WASHINGTON -- United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., today pressed the Louisiana architects of the "Road Home" program and Bush administration representatives on the housing program's projected shortfall and the tens of thousands of homeowners who have not received their checks. Sen. Landrieu received their answers at an oversight hearing of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Disaster Recovery Subcommittee, which she chairs.

"I do not want one homeowner in Louisiana or Mississippi to believe that this government will not fulfill its promises," Sen. Landrieu said.

The first panel that testified included: Chairman Donald E. Powell, Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding; and Andy Kopplin, Executive Director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA).

Sen. Landrieu received conflicting answers from Chairman Powell and Kopplin on why the Road Home Program has a projected shortfall of more than $3 billion. Powell told Sen. Landrieu that Louisiana has funded victims of wind damage when the program was intended by the administration only for victims of flood damage. Kopplin said the shortfall has resulted because 20,000 more homeowners qualified than the LRA's original projection of 123,000.

"We designed a program to cover the wind damage that Chairman Powell wouldn't agree to cover," Kopplin said.

Sen. Landrieu pointed out that an initial flaw of the program was that the Republican-controlled Congress in 2005 capped Louisiana's share of the provided federal funding at 54 percent, despite having endured more than 70 percent of the disaster's damage.

The Subcommittee is collecting Chairman Powell and Kopplin's testimony and supporting documents, and will be producing a report next month with findings and recommendations for improving the program.

Also appearing before Sen. Landrieu's committee was a group of Louisiana citizens who told personal stories about their experiences with the program. They included: Walter Thomas of the Lower 9th Ward, Connie Uddo, Administrator, St. Paul's Beacon of Hope Organization; Debbie Gordon, President, Chimneywood Homeowner's Association; Frank Silvestri, Co-Chairman, Citizens' Road Home Action Team; and Frank Trapani, President, New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors.

Thomas, a cancer patient living in a handicapped-accessible FEMA trailer, spoke of the lengthy process he has been through in trying to get his Road Home check.

"Every time I called I got the same answer, 'Someone will give you a call back,'" Thomas said.

When Thomas went into the hospital three weeks ago for emergency surgery to remove his colon, a Road Home representative called him and told him he must sign his paperwork. He was unable to due so because of his surgery, and since then, he has received no call back.

Gordon of New Orleans East was brought to tears during her testimony as she told the committee about the red tape strangling the Road Home program.

"It has been nine months since I started this process, and I am still waiting," she said. "Our community of 74 homeowners is all in the same situation…. We all still have mortgages."

The last panel to testify today included: Nelson Bregon, Assistant Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; David Maurstad, Mitigation Directorate, Federal Emergency Management Agency; Suzie Elkins, Executive Director, Office of Community Development; and Isabel Reiff, Senior Vice President, Social Programs and Strategic Communications, ICF.

Sen. Landrieu asked Maurstad about $1.2 billion in hazard mitigation money (HMGP) that the state has been intending to use for the Road Home program, but FEMA has not agreed to release. Maurstad claimed FEMA was not consulted about redirecting HMGP money to the housing program.

"The bottom line is that FEMA and Secretary Paulison and the state have been trying to work this out for one year, and it's not been worked out," Sen. Landrieu said.

The Road Home program was developed after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita by Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA) in negotiations with the White House and Gulf Coast Recovery Coordinator. It provides rebuilding grants of up to $150,000 per home and was funded through $8.1 billion in federal Community Development Block Grants provided by last year's emergency supplemental appropriations bills.

"The lesson from this oversight hearing was clear: the mistakes for the Road Home program lie at many levels of government," said Sen. Landrieu, who with Congressman Richard Baker, R-La., had proposed an alternative housing and rebuilding program.

"My committee is compiling the pieces of information we learned from the administration, the state of Louisiana, homeowners and the contractor that manages the program. We will be making specific recommendations next month on how to fix the problems, so that every homeowner in Louisiana whose house was blown away or devastated by rising water receives the money they need and deserve to rebuild.

"We will work to clear the obstacles to our recovery, and learn how to prevent making the same mistakes when the next disaster strikes this nation, be it natural or manmade."