Bennie Thompson stands up for Hurricane Katrina victims... again

Congressman Bennie Thompson, the longtime representative of Mississippi's second congressional district, called for a probe into the Katrina aid diversion scandal. As widely reported by the major news outlets as well as here at Cotton Mouth, millions of dollars of Katrina aid intended for the victims ended up in the hands of state agencies. Congressman Bennie Thompson, the peoples representative, has called for a hearing into what he rightly terms a "debacle".

From a CNN article:

"We just think that FEMA needs to come and tell the committee how such a debacle could occur, and in the process, what are they going to do to assure Congress and the taxpaying public that it will never happen again," Thompson said.

The household goods were meant to help Gulf Coast households rebuild. But they sat in FEMA warehouses for two years before the agency declared them surplus property and gave them away in February.

The state of Louisiana had not asked for any of the supplies, prompting outrage there after the original CNN report. Since then, the state has taken steps to claim some of the stockpiles and distribute them to groups working to resettle victims of Hurricane Katrina, the 2005 storm that flooded New Orleans and ravaged the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Mississippi took the supplies it was offered but did not give them to Katrina victims. Instead, as CNN reported this week, the state distributed them to prisons, volunteer fire departments, colleges and other state agencies.

Thompson said he was stunned at how Mississippi officials made "a mockery of the whole process."

"I'm disappointed that my state decided that prisoners had a higher priority than Katrina victims and has made no effort to correct it even when this mistake was made," he said.

"Any time items intended for victims of Katrina end up in the hands of the Department of Corrections or state employees, then clearly, Mississippi dropped the ball."