[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.

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