US Senate approves $29bn hurricane relief bill

The US Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill bearing $29bn (€24.5bn) in reconstruction aid for the Gulf Coast, nearly four months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the surrounding region.

The Senate approved the measure 93-0 after the aid became entangled with – and then finally disengaged from – a fight over an unrelated effort to open oil drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge.

The House was expected to vote today on a final defence bill containing the storm assistance. The aid is mostly for reconstructing damaged buildings and aiding battered businesses and homeowners.

Senator Trent Lott, a Republican from Mississippi, reminded politicians of victims living in tents and trailers after losing nearly all possessions in the August 29 storm.

“They have hit the wall,” Lott said. “Right now they’re at that moment of exhaustion, frustration, indecision. If we don’t provide this help now – if it’s put off another month or two months or three months – heaven help us.”

Senator Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, said the money will give Gulf Coast residents “hope that this region can be rebuilt.”

“Without this it will be impossible, and they cannot wait another day,” she said.

Most of the hurricane aid has already been approved by Congress as part of a federal Disaster Relief Fund. The money now will be diverted from the fund, overseen by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and sent directly to Gulf Coast states and victims.

The funding package represents a down payment of billions of dollars annually that Congress likely will have to supply in future years to help the region recover.

Walter Isaacson, vice chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, said the package was probably one of the last all-encompassing funding requests that the region will make.

“Everybody’s got to rebuild their own homes, and rebuild their own businesses,” Isaacson said. “We can’t ask the country to come in and do it for us. But this package of legislation would give us some tools we need.”

The aid package is the result of two weeks of negotiating among politicians to nearly double President George Bush’s initial funding request.

The money was part of a defence bill approved earlier by the House that initially included a plan to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The House had to reconvene today and reconsider the defence bill – minus the oil drilling language – because the Senate today stripped the oil provision from the legislation.