Mitch Landrieu: “The Senator has been very patient. I realize we have to move forward. But if he would grant me a few more questions--one…”

“The Senator has been very patient. I realize we have to move forward. But if he would grant me a few more questions--one or two. I understand those pieces and those packages, because of course we are following them very carefully. But I want the record to reflect that this morning, as we break, there was $70.9 billion appropriated and $30 billion is still sitting in a bank somewhere in a FEMA account. So we have allocated $40 billion. I would judge from the controversies and reports that much of that money was squandered in many ways that we know, and used in an inefficient manner. But I would call to the attention of the leader that we have not passed an emergency education bill which would cover tuition for children, 370,000 children who are today displaced from the school they were in the week before Katrina and Rita. Those 370,000 children have not yet received word from this Congress if their tuition will be covered. That is not done yet. We have not passed a comprehensive health care piece that allows people with no job, no home, no school, and no church to think that they could show up at a hospital over the holidays and get their health care covered. That has not passed yet. We have not passed any loans to our governments in Louisiana that would allow them to operate and pay for police and fire over the holidays because the loan package we passed was inoperable because they cannot pay the money back in 3 years.…”