Istook calls for caution

By Chris Casteel

Published: September 17, 2005

WASHINGTON - Congress should hold off making sweeping decisions about rebuilding New Orleans until it is clear how many residents and businesses want to return, Rep. Ernest Istook said Friday.

A day after visiting the flooded city and some of the Oklahoma National Guard troops patrolling it, Istook said the devastation has shattered the network that links people, businesses, schools and other parts of society.

"You can't replace all those relationships through a government program," Istook, R-Warr Acres, said, responding to President Bush's call for a massive federal effort to rebuild hurricane-hit New Orleans.

"The real decision-makers are the people who a month ago were residents of New Orleans. We could spend billions of dollars trying to re-create a city that they don't want to return to."

A poll released Friday by the Washington Post showed only 43 percent of evacuees surveyed in Houston want to return to New Orleans when it's possible.

Inhofe looks at destruction
Meanwhile, Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, was part of a group of senators who toured New Orleans and other Gulf Coast areas damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

Inhofe, chairman of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, wanted to get a firsthand look at some of the environmental cleanup challenges posed by the floods' destruction.

Inhofe has introduced legislation to let the Environmental Protection Agency waive or modify regulations that could slow recovery and reconstruction in the region.

The EPA administrator would have to consult with state officials before relaxing environmental regulations.

Inhofe said, "This legislation will ensure that EPA has absolute certainty in its authorities with regard to Katrina recovery efforts and protecting public health in the Gulf region.

"Those who seek to criticize this legislation under the guise of environmental concerns have it backward, as the use of the authority is specifically to protect public health and can only be used when it is in the public interest. Lack of action in an emergency situation is what puts people's health and the environment at risk."

Studying several approaches
Inhofe and other lawmakers also announced legislation to waive limits on emergency relief for highway damage, to give federal agencies more leeway to lease space in the affected area and to speed the re-establishment of drinking water systems.

Istook, a member of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees homeland security spending, is among conservatives in Congress balking at the notion the federal government will foot the bill -- which could top $200 billion -- for rebuilding areas damaged by the hurricane.

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, has been a leading advocate for budget cuts to offset the aid flowing to the Gulf Coast.

Rep. John Sullivan, R-Tulsa, said Friday he had written to the White House budget office and the House Appropriations Committee suggesting federal money be allocated "only where state and local governments and the private sector cannot provide the funds."

Istook on Friday said the devastation was more complete than pictures and video could convey and that viewing it was "a sobering experience."

"This is a unique situation in American history," he said.

But he said lawmakers need to acquire a "deep enough understanding" of the challenges ahead before dictating policies aimed at inducing people to resettle New Orleans.

"I'd like to see the federal role focusing on incentives for private investment," he said.