(June 15, 2006)—The chairman of the Hooters restaurant chain, Bob Brooks, says it bothers him that resources meant to help victims of Hurricane Katrina went for a bottle of bubbly.
So he's making an offer to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Brooks says he'll be happy to cut the agency a $200 check if FEMA will tell him where to send it.
Hooters is no stranger to helping hurricane victims.
After Katrina, it sent a jet from its airline, Hooters Air, to the Gulf Coast with supplies.
The chain also gave $225,000 to the Red Cross Katrina relief fund.
The champagne was just one example of the questionable use of hurricane relief funds uncovered by congressional investigators, whose audit concluded that as much as $1.4 billion of hurricane assistance funding was spent for bogus reasons.
The audit found that people lodged in hotels after the storms often were paid twice, since FEMA gave them individual rental assistance and paid hotels directly.
In one case, the agency paid California hotels $8,000 to house one person, who received three rental assistance payments for both Katrina and Rita.
