Creative Katrina Connection

One of the inevitable aftereffects of a national crisis like Hurricane Katrina is the effort by interest groups to tie their pet causes to the disaster. Today's award for creativity in such an endeavor goes to the American Federation of Government Employees, which suggests that in the wake of the crisis, the Bush administration should abandon its efforts to study whether to subject certain jobs at Department of Veterans Affairs facilities nationwide to public-private competition. If you're having trouble figuring out the connection between hurricane relief and the administration's competitive sourcing agenda, here's AFGE president John Gage to help you out: "Even as retired veterans and VA employees are being displaced from their homes and as loyal VA workers are rolling up their sleeves to help people devastated by the hurricane, the administration is ready to add to the devastation by using hard won health care dollars on programs that will destabilize the VA health care workplace and put veterans working in VA facilities out of work."