Disaster funds ready for Isaac's impact

WASHINGTON -- As Hurricane Isaac bears down on the Gulf Coast, there should be plenty of money -- some $1.5 billion -- in federal disaster aid coffers, thanks in part to a new system that budgets help for victims of hurricanes, tornadoes and floods before they occur.

It's a system that Paul Ryan, the Republican nominee-to-be for vice president, had hoped to scrap as a way to make his House GOP budget look smaller by about $10 billion a year.

Politely, party elders told him no way, at least for now.

Capitol Hill Democrats such as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana were the driving force behind the new disaster funding scheme and made it part of last summer's hard-fought budget pact, with backing from President Barack Obama.

The president had given short shrift to budgeting for disasters before a spate of them early last year, including tornadoes that ripped through Missouri and Alabama.

Congresses and administrations, after all, always had been fairly forthcoming with whatever disaster aid was needed after the fact, though the rise to power of tea party Republicans contributed to delays in providing disaster money last year.

The new system means disaster aid will not have to compete with other programs for financing, nor have to rely on less certain ad hoc funding at the height of a crisis.

Instead, disaster money was added on top of the official budget "cap," in line with the amounts budgeted in prior years.

Earlier in the year, the government's chief disaster fund almost ran dry, thanks to foot-dragging by the White House and demands by tea party House Republicans that disaster aid be partly "paid for" with cuts to programs that Obama favored. The administration instead let the political pressure build as disaster accounts dwindled, sparking the ire of both his GOP rivals and allies such as Landrieu, but turning the tables in its favor.

Months after agreeing to the new regime, to keep the agreement, Republican leaders still had to turn to procedural maneuvers to orchestrate passage of $8.8 billion in disaster money over the opposition of tea party lawmakers. Ryan, the House Budget Committee's chairman, was among 66 Republicans opposing the measure.

"Some Republicans are still fighting this," Landrieu said yesterday. "And it is kind of ironic that the storm was at some point headed towards Tampa during their convention."