Democratic legislators criticize Gov. Jindal's handling of Gulf oil spill relief money

[ProSense]

Democratic legislators criticize Gov. Jindal's handling of Gulf oil spill relief money

By Bruce Alpert, Times-Picayune


Three Democratic state senators blasted Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal on Saturday for not quickly distributing $40 million in grants from BP at the same time he's been criticizing the company and the Obama administration for taking too long to provide needed resources to combat the Gulf oil spill.

Jindal has "been out there talking to the people impacted by the disaster and the media and got his life jacket on and is out in the water, but I want him to use his executive power to get resources out there instead of standing on the bully pulpit and pointing fingers," said state Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans.

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It also was revealed that the state has called up only 1,100 of the 6,000 National Guard members authorized for the spill clean-up efforts, Peterson said.

Jindal spokeswoman Melissa Sellers said the governor talked to BP officials on Saturday and they agreed to contact parish officials to address any additional financial needs.

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"Working directly with BP is the best way to ensure that parishes are paid quickly," she said. "We stay in constant communication with parish leaders every day to ensure their needs are met, and we have told BP and the Coast Guard that we expect them to directly work with parishes to fund their expenses in order to reduce the amount of time for approving their requests."

On the question of deploying National Guard troops, Sellers said the governor is working with the Guard to "evaluate whether additional missions will demand increased personnel, and we will ask that BP and the Coast Guard fund additional troops in accordance with increased demand."

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