Local officials and state lawmakers are expressing new hope that federal agencies might be useful in rebuilding a still-struggling New Orleans. Among reasons for optimism was a “listening tour” of the area by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan last week.

From the beginning, the pair did more than listen, promising the Louisiana more than $500 million of HUD funds to create affordable housing, rebuild businesses, and house the elderly and disabled, according to a DHS press release. For its part, the Federal Emergency Management Agency—long recalcitrant under the Bush Administration—promised funding to rebuild police and fire stations, extended a relocation assistance program, and formed a review board to resolve disputes between FEMA and the state under the Public Assistance program.

"The commitment of the new administration to our region is evident in these Secretaries immediately getting their eyes on the ground and hearing from hurricane-impacted communities,” stated Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu in a press release. "The Secretaries today announced new and creative programs to permanently house vulnerable populations and efforts to unclog FEMA recovery dollars.”

Landrieu is fresh from heading a nine-month Senate subcommittee investigation that called FEMA to the carpet for its inadequate disaster housing response after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The resulting 238-page report slammed the agency for ineffectual planning, rejecting HUD involvement, and needlessly denying disaster housing assistance as many as 125,000 people.

"This is really a tragic indictment of the previous administration's failure to recognize that government does need to work,” Landreiu stated February 26, when the report was released. “In times of catastrophe and great challenges, government must do its part.”

The recent New Orleans tour seems to be an indication that government might finally be ready to do its part cheerfully, not only in Louisiana, but wherever U.S. catastrophes overwhelm local response. That includes Napolitano taking “a fresh look” at changes needed in the Stafford Act, according to an article in the Times-Picayune. Napolitano has acknowledged that, in the past, the act has been used as an excuse for inaction. Those days are over, she said.

"We are getting a view of what has not yet happened and what needs to happen,” Napolitano was quoted as saying in the Washington Times. “We took these jobs to get something done and to move issues forward, and the Gulf Coast and this area is top on that agenda."