Senate Bill Offers Hurricane Relief.

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Author: Burd, Stephen

The Appropriations Committee in the U.S. Senate approved legislation last week that would provide $30-million in federal grants and at least $300-million in government loans to colleges in the Gulf Coast that were damaged by last year's devastating hurricanes.

The panel included those provisions in an emergency spending bill of more than $100-billion, which provides additional appropriations this year to help finance the war in Iraq and hurricane relief in Gulf Coast states. Senate leaders hope to bring the bill, which the committee passed by a vote of 27 to 1, up for a vote on the Senate floor by the end of the month.

The bill will have to be reconciled with a similar measure in the House of Representatives, which does not include the additional relief money.

Most of the colleges hard hit by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have been running major budget deficits as they try to rebuild their campuses. Lobbyists for those institutions say the new aid would help the colleges survive while they wait for money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, and insurance companies.

Under the emergency spending bill, colleges would apply to the U.S. Education Department to receive the grants and loans. The loans would be available for those institutions that had to suspend operations or have seen drops in enrollment as a result of the hurricanes.

While the education secretary would have broad authority to set up the loan program, the terms of the loans would largely resemble those available on loans provided by FEMA. As a result, the interest rate would be set fairly low, and colleges would have at least five years to repay the loans.

Among the institutions that say they badly need such relief are Xavier University of Louisiana. The university faces a $40-million bill for repairs that it doesn't have the resources to pay.

In addition, Xavier has not yet seen its share of the $200-million that Congress allocated for Gulf Coast colleges in December. A debate between the Louisiana Board of Regents, which was put in charge of administering the federal funds, and state lawmakers over how to divvy up the money has slowed down its distribution, according to several higher-education officials in the state. Administrators at Xavier expect the university to get about $5-million.

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By Stephen Burd