WASHINGTON -- In any case it won't die: the idea that Alaska, to help Hurricane Katrina victims, should forfeit the dough it got in the federal highway bill for the Knik and Gravina bridges.
The New York Times: "Surely Rep. Don Young, the Alaska Republican who is chairman of the transportation committee, might put off that $223 million 'bridge to nowhere' in his state's outback. It's redundant now -- Louisiana suddenly has several bridges to nowhere."
The Wall Street Journal: "That same half a billion dollars (for the two Alaska bridges) could rebuild thousands of homes for suffering New Orleans evacuees."
No doubt to make Alaskans look bad, city leaders in Bozeman, Mont., are investigating whether they can give Katrina victims the $4 million they got in the federal bill for a downtown parking garage.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., raised the charitable pork idea on the Senate floor last week, although he stopped short of endorsing it.
So, how about it, Mr. Chairman?
"They can kiss my ear!" Young boomed when Sam Bishop, Washington correspondent for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, asked him about the many pleas to redirect the bridge money.
"That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard," Young went on, noting that Louisiana did quite well in his highway bill.
And, the congressman said, he helped the seafood industry donate more than $500,000 for hurricane victims. (That was at the "Seafood Invitational," a charity golf tournament Sept. 9 in Roslyn, Wash., Bishop reported Friday.)
"I raised enough money to give back to them voluntarily," he said, "and that's it!"
ACCURATE FEMA PREDICTION
Katrina, to understate it, was a disaster for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In an interview with The New York Times last week, just-resigned FEMA director Michael Brown told of frantic calls he made to the homeland security secretary and the White House, complaining over and over that he couldn't "get a unified command established" as the storm was bearing down. He said he was hobbled by the limitations on FEMA's power, according to the Times.
And who knew that was going to happen? Alaska Congressman Don Young.
When the Homeland Security Department was created in 2002, Young warned that burying FEMA in the big department would hurt its ability to respond to natural disasters, because Homeland Security is focused on terrorism.
"If FEMA becomes part of the Department of Homeland Security, what will happen to these other important functions?" Young asked fellow Congress members back then. "Will Homeland Security continue to provide disaster relief for hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico ...?? Will they have time to provide accurate flood maps and work with homeowners to mitigate against future flood losses?"
Young was criticized at the time for being territorial -- for trying to keep FEMA out of the new department so he, as chairman of the Transportation Committee, could continue to exercise control over it. He said he just wanted to make sure FEMA, which used to be a Cabinet-level agency, kept its clout and focus.
"There is tremendous concern that the (Homeland Security) bill as introduced will create a great deal of bureaucratic chaos and inaction," he said at the time.
RALLYING THE TROOPS
Environmentalists, Native Americans and green-leaning clergy are amassing in Washington this week to tell Congress not to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. "Arctic Refuge Action Day" was scheduled to coincide with Congress' consideration of the issue, but lawmakers have put it off until next month. Still, the anti-drilling lobby is expecting a big turnout -- some say 5,000 people -- at Tuesday's event in front of the Capitol. Organizers are promising the media good visuals including banners, people carrying signs, a drum procession and, they said in their announcement, "people in polar bear suits."
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she doesn't expect to hear anything new.
Washington notes takes a periodic look at Alaska people and topics in the capital. It is compiled by Daily News reporter Liz Ruskin. She can be reached at lruskin@adn.com.
