As congressional Democrats declared last week that federal efforts to help Gulf Coast schools with hurricane recovery aren't working, school officials from the region hit by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year urged lawmakers to provide more regulatory flexibility and more money. On April 26, 2006, House Democrats released a report criticizing the Bush administration's efforts to aid hurricane-affected schools and colleges. They said the Department of Education should name an "education recovery czar" to take responsibility away from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) because of what they see as its floundering record. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said in an interview last week that she appreciated the vote of confidence from Democrats, but said her department's role was separate from FEMA's. The Democrats' report also recommends additional flexibility, for example allowing schools recovering from the hurricanes to transfer funds between programs. And it calls for providing additional funding to those schools for basic operations and rebuilding.