Before your September 2 visit to the Gulf Coast to witness first-hand the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, you said the effort up to that point were "not acceptable." However, a good portion of your actions before this tragedy were not acceptable.

• You slashed funding for the Southeast Louisiana Flood Control Project even though you were told by FEMA that one of the three most likely disasters to hit this nation would be New Orleans taking a hit of any kind from a hurricane.


• You cut funding for flood control to $36.5 million by 2005--half of its 2001 level--despite pleas from the Louisiana congressional delegation to boost funding.


• You slashed funding for the New Orleans district of the Army Corps of Engineers so severely that they were forced to stop major levee work for the first time in 37 years and impose hiring freezes.

Had you not cut all this federal funding, it is very possible that the levees in New Orleans would have held and the current tragedy down there would have never occurred.

We, the undersigned, demand that you apologize to the people of Louisiana posthaste for failing them so badly. Failing that, the only honorable thing for you to do is resign.