[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 110 (Wednesday, September 7, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1784-E1785]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT TO MEET IMMEDIATE NEEDS 
        ARISING FROM THE CONSEQUENCES OF HURRICANE KATRINA, 2005

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. GARY L. ACKERMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 2, 2005

  Mr. ACKERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I'm sure this is politically incorrect, 
but watching the President fly into the disaster area left by Hurricane 
Katrina and declare that the director of FEMA has done a good job 
should cause everyone of us to scream out ``the President has no 
clue.'' As has become painfully obvious, the Bush administration's 
response to this fearsome natural disaster has been woefully late and 
utterly inadequate.
  Mr. Speaker, this is not meant to be a partisan attack; it's 
important to remember that not all criticism of the President is for 
political advantage. Indeed one of the principal duties of the 
Congress, and one we have been shamefully inattentive to, is oversight 
of the executive branch and its utilization of taxpayer resources. And 
if there is no criticism of the disastrous response to this disaster, 
then we have no right to expect that this administration, or some later 
administration, will not similarly mishandle the future challenges our 
Nation is sure to face.
  Americans rightfully should have expected that by now, every region 
of this country, every metropolitan area, every great city, would have 
a comprehensive disaster response and evacuation plan. It should not 
require a disaster or a cataclysm, or worse, a terrorist attack, nor 
should it be a mystery, or an improvisational effort to figure out how 
to preserve hospital and medical services, to know which facilities 
will be needed to provide emergency shelters, or to determine how food, 
water, medicine, blankets and cots and other essentials are going to be 
sent to designated distribution sites in the fastest, most efficient 
way.
  It should be obvious, even to those who have habitually failed or 
refused to see the obvious, that once again, there is no plan. By 
diffidence and incompetence the Bush administration has lost the battle 
for New Orleans. We in this House need to ensure that we don't lose the 
battle for the survival of America.
  Mr. Speaker, I never take joy in publicly criticizing my President, 
but questions about the failure of his leadership in the planning and 
implementation of rescue efforts--whether now or when the dust 
settles--have to be asked. If a country knows they're going to be 
attacked, whether by Mother Nature or by terrorists, they must be 
prepared. It is all too apparent that the federal government was not 
prepared for Hurricane Katrina. Sufficient troops and ample disaster 
relief supplies should have been on the ground in advance of the storm, 
and there should have been clear plans for additional resources to be 
brought in within a reasonable amount of time.
  Moreover, in light of the vast scale of the devastation, and the 
immediacy of need, where was the innovative spirit and can-do attitude 
we Americans are so rightly famous for? Why not contract with Greyhound 
and America's other bus companies and use them to

[[Page E1785]]

make short runs to nearby safe railroad terminals so hurricane 
survivors could have been more quickly relocated to safer out-lying 
areas on trains? Couldn't a system like this have transported more 
people to safe ground quicker? Wasn't there some way to free up the too 
few school buses which were forced to drive to cities far away and make 
return trips with nobody on board? Couldn't those same vehicles have 
been used to bring in bottled water, food, emergency supplies and 
medicine?

  Mr. Speaker, what on earth has the Federal Government been doing 
since 
9/11 to prepare for a disaster striking a major American city? With all 
the Federal agencies, the massive homeland security bureaucracy, and 
all the many czars, bosses and chiefs, there is still no national or 
regional master plan to evacuate people, to rapidly bring in relief and 
to adequately deal with a large scale emergency of this nature. Where 
has all the money and effort gone? What have the taxpayers got for 
their hard earned money? All the money for Homeland Security, what has 
it bought us? Where is the coordination? Where is the Federal-State-
local partnership? Have we learned nothing about disaster response from 
9/11?
  Is there a plan in place for how to deal with the profiteers when the 
resettling and rebuilding begins? Is there a plan to address the spike 
in oil prices? Do we even have a system to help our fellow Americans in 
finding friends and loved ones? Is our government even capable of 
putting together a list of the lost, missing, found and deceased?
  Of course, right now, the Government must devote its energy to rescue 
efforts and to beginning the recovery of the affected region. And, once 
again, we cannot adequately thank all those first responders and rescue 
workers who have once again shown the kind of steadfast bravery that 
makes us proud to be Americans. We will never be able to repay their 
heroism adequately or thank them for all the lives they've already 
saved.
  But as the crisis passes, Mr. Speaker, we cannot and we must not 
ignore how the Federal Government failed to protect the health and 
safety of its citizens. If the measure of a great nation is how it 
deals with its weakest and neediest citizens, then Hurricane Katrina 
has revealed some very unpleasant truths. How we deal with those truths 
will show what kind of nation we really are.




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