Y'all's Government, Up on Blocks Out in Front of the FEMA Trailers

FEMA's trying to unload thouands of trailers -- bought with your money in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. At least 8,000 were never used. From the Washington Post:

“The Federal Emergency Management Agency hurriedly bought 145,000 trailers and mobile homes just before and after Katrina hit, spending $2.7 billion largely through no-bid contracts. Now, it is selling off as many as 41,000 of the homes, netting, so far, about 40 cents on each dollar spent by taxpayers.”

That would sound like a bargin to people in Arkansas who lost their homes to recent tornadoes.

Rep Mike Ross (D-AR) is trying to get FEMA to sell some of the trailers to people in his district left homeless by the storms.

But lobbyists for the house trailer industry have made it harder for FEMA to sell the trailers. The lobbyists don't want competition -- preferring the homeless pay full price for new trailers. (WaPo/HT: ThinkProgress.org)