24 Quotes by Andy Kopplin

What this information shows, I think, is this was the most expensive natural disaster in American history.

The eye on the prize is that we get the resources we need so folks have the confidence that they can come back, and there's a long-term commitment of the federal government to be the state's partner in protecting our cities and towns from hurricanes and restoring the coast.

My guess is that neither the governor or the Legislature is going to start distributing funds until we have an extraordinarily high degree of confidence that the money is in the bank.

We've got to have the $4.2 billion to make it work, but if we wait until we have it we'll be criticized that we are delaying the process. We want people to feel comfortable that the money is going to be there for them and to see that the wheels of the process are going forward.

Our greatest fear is that we're going to have the money available but the implementation status delayed.

Our goal is to try to identify the ways this money can be used to have the most leverage, in terms of providing private sector investment.

Our No. 1 goal is to get that money out as expeditiously as possible. The limiting factor will be the number of contractors available.

We need to keep working to get our national surrogates to explain the facts - that the federal response was anemic and had been shortchanged by budget cuts and avoiding responsibilities like protecting Louisiana levees and wetlands.

We are providing ways to keep homeowners as homeowners. You can successfully rebuild South Louisiana with the package we have proposed.