Daily Briefing: 'Tighten Our Belt'
• Bushcontemplates expansion of federal role in natural disaster response. [ WP ]
•Over 80% of FEMA contracts for Katrina cleanup were no-bid or decided among limited competition. DHS inspector general: "When you do something like this, you do increase the vulnerability for fraud, plain waste, abuse and mismanagement. We are very apprehensive about what we are seeing." [ NYT ]
•Louisiana asks for $40b from federal government.Mary Landrieu: "We're going to fight hard for every dollar." [ WP , WSJ ]
• Bushasks White House Budget DirectorJoshua Boltento "tighten our belt."Bolten: "The disaster response is a relatively short-term hit to the budget. If we're sensible in our spending, both on the disaster response and on belt-tightening elsewhere, and we keep strong economic growth policies in place, I believe we can still meet the president's target of reducing the deficit in half by 2009 and remain on track with a steadily declining deficit path, either reaching or heading very close to balance." [ WSJ ]
• Robertsexpected to pass Senate with 64 votes. [ USAT ]
•Speculators have no idea whoBushwill next nominate to the Supreme Court. [ LAT ]
• Cheneyreturns home after knee surgery. [ NYT ]
• Karen Hughestries to win over hearts and minds in Egypt. [ WP , NYT ]
•Politicians' blind trusts face scrutiny in wake ofFristinvestigation. [ NYT , WSJ ]
• Romney's jokes about liberal Massachusetts may turn-off moderate voters. [ WP ]