[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 108 (Friday, September 2, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H7632]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   MAKE REAL THE PROMISE OF DEMOCRACY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this 
legislation, but I rise today also to say to America it is time now, 
not later on. One of my favorite speakers, Dr. King, had a speech that 
he gave saying ``Now is the Time.'' For a moment I am going to 
paraphrase some of his words. He said now is the time to make real the 
promise of democracy.
  He said now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley, 
and I say the valley is this national despair that we are in right now, 
to the sunlit path of Americans helping Americans.
  Now is the time to lift our Nation from the quicksands of Hurricane 
Katrina to the solid rock of safety and normalcy for the people of 
America.
  We have had all these images on television. We have had images of 
people in facilities that were built for games. We have images of 
people in facilities that were built for conventions. We have had 
images of people who are American people, they are taxpayers, they are 
the elderly, they are the frail, they are the poor, they are the people 
left out without any housing. This is a class issue because those of us 
who had the money to get out of New Orleans, get out of Mississippi, 
get out of Alabama, they got out. But these are people who are American 
taxpayers who could not get out. Why are we not helping them?
  Today we have allocated resources. What I am concerned about is who 
will the resources go to? When we look at Iraq, they went to 
Halliburton. What about the resources going to the American taxpayers? 
They paid their dues.
  I took a moment and went on the Internet and got the application for 
disaster resource. The application and the pages that go with them are 
some 25 pages. Can you imagine if you were in the situation of some of 
these people, that they would in fact have to fill out this form. Let 
us get rid of the form and give them what they need. Put these people 
on cruise ships with bedrooms, bathrooms, food, a place where they 
could be. Let us not try to figure out and make magic. We know what can 
work for these people.
  Finally, these men, women and families are entitled. They are 
American taxpayers, take care of them.
  Ms. KILPATRICK of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, will the gentlewoman yield?
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. I yield to the gentlewoman from Michigan.

                              {time}  1430

  Ms. KILPATRICK of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I first want to say that 
these people are not refugees. They are American citizens who pay taxes 
and are raising their children. I would hope that we would not relegate 
them to something less than American citizens.
  I rise in support of the legislation and would like to report on what 
the City of Detroit is doing. Mayor Kwami Kilpatrick has put together 
an organization with the private sector as well as FEMA over the last 
48 hours, and we are offering to the families that have been decimated 
500 housing spots immediately. We have been working with the United Way 
and the health care industry to provide the resources that these 
families will need, housing, health care, water, food, clothing.
  We in the City of Detroit stand ready, under Mayor Kilpatrick's 
leadership. We have spoken with the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. 
Thompson), as well as the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Davis), and the 
gentleman from New Orleans, Louisiana (Mr. Jefferson), and all have 
agreed to work to move them now.
  We need other government officials from around the country to step up 
and to bring them home. The people of New Orleans have nothing to go 
back to.
  Mr. Speaker, we are proud of our Mayor and the City of Detroit. 
Detroit has stood up, through Mayor Kilpatrick's leadership, and we ask 
that other cities around this great Nation of ours who have the 
wherewithal, because private companies are ready to help, and they have 
helped us.
  The Detroit public schools have agreed to take children from the 
ravished areas. I thank the Mayor of Detroit as well as my colleague 
for yielding me this time.
  Mrs. JONES of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, now is the time to help the people 
of America who have been in this situation for 3 or 4 days. If we can 
go into Iraq and rebuild Iraq, we can build what the people of America 
need in the Gulf region and take care of what they need.

                          ____________________