He wants his legacy to be the elimination of coastal erosion in Louisiana and the restoration of normalcy to New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish.

“Our needs are around $15 billion,” he said, “but we won’t get any meaningful money until 2016.”

“Hopefully, my grandson will have as much joy as I’ve known hunting and fishing,” Melancon said. “I’m an optimist.”

Melancon: Priorities are recovery, levees, health care