Bushvetoed one bill today but signed another. Fortunately for Louisianans, Democrats attached a Road Home appropriation to the defense spending bill.

Sen Landrieu with thehelp of Senators Byrd and Patty Murray were able to have $3 billion for the Road Home program attached to the defense bill whichBush signed today. The Road Home program was going to run out of money at the end of this year and would have left as many as 76,000 homeowners eligible for the program“empty-handed.”

The $3 billion in aid is of course great news but itwill not meet the need entirely…

The LRA
estimates that Road Home is as much as $4.6 billion short of what is
needed to cover all eligible applicants. That means that, even if the
dollars announced by Landrieu are approved, they wouldn’t cover the
full gap in the homeowner grant program.

Another $1.2 billion could be covered if federal officials or Congress
agree to let the state use a pool of existing federal recovery aid for
the Road Home.