Mary Landrieu

Because the mouth of the Mississippi River is obviously not important to the country in any way, so that is no benefit to the mouth of the Mississippi.

I might be able to speak for other people in the country that would feel the same way.

We have to take a moment to educate them on the importance of south Louisiana to the Nation.

This is an unworkable--if it was not so sad it would be a laughable budget, but it is nothing to laugh about.

This study has been in your budget for 40 years, and it has not progressed one iota.

Well, we are going to look into how the State did their case management and hear from the parish presidents whether that is working or not or whether they would prefer to have the Catholic Charities contract.

This community is very interested in that study.

COE has agreed--Senator Vitter and I both asked, and he initiated it, and I supported his request--for an independent review of the impact of the New Orleans Metropolitan Area Flood Protection System.

We are going to pursue that because this was a nightmare after Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike.

We need as a Nation to plant our flag in Grand Isle, Louisiana, because if we do not do that, the tides and waves of the Gulf of Mexico will be literally lapping at the door of metropolitan New Orleans in the not too distant future.

Your budget, to me, just looks like a disaster waiting to happen.

That hard-fought effort helped ensure adequate appropriations to the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund.

We need a more consistent, more robust funding mechanism for building our levees, securing our pump stations, flood protection, internal drainage, and wetlands restoration.

And for the first time in our Nation's history, we will receive when the BP penalty is paid anywhere from $5 billion to $20 billion that is going to be invested in the gulf coast with the largest portion of that coming to Louisiana.

That is your mistake. That is your mistake, and that has to be changed.

Thankfully, Senator Landrieu and our delegation inserted the language for arbitration into the recovery bill.

There is no uniform Federal procedure to determine responsibilities for water debris removal.

We should be outraged by that fact. I am.

Until the year 2000, FEMA rebuilt what was there before storms, and a penalty was charged if you tried to improve the structure.

COE itself is responsible for significant wetlands loss when you look at it from the big picture.

The intent of the funding included incorporation of the 34 miles of existing small public and private back levees...

It does not make any sense.

Because you did not get the cost-benefit ratio.

They figure out a way not to do it.

And we will make sure that is on the agenda, Senator Vitter, for our meeting in a couple of weeks.