[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 110 (Wednesday, September 7, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H7726-H7732]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ISSUES AFFECTING AMERICA IN THE AFTERMATH OF HURRICANE KATRINA
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kuhl of New York). Under the Speaker's
announced policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Florida (Mr.
Meek) is recognized for 60 minutes.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to address the House
once again. I am glad that we are here back in the people's capital of
the United States to represent those that sent us up here to represent
them.
This hour is designated by the Democratic Leader, the gentlewoman
from California (Ms. Pelosi), and the rest of our leadership on the
Democratic side, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), also the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez), and the gentleman from South
Carolina (Mr. Clyburn), our vice chair of our caucus; and week after
week we come to the floor to share with Americans issues that are
facing not only them, but also this country.
I can tell you that we appreciate the fact that the leader had enough
foresight and insight to know that not only those of us that are in the
30-something Working Group, but young Americans, have to have a voice
in this process.
As you all know, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and a number
of other issues that have faced the Nation since we recessed for the
summer to go back to our districts to also take care of other
congressional business, there is a lot that has happened for and to
Americans. I think it is important for us to just reflect a little bit
on what has happened as it relates to Hurricane Katrina.
Tonight I am joined not only by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan),
but also the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz), who is
my neighbor in Florida and representing south Florida. The gentlewoman
from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz) and I, both our districts were
touched by Hurricane Katrina as a Category 1 storm, but not as a
Category 5, some may say 4, that hit the gulf coast area; and our
hearts go out to those individuals that are going through the process.
I think tonight not only are we going to talk about the issues that
are facing many of these families, but many of them are young families,
many of them are elderly; and because of the mistakes and the failures
in some part of our emergency management agency and other responding
agencies, there was loss of life that could have been prevented. I
think we should take this in a very serious way. The responsibility of
this Congress, one, is to ask the questions and to make sure it does
not happen again.
I do commend not only the Democratic leader for recommending that
there be a task force or a select committee to deal with the issue of
the recovery process and to be able to review the whole Hurricane
Katrina experience, but I am glad that the Speaker has taken her
recommendation and moved on it and they will appoint a task force to
deal with this issue, because I think it needs the kind of oversight to
make sure that we do not make the victims victims over again because we
thought that it was important to appropriate some $50 billion-plus
towards the recovery effort without the appropriate oversight to make
sure that it gets where it is supposed to be.
Mr. Speaker, I also feel, before I yield to my colleagues, that it is
important that we all understand that we are in the first 2 minutes of
the first quarter, if this were a football game, as it relates to the
recovery process. I think the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman
Schultz) and other Members from States that are constantly hit by
hurricanes understand that we are in the very early stages.
We know that a number of Americans have been turned off by the
recovery and the response, and there will be a time and place to be
able to identify that. That time is now, that time is also in the
future, but also to make sure that we do not continue to fumble the
ball.
When I say ``we,'' I think it is important to understand that we do
have an
[[Page H7727]]
executive branch that has the responsibility for appointing responsible
individuals to carry out the task that we legislate for here in this
Congress, and that we make sure that they have the dollars, A, that is
the question as relating to levees and other preventative measures that
could have prevented loss of life; and, B, making sure that there are
individuals that can make the decision without an act of Congress to go
in and save lives in a timely manner.
So, I am glad, Mr. Speaker, that we are here. I am glad that the 30-
something Working Group, that one thing that not only the Democratic
Caucus can count on, but also this Congress can count on, we will come
here week after week to make sure that the American people know what
they need to know and make sure that this Congress also hears the
voices of those that cannot be heard here.
I have some information, but I am going to yield to my colleagues, A,
talking about the process on what are the programs that are available
to Americans, because, Mr. Speaker, I feel those that are victims, and
I am talking about in the tens of thousands, that are victims, some are
in shelters, but, guess what? Many have been taken in by their family
members and friends throughout the country. Maybe FEMA, maybe the State
government, maybe the local government has not been able to locate
these individuals to let them know what they are eligible for.
If they left their home in the middle of a storm trying to swim out
of their home and the water is over the roof, they may not know they
are eligible for assistance from the very government they have been
paying taxes through the noses to over the years. So as it relates to
their home and as it relates to their job, to even making sure they are
able to receive the kind of counseling, their children receive
counseling, it is important that we tell them and break it down to the
point that they can understand. If they have a problem as it relates to
getting that information, that is what their Member of Congress is for.
So we have people throughout this country, we have the list of how
many people are displaced in different States, but how many of those
individuals cannot be reached. Hopefully, we will reach family members
and loved ones that can share with them their rights, so that they will
be able to take advantage of some of the assistance that has been
provided thus far.
Mr. Speaker, with that, I yield to my good friend and colleague, the
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz).
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. It is
again great to be here with my colleagues from Florida and Ohio. It is
so important that we spend the time that we spend here each week
helping to get the message out to our generation and, quite honestly,
to the generations ahead of us and behind us.
We had a devastating tragedy happen to us in our country, and that is
to all of us, about 10 days ago. The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek)
and I literally live at one point or another through every storm in the
``cone of error,'' as every storm that approaches the United States at
some point or another, the gentleman's and my home and the homes of our
constituents are in the cone of error for some period of time. So we
know what it is like to stare down any one of a number of different
levels of hurricanes or tropical storms.
As we speak tonight, we have Ophelia just about 100 miles off the
coast of our State, yet again another tropical storm warning. We are up
to ``O'' now. It is just never-ending.
One of the things that I would like to spend some time on tonight
with both of your indulgence is we do need to get the information out,
and one of the things that I did on Tuesday at home in south Florida
was help to try to channel the energy of south Floridians who obviously
were devastated by the last Category 5 hurricane that hit the United
States and that unfortunately hit us in south Florida, deep in the
hearts of our community, and we had an outpouring of affection and
assistance from across the world. So you can imagine listening to this,
what people in south Florida so badly want to do is return the favor
and give back to the people in the gulf States and across the country
what was given to them 13 years ago.
They do not know where to channel that energy, because there are so
many relief organizations, so many on-the-spot relief organizations
that have cropped up in the last week; and, unfortunately, if you
recall during Andrew and during the 9/11 attacks, you have groups that
will form within a matter of days to take advantage of a whole lot of
money that is flowing through people's hands.
So what we did in south Florida is we channeled people's energy
through one organization, Volunteer Florida, which is an organization
affiliated with the State that exists throughout the year to help
foster volunteerism. But we turned it into the clearinghouse for our
State and gave people a phone number that they can call. I will check
my notes and provide it. I do not want to give out the wrong number.
Logon to www.volunteerflorida.org. We are trying to make sure that
people go through an agency they know they can have confidence in.
Beyond that, there is an absolute necessity, I feel, for us to talk
about what has gone on in the last 6 or 7 days, or, rather, what did
not go on, because it is just absolutely unacceptable to me, and
unacceptable is not a strong enough word.
The response, the lack of response, the indifference, the
insensitivity and the actions and words of the leadership that is
running this country in response to this devastating tragedy is just
inexcusable to me.
While I have heard many of my colleagues and other people across this
country say now is not the time for finger pointing, well, do you know
what? If we did not talk about what was not going on last week, then,
quite honestly, I think President Bush might still be on vacation even
today. I think quite honestly that perhaps there would not have been a
response even to the degree that we needed it without someone saying
that the emperor had no clothes. Where was the help?
We know, because we live in the cone of error, so often in south
Florida that you have several days' notice, and they did have several
days notice that a Category 5 hurricane was bearing down on the gulf
coast States. Where were the troops on the border of the cone of error?
Where was the readiness? Where was the preparation? Where was the
response? Where was the organization? It was nowhere.
We have got to make sure not only that it never happens again, but
that there is an investigation and that there is a discussion in this
body as to why it happened. We should talk about FEMA and why it is
being led by a person who has absolutely no previous emergency
preparedness or disaster experience, none, why his ineptitude was
allowed to continue. Why a year ago when Florida faced four hurricanes,
FEMA was handing relief checks out like candy to people who were not
even victims of the storms.
There has got to be some accountability, and the time is not 2 months
from now. We have billions of dollars that we are appropriating here
and are about to appropriate that we should be appropriating, but we
are going to go put it in the hands of people who have proven that they
are incapable of handling disasters like this? Something needs to
happen so that we can hold these people accountable on many different
levels.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, I agree
100 percent with the gentlewoman. And to look back and hear all the
information that FEMA had beforehand, an article here from Cox News and
the New Orleans Times, Dr. Max Mayfield, Director of the National
Hurricane Center, was talking to FEMA. They were going through
simulations on what exactly could happen and what the worst-case
scenario could be, what the storm surge capabilities were for
overtopping levees.
I think it is important, if this is not pointing fingers, we get paid
to oversee administrative government, and that is what we are doing
here. The thing that is outrageous is that the people who are in charge
and who are incompetent for those early days are the same people that
are running the operation now. Thank God we have got some military in
there now to actually fix some of the problems.
But I think it is important that we share with the American people,
not to be critical, but so the problem gets
[[Page H7728]]
fixed. This is our responsibility here. This is our constitutional
responsibility here.
Dr. Max Mayfield, and you can get this on the Internet, the Cox News
article said, knew storm's potential. Just to read through here a
little bit and share with you, there were briefings by this Dr.
Mayfield who told FEMA that the strength of the storm and the potential
disaster it could bring were made clear during both briefings and an
informal advisory which warned of a storm surge capable of overtopping
levees in New Orleans and winds strong enough to blow out windows of
high-rise buildings.
``We were briefing them way before landfall, Mayfield said. It is not
like this was a surprise. We had advisories that the levee could be
topped.''
These guys had the information and they failed to respond. And the
most insulting part of this whole thing is to have the President say
days afterwards, ``I do not think anyone anticipated a breach of the
levees.''
{time} 2215
I mean, it is just not true. It is just not true because the FEMA
people knew, and there were these advisories and there was all this
information that FEMA had, and it is unacceptable that this is the way
the government is supposed to work. Because after 9/11 the American
people charged this Congress, reelected this Congress, reelected this
President because he had the capability supposedly to keep us safe. I
do not think there is one American out there now that would even feel
close to safe if something happened here.
I do not know, and it seems like the goals that we wanted to try to
communicate, intraoperability where people could communicate with each
other because they would have the proper communication equipment, the
predisaster mitigation which they used out West for an earthquake where
they actually went in early and secured buildings and spent $20
million, which ended up saving $500 million out there, that program
that Mr. Witt started was called Project Impact; and the day the
earthquake hit on February 28, 2001, was the same day the President cut
that program. This was a lack of foresight for many, many, many years.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. MEEK of Florida. I yield to the gentlewoman from Florida.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I want to just highlight that
this is not an isolated incident. It would be easy to say that FEMA was
just overwhelmed and could not possibly have been expected to be
prepared for a storm the size of Katrina since this administration
changed the rules of the game when it comes to FEMA. FEMA used to be an
independent agency prior to the Bush administration and prior to its
being absorbed into the Department of Homeland Security after 9/11.
FEMA was an independent agency with a director and a staff that had
expertise in disaster preparedness.
I want to just highlight for my colleagues prior to Hurricane Katrina
some of the instances of irresponsibility on FEMA's part under
Secretary Brown's leadership. In 2004 Florida officials recorded 123
fatalities from last year's hurricanes. We had four hurricanes that hit
Florida last year. FEMA pays expenses for 315 deaths; 123 fatalities
documented from last year's storms. FEMA pays expenses for 315 deaths.
There is something wrong with that.
In 2004 FEMA reimbursed over 5,000 people $9.3 million for rental
assistance when a follow-up study showed that most residents never left
their homes. In 2004 FEMA reimbursed people for 11-piece bedroom sets
when they just owned a bed. In 2005 Hurricane Katrina strikes Florida
damaging over 200 homes. FEMA has declined to pay individual assistance
to those homeowners.
And I stood in the yard of an 86-year-old woman on Monday who lives
in my district who was in tears, whose hearing was so poor she could
barely hear what I was saying to her. Her home had no roof. Her
neighbor's home across the street was basically crumpled in his yard,
and around the corner was the same type of home with the roof ripped
off and lying on the front lawn. FEMA has decided that there is an 800-
home standard for destruction or damage before they will pay individual
homeowners reimbursement for their damage.
Let me just show my colleagues the type of damage that FEMA says
people are not eligible for assistance. This is what FEMA will not pay
for. After Hurricane Katrina, as a Category 1 storm, struck Florida
last week, this is the damage that they say these people do not deserve
reimbursement for because we did not have 800 homes suffer this kind of
damage.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Because why?
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. FEMA is saying that the standard they are
using in 2005, and as I have outlined for my colleagues, which they had
no such standard in 2004, coincidentally in a Presidential year, they
are saying that because Florida did not reach the threshold of 800
homes that were damaged that our homeowners who have damage are not
eligible for individual assistance, meaning they cannot get reimbursed
by the government, by FEMA, for the damage.
Now, I will not claim by any stretch of the imagination that
Floridians suffered the same type of strife and damage that people in
the gulf States did from Katrina, but I will argue that hurricanes know
no boundaries. Hurricanes do not respect State boundaries. Katrina did
not know the border of Florida and Alabama and on westward. The impact
on a homeowner in Florida is the same as it is on the homeowner who
suffered the same kind of damage in a gulf State. This is what FEMA is
denying. It is disgusting. And it is just not going to stop. We have
got to get the word out to people, Mr. Speaker, that there are places
that they can turn to for help, but clearly FEMA was not one of them.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I think it is important that
everyone understand that Homeland Security Director, the FEMA Director,
or the President of the United States can reverse an original decision
by FEMA not to pay individual homeowners or assist individual
homeowners who do not have insurance, that are eligible for Federal
programs. It is almost like saying that we have the antidote for their
problem, but there are only 200 or 300 people affected and we have to
get to 800 before we can help them.
I mean, it does not make sense, and because of that we have asked the
President, and a bipartisan letter has gone to not only the President
but also to the FEMA Director and also to the Department of Homeland
Security Secretary, about looking at this very small issue. But I can
tell the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz) that if there
are issues of the very obvious, what happens under a $50-plus billion
dollar appropriations to an agency that cannot see that there is a need
out there that needs to be met?
Let me tell the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) when Americans pay
their taxes, they expect a response in times such as this. They do not
expect bureaucratic lip service. They expect action. And I just want to
make sure the people are clear on this. Folks may say, well, you know,
you all are there and you all are Democrats and all, and it is your job
to be able to point out everything that is wrong. That is incorrect.
And I know the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) is from the heart of
America, this, that, and the other; but the gentlewoman from Florida
(Ms. Wasserman Schultz) and I are from the South, and I think this is
an issue about how this country feels about the South, how they feel
about people that live in the South.
I will tell my colleagues this: maybe in another part of the country
the response would have been different, but I can tell the Members
right now there are a lot of individuals that are down there that pay
taxes just like anyone else that expects representation. I do not know,
maybe this lady may be a Republican. She may be an Independent. We do
not care. She needs assistance.
And the bottom line is that FEMA is supposed to be there in a time of
need. The Federal Government is supposed to be there in a time of need.
When the local government resources are out or depleted or coming close
to being depleted, that is why we have a Federal Government. They are
not independent countries out there. Louisiana is not by itself.
Alabama is not by itself, and I can guarantee my colleagues that
Mississippi is not there by itself. So
[[Page H7729]]
why should they be treated any differently than any other part of the
country?
The bottom line I feel is what is the Federal obligation to the
South? What is it? And I feel that we really do not have to paint a
picture for Americans. We really do not. They have seen it. And they
saw folks having press conference after press conference talking about
what the situation is. They say, We knew that 5 or 6 days ago. And what
my colleague was talking about with the hurricane director, they knew.
They were just hoping that the levees held.
But I think it is outstanding that the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms.
Wasserman Schultz) brought pictures here tonight, because when we
talking about the 30-something Working Group, third-party and fourth-
party validators are important because we have folks who take to the
floor saying, Well, it is not what some people tell you that it is. Do
you believe us or your lying eyes? We see it on television.
The reason I talked about information, that it is important that we
disseminate information, I want the Members and the American people to
see what we get in the U.S. Congress. We get one sheet of paper talking
about a recovery process. Like my cousin used to say, If I am lying, I
am flying. The bottom line is that this came out as Congressional
Advisory No. 8, September 6. This is yesterday's advisory. Today is
like three quarters of a page. I thought I would at least get a full-
page report. It is just bullets and feel-good language, not telling us
anything.
I just want to take this little segment out here while we are talking
about the major inequities here, and hopefully, Mr. Speaker, hopefully,
someone will say we need to correct this. Not only should we provide
more information to Members of Congress but we should also make sure we
provide information to more victims.
This is what it is: the Housing Task Force, whoever they are, are
also identifying long-term housing facilities to assist disaster
victims as quickly as possible. What is ``quickly as possible''? Do I
pay my taxes as quickly as possible, or do I have a date to pay my
taxes?
Here is the other issue: assuring that security and order to the
impact areas, maintaining law and order is a priority to assist
recovery and evacuation efforts, deliver relief in a timely and
effective manner.
This is stuff that one puts on their Web site when they are selling
cookies.
The bottom line is we have people that we have not even found yet. I
am talking about FEMA or whatever the case may be. But here is the
issue: we must assume nothing. And I tell my colleagues on both sides
of the aisle, and I have said this before and they all have heard me, I
do not care if they are Republican, Independent, Democrat. They need to
go see the wizard and get some courage and say, listen, it is not
working and we need to make it work, not going down there and walking
around for a day saying, well, you know they are doing the best they
can do, because folks are hurting.
So we have got to get this information out. We have got to make sure
that this lady and other folks are able to get the assistance that they
pay taxes for. So if I have anything to contribute here tonight, and I
have some other information, and I see that the gentleman from Ohio is
looking at me, but if I have anything else to contribute here tonight,
I want to make sure this Congress understands. Here is a question for
the Congress and for the Federal Government: What commitment do you
have to the people that are living in the South? That is what I want to
know. I want to know is it lip service or is it for real? And I can
tell the Members right now from what I am seeing, there are no
recommendations for a national day of mourning. People have died in
this thing, and we are finding more people. There are no
recommendations to go down to the South and have a joint session of
Congress. It is beyond a natural disaster. A lot of it is failure of
government.
I am coming in for a landing. There was a letter that was written
today to a chairman of a major committee here of serious questions that
were asked. Could New Orleans' levee system hold? The budget of the
Corps of Engineers for construction projects in New Orleans District
was cut over 40 percent between 2001 and 2005 apparently to free up
funds for the war in Iraq and homeland security projects.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Say that again.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am going to finish, and then I am
going to go back over it again.
In 2004, for the first time in 37 years, the first time in 37 years,
the Corps of Engineers halted all work. They stopped all work on the
New Orleans levee system. Not because they felt like it. It was because
they did not have any money. I am on the Committee on Homeland Security
and we knew, and I know the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) has
information that they went through a whole exercise about what if this
happens. They knew it could happen. So when someone lines up in front
of a camera and starts talking, I do not care who they are. I was
emancipated many years ago; so I do not care what some may feel about
what I say here tonight. The bottom line is if it is the President or
the village council person or whoever it might have been as it relates
to holding back funds from the levee system, saying this was a natural
disaster, what could we do, we could have governed in a way that we
should govern on behalf of individuals in the South that pay taxes just
like anyone else.
And the bottom line is if it was not for Katrina, Mr. Speaker, we
would have been voting here on the estate tax for a huge tax break, to
even make the reality even more evident that the Corps of Engineers
never would have had started work on the levee system next year or the
year after that or the year after that because we have no money.
{time} 2230
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I think this gets back to a basic
concept that we have seen over the course of the last couple of years
here. The outfit that runs this body and that lives in the White House
and this administration, they just hate government. They just hate it,
and they think that if it was gone and abolished, everything would be
fine. So, if you bring that attitude to government, that government
cannot do anything good.
And then your philosophy leads you to a point where you put an
attorney for Arabian horses and a guy who used to run horse shows in
charge of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, that is where that
philosophy takes you, and then you get someone who is incompetent to
handle the job, not a professional emergency management specialist, but
just a political appointment, because government is for supplying our
friends with graft, and that is all this is.
Now, the gentleman mentioned something, and I want to go through this
and I read a little bit of this article earlier. And this is Dr.
Mayfield and what he said. He participated, he and his staff
participated in a 5-day Hurricane Pam exercise, which was sponsored by
FEMA and the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security and Emergency
Preparedness last July, that assumed a similar storm as Katrina would
hit Louisiana, and they called it Hurricane Pam at the time, on July 23
of 2004.
So FEMA released, after they simulated this Hurricane Pam in
Louisiana, FEMA announced the exercise and basically summed up the
simulation. Here it is, quote: ``Hurricane Pam,'' and this is FEMA
talking in July of 2004. ``Hurricane Pam brought sustained winds of 120
miles per hour, up to 20 inches of rain in parts of southeast
Louisiana, and the storm surge toppled levees in New Orleans. More than
1 million residents evacuated, and Hurricane Pam destroyed between
500,000 and 600,000 buildings. Emergency officials from 50 parish,
State, Federal, and volunteer organizations faced this scenario during
a 5-day exercise held this week at the State Emergency Operations
Center in Baton Rouge.''
Then, a year later, this same government says they had no idea that
could possibly happen. How disingenuous is that? You ran a simulation.
You war-gamed Hurricane Katrina and you called it Hurricane Pam a year
ago. And then you come to the American people and say, the best you
could come up with is, who would have thought the levees would have
broken. Thinking everybody is stupid? Thinking this would not come out?
[[Page H7730]]
It is criminal, criminal, what happened. You put an Arabian horse
purchaser in charge of FEMA, you war-game it the year before, and the
guy still does not know what he is doing, and people died because of
it. That is the sad part of this whole thing.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, to piggyback on what the
gentleman from Florida said about tax cuts, I mean it is just mind-
boggling that yet again, their answer, their solution for everything is
more tax cuts. I mean, I would not believe it unless I had it in print
in front of me, but Treasury Secretary Snow said just the other day,
today is September 7, he said yesterday at a press statement, this is
in response to what we should do about Hurricane Katrina and the
aftermath. He said, ``Making the tax cuts permanent would be a real
plus in a situation like this, because people would know they had going
forward the advantage of lower tax rates,'' Snow said. ``And when
people know they have lower tax rates locked in going forward, it
affects their behaviors. It makes them more confident of the future.''
Now, let us talk more about FEMA's failure, because that is really
what it boils down to at the end of the day, because we need FEMA to be
there, we need FEMA to generate confidence in Americans.
Mr. Speaker, the Republicans, and I am going to use the word
``Republican,'' but the Republicans ran last year on being the party
that would be the best choice to protect people. They were the security
party. That is supposedly the thing that tipped the scales.
Well, it is not just an issue of security in a terrorist crisis,
which all of this resulting from Hurricane Katrina calls into question
now, about whether they really are the party. They are clearly not the
party of crisis.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. They have proved they are not the party.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. They have proved they would not be able to be
there in a disaster, in a disaster of any major proportion.
Let me just detail, because I have another chart here that is going
to outline a couple of things that I think are important, FEMA's
failures. Let us talk about cleanup, and let me just acknowledge that
``personnel'' is spelled wrong on this chart. I want to make sure the
people knew that I know how to spell ``personnel.''
Cleanup: FEMA has failed for pay for debris removal from private
property. This has resulted in many homeowners incurring large expenses
paying for the removal of not only their own fallen trees and other
damage, but also rubble blown onto their lots from other locales.
Let us talk about Federal aid.
So we give them an ``F'' in cleanup, because they are basically
ignoring Florida as if a storm never hit our State.
FEMA must be more responsible in allocating Federal aid. We are
talking about the things that FEMA should have been doing already and
must do going forward. About $30.8 million in FEMA money has been
awarded to residents in Miami-Dade, a county that I represent and that
Congressman Meek lives in, much of it for replacement of appliances
such as televisions and air conditioners, although the storms last year
in Florida barely grazed the county. Meanwhile, this year, when the
storm hit the county directly, now they are not reimbursing people who
have legitimate damage and roofs ripped off their houses. Meanwhile,
other storm-ravaged areas still have many families who continue to be
displaced because of the severe damage to their homes. So they get an
``F'' in Federal aid.
How about personnel? Subsequent reports detailed how FEMA inspectors
received little training, that FEMA approved millions in assistance to
other areas of the country largely unaffected by disasters; that
government scientists said that FEMA misrepresented wind data that it
used to justify the payments in Miami-Dade County last year, and that
the agency paid 315 hurricane-related funeral claims in Florida, even
though the official death toll was only 123. So they get an ``F'' in
personnel.
Fourth, the shocking statistics in terms of their preparedness.
Florida officially recorded 123 fatalities last year from hurricanes,
as I outlined, but were paid for 315 deaths, including those of a man
who shot himself and a stroke victim who was hospitalized more than a
week before the last storm hit, and that was documented by the Fort
Lauderdale Sun Sentinel. In one case, a FEMA worker tried
unsuccessfully to persuade a coroner to count among the hurricane
casualties a morbidly obese heart attack patient who purportedly was
scared to death.
This is the kind of thing that went on in FEMA before Katrina. These
are the people that we are putting our confidence in and that people in
the gulf coast States are having to put their confidence in, who are
going to come in and rescue them and clean up this mess.
Most recently, disaster aid earmarked for hurricane victims in
central Florida paid for funerals for people who died of cancer, a
brain aneurysm and, in one case, advanced AIDS, according to the local
medical examiner. That was in the Sun Sentinel as well. Asked to
comment on payouts in central Florida, FEMA spokesman James McIntyre
did not provide a response. He also did not address how many more
funerals FEMA has paid for since that time.
We have to make sure that FEMA takes responsibility and is held
accountable for its mishaps. This is an organization that gets an ``F''
in every single thing that they are primarily responsible for. This is
the organization that Americans are supposed to be putting their
confidence in, that is going to be there for them when disaster
strikes, and in advance of disasters striking that they should be ready
for, and afterwards when they have to come in and clean it up. It is
just absolutely inexcusable and disgusting.
For example, with the President, responding to the damage that the
gentleman talked about to the levees, he said on Good Morning, America
last Tuesday, that no one expected the levees to fail. Yet, he cut the
budget that would have shored up those levees just last June, in 2004.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, that was the same, almost the same
identical phrase that we heard from the Secretary, the new Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice, about 9/11 when she was National Security
Adviser: Who would possibly think anyone would take a plane and fly it
into a building like a missile? Well, we found out later that people
knew that was going to happen. They knew that was an option.
It is the same old rhetoric with these people over and over and over
again. It does not make any sense. It just does not add up. Now, all of
a sudden, the spotlight is on, and we have all of this information
here, and we have pages and pages and folders and folders full of how
much they knew beforehand and played dumb.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. The same letter here that I read from earlier, I
just want to read another paragraph out of the letter to the committee
chairman from Ranking Member Waxman and also Ranking Member Oberstar
and Thompson of the Committee on Homeland Security and the Committee on
Government Reform and also the Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure.
The President said, I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of
the levees. But just the opposite is true. Multiple reports have
predicted that a large hurricane could overflow the levees and cause
massive damage in New Orleans. Both the Red Cross and FEMA ranked a
hurricane in New Orleans as the Nation's most dangerous natural
disaster threat.
I am going to tell my colleagues, this is well documented. Senator
Breaux, who is retired, came out of retirement and jumped on TV 2 days
after the storm saying, Excuse me, I am sorry, I just, I do not know
what folks are talking about when they say they did not know this was
going on. I mean, year after year, we tried to get money from the
Federal Government. His entire congressional career was based on
getting money for the levees. That is why some folks started talking
about, well, you know, they are here talking all that mess, and we are
trying to save lives, they are talking about what is not happening.
Let me tell my colleagues what we are doing here tonight. We are
saving lives, literally. We are saving lives here and pointing out the
inequities of an
[[Page H7731]]
agency that we just gave $10-plus billion to and said, You handle it,
okay? And the bottom line is that just as upset as Americans were about
9/11 and the loss of life, they need to be upset about Katrina and the
loss of life and the lack of oversight in governance. The bottom line,
period, dot.
So I think any American life that is lost when it could have been
prevented deserves to be brought to the highest levels of Congress on
both sides of the aisle. I am beyond partisanship right now. This is
about responsibility. And the bottom line is, if the tables were turned
and there was a man in the White House that had a Democrat, had a ``D''
behind his name, we could not stop the line of Republicans out the door
to talk about what he or she did not do when they were supposed to do
it and how they were supposed to do it.
So the bottom line is this: What are we going to do? I do not have a
family member, God bless, in this situation, but there are people that
do. And guess what? They may not be a Member of Congress. We have to
give voice to those individuals.
What commitment does the Federal Government have to the people that
are living in the South? That is the question. That is the bottom line.
I do not care if they are a chairman, ranking member, somebody elected
them over something in this Congress. The bottom line is, What is the
commitment to the South? Because that is the only thing that I can
point out, I say to my colleagues; I cannot come out with anything
else.
Maybe the folks down there do not talk as fast as other folks, I do
not know. Maybe they do not have endowed universities like we have in
the North and in the central part of this country, I do not know. Maybe
there are individuals that do not necessarily care about infrastructure
and look at the warnings as it relates to New Orleans. Now it has
happened.
The question is, what are we going to do about these individuals who
are living in football stadiums and folks think it is okay for them to
be there for 6 months. You can reach over and touch the next person in
your bed. Do we have sex offenders living in the same stadium on the
50-yard line or the 60-yard line from a child? These are the things
that we have to correct. These are the things that we must pay
attention to. We cannot allow it to happen, or they will be made
victims time after time and again.
So the bottom line is that we have individuals that are displaced. We
have a Federal agency that we are about to give $50-plus billion, and I
guarantee my colleagues that there will be no real discussion about
oversight.
{time} 2245
There will be no real action. I will guarantee, we will not stand by
and watch this administration get this money and start handing out
contracts to their buddies.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That is exactly right. We are not going to let that
happen.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. And making individuals victims again. Because I
guarantee, and I told you this earlier today, I may be in some
retirement community at 80, if God is willing, walking around with a
walker, and someone looks back in the history books about what took
place at this time in the moment, and they look at me and they say
well, were you not a Member of Congress at this time? What were you
doing? I will tell them refer to the Congressional Record and also
reflect on what happened and what the American people did because they
knew what these individuals were doing and making these individuals
victims again.
Now, do not get me wrong. I am not saying that it is intentional. But
I guarantee you for folks who do not look and wear the flag of
oversight and making sure that this never ever happens again, folks
talking about never ever happen again. Let us stop the bad from
happening. And the only way we are going to stop the bad from happening
is governing in the way that we are supposed to govern.
And you know something, I say to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms.
Wasserman Schultz), we are in a bad situation. We have constituents
that are hurt. We have constituents that are raising money and doing
those things and sending truckloads and giving to the American Red
Cross and to the Salvation Army and to the NAACP and all the other
groups that have relief funds. There are kids throughout this Nation
that are giving lunchboxes and giving toys and all of these different
things and running around.
Meanwhile, the big kitty, the $50-plus billion we are running around
here on a hush hush kind of thing and Members barely know what is going
in the bill, what oversight is there. Where will it go? No one has been
removed for a more qualified individual to be placed in a position that
can continue the response and the recovery.
We are in the first quarter of this recovery and we know that our
quarterback is not up to the task to be able to make it to the goal
line. The FEMA Director, possibly the Homeland Security Secretary,
possibly the individual in the White House that is quarterbacking the
administrative moves on behalf of the White House, we need to call them
in. We need to call time out, and we need to change our personnel for
individuals that not only carry the resume but have the wisdom to be
able to carry it out.
And you know, I am on the Homeland Security Committee, and I know
these individuals. I sit down and talk to them. I have gone to the
Department of Homeland Security. But guess what? This is not about
personalities. This is about governance. And it is not personal. It is
just business, and the business of saving lives and making sure that
these individuals are made whole as much as possible. And we have got
to correct it, not now but right now.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. You talk about the quarterback, and let us
continue the football analogy. If you have got the quarterback in the
FEMA Director not having any ability to get things done, let us
continue the football analogy and call Secretary Chertoff the coach,
and the President the man in the front office. You have got both of
those people who we cannot have any confidence in either.
And I will take a less than left-leaning example here, an excerpt
from Fox News Sunday, because the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek)
talks about it not being intentional. The gentleman is right. It is not
intentional. Their response was not intentional. It was just
indifferent. The indifference is what is shocking. And you had Chris
Wallace go through this exchange with Secretary Chertoff on Fox News
Sunday this past Sunday.
Mr. Wallace said, ``But Mr. Secretary, you know there are an awful
lot of people around the country that are asking these questions and
want to hear answers from you today.
During the week, during this past week you seemed to minimize or not
to know about a lot of problems on the ground in New Orleans. Let us
watch some of those.''
And then he went on to show him some of the clips.
And this was Secretary Chertoff's response: ``We are extremely
pleased at the response that every element of the Federal Government,
all of our Federal partners have made to this terrible tragedy. There
have been isolated incidents of criminality. We have all seen pictures
of looting.''
Then he goes on to say: ``I have not heard a report of thousands of
people in the Convention Center who do not have food and water.''
Well, I can understand why, because yesterday when we had the
briefing in this Chamber from most of the members of the Cabinet, you
had one of the Secretary of Defense's military leaders stand up and say
that the pictures we have all seen on TV are just like looking through
a straw, that that does not show the full picture. We are looking
through a straw, that they are extremely pleased with their response
and it is going exceedingly well.
So then he goes on to say, what Chris Wallace says: ``Mr. Secretary,
how is it possible that you could not have not known on late Thursday,
for instance, that there were thousands of people in the Convention
Center who did not have food, who did not have water, who did not have
security, when that was being reported on national television?''
Secretary Chertoff says: ``Well, Chris, you know, that is one of the
issues we have to look at. I mean, we were in constant touch with what
was going on in the field, getting information from State and local
officials. As it happened on that very Thursday I was in a
[[Page H7732]]
video conference with State officials and did not get any information
about this. And one of the things we will look at is why in the middle
of this emergent crisis there was a conflict in the information.''
You know, I can tell Secretary Chertoff why the State and local
officials did not feel like they had to tell you that there were people
at the Convention Center, because you could not turn on your TV and not
see them dehydrating in front of your very eyes. How about the woman
who had her dehydrated baby who she could not even wake up? I mean, I
have a 2-year-old. God forbid that ever happened in my family. I can
assure you that if it happened in the community that I represent, I
have a hunch that the response would have been a little bit quicker
because my constituents are not poor and they are not African American
primarily.
You know, you talk about the South, and obviously I am one of those
Members that would be very protective of the South. But this could be a
natural disaster in Detroit or in Wisconsin or name any State with a
black community or a predominantly poor community, and there but for
the grace of God go them. I mean, really.
We are not here to point fingers. We are just here to point at what
has been happening in front of our very eyes. And this has just got to
stop. We do have to come up with solutions. We cannot hand out $50
billion to a person who is running the show like it is a circus, like
he is the ring leader in a circus, and not a very good one. It is just
inexcusable. We cannot ever let this happen again, and we have got to
draw a line in the sand and say this far and no further.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. It almost brings up the point, whether it is black
or white or whatever, number of electoral votes the way this group
operates. You know, if you have got a State that has enough electoral
votes, we will maybe even be there before anything comes. But if you do
not have enough, you know, you are on your own, and we are going to
absolutely roll the dice.
And as we are kind of creeping into the final few minutes here, I
want to just touch upon what the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms.
Wasserman Schultz) has just said, that I hope the ultimate point that
we can all carry out of this whole tragedy that is still going on for
thousands and thousands and thousands of people, and I hope when New
Orleans is rebuilt and we are all down there, you know, hanging out
again, that the point that we all remember is this: this tragedy
highlighted the clear disparity between many people in this country and
many others in this country. Whether it is black or white or rich or
poor, there is a huge, tremendous rift between those people who have a
lot of money and those people who do not have anything.
And we saw it today, or this past week because people were saying,
well, why did they not leave? Well, 35 percent of the African
Americans, I believe, in the city, did not have cars. Now, regardless
of how the whole thing was structured, and we will have arguments about
everything else, they were at a clear disadvantage. They were reliant
upon someone else. And you go through education and health care and
basic skills that kids test on, it is unbelievable how poorer kids do
so much worse.
And this is going on in Youngstown, in Akron, in Cleveland, in
Milwaukee, in Detroit. Pick a city, as the gentlewoman said. And I hope
that after all this we realize that that is unacceptable and to give
millionaires trillions and trillions of dollars and see what the end
result is, whether it is through kids, education, health care or levees
being built, the government has a role to play, and those people who
benefit from society have an obligation to meet their responsibility to
everybody else. And that is really, I think, the ultimate point in
this. And I hope that the reaction to this is the same reaction that we
had in 1927 when the big flood hit in 1927, which eventually led to a
very progressive era in government and into the 1930s and 1940s and,
quite frankly, into the 1980s.
So I hope that we all realize that, you know, we are pretty lucky,
most of us. But there are some people that we need to reach out to and
find ways to reform government and put the money in the right places to
make sure that those people have the kind of opportunity that many
others have.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. I would say to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr.
Ryan) and the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz) I just
wanted to go over a couple of these programs that FEMA has available
for individuals that are in the Federal disaster area, those States
that have been designated by the President. There are a number of
grants and I just want to make sure, and also low-interest loans, and
if anyone wants assistance as it relates to those, you can call and
just ask the question. The operators will go over it with you. They are
working 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. You can call 1-800-621-FEMA, F-
E-M-A, and that is 3362. So that is 1-800-621-3362 to register. If you
are hearing impaired, you will dial the TDY line, which is 1-800-462-
7585. I am going to read that other number over again. 1-800-621-3362.
If you are hearing impaired, 1-800-462-7585. They also have an online,
you can reach FEMA through FEMA acronym, FEMA.gov/register. That is
again 24-hour grant. They also have 24-hour you can get the grant
information. And many of the family members may have to get it on
behalf of the other family members because they may not be in an area
where they can receive that information. You have to help your family
and friends through this process, even though government is reaching
out to them.
The individual housing grants that are also available, this is the
primary vehicle of assistance that FEMA provides to individuals. Also
what that individual grant information does, it provides you with a
voucher for short-term housing. Each individual can get up to $26,200
per individual or household. And I think that is important. And we will
give you more information in the coming days on that.
Disaster unemployment relief. This program, with acronym of DUA,
provides benefits to individuals that were previously employed or self-
employed that have been made jobless because of a direct result of the
major disaster which will be Katrina, that are not eligible for regular
Federal or State unemployment insurance. I think that is important. But
I still urge Americans and also Members to encourage their constituents
to go after these programs.
Dislocated worker activities, this is a program that provides
training and also related assistance to persons that have lost their
jobs that are unlikely to return back to their current job or industry.
That is important for individuals that are throughout the country.
I just want to be able to add in the last couple of minutes here, we
have folks that are all over the country, that are literally all over
the country. And I am coming back to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr.
Ryan).
In Alabama, there are some 5,017 individuals; Arkansas, 5,534. I am
just reading out some of the big numbers. Louisiana there are a lot of
people still there, 67,000 individuals. So there are a number of
programs that are available. I urge you to go to the FEMA Web site or
even call them. Mr. Ryan, do you want to give the Web site information?
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. [email protected]. We are going to be
trying to recruit college kids to go down and help with the clean up
too. So it is [email protected]
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Well, on behalf of the 30-something Working
Group, we would like to thank the Democratic leader, Mr. Speaker, for
allowing us to come here to the floor once again, and it was an honor
addressing the House once again.
____________________