Congress and Looting

In Shift, FEMA Will Seek Bids for Gulf Work

By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ and ERIC LIPTON
Published: October 7, 2005

WASHINGTON, October 6 - The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency told a Senate panel on Thursday that the agency would seek new bids on $400 million worth of contracts that had originally been awarded with no competition in the Katrina recovery effort.

In announcing the move, R. David Paulison, the agency's acting director, responded to sharp criticism after FEMA suspended normal contracting rules in the frantic first days of trying to help storm victims and rebuild the Gulf Coast.

The contracts up for bidding - worth up to $100 million each - were awarded to four giant firms specializing in construction, engineering and consulting, said Nicol Andrews, an agency spokeswoman. The businesses have long records of work for the federal government, and some have executives or lobbyists with close ties to the Bush administration.

Mr. Paulison did not indicate that his agency had found anything inappropriate in the contract awards, but he appeared to agree with critics who have warned that awarding contracts without bids could result in abuse and waste.

"I've never been a fan of no-bid contracts," Mr. Paulison said in an appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "All of those no-bid contracts we are going to go back and rebid."

Agency officials acknowledged that they had rushed in awarding the contracts and say they now have time to reconsider them. They can re-open the process because the four companies have already exceeded a $50,000 minimum threshold that allows the agency to terminate the deals. The recovery effort will not be slowed during the bidding because the contractors will continue to perform work, agency officials said.

The four contracts up for rebidding were awarded early last month to The Shaw Group of Baton Rouge, La., Fluor Corporation of Aliso Viejo, Calif., Bechtel National of San Francisco and CH2M Hill of Denver. They have already won commitments from FEMA for a total of $125 million in work, identifying sites for trailers and mobile homes for Hurricane Katrina evacuees and then installing the housing across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Government watchdog groups have been raising questions from the moment these contracts were awarded. The Shaw Group's lobbyist is Joe M. Allbaugh, the former FEMA director and a friend of President Bush. Bechtel has ties to the Republican Party; George Shultz, the former secretary of state under President Ronald Reagan, is on the corporation's board, and Riley P. Bechtel, the chairman and chief executive, served on President Bush's Export Council.

Man, it's amazing how much quicker Congress is to react to obvious, no holds barred looting when it takes place on your backdoor instead of your new rental property on the other side of town.

Personally, I think a copy of this list needs to be mailed to every small and medium sized business owner in the Gulf region. Maybe some of them after reading the list will stop voting against their own self interests.

A good friend of mine who was at Tulane with me and is currently relocated in Mississippi says that she thinks the '06 elections will be a real eye opener... less llike '94 and more like a '32. People are beyond mad and the party in power is the one getting the blame. It's going to take more than the fear of gay weddings or President Hillary to make the voters forget Katrina or how badly their leaders have rected to it.

(cross posted at Just a Bump on the Beltway