[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 110 (Wednesday, September 15, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S9282]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR NATIVE PEOPLE

  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, when troubles befall our Nation, 
whether it is a hurricane in Florida, a tornado in Oklahoma, or an 
earthquake in my State of Alaska, America turns to the Federal 
Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, to help it recover.
  FEMA, in turn, relies upon some 4,000 part time, temporary employees 
called disaster assistance employees to help it meet the heightened 
workload demands. These disaster reservists, who live in all corners of 
our Nation, are organized into cadres and are pressed into service when 
their services are needed.
  The Federal Government transports these individuals from their home 
to the disaster site, houses them, pays a Federal civil service wage 
for their services and returns them home at Federal expense when their 
services are no longer needed.
  In the native villages of my home State and in native communities 
across the Nation, the level of unemployment is unacceptably high. 
Native people are often left with the choice of relocating to urban 
areas where jobs are in greater supply, leaving their native culture 
behind or remaining in their communities where jobs are scarce.
  I suspect that native people who live in the rural villages of Alaska 
will find the opportunity for intermittent employment with FEMA 
desirable. Employment such as that offered by FEMA in the Disaster 
Assistance Employee cadres allows my native people to participate in 
the cash economy without completely losing their ties with the 
traditional subsistence culture in their villages. I expect the same is 
true for native people who live on our Indian reservations and native 
Hawaiians.
  Last evening, joined by Senator Inouye and Senator Stevens, I offered 
an amendment to H.R. 4567, the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill on 
this subject. This amendment encourages the Secretary of Homeland 
Security to make an effort to improve the representation of American 
Indians, Alaska natives and native Hawaiians in the Disaster Assistance 
Employee cadres by actively recruiting in our native communities. The 
amendment was adopted by unanimous consent last evening, and I want to 
thank my colleagues for supporting it.
  I hope that this amendment will serve its intended purpose, which is 
to encourage FEMA to be proactive in identifying opportunities to 
reduce unemployment among our qualified and motivated native workforce, 
and I hope that this lesson will not be lost on the other Federal 
agencies.
  As thousands of native people from across our Nation descend on 
Washington next week for the opening of the National Museum of the 
American Indian, it is fitting that our Federal Government renew its 
commitment to provide native people, many of whom reside in the 
remotest parts of our Nation, with access to Federal employment 
opportunities. Last night the Senate did just that, and I am grateful 
to my colleagues for their support of my amendment.

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