Report: Conservative Policies Failed To Rebuild The Gulf Coast, Basic Investments Still Severely Lacking

NEW ORLEANS, LA. - Two years after Hurricane Katrina left a path of destruction in the Gulf Coast, the federal government has failed to rebuild devastated areas, according to a new report released today by the Campaign for America's Future. With more than 250,000 former residents of New Orleans still scattered across the country, the report finds that the basic infrastructure of a once-great city is still in shambles. Fraud, abuse, and cronyism infect what little reconstruction has taken place, intensifying economic disparities throughout the Gulf Coast.

"When Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, the federal government failed its people. It failed to prepare and failed to rescue. Now it has failed to rebuild. The Bush administration is disconnected and Americans are calling for change," said Campaign for America's Future co-director Robert Borosage. "This failure is not an accident. It's a reflection of the conservative policies and perspectives that scorn government, outsource government responsibility to the private sector, succor cronyism over professionalism and sacrifice the fate of American citizens for political gains."

Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., joined Borosage on a conference call with reporters today to release the report. Rep. Clyburn, who led a delegation of House Democrats to the Gulf Coast earlier this month to assess progress, discussed what needs remained on today's call.

"Hurricane Katrina not only devastated an entire region, it destroyed American confidence in the response of their federal government," said Rep. Clyburn. "Two years later, we are still trying to overcome the tremendous damage and loss in the Gulf Coast. Under the leadership of this Congress, we have launched a new direction to rebuild the trust that government can and will be responsive to all of our citizens in time of crisis."

Rep. Waters, who participated in the conference call from New Orleans, called for urgent action addressing the "housing disaster" that Hurricane Katrina set in motion and the Bush administration's response has exacerbated.

"HUD and this administration is attempting to use Katrina as an opportunity to dismantle all of the public housing that they have wanted to tear down for quite some time," said Waters. She said that the administration's meager response to Katrina, which has left thousands of Americans stranded, is based on a central conservative tenet that scorns government. "You have a very conservative administration that has disdain for government even though they're in it," she said.

The Campaign for America's Future also released a new YouTube video that contrasts the promises President Bush made two years ago in his speech from Jackson Square, New Orleans, to the tragic realities Katrina survivors now face. The video, called "Disconnected," features President Bush giving out a toll-free number for survivors to call for help in reuniting their families. That number has since been disconnected, despite the fact that thousands of survivors are still spread across the country, far from their families and homes.

Today's report details how little effort was made to repatriate pre-Katrina residents and that the repatriation was often sabotaged by people who had a vested interest in keeping the poor and people of color out. Many of these residents will not return because of the shortage of affordable housing and the faltering effort to rebuild public infrastructure, including schools and libraries, sewer and water lines, hospitals and childcare facilities, law enforcement buildings and transportation.

President Bush, the city's self-declared savior, plans to visit New Orleans and Mississippi's Gulf Coast with Mrs. Bush this week, beginning with a dinner with Louisiana business leaders this evening. The visit marks the president's 11th trip to New Orleans since Katrina. Most of President Bush's visits to New Orleans were in the first 6 weeks after the storm, but as the failure of the recovery unfolded, he visited only twice in the past year. President Bush did not even mention the city in his State of the Union address last January.

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**NOTE: To obtain an electronic copy of the video and the report or a recording of today's news conference call with Reps. Clyburn and Waters, please visit the Katrina page [1] at www.ourfuture.org [2].**