The point at issue: Federal law (the Stafford Act) normally requires a state match--from 10 to 25 percent--of the federal money used in infrastructure repair.

But, as the story points out, after 9/11, after Hurricane Andrew, after at least 25 other disasters over the last two decades, the Feds have waived the matching requirement. Now, with local government in New Orleans still straining for revenue (the State has a surplus), the Feds are refusing to waive the match. Result: vital infrastructure repair can't get started, because the city doesn't have the revenue to match the federal grant. Worse, the city's own laws require the municipality to have the cash on hand before the project is even begun, so the match can't be found later.

Sent to my two senators and one rep ...

FEMA still screwing New Orleans

Dear xxx,

Please read this article from the New Orleans Times Picayune.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1171610898303630.xml&coll=1

A huge part of the disaster in New Orleans was the failure of levees build by the Army Corp of Engineers. These levees were poorly engineered. Specifically, the walls along the Industrial Canal and 17th Street Canal did not have footings sufficient to deal with the poor soil strength.

Given that the disaster was caused, in large part, by failures by the federal government, holding Louisiana to the matching funds requirement is compounding the injury.

Please unlock the FEMA funds!

cheers,

-Mark