(LA) Legislators furious over delays in crafting Category 5 flood protection plan

[MountainLaurel]

And Bush was wondering why people in NOLA were so upset at his comments about Katrina.

rustration and rage poured from state officials in Baton Rouge Tuesday over continuing delays by the Army Corps of Engineers in producing a plan for "Category 5" storm protection.

If those recommendations don't get to Congress by 2010 -- a distinct possibility -- that could raise a new and thorny obstacle that could further mire the projects in federal politics. That's because Congress in 2007 enacted a provision allowing all projects recommended by the corps before 2010 to be put into a fast-track approval process, which requires a vote after just 45 days.

Congress could likely approve the projects en masse -- and quickly -- greatly accelerating the start of construction. But if the fast-track rule expires, the state could be forced to lobby for each individual levee or coastal restoration project, with no defined timeline for approval of any of them.

That concern, along with deep frustration over the delays, poured out of nearly three dozen legislators Tuesday as Gov. Bobby Jindal's coastal czar, Garrett Graves, briefed them at a joint meeting of five legislative committees.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/01/corps_delays_in_hurricane_prot.html

[rocktivity]

1. They should have been furious about it the minute Bush pulled funding

on the shoring of the levees more than five years ago.

:headbang:
rocknation