Bush readying $40 billion relief request

WASHINGTON -- President Bush intends to seek as much as $40 billion to cover the next phase of relief and recovery operations from Hurricane Katrina, congressional officials said Tuesday as leading lawmakers and the White House pledged to investigate an initial federal response widely condemned as woefully inadequate.\nOne week after the hurricane inflicted devastation of biblical proportions on the Gulf Coast, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the total tab for the federal government may top $150 billion.\nRelief and recovery needs will be the "No. 1 priority for the foreseeable future," pledged House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas as Congress convened after a five-week vacation.\nRepublicans and Democrats alike heaped criticism on the Federal Emergency Management Administration, the government's front--line responder agency for national disasters. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi told Bush to his face at the White House that he should fire the agency's director, Michael Brown. \n"The president thanked me for my suggestion," the California Democrat told reporters afterward.\nStung by earlier criticism, Bush invited congressional leaders to the White House for an afternoon meeting, their first since the hurricane hit the Gulf Coast and left much of New Orleans underwater.\n"Bureaucracy is not going to stand in the way of getting the job done for the people," the president earlier told reporters after meeting with his Cabinet.\nAt the Capitol, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she intended to hold an initial hearing of the Governmental Affairs Committee next week into the aftermath of the storm. \n"It will focus on the way ahead," she said. An investigation into the faults of the recovery effort will be deferred until "after the situation is stabilized and people are no longer in danger."\nThe unprecedented scope of the destruction swiftly shot to the top of Congress' autumn to-do list.\nSenate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R--Tenn., put off planned votes on elimination of the inheritance tax, a GOP priority, and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said the need to address hurricane-related difficulties would further postpone Bush's long-delayed call for overhauling Social Security.\nAt the same time, Frist, like Bush, made clear Republicans want John Roberts confirmed as the nation's 17th chief justice in time to take his seat before the Oct. 3 opening of the Supreme Court's term. Hearings on Roberts' nomination open next Monday.\nIndividual lawmakers floated suggestions to ease the burden caused by the storm and ensuing New Orleans-area flood that left an unknown number of people dead, uncounted thousands of homes and businesses damaged or destroyed, and drove hundreds of thousands of Americans from their homes. Many are poor and normally receive welfare. Others are sick and are now cut off from their health care and prescription medication. Still others are school-age and will suddenly find themselves enrolled in classrooms not built to accommodate them.\nIndividual lawmakers outlined numerous suggestions to help, although it was not clear which of them might reach the floor of the House or Senate as legislation.\nAt his meeting with congressional leaders, Bush did not say how much additional money he would seek, and Scott Milburn, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget, said officials have not yet completed their estimate.\nThe congressional officials who relayed word of Bush's decision to seek another $40 billion from Congress did so on condition of anonymity because it was not clear when the formal announcement would be made. Reid said he expected a request in the range of $40 billion to $50 billion, and that the administration would make its request within 24 hours.\nCongress approved a $10.5 billion first installment in relief funding last week. Another congressional official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said FEMA, spending about $750 million a day, would soon need additional funds.