Before Congress locks in a massive federal aid package in response to Hurricane Katrina, its leaders should look back on mistakes made after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In the rush to deliver assistance, Congress snipped red tape, shortchanged oversight and sprayed money across the country with the accuracy of a sawed-off shotgun.

Emotions are high, and nobody wants to appear to be less than compassionate to the victims of Katrina by voting against an aid package. Because everyone knows the bill will pass, it’s tempting to stuff it with unrelated measures.

Congressional leaders need to reign in those political games; post-Katrina spending is going to be large enough as it is. That means delivering the aid where it is most needed. Not every request can be met. Political considerations should be shelved, but early signs are that the feds will open the spigot.

Time magazine reports that one of the Bush administration’s strategies to reverse the public relations drubbing it has endured thus far is to “spend freely, and worry about the tab and the consequences later.”

“Nothing can salve the wounds like money,” an administration official told Time.

Wrong approach. Political considerations have proven to be wasteful. The lessons of Sept. 11 are out there; it would be irresponsible to ignore them. Some examples:

•Congress decided to finance homeland security as if every acre of the country was under siege. The real culprit was politicians making sure their states got a cut of the money. The result is overspending in the hinterlands, while target-rich areas such as Hanford and Puget Sound ports go begging.

•Because of a no-questions-asked approach, a small-business loan program doled out hundreds of millions dollars in low-interest loans to businesses that were not affected by the terrorist attacks, according to an Associated Press study.

Only 11 percent of the 19,000 loans went to businesses in New York and Washington, D.C. Moreover, loans were rejected for many businesses directly affected by the attacks.

•No-bid contracts with provisions that guaranteed profits became a scandal when spending abuses by contractors in Iraq were unearthed. That same practice has emerged in the Gulf Coast, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The government is spending $2 billion a day on post-hurricane relief efforts. Thus far, President Bush has requested $62.3 billion, which is a record for domestic disaster spending. Some analysts think the final bill will reach about $200 billion. The effects on the federal budget will be far-reaching.

Given the devastation wrought by the hurricane, that’s not surprising, but it would heap tragedy upon tragedy if the money were diverted from the truly needy to those capitalizing on the emotions of the day.