FEMA Flip-Flops, OKs $100K for La. Fish

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

FEMA Flip-Flops, OKs $100K for La. Fish

By JOHN MORENO GONZALES – 2 hours ago

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Reversing a decision that some
found bureaucratically absurd, the Federal Emergency
Management Agency granted $99,766 Wednesday to an
aquarium that saved taxpayers a bundle by catching
replacements for the fish it lost to Hurricane Katrina.

FEMA had said that the Audubon Aquarium of the
Americas needed to buy the fish from commercial
vendors, a method the agency said would cost
$616,849 but would comply with disaster aid laws.

When aquarium staff went out and caught them for
$99,766, FEMA denied their petition for reimbursement,
though the move had saved half a million dollars.

-snip-

FEMA initially denied the aquarium's petition because
it believed catching new fish improved the collection.
Under federal law, facilities cannot be improved upon
with federal money, only restored to their pre-
disaster condition.

State officials say the majority of 35,000 Katrina
rebuilding projects have been stalled in strict
interpretations of the same law, generating
mountains of paperwork in which FEMA takes stock of
damages as minute as the number of pencils lost at
a school.

-snip-

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hoXDL3g_RYyBWEy33BXol1yLAv9QD8T29NC81