Monday, April 10, 2006
Senate approves Blanco plan
The Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Senate agreed Monday to Gov. Kathleen Blanco's plan to spend $360 million in federal hurricane recovery block grant cash — despite senators' complaints that the legislation was moving too speedily and that they didn't understand the fine print.
The so-called "action plan" is a broad outline of how the state plans to spend $6.2 billion in community develop block grants. It only contains specific details for spending $360 million, mainly on business loans and repairs to state buildings and local towns' damaged infrastructure.
But Sen. Robert Adley, D-Benton, said he couldn't get the numbers in the legislation to match the lengthy documentation provided by the Blanco administration as an explanation.
"With numbers this large, can't we take a moment to get a briefing?" Adley said.
Senate President Don Hines, sponsor of the legislation for the governor said, "We're not trying to hide anything."
