Mitch Landrieu: “we passed, by an overwhelming margin, a supplemental emergency spending bill that will fund our ongoing operations in…”

“we passed, by an overwhelming margin, a supplemental emergency spending bill that will fund our ongoing operations in Iraq and in other parts of the world and will send some money stateside. In the view of this Senator, we have shortchanged, even with our good effort that was just made, shortchanged some real ongoing serious emergencies here at home. As far as the gulf coast is concerned, I voted for the bill because I have always believed that half a loaf is better than none. In the bill, in large measure because of the work of Members on both sides of the aisle, we have a significant amount of money toward the construction of levees that failed and put a great city and region and regions throughout the gulf coast at risk, particularly the New Orleans metropolitan area. I know people get tired of reviewing the details, but less than 3 years ago, several significant levees along the great port system in the city of New Orleans, levees that should have held collapsed, and 80 percent of the city went under water. The water is long gone, but the pain is still there.”