Many politicians fulminate against the federal deficit and pay lip service to fiscal restraint, but few have the political courage to vote against expenditures that are perceived to have popular support.

Congresswoman Virginia Foxx was one of only eleven House members who voted against the second Katrina “emergency” relief bill, which totaled over fifty-one thousand-million dollars ($51.8 billion).

Hurricane Katrina was devastating to the Gulf Coast area. Like most Americans, Rep. Foxx supports legitimate, emergency aid for the hurricane victims. She voted for the initial ten-thousand million dollar ($10.5 billion) relief bill, and has since supported several other measures to aid the storm victims.

But the $51.8 billion dollar measure was “a large blank check”, Foxx argued. It computes to more than $100,000 for every resident of New Orleans. Such a huge amount was more money than was needed immediately or could be properly accounted for.

Foxx has had previous experience with government response to a natural disaster. She was a state Senator when Hurricane Floyd hit in 1999. The General Assembly hastily passed an $800 million relief package. Much of that money was never used to benefit hurricane victims. Instead, it was spent on various pork-barrel projects that benefited those with the right political connections.

Immediately following the vote, Foxx was denounced by political opponents. Since that time, numerous instances of misspending of the relief money have been reported, and the public criticism of Foxx appears to have abated.

We believe most of Foxx’s constituents respect her for casting a principled vote. We need more like her in Congress.