Once again, the president has visited New Orleans. Once again, assurances and grand gestures were made. And once again, the people of Louisiana are getting the short end of the stick.

During President George W. Bush’s latest visit to New Orleans on March 8, the president said he would call on Congress to make sure Louisiana received an additional $4.2 billion in housing assistance, earmarked specifically for the state, in his fourth federal hurricane recovery aid proposal. During this visit, Bush also said he had requested $19.8 billion for Gulf Coast recovery aid.

Thanks to the House Appropriations Committee, however, funding for hurricane recovery operations must now compete with funding for the country’s largest overall operation: the war in Iraq. This is like throwing Gary Coleman into the ring with Andre the Giant.

When originally proposed by the president, the two items were under separate package proposals. The Appropriations Committee recently merged the two into a single $91.1 billion supplemental spending bill to be debated in the House Wednesday. Passing the responsibility off to Congress, Bush is dodging his role as the executive leader of our country. True, the president is only one person in a sea of legislators and competing interests, but his request for an additional $4.2 billion is proving to be yet another empty promise.

Although passage of the spending request is technically in Congress’ hands, the president has the power to persuade, influence and educate legislators that Louisiana and the Gulf are still hurting. As the executive leader, the president must keep Congress focused and really push for what will likely not be the last aid package needed by the Gulf Coast states, and in particular Louisiana.

Between Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, devastation in New Orleans and Lake Charles, Louisiana suffered the most at Mother Nature’s hand. According to an article in The Times-Picayune on Tuesday, Sean Reilly, a member of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, presented data to Congressional staffers that showed “Louisiana suffered at least 67 percent of the severe housing damage along the Gulf Coast in three hurricanes last year.”

In light of this, the president and Congress must, at the very least, restore the $4.2 billion earmarked for housing assistance, so that Louisiana can get back on its feet.