Donate to the lobbyist
Lobbyists dominate La. reconstruction planning
By Alan C. Miller and Ken Silverstein, Los Angeles Times | October 11, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Lobbyists representing transportation, energy, and other special interests dominated panels that advised Louisiana's US senators crafting legislation to rebuild the storm-damaged Gulf Coast, records and interviews show.
The Louisiana Katrina Reconstruction Act -- introduced last month by Senators Mary L. Landrieu, a Democrat, and David Vitter, a Republican -- included billions of dollars in business for clients of those lobbyists and a total price tag estimated as high as $250 billion.
One advisory panel member who discovered that most of his fellow panelists were lobbyists called the resulting legislation ''a huge injustice" to the state.
''I was basically shocked," said Ivor van Heerden, director of a hurricane public health research center at Louisiana State University. ''What do lobbyists know about a plan for the reconstruction and restoration of Louisiana?"