Firms with Bush Ties Snag Katrina Deals

[cal04]

Companies with ties to the Bush White House and the former head of FEMA are clinching some of the administration's first disaster relief and reconstruction contracts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President George W. Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast.

One is Shaw Group Inc. (SGR.N) and the other is Halliburton Co. (HAL.N) subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. Vice President Dick Cheney is a former head of Halliburton. Bechtel National Inc., a unit of San Francisco-based Bechtel Corp., has also been selected by FEMA to provide short-term housing for people displaced by the hurricane. Bush named Bechtel's CEO to his Export Council and put the former CEO of Bechtel Energy in charge of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

Experts say it has been common practice in both Republican and Democratic administrations for policy makers to take lobbying jobs once they leave office, and many of the same companies seeking contracts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina have already received billions of dollars for work in Iraq. Halliburton alone has earned more than $9 billion. Pentagon audits released by Democrats in June showed $1.03 billion in ''questioned'' costs and $422 million in ``unsupported'' costs for Halliburton's work in Iraq.

But the web of Bush administration connections is attracting renewed attention from watchdog groups in the post-Katrina reconstruction rush. Congress has already appropriated more than $60 billion in emergency funding as a down payment on recovery efforts projected to cost well over $100 billion. ``The government has got to stop stacking senior positions with people who are repeatedly cashing in on the public trust in order to further private commercial interests,'' said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-contracts.html

[NJCher]

1. this is what it's all about in republican-world

You're in politics to make money, not for any farfetched notion of public service.




Cher

[maine_raptor]

2. I still want one question to be asked by the MSM:

"How come Halliburton got a no-bid contract to repair Gulf Coast Navy bases faster than water got to the people in New Orleans?"

[linazelle]

4. Good question. nt

[electron_blue]

8. I read that it wasn't a no-bid contract after all

That they won a competitive bid last year to for a mulit-year contract to cover emergency clean-up jobs as they come up.

What a lot of foresight, eh????

[maine_raptor]

15. That was the general contract, the specific details were

awarded on either Monday or Tuesday right after the storm. The PR release was was/is posted on the Halliburtion web site. It mentions(ed) specific dollar amounts for damage done by "Hurricane Katrina".

Link was posted here at DU back then, but I no longer have it.

[Tace]

3. I'm Reminded Of The Lamprey That Hang On Sharks

http://www.fisheries.vims.edu/lamprey.htm

[MsConduct]

5. How shocking! bush wouldn't ever play favorites, would he?

:sarcasm:

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. Of course they do..... that's life in neocan-land

------------------------------------------------------
Ditch Bu$h and save the Gulf: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=106&topic_id=22507&mesg_id=22507

Then save the nation!
http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/electionreform.htm

[bullimiami]

7. There is where most of the 60B is going.

Disaster-profiteering.
Why did you think he asked for the money? For the victims?

Any human with compassion would put that money to local reconstruction contracts and salaries, instead another fuck-the-people feed-the-corporations deal is already underway.

[norml]

9. Exploiting Disaster for Personal Profit Since 2001

Oh I've got to print this out.

Recommended of course.

10. heartless people

doesn't the bad news ever stop. aaaaggghhhhhhhhhh

[skids]

11. Recommended.

Front page material, IMO.

[randr]

12. There was a time in this country when our moral fabric would not allow

profiteering at the expense of others, not to mention profiting from war.
So much for bringing so called values back.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

13. First Baghdad and now New Orleans. Allbaugh gets around real fast.......

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

14. Always Follow The Money. Bush's waiting was Very Deliberate! nt

[sandnsea]

16. Bechtel, Fluor

"FEMA reports today that 5 of the nation’s major corporations have been contracted to “speed emergency housing relief” to the Gulf Coast. “Fluor Corp. of Aliso Viejo, Calif. heads up operations for the Housing Area Command. An engineering and construction firm, it is now in Louisiana beginning construction on temporary housing units that will provide electricity, potable water and sanitary sewage facilities. Bechtel National Inc. of San Francisco, an engineering and construction firm that is now on the scene in Gulf states to provide emergency housing relief.” This in addition to the $500 million contract KBR has already received for clean up and repairs to Gulf Coast military facilities."

To my knowledge, there still isn't anybody contractrd to serve hot meals or put up hot showers for the first responders.

LINKS:
http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/?view=plink&id=1357

[skids]

17. kick n/t

[ComerPerro]

18. Why is it that conservatives, such champions of the Free Market

have no problem with people using unfair advantages and unethical practices to give them an edge and wipe out any chance of competition?