• By GERARD SHIELDS
• Advocate Washington bureau
• Published: Nov 23, 2009 - Page: 5B

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Who is the representative from Louisiana’s 26th Congressional District?

That’s what members of the state’s delegation in Washington, D.C., last week were asking after The White House put out stimulus data on where the money was spent. Louisiana has only seven congressional districts. But the White House numbers indicated that money went to districts 8, 12, 14, 22, 26, 32, 45 and 00.

Delegation members wasted little time in jumping on the errors.

“I’m not sure how the White House allocated more than $350,000 to the Louisiana 26th Congressional District, but if they are having this much trouble keeping track of the stimulus money, how are they ever going to stay on top of the massive government-run health-care program they are pushing?” Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter said in a statement.

Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, of Metairie, also capitalized on the goofs.

“It’s only fitting that the White House would claim jobs to create jobs in districts that don’t exist, since they are funded by the stimulus bill with money that doesn’t exist,” Scalise said.

Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy, of Baton Rouge, also weighed in.

“Fictitious claims about the jobs saved are compatible with fictitious claims the stimulus would save jobs,” Cassidy said in a statement.

The numbers, which were posted on recovery.gov, showed that Louisiana’s 8th Congressional District received $5 million while another $2.8 million went to the 22nd Congressional District and $1.8 million to districts 26, 45, 14, 32 and 00.

G. Edward DeSeve, a special assistant to the president, posted an explanation last week noting that more than 130,000 reports were filed and that some of those working with the new system punched in the wrong congressional district or just got it wrong. DeSeve promised prompt corrections.

“Some of the mistakes are frustrating typos and coding errors that don’t undermine the information at the heart of the data,” DeSeve said.

Of the $2.2 billion awarded to Louisiana, $554 million has been delivered creating 9,100 jobs.

Boustany disagrees
Republican U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany, of Lafayette, raised concerns last week following recommendations for breast cancer screening by a government task force.