WASHINGTON — Congress is finding it much easier to spend tens of billions of dollars to aid the hurricane-stricken Gulf Coast than to agree on how to keep that money from going to waste.
The House and Senate easily passed tax packages Thursday that would provide $5 billion to $8 billion in tax breaks for Hurricane Katrina's victims -- legislation that President Bush is expected to sign early next week.
The measures include tax relief for people who house hurricane victims and employers who hire them, and would allow victims to withdraw funds from retirement savings accounts without penalty.
The tax breaks would be in addition to $62.5 billion in emergency assistance already approved by Congress.
But with the White House expected to submit another multibillion-dollar aid request before the end of the month, concern is mounting among lawmakers that money is flowing into the region with too little thought about how best to spend it and too few controls over how it is spent.
Some Republican senators have appealed to Bush to appoint a high-profile person to take charge of the rebuilding effort. Others have urged creation of a federal commission or agency that would direct spending, or naming of a special inspector general to review whatever is spent.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has introduced legislation with Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.) that would create a "Katrina czar" who would report directly to the president.
A spokesman for Sessions said the senator, who served as a U.S. attorney in Mobile for 15 years, speaks from experience.
"He's prosecuted post-hurricane abuse and fraud," Mike Brumas said. "He knows what happens after a hurricane, and here is an instance where $200 billion may be appropriated to help out Louisiana, Mississippi and, to a much lesser extent, Alabama."
Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho), who serves on the powerful Appropriations Committee, suggested that local officials might use federal money for inappropriate purposes.
"There is a certain artistry in the state of Louisiana of sharing money between politicians" whenever federal funds are available, Craig said. When Louisianians say they want "local control" of the reconstruction effort, he added, "it means they want their hands on the money."
Craig also said Louisiana's elected officials "have effectively demonstrated their lack of capability for dealing with" the reconstruction by the way they initially responded to the disaster.
