Mississippi Congressman Questions Use of Katrina Funds

2nd District Congressman Bennie Thompson is asking questions about the use of federal money in the rebuilding from Katrina. MPB’s Phoebe Judge reports.

The Democratic Congressman wants to know why just 1.6 billion of the 2.9 billion dollars in public assistance funds from the federal government, to help with the recovery from Katrina has been spent. Congressman Thompson, who chairs the house homeland security committee says he troubled immensely by the lack of progress made 3 ½ years after the storm,

“When I see the slowness of the effort on the Gulf Coast and the resources are there, all I’m saying is we have to find through our oversight responsibility here in Congress why those resources have not got to the people in which they are intended.”

But Mississippi Emergency Management Agency Executive Director Mike Womack, says things are moving ahead on the Coast at a good pace, and people need to realize that the recovery has to move in a sequential process,

“There is absolutely nothing to hide, I would welcome the chance for anyone to come down and look at what we’ve done at the state level and look at what local governments have done as far as the rebuilding process. You can’t go in and completely destroy 50 percent of the buildings and a large portion of the infrastructure and expect it to be rebuilt immediately.”

Congressman Thompson has asked FEMA to provide a full report to the committee on the use of funds by February 23rd. For MPB News, I’m Phoebe Judge in Gulfport.