Visiting Gulf Coast, Bush notes 'lessons learned'

No comment on rebuilding plan
He ignored a question about what he thought of the city's rebuilding plan, unveiled Wednesday to residents angry about a suggested four-month moratorium on new building permits in heavily flooded areas.

And while he said the government would help rebuild larger levees, he did not specify that the rebuilding would improve them to withstand a Category Five hurricane.

Many New Orleans neighborhoods are still abandoned wastelands, with uninhabitable homes, no working street lights and sidewalks piled with moldy garbage. The levee system is as vulnerable as ever. Barely a quarter of the 400,000 people who fled have come back, demographers estimate.

Bush said the federal government has made $85 billion available so far to hurricane recovery, $25 billion of which has been spent.

He said that is "good help so far," and said much of the work will have to be driven by the private sector.

He rapped Congress for diverting $1.4 billion of the levee rebuilding money to non-New Orleans-related projects. "Congress needs to restore that $1.4 billion," he said.

Before returning to Washington Thursday night, Bush planned to attend a $4 million fundraiser at the sprawling oceanfront estate of Dwight Schar in Palm Beach, Fla. The money was going to the GOP and several congressional candidates.

Schar is CEO of NVR Homes, a major homebuilder and mortgage banking company, and co-owner of the Washington Redskins football team. He raised more than $200,000 for Bush's re-election campaign.

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