"It's clear now - if we didn't realize it before - that the Homeland Security Department and Federal Emergency Management Agency simply have no common sense.

They've rejected a request from Sen. Tim Johnson that some of the thousands of trailers and mobile homes sitting unused - and deteriorating - in Hope, Ark., be used for housing on Indian reservations.

Twenty-thousand trailers sit unused, and the Homeland Security Department's inspector general said in a report last month that the maintenance bill paid by taxpayers could reach $47 million a year for trailers parked around the country."

Get the Story:
Trailers should be put to use on reservations (The Sioux Falls Argus Leader 5/29)

Related Stories:
FEMA rejects Sen. Johnson's request to help tribes (5/22)
Editorial: Send FEMA trailers to Indian Country (04/26)
Sen. Johnson wanta FEMA homes sent to tribes (4/25)