Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Oh, look, there's history, repeating itself

Republicans block efforts to amend relief bill, hold vote without providing copy of bill

Democrats said no one had even seen a copy of the legislation.
Voting along party lines, Republicans denied a measure that would have allowed for two hours of discussion and opened up the measure to be amended.


Well, that's just great. The PATRIOT Act was the same damn way. Can we not learn from our mistakes? Maybe just once?

Congress takes up $51.8 billion Katrina relief bill

The bulk of the money would go into a Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief fund that is offering the debit cards. FEMA anticipates handing out 320,000 cards, at a cost of $640 million, to help displaced residents buy clothing, pay for transportation and other "emergency supplies they need," Director Michael Brown said.


Now that article is from the 8th of September, but if they're not going to do the debit cards after all, where will the money go, and how?[*]

FEMA, Red Cross Programs Confusing

The plan to give displaced victims of Hurricane Katrina instant financial help by issuing debit cards seemed, to many, like a good idea at the time."


[*] Evacuees Grow Anxious in Houston Mentions FEMA stopping distribution of cards, but from other news-googling it's not clear if that's a temporary halt in that locale, or discontinuing the program entirely.

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