Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf coast last month killing hundreds of people. Citizens of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama lost their homes, their jobs and their businesses. The levees around New Orleans broke and flooded 80 percent of the city.

We have since found out that the government diverted needed money to shore up levees to the war in Iraq and anti-terrorism initiatives. Americans cried out for help from the Superdome, the New Orleans convention center and from atop their flooded homes while Bush and his cronies at the Department of Homeland Security fiddled and dawdled. Federal Emergency Management Agency head Michael Brown was complimented by Bush for doing "a heck of a job" before the American people demanded he be sacked in favor of someone who knew something about emergency response. The world watched in horror as the all-powerful U.S. government left American citizens, New Orleans’ poorest and most vulnerable residents, to fend for themselves. The Bush administration’s incompetence and callous disregard for human suffering is in itself a disaster of immense proportions and contributed to making it worse. But it did not stop there.

Following the hurricane disaster, Bush decided to use it as an opportunity to attack basic fundamental worker rights for the people of the region. Sound familiar? After the terrorist attacks on 9-11, Bush started attacking worker rights and civil liberties by proposing the Patriot Act and by pushing through unfair and indiscriminate criminal background checks on American workers.

Four days after the hurricane hit, Bush waived the Jones Act—which mandates water transportation of goods between U.S. ports must be done by U.S.-flagged, U.S.-built, U.S.-crewed and U.S.-owned vessels—to benefit the petroleum and gas industry, even though the U.S. maritime industry clearly has enough vessels to handle the situation. This waiver expired Sept. 19, but it gave the anti-Jones Act coalition a victory, and other industries have followed suit and are asking for waivers. The American Farm Bureau Federation has asked for a waiver of the Jones Act for agricultural products through the end of 2005.

Bush also suspended Davis-Bacon Act protections for construction workers in the rebuilding efforts of New Orleans and the Gulf. Davis-Bacon, enacted in 1931, requires contractors on federally funded construction projects to pay workers at least the prevailing wages in the area where the work is conducted.

"Suspending Davis-Bacon protections for financially distressed workers in the Gulf states amounts to legalized looting of these workers who will be cleaning up toxic sites and struggling to rebuild their communities while favored contractors rake in huge profits from FEMA reconstruction contracts," commented Ed Sullivan, president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department.

In the rush to cut worker wages in the Gulf, Bush’s Davis-Bacon suspension may have been illegal, according to a Congressional Research Service report on Sept. 15, 2005. The law requires the president to issue a national emergency, according to the CRS.

"The Bush administration first made mistakes when it was too slow to respond to rising floodwaters," said Rep. George Miller (D-CA), a member of the Education and the Workforce Committee. "Then it made mistakes when it was too quick to slash workers’ wages."

H.R. 3763, introduced by Miller (D-CA) would rescind Bush’s proclamation to slash wages for workers in the region. It already has 170 cosponsors. This common sense legislation is needed to get money in the hands of the people who really need it—the workers in the Gulf region who have been devastated by the hurricane.

The day after Bush signed the executive order allowing contractors awarded federal money to help rebuild the Hurricane Katrina devastated Gulf Coast to pay substandard wages to construction workers, the U.S. Department of Labor waived most federal affirmative action laws for contractors. The affirmative action waiver applies to companies that do not have existing government contacts and are awarded federal relief work contracts. This waiver is for three months, but could be extended.

The bankruptcy bill the Republicans passed earlier this year could effectively ruin the futures of the working poor in New Orleans whose lives have already been demolished by keeping them responsible for debts they cannot possibly pay with all their assets washed away.

"In today’s lagging economy, far too many hardworking Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, just barely getting by, said Congressman John Conyers (D-MI). "In that tenuous financial condition, many families are only one tragedy away from being devastated by debt. Many of the families who have now lost their homes, livelihoods, and personal possessions will soon be contacted by credit collection agencies demanding the next minimum payment on a credit card. Unfortunately, the bankruptcy bill recently passed by Congress makes matters far worse for these families."

The hypocritical Republican Congress is moving to exempt Katrina victims from the bankruptcy bill. But earlier this year, Democratic amendments to it designed to exempt disaster victims from the effects of the bill were voted down. Clearly there will be more disasters and more working people financially wiped out and deserving of a fresh start. But Congressional Republicans feel no pressure to provide for them and won’t. Congress needs to repeal the bankruptcy bill that is simply a boon to multi-billion dollar credit card companies at the expense of working people.

To add insult to misery, the Bush administration is busy handing out no-bid contracts to its most cherished corporate supporters. A major donor to the Republican Party, the Fluor Corporation and the Shaw Group, a client of George W. Bush’s former campaign manager, was awarded a $100 billion contract. Meanwhile, Halliburton Company subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (which still funnels money to Vice-President Dick Cheney) was awarded a $30 million clean up contract.

You can ask your member of Congress to take several sound public policy steps that would help those people who have suffered so much in the Gulf.

Tell your member of Congress and Senators to:

1. Restore Davis-Bacon wage protections for construction workers who will rebuild the Gulf Coast.

2. Protect the Jones Act so mariners in the Gulf region will have gainful employment.

3. Identify and protect recovery workers from new and terrible biological and chemical hazards in the region.

4. Improve the benefits of the Disaster Unemployment Assistance program.

5. Provide health insurance coverage to all survivors through Medicaid, and reverse the budget cuts that limit Medicaid’s ability to meet ongoing needs as well as those created by Katrina.

6. Provide comprehensive re-employment services to displaced workers.

7. Restore affirmative action requirements for contractors in an area where those who suffered most were disproportionately poor and people of color.

8. Repeal the bankruptcy bill so that Americans hit by disasters can start anew.