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Lawmakers in both parties have been frustrated with President Barack Obama's budget office, which has only requested $1.8 billion for the FEMA disaster fund despite a long-documented shortfall for disasters like hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and massive flooding in Tennessee last spring.

House Republicans moved to double that funding this spring after tornadoes killed hundreds in Missouri and Alabama, but the legislation failed to advance in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

A little-noticed provision in the recently-passed debt limit and budget deal permits Congress to pass several billion dollars in additional FEMA disaster aid, but the White House has yet to ask for more money.

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Originally posted by Geezer:
Looks lile FEMA's biggest problem right now is funding. They're having to reduce payments for tornado and flood recovery in the South and Missori to respond to Irene.

Bi-partisan support for increased FEMA funding is available, however...

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Lawmakers in both parties have been frustrated with President Barack Obama's budget office, which has only requested $1.8 billion for the FEMA disaster fund despite a long-documented shortfall for disasters like hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and massive flooding in Tennessee last spring.

House Republicans moved to double that funding this spring after tornadoes killed hundreds in Missouri and Alabama, but the legislation failed to advance in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

A little-noticed provision in the recently-passed debt limit and budget deal permits Congress to pass several billion dollars in additional FEMA disaster aid, but the White House has yet to ask for more money.

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http://www.cnbc.com/id/44325898/FEMA_puts_long_term_rebuilding_on_hold
_after_Irene

Too bad the Administration can't allocate 12 hours worth of the military budget to help folks after natural disasters.



"Keep the Shiny side up"

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Eric Cantor is joining the fight to give FEMA more of your taxpayer money, though he is at least demanding that spending be "offset" by cutting spending on other vague unnamed things the government does. (Oh, looks like they are cutting grants for clean energy vehicles.) The House GOP's bill also helps fund disaster response by ... cutting state grants for disaster preparedness. Because the GOP will always select the option that looks cheaper in the short term but that is significantly more expensive in the long run. That option is usually a political winner!

Such are the incentives of the American political system. The Pentagon spending $50 million on a "lightning weapon" that doesn't work is business as usual but making sure our bridges are sturdy enough to withstand strong tropical storms is a low priority.

The bill to clean up New York City -- which wasn't hit nearly as hard as Southern states, and which didn't experience a fraction of the flooding Vermont did -- will be big, but that's in large part because of the sorry state of New York's ancient infrastructure. The commuter rails are crippled. The airports -- especially JFK, which practically shuts down any time the wind picks up -- are shut down. Thousands of outer-borough residents and many of the nearby suburbs are completely without power. These are some of the oldest cities in the country, and their power and water and transportation systems show it.

New York City's mayor and city council have extremely limited control over the city's mass transit system. Finding the cash to turn the NYPD into a paramilitary international intelligence agency is no problem. Replacing the Tappan Zee Bridge will take another decade. And replacing a bridge is at least a big, sexy project that state legislators love. It's even harder to get people excited about addressing sand erosion in Rockaway Beach.

The Economist had a great piece on America's low infrastructure spending and the political incentives that got us here. States are rewarded for building new highways instead of fixing existing roads, our gas tax is low, small states have disproportionate influence on spending, and the governor of New Jersey (who recently learned to love big government) can unilaterally cancel a transportation project in New York.

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I don't know why the White House has been lax about funding, and I don't like it. I also haven't forgotten that Cantor said any money for disaser relief would have to be offset by spending cuts. Maybe that was politispeak, I dunno, but I WOULD like to know what's up with the White House not taking action.

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Originally posted by SignyM:
Actually, human social memory is very long. We still revere and respond to sacred texts. Language and writing and the stories that go with them have existed for ten thousand years or more. Technology - social memory in physical form- has existed for thousands of years. (Look up the definition of "memes")

The problem is, "human memory" .. memes... is being interfered with BY THE MEDIA, who want nothing more than a bunch of mindless droids to sell shit to. We are programmed to think that everything has a happy ending in 30 or 60 minutes (less commercial breaks), that "news" changes every day (Fukushima, anyone?) and that buying shit is the premier goal of life.

Oh, BTW_ the best argument for why we need NATIONAL disaster relief:

You can't expect a devastated community to rebuild itself because they're devastated. You can't expect to operate on yourself

That's one of the reasons why I will prolly not vote for RP- because he's an idiot, who can't see the most obvious things.

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