[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 111 (Thursday, September 8, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1799]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        H.R. 3673--SECOND EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS

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                             HON. TOM UDALL

                             of new mexico

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 8, 2005

  Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my 
great concern with the situation still being faced by families 
devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
  As needed relief is finally making its way down to the affected 
region, our thoughts go out to all the victims and their families. Late 
last week, this body passed a $10.5 billion aid package that will 
provide initial funding for immediate and long-term responses. Today, 
we are passing an additional $51.8 billion. This funding will cover 
only a sliver of the final financial toll taken on communities 
throughout the Gulf Coast and what will be needed for families to re-
start their lives. Yet this monetary cost pales in comparison to the 
immense emotional and human cost that continues to grow.
  At the end of the day, the United States government is 
constitutionally obligated to ``insure domestic tranquility, provide 
for the common defense, [and] promote the general welfare'' for all 
citizens. Particularly during a time of crisis, it is absolutely 
necessary that these obligations be fulfilled. In that regard, the 
federal government has failed. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina last 
week, thousands of families, stranded, injured, homeless, and without 
basic necessities of water and food waited and waited and waited for 
emergency relief. For four days, the President, Congress, and the 
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) minimized to themselves and 
to the public the immensity of what was occurring. The very 
institutions established to serve and protect the American people 
instead watched and waited as the tragedy grew.
  The response of the government to the needs of these communities was 
demonstrably and woefully inadequate. I am pleased that an 
investigation has been launched to discover why the government agencies 
entrusted with providing emergency aid failed to respond in any 
meaningful way to the grave situation. Ultimately, we must determine 
what changes need to be made in order to ensure that future relief 
efforts are not hindered by incompetent management or bureaucratic 
obstructions, as they were last week. However, we will only find true 
accountability with a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate 
what went wrong.
  Natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina can never be prevented, 
no matter how well prepared we may be. However, shifting natural 
conditions on the planet indicate that we may soon be seeing an 
increase in such events. In early August 2005, the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Association (NOAA) released a report stating that 
environmental conditions guaranteed an increase in destructive and 
powerful hurricanes along the Gulf Coast. Already this year we have 
seen an increase in hurricanes along the Gulf Coast. Such a warning has 
been voiced for some time, and we are now seeing the results if we 
continue to ignore such information. Additionally, the New Orleans 
Times-Picayune predicted this very disaster as recently as 2002. 
President Bush's assertion that ``no one could have predicted'' this 
disaster is clearly, and tragically, wrong.
  Through the generosity of millions of Americans, those families 
affected by the hurricane are receiving some of the help they need, and 
I have absolutely no doubt that they will prevail in rebuilding their 
lives and their community. We must pledge to do all we can to help.
  As we proceed with the long-term solutions, we need to make sure we 
do the right thing here in Congress. It is our job to make choices and 
these choices reflect our priorities. I hope the majority will 
acknowledge that many of the choices made in recent years were ill-
advised. Together, we need to put the financial resources to work to 
improve the lives of survivors. It is not the time for business-as-
usual, cut-taxes-at-all-costs, short-change-the-working-poor proposals 
we have come to expect from the majority. We can do better, and we 
must.

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