Coburn, Obama want Carnival answers; Greece offered free ships?
Tags: femaSens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) want answers on the DHS paying $192 million to Carnival Cruise Lines for ships which are now barely unused:
"Even if the Carnival contract were a good one — and it almost certainly is not — it is inexplicable why FEMA would fail to implement the Greek governments offer of free cruise ships," the senators wrote.
Greece on Sept. 4 offered to donate two cruise ships to the United States as part of humanitarian aid for Katrina evacuees, according to the European Union.
Butch Kinerney, a spokesman for FEMA, said the agency signed an initial deal with Carnival by Sept. 3 — before the Greek offer. He said he did not know when FEMA officials subsequently became aware of it.
Once FEMA officials did find out, they chose to move forward with the Carnival deal because it was not known how quickly Greece could provide the ships, Kinerney said.
John Hart, a spokesman for Coburn, said the senators want to know exactly when FEMA became aware of Greece's offer and why the agency hasn't tried to back out of the Carnival deal, particularly since the ships are hardly being used.
