It is not very often that the U.S. Congress acts on sound principle, but last week it did. Overriding President Bush's veto, Congress passed a $23 billion water bill that included $7 billion for coastal restoration in Louisiana.
The Louisiana money was very important. I know when most people think of a water bill, they think of porkbarrel projects and wasted taxpayer dollars; but the Louisiana share is for a very good cause. It will be used to close the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO) and render it hurricane resistant. As I have written before, the MRGO served as a sluiceway for the Hurricane Katrina storm surge; water poured down the outlet and overflowed it. In Louisiana we have long known that MRGO was responsible for most of the worst flooding after Katrina. MRGO was a federally designed project, and the state of Louisiana did not have the power to fill it in. We needed that money, and now that the funds are locked in, St. Bernard, the Lower 9th, and New Orleans East can be made much safer.
It is a shame that it took over 2 years to get the money to do what should have been done a month after the storm, but it is never too late to do the right thing. The rest of $7 billion will be used to start a massive levee project that should protect New Orleans from the next Katrina. Let's just hope the Army Corps of Engineers can get the job done on time.