[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 114 (Tuesday, September 13, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H7844-H7851]
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 as the designee of the minority 
leader.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, once again it is an honor to come 
before the House of Representatives, and we want to thank the 
Democratic leader for allowing the 30-something Working Group to come 
to the floor once again to work on issues and talk about issues that 
are facing Americans in this time after Hurricane Katrina and the 
devastation that has taken place in the South. Also, issues that are 
facing everyday working Americans throughout our country that are 
working 30-somethings and their families. When I mention their 
families, I am not only talking about 30-somethings as individuals but 
also their parents and their grandparents and their children and 
children to be.
  Mr. Speaker, this working group, like I stated last week and the week 
before last, is a group of Members on the Democratic side of the aisle 
that come together on a weekly basis to talk about the issues that are 
facing Americans. I want to thank the Democratic leader and the 
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the Democratic whip; and also the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez), chairman of the Democratic 
Caucus; and the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn), our vice 
Chair, for standing steadfast on behalf of those Americans that are in 
great need at this time. I would also like to thank all of the workers 
that are working on behalf of the Federal effort to be able to bring 
about some, hopefully, stability to those that are in the affected 
area.
  Mr. Speaker, I speak from experience because I had an opportunity to 
travel down to Hancock County this past weekend and also to Gulfport, 
Mississippi, to speak with some of the residents there about some of 
their pain and suffering they are continuing to go through. And I know 
that last week I mentioned that we are in the first 2 minutes of the 
first quarter of their recovery process, and I will tell the Members 
what I saw down in Hancock County, which was one of the hardest hit 
areas.
  Everyone knows about New Orleans, that when the storm hit New 
Orleans, the worst thing that happened to New Orleans was the fact that 
the levee broke and that those homes were flooded, and a lot of those 
homes have to be leveled due to the water damage and saltwater damage 
to those homes. But I had an opportunity to travel down there, Mr. 
Speaker, and I want to share some of the photos that we were able to 
take down there of some of the devastation that took place.
  Mr. Speaker, this is actually a photo here of the Florida National 
Guard. I have to take my hat off to those men and women that actually 
went down to Hancock County, where they had a tidal surge, or storm 
surge, of 23 feet. We have Colonel Duren who is in between me and the 
gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor), who is a Member of this House. 
This is actually the gentleman from Mississippi's (Mr. Taylor) home 
that stood there and was washed away. The storm surge was actually to 
the top of the trees, and it was almost like a washing machine. Brick 
homes, wood homes, trailers, what have you, are just leveled and 
devastated. The gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor) feels that he 
will recover, but there are a number of stories of his neighbors and 
his whole neighborhood that was actually washed out.
  These are members of the Florida National Guard that were with us, 
and they have cleared in Hancock County and Mississippi some 65 miles 
of roads that needed to be cleared to help individuals put themselves 
back together.
  This is also some devastation from the same county that is receiving 
very little media attention about what happened. Some buildings that 
have been there since the 1800s have been taken outside by Hurricane 
Katrina. And as the Members can see, the economy and the way of life in 
that particular area is going to be forever changed.
  Also, we have here a middle school. I am standing there with Colonel 
Duren of the Florida National Guard once again. Not just because I am 
from Florida, but I want to thank all of the National Guard troops that 
are actually down there trying to be a part of the Federal response.
  As the Members know, in Florida we have the special emergency 
response teams that have a lot of experience in the recovery process, 
helping people bring their lives back to normal. They are working with 
very little guidance, and I think I am going to make a point a little 
later on, Mr. Speaker, the reason why we need a commission to look at 
the whole Katrina experience from the beginning to the end. Some may 
say that a commission would bring about something similar to the 9/11 
Commission with civilians, individuals that once served in this body, 
past first responders and present first responders, so that we will be 
able to avoid something like this from happening again.
  This is actually a middle school here. The Florida National Guard 
cleaned about maybe 2 or 3 feet of mud out of this school. This is the 
library, where the librarian and we also met with the superintendent of 
schools in this county said that the librarian's goal was to have a 
million books in this library, and obviously she has been set back; and 
we will be asking Americans to not only help this school but other 
schools that are trying to stand up on their own two feet. All of these 
books were soaked, and obviously the mold and everything has set in 
here, and these are the setbacks that many of our young people have 
gone through.
  The last picture I want to show here, I know FEMA has received its 
hard knocks and I commend not only past Director Michael Brown from 
stepping down from the post of FEMA because this recovery should not be 
about Michael Brown, it should be about FEMA doing its job, and with 
the appointment, the temporary appointment, of Mr. Paulson, who was the 
Miami-Dade County fire director, who went through Hurricane Andrew and 
a number of other hurricanes, we do know that he does have experience 
in recovery and also response. With it being very early in hurricane 
season, and North Carolinians and South Carolinians and Virginians 
looking at a possible storm hitting them now, it is important to have 
someone at the helm of FEMA that has some experience in dealing with 
natural disasters and know what to do when they happen.

[[Page H7845]]

  This is actually a FEMA trailer here in Hancock County. I am speaking 
to one of the part-time workers here standing up. These are phones that 
are there of individuals that are coming in that are making phone calls 
to receive their initial $2,000 from the Federal Government to be able 
to assist them with some of the basic needs. Some of these people 
waited at least 3 hours in the blazing sun in Mississippi. I must say 
it must have been about 90 degrees here, nothing that we can do 
anything about because they do not have the facilities to be able to go 
into. My hat is off to those local workers and FEMA workers.
  Actually, this gentleman here in the corner of the picture, he is 
retired. He worked with the Firestone Rubber Company in west Maryland, 
I must add, and he has been down there for 8 days, and he is saying 
that he has been working hard in trying to make a wrong right. And many 
of these people like him that are working that are retired that have 
decided to work part time for FEMA, I think we need to take our hats 
off to.
  We have a couple of others. But, Mr. Speaker, I think it is important 
that we set politics aside and allow leadership to prevail. And in the 
30-something Working Group, we are very concerned about politics 
playing a role in not only this recovery process but being able to get 
down to the bottom line of what has to happen not only in the future 
but right now. I would ask the Members and also Americans to take a 
look at Time magazine talking about poverty; also talking about the 
issue of race in the South.
  I will tell the Members that many of us watched New Orleans residents 
suffer for 3 days without food, without water. Some went into stores 
and took what they needed to be able to survive. Some left their homes 
with only the clothes that are on their backs.

                              {time}  2100

  I went to Mississippi, Hancock County, a lot of hard-working people, 
like the hard-working people of New Orleans; and there was a similar 
story, Mr. Speaker. I was talking with the mayor of the town, and he 
told me at the Big K and the Wal-Mart, they stood in front of that Wal-
Mart and he told the folks, listen, go in and get what you need. Do not 
walk out with a DVD or whatever the case may be, but go in and get the 
things that you need to survive, because that is all they had. There 
was the threat of the fact that they may run out of food, they may run 
out of water, they may run out of personal items that they need to be 
able to survive; and so they did what they had to do. Unfortunately, 
they had to do that. These are law-abiding individuals, and I know in 
New Orleans the same thing happened.
  So when we look at this situation, we have to look at how we put 
Americans in the position to go in and do things traditionally that 
they have not had to do, individuals that woke up every day and went to 
work, did what they had to do to put food on the table for their 
families, pay for their children's education. I think it is important. 
A lot of children and women are affected by this storm. It did not 
discriminate, and I think that the question that was posed to the 
President, was there discrimination that played a role in the national 
response, I think that the future will tell if that is true or if it is 
not true.
  I am one that believes that we can see the best of America right now. 
The world is watching what we do and how we do it. And regardless of 
the pigment of the skin of the individuals that were affected by this 
storm, if everyone is treated equally and as human beings, I think that 
it will be important for us to prove to the rest of the world, if we 
are the superpower of the world and we stand as a shining example of 
democracy, I think it is important that, through our actions and here 
on this House floor and in the other body and the executive branch, 
that we play a very strong role in making sure that those individuals 
that were displaced, evacuees, Americans that are in Utah, that are in 
my district in Miami, Florida, that are in New England, that are in 
Maryland, that are here in Washington, DC, in our Capital, that are in 
Texas, that are in Georgia, that are in the upper part of Mississippi, 
that we make it so, Mr. Speaker, that they will be able to come back to 
their homes and they will be able to claim their property and that they 
will be able to move in and they will be able to take part in this 
recovery process.
  Many of the small businesses that were struggling anyway will not go 
back into business. We know that the SBA will try to do all they can to 
provide low-interest loans. We know that individuals of good will and 
banks have offered dollars as it relates to providing them with loans, 
and we know that the economy in New Orleans and throughout the Gulf 
Coast area are going to be suffering for some time.
  I had an opportunity also to visit Gulfport, and I can tell my 
colleagues that I went to go see the port, and to see port containers, 
Chiquita Bananas, what have you, that are 5 miles down the road that 
destroyed homes. I am from Miami, Florida, so this is nothing that I am 
not used to, seeing storm damage. But when you see a storm surge, 23 
feet of water, and you see a container sitting between two trees and 
what is left of a house wall and you wonder how it ended up there, some 
4 or 5 miles away, and that is no exaggeration whatsoever; it was like 
a washing machine and those containers moved on down and they just 
literally, and the tidal surge cleared those homes and the way of life 
that individuals are used to seeing.
  I think that it is also important that as we look at FEMA, we have to 
make sure that we have this independent commission. The Democratic 
leader, and I must say the Democratic leader, and I may just want to 
say leader, she is a leader just like we have other leaders in this 
House on the other side of the aisle; I think we should be willing to 
take on the recommendations of leaders who are in this Congress, and I 
think we should be able to take on the recommendations of those who 
have been through this before.
  I think that we should ask professionals to come to serve their 
Federal Government, just like a 9/11 Commission with subpoena powers to 
be able to ask the tough questions. Because the unfortunate thing that 
happened in this case as it relates to Hurricane Katrina is that we did 
have a great deal of loss of life. It may not be what some people said 
that it would be, but individuals have lost their lives, and we also 
have individuals that have been injured in this storm that go unsung. 
We have children who cannot find their parents at this particular time. 
We have sons and daughters that they are trying to locate, through the 
media and Internet sites, and volunteers are trying to reunite 
individuals, family members together.
  So I think that it is worth the Federal commitment to the South that 
we do everything that we can. It goes far beyond our visit. Just by 
myself going down to Mississippi is not enough just to say I have been 
there. It is not like visiting Walt Disney World and saying, oh, I did 
go to Walt Disney World and I have been to Disneyland. That is not what 
this is about.
  It is about us being able to not only go down to the area; and I must 
say, Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from California (Mr. Waxman) and the 
gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Thompson), the ranking member of the 
Committee on Homeland Security, and others, the ranking member of the 
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has asked for a 
congressional visit down to the affected area, and I think that is 
important. I am glad the President is going there. He was down there 
when I was there. But this Congress has to go down and see exactly what 
is happening to these individuals in the South.
  This Congress that will appropriate the dollars, because the 
President can only recommend, but this Congress needs to see firsthand 
the needs of those individuals that are affected. I think not only 
going to the affected areas, but going to see shelters that are far 
away from the South where these individuals have been introduced to a 
new community, and I want to commend those communities who have taken 
these evacuees, these Americans in with open arms.
  But we have to go far beyond putting them in our gymnasiums and in 
our sports arenas and in our churches. We have to make sure that they 
have what they had before the storm, that is, a home with a fence, with 
memories, with family portraits on the wall, and a sense of community. 
We owe them

[[Page H7846]]

that. I feel as it relates to the levee, the levee there in New 
Orleans, the things that should have been in place, that it is 
important that we make them whole. I think it is important that we look 
at and we have an independent committee just like the Democratic leader 
has suggested. And I must say, Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, the 
Democratic leader said we should come together in a special session and 
send emergency appropriations to FEMA so that they can have the dollars 
to deal with the response.
  Originally, that response back from, unfortunately, the leadership 
was, oh, we do not need to do that, and then a day later the President 
recommended it and said well, yes, it is an idea and jointly we will do 
that. But I think that time is of the essence and we need to put 
partisanship aside.
  I think also as it relates to the recommendation of Director Michael 
Brown, obviously he was over his head on this particular issue. I 
personally went down last Friday and met with the hurricane center 
director. Michael Brown was in place, he spoke to him the day before 
the storm, like he spoke with the mayor of New Orleans and others. 
There were individuals that knew what happened and what was going to 
happen. So I think it is important that we look at this beyond what we 
read in the paper. I think it deserves the kind of attention that the 
9/11 Commission was able to bring about, for not only the survivors but 
also the families of the 9/11 tragedy.
  So if we do not do that, I think we fall short of allowing Americans 
not only to know the truth but to be able to have preventive action in 
place.
  The Special Emergency Response Team from Florida is one of the best 
teams in the Nation with some of the best building codes in the Nation, 
and we are able to respond. Our National Guard automatically, they know 
automatically in the way they do business, when the wind drops down to 
40 miles per hour, they are moving in. They are moving in before 
Americans or Floridians have an opportunity to even come out of the 
house and see what happened. They know they have a security mission; 
they know they have a recovery mission. This is what we need throughout 
the Nation. We need a Federal Government that understands that.
  I am not here to say that it was totally the Federal Government. I 
commend the President for taking some level of responsibility for the 
Federal response being lackluster, at best, because Americans not only 
were close to starvation, but without water. And if the media can make 
it there, the Federal Government can make it there. If a paper was not 
signed or somebody did not call somebody, we knew, those of us who 
knew, what we had to do when we had to do it. So that is important.
  I am glad that my colleague, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. 
Wasserman Schultz), has joined me, who knows quite a bit about 
hurricanes herself. We served in the State legislature together in 
Florida and were a part of many of the reforms in Florida after 
Hurricane Andrew. Now, hopefully, we will be a part of the reforms here 
in this Congress as we look at the Federal response in the future.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to be here with 
my colleague once again and an honor to serve with him. I just have to 
commend the gentleman. I saw him when I was watching my TV coming off 
the plane yesterday, the gentleman's trip to tour the devastated areas 
and, particularly Hancock County, which I think the gentleman 
particularly went to with his Committee on Homeland Security colleagues 
to highlight that it was not just New Orleans, it was not just the 
ground zero area of New Orleans.
  Ground Zero was actually Hancock County, and the communities there 
that essentially, it appears, have been forgotten, or at least 
neglected because they are smaller and the focus does not appear to be 
on them. So I was so proud of the gentleman to see him doing that. Once 
again, the gentleman is stepping up for people who need him. This is 
not, we are not here for a love fest; but it did my heart some good to 
know that colleagues of mine were going where their help was needed.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman was also busy 
making sure that our constituents were able to take advantage of the 
filing of her bill, and I am a cosponsor of her bipartisan bill, in 
forcing FEMA to make sure that those homeowners, some 300-plus in south 
Florida, are able to receive FEMA assistance. Many of those individuals 
need that assistance; and because they fall under the 800 or 400 
threshold of FEMA, they have a discretionary decision to make here in 
allowing those families, individuals who work every day, pay taxes 
every day, to be able to take advantage of what the Federal Government 
provides.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is right. As we 
discussed last week when we were putting this bill together, and we are 
fortunate that we have all 25 members of the Florida delegation as 
cosponsors, we are working together on this, this is not a partisan 
issue. We have some homeowners who were looking through the roof of 
their houses at the sky. The impact on those families in Florida is the 
same as the impact, without the widespread devastation, that they are 
feeling in the Gulf Coast States. But we wanted to make sure that 
Floridians do not get left behind who are suffering in the same way. I 
appreciate the gentleman's leadership and advice and guidance on 
helping to put that bill together.
  One of the things that I wanted to talk about tonight is where we go 
from here, which is, I know, the direction that the gentleman from 
Florida is taking this discussion. There are some good things that have 
happened, in no small part, I think, due to the things that we have 
been pointing out over the last 10 or so days. Leader Pelosi has 
rightly called for an independent commission similar to the 9/11 
Commission.
  Like the gentleman said, that would not be Members of Congress 
sitting around and talking to each other; that it would be, and 
certainly that would be bipartisan and would be balanced and fair, so 
the American people can have confidence in our emergency preparedness 
and disaster response system. Because of all of this that has happened 
in the last 2 weeks, that is what has been shaken the most. We have 
been building, since September 11 we have been trying to rebuild 
Americans' confidence in the system, because when you have the Twin 
Towers knocked down, that was the biggest devastation beyond, 
obviously, the tragedy of the 3,000 people who died there, was that 
America's confidence was shaken in our ability to respond to those 
kinds of disasters.
  And it is 4 years in the making, a process that we restore 
confidence, we restore people's ability to believe that we have some 
security here. While we may have made improvements on the terrorist and 
international risk preparedness level, clearly the domestic 
preparedness level, as the President admitted today, we have a lot of 
work to do. Because we never can predict Mother Nature, and 
particularly because of where we live, we have hurricanes approaching 
our constituents on a regular basis, it is really disturbing.
  So I am glad that Under Secretary Brown did the right thing and 
stepped down. We called for it a year ago with our colleague, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Wexler); and, quite honestly, had he done 
the right thing sooner than that, then perhaps we could have had a 
prepared expert in place who could have responded much better to the 
results of Katrina.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Well, I can tell the gentlewoman that this is 
very, very important, being able to take these recommendations and move 
with them. Also, I think it is important that Members of Congress, we 
can travel overseas and learn from what they are doing and express our 
feelings to individuals as it relates to counterterrorism issues, as it 
relates to trade; we can definitely go right here domestically. We have 
a number of aircraft that are out at Andrews Air Force Base that can 
move Members down so that they can get firsthand experience in speaking 
to those Americans.
  One may say, well, you do not represent those individuals. Well, I do 
not represent anyone in Egypt. I do not represent anyone in Europe. I 
do not represent anyone in other areas where we have interests, whether 
it be Pakistan, citizens of that country.

                              {time}  2115

  But as a Member of the U.S. Congress, I do represent Americans. Even

[[Page H7847]]

though I have a district, we are here, and we stick our voting card in 
these machines that are placed behind these chairs here voting on 
behalf of Americans, and they pay taxes to be able to allow us to do 
some of the things that we are doing throughout the world.
  The least that we can do, Mr. Speaker, in my opinion, the least that 
we can do on behalf of these Americans, go down now, see it as it is 
now. Take it from me, from someone that has gone down there and has 
seen responders, they are going through a transition of law enforcement 
and first responders.
  We have search and rescue that is going on in New Orleans, but much 
of it is now a transition into recovery, making sure that independent 
contractors that are traveling from as far down as Canada, United 
States border, and we do know some of them are well intended and some 
of them are coming to take advantage of making the victims victims 
again. And this is the reason why we need to know first hand what is 
going on.
  When New Orleans is clean and when the gulf area is clean, as it 
relates to some of the debris that is there, that is in place there 
now, I do not think that it will serve us well if we do not see it in 
the way that it is now. TV just does not give it justice, in my 
opinion, to be able to see the sweat literally run down the side of an 
individual that is waiting in line to be able to receive Federal 
assistance.
  I was there with the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor), who has 
been down there and was there all last week, did not come up to 
Congress because he needed to be able to help his constituents put 
their lives back together. Rightfully so, he was there for him; and we 
did what we had to do up here, did the best that we could to make sure 
that appropriations came down.
  But there are a number of individuals that are still suffering, a 
number of individuals that we have to understand as a Congress how we 
respond, even when it comes down to individuals that Americans that 
have poured their hearts out and sent not only contributions to some of 
the organizations but have taken it upon themselves, with their credit 
cards and with the gas prices now, I would say credit cards, going and 
filling their tanks up and driving down, not knowing anyone, but going 
down there to feed people, to help people, but those individuals, and 
for diapers and all of those things that have been sent down, being 
able to understand that we need volunteer coordinators from the 
beginning to make sure that those supplies are not spoiled or being out 
in the sun or being in a place where they should not be.
  The little, small things like that are important for us to understand 
as Members of Congress.
  And, Mr. Speaker, if this was allowed, because I must share not only 
with the Members but those of us that are in this Chamber that, you 
know, as a ranking member of the Oversight Committee on Homeland 
Security, if I had the authority, I would do it. But, unfortunately, I 
am in the minority party; and we cannot authorize a congressional 
visit. The majority party can do that.
  And I have said that to my Chair. I said that we have a 
responsibility to go down there. From what I understand there hasn't 
been an official congressional CODEL to the gulf States. Our commitment 
to the South is in judgment right now.
  I think there are individuals, Democrats and Republicans and 
independents alike, and those individuals that are not even registered 
to vote, that are still putting out the question, where is my Federal 
Government?
  Now I will tell you this. I ran into a young lady that said, where is 
my Federal Government? And she was, you know, had some water and MREs 
and all of those things. Yes, I can say, look at your hands, there is 
your Federal Government, but that is not enough in my opinion.
  Here is someone that is looking for a process that we should be well 
practiced in, natural disasters. And I will tell you that being a 
member of the Homeland Security Committee, and from what I have seen of 
the performance of the Department, I think we are pretty well trained 
up on a terrorist event. But I think that natural disasters are still 
in the rear view mirror and is considered as an afterthought.
  I am not totally prepared to say that it is important that we move 
FEMA outside of the Department of Homeland Security, and that is the 
reason why we need this commission. We need this commission to make 
recommendations to us here in this Congress on what we should do, how 
we should do it, and in a way that it could happen that will not 
disrupt the relationship between FEMA and the Department of Homeland 
Security. So that is the reason why we need it.
  I will say to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz), 
and now our good friend, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan), is here, 
that the leader said that we should go into special session immediately 
or come back from recess early, go into session, give FEMA energy 
funds. No. Then eventually it was yes, 48 hours later.
  Said that Under Secretary Director Michael Brown of FEMA should step 
down because he is not up to par, being able to carry on, not only the 
future response but the initial response. Several days pass, back and 
forth. Okay, they sent him back to Washington. Three days later, he 
resigned.
  She has also asked, even though the leadership has said in both House 
and Senate, the other body, that we should have a committee of House 
and Senate Members to look at this and have a press conference, just 
one side on, you know, Republicans there representing, saying that it 
is a bipartisan, but no subpoena powers, none of the teeth that we need 
to get down to the bottom of how can we correct it.
  I commend the Democratic leader and the Democratic leadership for 
saying in both the House and other body that we will not participate in 
such a committee. Because we need to professionalize that. Even though 
we are professionals here, we need individuals that understand 
emergency management and recovery. And so that is what that is about, 
to be able to make sure.
  And you know something, if the leadership says, fine, let us put 
together a commission, the President says, let us put together a 
commission, I am all for it. But we are wasting time. Because people 
are saying, well, you know, the Democrats recommended it, and we cannot 
do it because they are Democrats.
  We are Americans, too. And I believe there are some individuals that 
are on the other side that believe that we should come together in time 
of 9/11. I think there is an opportunity for us to be able to show 
Americans that we can lead in a bipartisan way, and I just do not want 
us to blow that opportunity.
  To the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan), I am so glad that you have 
joined us here. The gentlewoman and I are from Florida. I mean, it is 
like we are talking when we were in the State Senate together, because 
we were a part of helping Florida being able to advance itself as it 
relates to recovery.
  But thank you for joining us.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I appreciate you carrying the load a little bit 
here while I was away.
  One of the issues, and I do not think you have touched upon it just 
yet, is President Bush's decision to repeal the prevailing wage 
provisions that are normally intact in which anybody who would be 
working down in that area, the workers who would be down there getting 
paid, would get paid the prevailing wage of that area.

  President Bush has rescinded that requirement; and so now there is 
talk of people going down there who will be making wages much, much 
less than the prevailing wage for Federal Government projects that live 
in that area.
  So, in essence, these people who have been hit by the hurricane, who 
have been moved out to Baton Rouge or Houston or wherever, who want to 
go back to that community, go back to New Orleans and work, they are 
not going to earn the same wage that they would have earned had they 
been there before Katrina hit. And I just think this is kind of 
symbolic, or one example of what has been happening.
  And you talked about some of the corruption. You talked about some of 
the contracts. This is absolutely ridiculous to tell these people who 
are trying to reconstruct their lives that they should not be making 
the prevailing wage of people who live and work in that community.
  And, believe me, the money in the South is not that high of a wage. 
So it is not going to cripple the Government. This is Federal taxpayer 
money that is going down there. And what is happening is, in many 
instances, for the

[[Page H7848]]

rebuilding effort, and I was having a talk with some of the electrical 
workers tonight, basically what is happening is the wage is going to be 
so low it just has to go down to minimum wage.
  So you have, say, a union electrician who is going to make $20 to $25 
an hour. The union wage may be $25; the prevailing wage may be $20. So 
they would make $20 on a Federal project. Well, if you eliminate and 
you rescind that regulation, that worker will make $10 or $15 an hour, 
maybe no benefits. It can go all of the way down to the minimum wage.
  And what is happening now is that workers are looking at coming in 
from some of these other foreign countries, from Mexico, from some of 
these other countries. So the contractors who are getting the unbid 
contracts are going to start hiring foreign workers to come in for the 
rebuilding process and paying them a little bit above minimum wage, 
displacing workers who have lost their family who need to go back and 
rebuild.
  Part of the reconstruction effort should be to try to get a little 
bit of money in the pockets of those people who want to go back and 
help rebuild the city. I mean, my goodness, that does not seem like too 
much to ask. I know many Americans feel like that. Even through a 
tragedy, and you want to go back, you should be working. Here are these 
people that want to go and actually work that are having their wages 
cut, and it just seems to me that is very shortsighted. It is, again, 
another bend in favor of the contractors, who, you know, have a job to 
do but not at the expense of everybody else.
  You know, from the beginning here, and I am sure you have already 
touched upon all of the appointments of the members of FEMA in the 
upper echelon of FEMA, all political appointments, and we all 
understand that that happens, we are not trying to play dumb here. But 
give the guy an appointment who is not qualified, give him the 
ambassadorship to a country that has got a lot of beach front property. 
That is where you go. You do not put him in charge of FEMA. That is 
criminal what happened here.
  You know, again, I do not how far you got in, but I think the main 
point from the past few weeks and the review of this was the 
administration saying, how are we supposed to know the levees were 
going to break? And we find out that last summer FEMA sponsored a 
simulation called Hurricane Pam, was the name of the simulation, and it 
brought a Category 4 or Category 5 hurricane up through New Orleans and 
what would happen.
  Well, in July of 2004, the FEMA simulation said the levees would 
break, there would be flooding, millions of people displaced, and all 
of the tragedy that we watched on TV over the past couple of weeks was 
simulated to happen if New Orleans got hit by a Category 4 or Category 
5 hurricane. Then for the administration to come out and say how were 
we supposed to know is so disingenuous.
  Then you look at FEMA. It is packed with political hacks, political 
appointees, an equestrian horse show organizer is supposed to be in 
charge of the most important emergency management organization in the 
country. I think it is criminal. I really believe it, and I choose that 
word specifically.
  It is criminal because that short-sighted appointment led to people 
not getting the kind of treatment, the immediate response that was 
needed. We have been looking at this for a while now, over the past 
couple of weeks and have had a chance. You would just think, and I will 
yield here in a second, your job, what you should expect from your 
Government is that you pay taxes. And your taxes go, and some get 
wasted, just like in corporations or anything else. Some of the money 
gets wasted. But your money goes to FEMA, and you should have an 
expectation that the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be able 
to have a person in place that just deals with Hurricanes in the Gulf, 
because there is a hurricane season every year.
  So what happens if a hurricane hits New Orleans? We have hundreds of 
people employed here who make good money from the taxpayers. You have 
to meet your responsibility. So I feel like the President's 
appointments hurt.
  I think the unbid contracts are continuing the process. The 
elimination of the prevailing wage is another slap in the face of those 
people who have been hurt and want to go back and actually work and 
earn enough money to rebuild their families and their communities.
  I think this is continuing to go down the wrong road. I hope that 
some of what we are talking about here tonight brings that to light, 
and hopefully we can try to change it.
  Listen, we want to work with the administration. We want these people 
to get help. That is why we are here. We are not here to demagogue. We 
are not here to beat up any one side or the other. But they are in 
charge, and they are not making the necessary changes that need to be 
made. Our constitutional responsibility, people send us here to do 
this, is to make sure that we keep those people in power in check. They 
do not seem to be listening, and they do not seem to be following some 
basic, I think, business procedures that would otherwise be 
implemented.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. The gentleman is absolutely right on point.
  Your comments remind me of a question that our good friend, Doug 
Lyons from the South Florida Sun Sentinel, who I spoke to this morning, 
asked me. He said, he asked me if Michael Brown's resignation was 
enough. He said, now that we have got a successful, documented 
professional who will be at least, on an interim basis, running FEMA 
and making sure that the disaster response to Katrina has an expert in 
charge, is that enough? You know, can we all breathe a sigh of relief, 
wipe our hands and go home?
  I mean, the answer to that is just so absolutely not. The leader of 
FEMA is just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, when you ask any expert in 
emergency preparedness and disaster response if the one leader is the 
most important chink in the armor, they would of course say, no, it 
requires planning and preparation and budgeting and foresight and 
hindsight and a whole combination of expertise and planning that goes 
into preparedness and response.

                              {time}  2130

  So while it certainly was the right thing to do, and we are pleased 
to see that former Under Secretary Brown now did the right thing and 
stepped aside, there is so much left to be done. And going forward, 
while we can talk about what went wrong, we need an independent 
investigation and an independent commission that will be able to 
examine objectively so the American people have their confidence 
restored and that we know we have some competence and some 
deliberations going on about how we are going to deal with these kind 
of disasters in the future. We have got to talk about what comes next.
  You watch the news every night, and now almost all the TV stations 
are allowing Katrina victims to list their cell phone numbers on 
national television because some of them are still looking for their 
kids. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, at least 
as of yesterday, said there were still 1,700 missing children reported 
from Katrina's aftermath: 1,700 children, 14 year olds, 12 year olds, 6 
year olds, babies. There are babies that are still separated from their 
parents, from their moms.
  We have got to do something going forward for these Katrina victims. 
We have got to make sure they have housing. We have got to make sure we 
get these kids back in school and we can get them back in school near 
or in the area that they originally lived in. And like the gentleman 
said, with the President's waiver of Davis-Bacon, which is the law that 
requires the prevailing wage be paid to workers, what incentive is 
there going to be for them to come back?
  When you have the State of Israel, which commendably has offered 
scholarships for the college students that were displaced by Katrina, 
and we have Katrina victims going over, Jews and non-Jews going over to 
Israel now to accept scholarships, and the generosity of other 
countries, boy, does that say a lot about what we need to do to step up 
and make these residents whole again. We have got to ensure that a 
number of different things happen.
  This is the 30-something Working Group. We have got a generation of 
people and young kids and our generation's children that are going to 
be in

[[Page H7849]]

dire need of their government's assistance. And if there is any time 
when it is imperative that the Federal Government engage, any point 
with any circumstance that there is an appropriate and vital role for 
the Federal Government, it is in response to a hurricane.
  I am glad to see that the President today acknowledged finally, 
because it is really the first time I have heard him acknowledge, the 
possibility of a mistake. I am glad to see that he owned up at least in 
part to the possibility of there being problems, and it will be 
interesting to see what he says Thursday night when he speaks to the 
American people.
  I hope what he says, we hope what he says is that there is going to 
be some drastic changes in our preparedness, in our response, in our 
funding, and in our priorities, because right now we are moving in the 
wrong direction.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. If I may make a couple of points. I agree with the 
gentlewoman so much and this 30-something Group has really improved 
since the gentlewoman has gotten here.
  I just want to make two points. One is the Davis-Bacon provision, the 
prevailing wage issue. Davis and Bacon were both Republicans, so this 
is not a Democratic issue. This is just something that seems to be 
fair. If Federal money is going to a certain area, they should pay the 
worker the wage that is prevalent in that area. That is number one.
  And, two, and I know we have all talked about this, the disparity in 
income between those people in this country who have and those people 
who have not is tremendous. I hope that the good that we can derive 
from Katrina is that.
  And, third, and the most specific point that I want to make, is that 
this has shown that our government has gone backwards as far as 
administration and execution; and we see it every day here.
  We pass a prescription drug bill that is spending $700 billion worth 
of the taxpayers' money and does nothing to allow for reimportation 
that would drive drug costs down or does not allow the Secretary of 
Health and Human Services to buy in bulk because the pharmaceutical 
industry has a strangle-hold on this place. We do not see the proper 
reforms on distribution of health care. We do not see the proper 
investments in medical information technology that would help drive 
down the cost of medical care.
  We have a school system that is based on a society that is agrarian, 
and kids are supposed to go home in the summer and work on the farm; 
and only three or four percent of the country still works in 
agriculture. These are things that are structural problems. And I think 
the FEMA issue just shows and highlights and puts the spotlight on it.
  It is because there is money, and there is political appointments, 
and we have got to get our friends in, and we have so many friends that 
gave us so much money that we even have to put some in FEMA, which 
probably should not have political appointments, but we have so many 
debts that we owe.
  I have an uncle that I had a very interesting conversation with and 
he may be watching right now and I think my aunt is watching for sure 
who worked for Proctor and Gamble for God knows how many years. And we 
had a nice conversation one night about how this political body and 
political decisions are made every 2 years. We run very short-term 
political decisions that are made. The same in the business community. 
What are our next quarter profits going to be? Very short sighted. And 
I think we do not get the country back on the right track until those 
of us who are in this body are willing to make those long-term 
structural changes that need to be made to adjust the way government is 
administered in a 21st-century economy based on technology and 
knowledge.
  That was the issue with FEMA. If we ran a Hurricane Pam situation in 
2004, where was the breakdown in getting that information to those 
people who needed to actually make a decision once there was an actual 
hurricane in that area? What was the breakdown?
  Until our government begins to run in an efficient way and in a way 
that is reflective of the communication abilities in the 21st century, 
the technological advancements, and everything else, we are going to be 
behind the eight ball whether it is FEMA, education, health care, 
whatever it may be. We have got to start making decisions that have a 
long-term impact on making our government run more efficiently. It 
should be able to run a heck of a lot more efficiently than it did in 
the 1930s and 1940s. And that is our job.
  I really believe that the 30-somethings have a responsibility here 
because we grew up in an age that was much different than most of the 
people in here grew up in, with computers and technology and cell 
phones and now the ear pieces and what else is there. But we grew up in 
that different kind of scene than the echo boomers who are going up 
now, we have a responsibility to try to apply that technology to 
government. And I think my friend from Florida wants to be a part of 
that.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I always want to be a part of 
technology, but I can tell my colleagues that I am so glad they brought 
up the whole issue of Davis-Bacon and what the President did, many 
Americans did not understand what he did.

  We talk about avoiding making the victims victims again. And we want 
them, and even some prominent Republicans have said, we want them to be 
able to have first swipe at the jobs that become available. But they 
will have a first swipe at the jobs at a lower paying rate than usually 
what the Federal Government provides to individuals carrying out 
federally funded work.
  I think it is also important for us to realize that there are no 
parameters on contractors that are down there trying to correct the 
problems that are there. So that means that the money saved on Davis-
Bacon will go into the pockets of those individuals who are direct 
contractors of the Federal work.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Are we not using the same formula, the same 
administration processes that we used during the war and are using 
during the war. The same exact ones that we lost billions applying this 
system or using this system for the war, we are applying the same 
system now.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. The good thing I like about this 30-something 
Working Group is we always talk about second- and third-party 
validators and making sure that folks do not watch us here on the floor 
and think that we are talking out the sides of our necks. The Wasserman 
Schultz Report, the Ryan Report, the 30-something Report, the Meek 
Report. This is reality. The $62 billion is the largest supplemental 
appropriations in history of this country outside of war; $62 billion 
we did last week or the week before and the rest last week is the 
largest in history in the United States of America. So we have not been 
to this point ever.
  I think it is also important for folks to understand the difference. 
Folks say, what is the difference between Democrat and Republican 
leadership? I will tell you this in the moment, this is fact, not 
fiction.
  I am holding here a letter from the Democratic leader and several 
other ranking members that I mentioned earlier. Folks wants to know the 
action. This is not on behalf of Democrats in Mississippi and Louisiana 
and Alabama. This is on behalf of Americans in those States. We are 
talking about the commitment to the South. We are talking about 
commitment to Americans that pay taxes every day, those that are 
veterans, those that are children of veterans, those that never fought 
in wars before, those that go to work every day, those individuals that 
are disabled and cannot go to work. We represent them.
  Like it or not, we have to make sure as this Congress, because as the 
House we are the only branch of this government that must be elected to 
the position that they are in right now, including the President but 
the Vice President can very well, I am just saying as it relates to the 
legislative body, we are the only body that has to be elected by the 
people.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Article I, section 1.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I thank the gentleman. I am glad he was present 
in constitutional law.
  There is a letter right here to David Walker, the Comptroller General 
of the United States of America, Government Accountability Office. It 
is basically saying that we are asking for an anti-fraud commission to 
make sure that there is accountability in government contracting as it 
relates to Hurricane Katrina.

[[Page H7850]]

  This is not just a letter just by the Democratic leader, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi). Here we have the gentleman 
from California (Mr. Waxman) who is the ranking member of the Committee 
on Government Reform. He would be chairman if we were in the majority. 
We have the Democratic whip, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) 
who is the number two in charge of our efforts here on the floor. We 
have the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar) who is the ranking 
member of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. We also 
have the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Thompson) who is the ranking 
member and would be chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security if 
we were in the majority here.
  We have the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), the ranking member 
of Committee on Appropriations. We have the gentleman from Michigan 
(Mr. Dingell) who was once chairman of the Committee on Energy and 
Commerce that would be chairman if we were in control. We have the 
gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) who is also the ranking 
minority member as it relates to the Committee on Education and the 
workforce.
  They are writing this to make sure that the largest appropriations 
outside of supplemental appropriations for a war, some $62 billion are 
spent in the way that it is supposed to be spent so we do not make the 
victims victims over again.
  I think all Americans, no matter where they may be, east coast, West, 
Midwest, South, this is their taxpayer money at work. So we know that 
Davis-Bacon, those rules and regs and that right that workers would 
have has already been swiped aside by the stroke of a pen, that you 
will receive a wage lower than any other Federal project that is out 
there because it has been waived at a time of natural disaster.
  Will it save us money to be able to do more projects? No. Will it 
help the companies down there that are assigned the no-bid contracts, 
saying do the work, the sky is the limit, do what you do, bill us the 
way you want to bill?
  One of the companies is under investigation right now as it relates 
to the Iraq contract. But better yet, they are given a contract, go 
down there, do as you may, we will do the paperwork later. But what we 
have done from the beginning are parameters on the American worker and 
those that are in the South.
  Let me also add this: today, Democratic leader and also senior House 
Democrats, again, the list of individuals that are on the committees 
that are affected, have also requested an immediate establishment of a 
team of experienced auditors to monitor and also realtime contract and 
spending of the recovery effort.
  This is what we are doing right now. If the majority side has done 
it, I commend them; but I do not think that is the case now. So when I 
mentioned earlier on that we need to work in a bipartisan way, if we 
were working in a bipartisan way, this would not be a question of 
letters. It would be an issue of action. It would be, good, let us move 
on that idea. Let us make it happen.
  That is the reason I believe that the chairmen, ranking members, and 
Members of this Congress should take time out and go down to the 
affected areas and see what is going on down there, and see poor 
individuals that are staying in New Orleans right now and staying in 
some of the affected areas in Gulfport, in Hancock County. Some watch 
TV and say, why do they not leave? Guess what? They cannot afford to 
leave.

                              {time}  2145

  They still today do not have the money to be able to get $5 worth of 
gas.
  I went down to see the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor), our 
colleague, who is down there trying to not only help his constituents 
be able to receive some sort of Federal assistance or State assistance 
or trying to put boats back together so they can get back to work; he 
is a victim himself.
  Earlier, I showed a picture of the Florida National Guard that is 
with us and the Congressman there on the other side of the colonel and 
myself. This is the Congressman's house, straight off the platform, not 
a brick left. So you want to talk about individuals being affected and 
not affected, all of us are touched by this, but we have to make sure 
that we show some level of leadership right now. This is why it is 
important that we make these recommendations.
  We have Members of Congress that are trying, but we need individuals 
that are in the leadership that are willing to stand up. And I said it 
once before, and I will say it again, if we are ruffling feathers here 
tonight, so be it. Because last week we came to this floor putting 
great pressure on the administration and those that are in charge that 
have the pen stroking power to bring about a difference in the South, 
and we were in the light of saving lives. Now we are in the light of 
making sure that individuals are able to return back to their homes.
  Our business here is very serious, and that not only letter writing 
but action is important. I think based on the action that has taken us 
this far, all the way back when we said if we can go in special session 
on the Schiavo case, if we can bring individuals before Congress and 
have congressional hearings and have special prosecutors for personal 
decisions that individuals have made in elected office, if we can come 
up here for far less, we can at least make sure the largest 
appropriations outside of the war supplemental, $62 billion, that it 
has the oversight, not just because we want to have the gotcha factor. 
That is a lot of money, a lot of money that has been appropriated in a 
matter of 10 days, rightfully so.
  I heard one of the esteemed, very prominent Members on the other side 
of the aisle, who took to the well right there and said, guess what, in 
$50 billion, there is going to be wasteful spending. I had to kind of 
double take and rub my eyes and say, excuse me, am I sleeping? Am I 
dreaming?
  I have a problem with wasteful spending of $50 billion, but, guess 
what, that means a victim will not receive what they should receive, 
Americans will not get accountability of their taxpayer dollars and 
that we have accepted the fact that it is okay to waste money. I have 
got a problem with that, and I know we all do.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, if you do not mind if I jump in, 
I want to just caution people listening tonight, our colleagues, our 
leadership, because when you have a disaster or anything of the 
proportion in size that Katrina was, it is hard to get your mind around 
it, especially if you have not been there. You now have direct, first-
person ability to relay and understand the depth of what happened. Most 
of us have only seen the aftermath on TV.
  The danger that we have in front of us is that with every passing day 
that Katrina's hitting is behind us, we are in danger of the American 
public and us as leaders becoming desensitized. The more it is on the 
news, the more we hear about it, the more we read about it, it is just 
the human psyche is such that you cannot have that raw nerve scratched 
every day and not steel yourself against it. With that desensitization, 
we are in danger of not having an appropriate response come out of this 
body, and we have got to come together.
  We come here every week and we stand up and we point out our very 
clear differences with our friends on the other side of the aisle, but 
it does not have to be this way with the response to Katrina. There are 
some specific action items that can and should be done in order to 
prevent ourselves from becoming desensitized, not just as policy-makers 
but in the general populace as well.
  We need the press. We should commend the press from the floor of this 
body for the spotlight that they have shown on these victims and their 
reality because, quite honestly, without that spotlight being shown by 
them, without their piling into the storm-ravaged area, see no evil, 
hear no evil, they would still be saying the same thing, and we would 
not have had the response and reaction that, quite frankly, we should 
have had right from the beginning.
  So I want to commend the press and encourage them to continue to do 
it, but we have some action items that need to occur.
  We need to get these people health care. We need to make sure they 
have access to Medicaid immediately. We

[[Page H7851]]

need to get them food stamp access. We need to make sure that they have 
access to education and housing and not just far-flung housing all over 
the country. If you lived in New Orleans, you do not need to resettle 
yourself permanently in Utah. That is not what we want to have a policy 
direct these people to. We want to bring them back. We want to set up 
transitional and then temporary housing and then eventually get them 
into permanent facilities, whether it is facilities that they have 
assistance from the Federal Government or whether they be given the 
ability to help them to make their own purchases of homes, which would 
be a wonderful thing to see.
  That is what the leadership in this Congress is going to need to make 
happen. It is certainly going to be suggested by our side of the aisle. 
We need to make sure that we come together and suggest it on both sides 
of the aisle. The reconciliation process should be suspended. There are 
a number of things that should happen, and we are going to continue to 
talk about that.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I am sorry, we usually would have a 
closing statement here, but our time has run out. We will have, I 
understand, the first Democratic hour on Thursday.
  Mr. Speaker, with that, we would like to thank the Democratic leader 
for allowing the 30 Something Working Group to come to the floor, and 
it was an honor to address the House once again.

                          ____________________