Scrambling late and lame as always, the Bush administration has decided there might be something to these Tsunami Rumors.
NY Times
Late today Bush issued a statement saying that the U.S. would commit $350 million to the relief effort.
Mr. Bush's action is the second time this week that the United States committed more funds to the effort, and it came after mounting criticism that the president, who has stayed on his 1,600-acre ranch all week and spoken publicly about the disaster once, had reacted too slowly.
In a written statement today, Mr. Bush said that he had decided on the increase after Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and the director of the Agency for International Development, Andrew Natsios, told him that "initial findings of American assessment teams on the ground indicate that the need for financial and other assistance will steadily increase in the days and weeks ahead."
Bush apparently didn't like Sen Patrick Leahy's suggestion that helping Tsunami victims might be more important than the war in Iraq. Leahy said yesterday that the U.S. spends more "before breakfast" on the Iraq war than the $35 million that Bush originally waved at Tsunami relief.
A White House spokesman, Trent Duffy, said that the $350 million would come "from existing accounts," but said the administration might have to go to Congress next month to replenish emergency funds. But he dismissed suggestions by Democrats, including Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, that the United States could draw on some of the $16 billion that had been authorized for Iraq reconstruction but not yet spent.
"It's not coming from Iraq money, if that's what you are asking," Mr. Duffy told reporters.