Katrina Coverage

Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, senior Dem on the House Appropriations Committee, wants a detailed accounting of how funds are being spent: "We asked for specific information on how they (FEMA) are awarding contracts and who contracts are going to... Instead of telling us who is doing what and how, we got a few spreadsheets."
The information provided by the administration lists broad allocations of funds for a range of government programs, such as $2.3 billion for "housing assistance," $3.1 billion for "missions" under a category called "operations," and $3.5 billion for "missions" under a category called "administration of field operations."
So far, FEMA has been allocated nearly $16 billion and the Army Corps of Engineers says it will have spent the $400 million it got by next week. The DHS didn't comment.
Obey and Robert Byrd (D-WV) also want to know about the credit card bills of fed employees; the spending limits on those were reportedly sharply increased.