[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 119 (Wednesday, September 21, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H8223-H8229]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP
The SPEAKER pro tempore. 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, and I want to thank the Democratic leadership for
allowing us, the 30-Something Working Group, to come to the floor to
talk about issues that are facing not only young Americans but
Americans in general.
The 30-Something Working Group, as I have stated before, time after
time, is a group of 30-something Members on the Democratic side of the
aisle who meet every week. We come together on the issues that are
facing Americans and discuss things that, A, are working or, B, things
that are not working on behalf of the American people, and we try to
bring that to the attention of our colleagues here in this House.
{time} 1800
I think it is important for us to not only be very aware of what is
happening now in the action or inaction here in the Congress or here in
this House. I think it is also important for us to realize that
Hurricane Katrina survivors and those that are still in recovery are in
need of a government that is willing to respond not only as it relates
to saying, well, we passed the $62.2 billion emergency appropriation,
but to make sure that we never have to be placed in a position that we
are in now, not this House, but the people affected by the storm, and
not as it relates to the natural disaster.
We know that is an act of God and that will happen; but as it relates
to governance, who dropped the ball or who did not respond in time, who
did not get a letter because too many people lost their lives because
the response was not what it should have been.
Mr. Speaker, it was not the hurricane that killed a number of people,
people who have children lost at this point, that homes are devastated
in New Orleans because of the flooding. It was not just the storm that
made that happen. Governance broke down somewhere. Our reason for
coming to the floor today is to not only share with our colleagues but
to make sure that we are abundantly clear with the American people
about the importance of having an independent commission out of the
control of this House and out of the control of this Congress to allow
appointments to take place, bipartisan, and independent.
Right now we have a partisan select committee that will be meeting
sometime in the very near future, maybe tomorrow, organizing and trying
to bring
[[Page H8224]]
witnesses before them. I am very, very proud, and when I say very, very
proud, this is the moment we live for to be able to stand up on behalf
of those who are not here to stand up on behalf of themselves.
We know that the American people have said, 70 percent of the
American people have said, they want an independent committee like the
9/11 Commission to look at what happened or what did not happen as it
relates to the response and preparation for Hurricane Katrina. We are
looking at the number of 200 billion Federal dollars being spent to
rebuild and help those Americans get back on their feet.
It is important for us to have this independent commission to be able
to make sure that we are not at this point ever again, especially when
it comes down to the breakdown of government. I think it is important.
I am not trying to be a pessimist in any way, but I think it is
important for us to call it what it is. It is a partisan select
committee created by the House of Representatives, passed outside of
what we call regular order here in the process, outside of regular
order, going to certain committees that have oversight over the
necessary agencies. But to say we are going to get to the bottom of
what happened is just not the way to go about doing it. Not even 50/50,
or 10 on one side and 10 on the other side to make sure accountability
is there so the American people can have some confidence.
No, because the majority wanted to keep control of the process and
because the President and others that are here in this Congress wanted
to keep control of the process, we have a partisan select committee
that has been appointed and given the charge to find out the truth. I
think that not only Democrats on this side of the aisle but some of my
good friends on the other side of the aisle should speak out. I know
that Democrats have, but I challenge some of my colleagues on the other
side of the aisle to speak out and say this is wrong, because we know
it is wrong. We know it is going to be partisan, and we know we will
not get the hard questions answered.
We know that if the administration has anything to do with the
response, which admittedly the President has said it was not what it
should have been, that would have been fine if we were talking about a
check that was not mailed out, a rebate check and it was 3 days late.
We are talking about loss of life, loss of property. We are talking
about children as we speak now that are still missing. We are talking
about people who spent 3 days on their own roof or in their attic or 3
days on a bridge without water, without proper sanitation and without a
response from the Federal Government to be able to save not only their
lives in some cases but also as it relates to saving their property, of
making sure that we were there to respond.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I agree with the gentleman, and I
think this is an opportunity for us to step up and do this in a way
that the American people will see this as an honest attempt to try to
figure out what the problems are and what the problem was and what the
problem is, and if we continue down the road, what the problems will
be.
The real issue I think and why over 70 percent of the American people
want an independent commission, bipartisan, half Democrats half
Republicans, people who do not sit in this body, people who do not have
to ask the administration for favors during the appropriations process,
or through the regulatory process, that is, the problem is we have
Members who will be on this floor who will need favors from the
administration, will be cutting deals in here, will be the same people
who are going to try to figure out what the problems are.
I want to say on behalf of myself, I hate this. I hate the fact that
we have to come to the floor and talk about this stuff. We spoke about
Social Security for months and months. I hate the fact that we have to
be critical of this administration. I hate the fact that we have to be
critical of Michael Brown and the whole process, but that is our
constitutional obligation. When we raise our hands the first week in
January every other year, we swear an oath to the Constitution.
The outfit, the gang that is running this place, just cannot seem to
shoot straight. They did not tell us the truth with the Medicare
prescription drug number. It was $400 billion the night we voted on it,
and it turned into $700 billion or $800 billion. There was
misinformation before the war on terror. The budget numbers that were
given daily, weekly over the past few years are not accurate, never
are.
The spiel about the tax cuts are going to create all these new jobs,
not true. That is why 70 percent of the American people want an
independent commission. They think this is the gang that cannot shoot
straight, and it is.
And for the President to be giving a speech on Social Security two
days afterwards when all of America is watching this on their
television, how far removed is he? How insulated from the average
American is he? That is the problem: we have a disconnect between this
government and the American people. I hope that this independent
commission that we are pushing for, like the 9/11 Commission, will be
one that will bring some credibility back to the government, one that
will take an accurate look at what happened here and bring us the
facts.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from
Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz).
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr.
Ryan) speaks the truth. There is no question about it. Now we are
hearing on CNN, and we have to hear it on CNN, unfortunately, that the
Republican leadership plans to go forward with their partisan committee
to investigate Hurricane Katrina. Rightfully so, the gentlewoman from
California (Ms. Pelosi) has refused to appoint Democratic Members, and
everyone I have spoken to in our Democratic Caucus, if asked to serve
by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert), we will stand our ground
and insist on there being an independent commission.
The example we have been using here on this floor is would the
American public be comfortable if Enron executives examined and
investigated what went wrong in their corporation and their corporate
scandals? How about Tyco? You would never accept those kinds of
internal reviews as being accountable, objective, or independent.
If Congress is going to truly inspire the confidence again of the
American people, which is what we so desperately need to do when it
comes to our emergency preparedness procedures, it is to not engage in
partisan infighting and backside-covering, because that is what they
are doing here with insisting on having a partisan internal
congressional committee instead of an independent, objective 9/11-style
commission. It is confidence that we need to restore because it is the
issue of security that Americans most want to feel comfortable that
their government is taking care of.
That was supposedly why the President was reelected last year. One of
the reasons many people cited was because they felt he would keep them
safer, this administration would be more likely, supposedly, to keep
them safer. I bet a lot of those people are scratching their heads
wondering why they cast that vote and where is the action to back up
the words that the administration campaigned on all of last year.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I think it is important for us to
realize when it is time to lead and when it is time to not only lead
but stand up on behalf of the folks that elected us here. It is
important for us to stand up.
The American people, they do not want us to be partisan, and they do
not want a partisan select committee selected by the House that is
partisan. They want an independent commission like the 9/11 Commission.
They want that. I guarantee you the folks in Alabama and Mississippi
and definitely the people in Louisiana, and I would even say the folks
in Florida, want an independent commission.
Members do not see anyone running around here saying we want a
partisan commission to look at what happened. I do not see one headline
that says we want it to be partisan so we do not find out exactly what
we need to find out, not the who done it and who did it kind of thing,
but where the ball was dropped so we can save lives, American lives.
This is not a foreign country somewhere.
We are saying we need to make sure that we prevent loss of life.
There are
[[Page H8225]]
Americans that died in the aftermath of this hurricane. I say the
aftermath. I cannot help but remember the story where the gentleman was
caught on television, and a reporter walked up and said what is wrong.
``My wife, she is gone. I was holding her hand. I could not hold on.
She said, `You cannot hold me any longer.''' That was not a natural
disaster; that was the fact that we did not have in place what we
needed to have in place to make sure the governance, the government, be
it local, State or Federal, was responding to these individuals.
I have papers stacked this high with pictures of people sitting in
front of their loved ones because they ran out of insulin or oxygen.
This is a failure, and we will never know, we will not know the truth
if we allow this Congress, the majority of this Congress to deny the
American people, not just the Democrats in Congress but the American
people and the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the truth and to make sure
and ensure that it will not happen again, because we will be better by
having a nonpartisan commission outside of this Congress to evaluate
what went wrong, what went right, and what we have to focus on.
{time} 1815
We are better now because of the 9/11 Commission. We passed a bill
here on this floor because of their work. We were able to save American
lives and protect America in the future.
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 piggyback on what he is
saying here because not only do the American people want an independent
review so that their confidence can be restored. They want their
representatives in Congress to be statespeople. They want us to step up
and put partisanship aside. My colleagues are veterans of this process,
and I have been here 9, almost 10 months now, and the thing that has
been the most startling to me is how partisan it is here. It does not
need to be this way. I know. I have spoken to some Members even today,
some Members who are leaders on the Republican side who I know if we
came around the table and sat down and hashed out how we could best
approach the review of what happened with Katrina and the response and
our lack of preparedness, I know we could work it out. But the
leadership here does not allow that to happen. It is all about winning.
It is all about ``our way or the highway.'' And Americans are sick of
``our way or the highway'' politics. They just want us to get it done
and do the right thing. And I just do not understand why it has to be
about winning, it has to be about we are going to protect our
backsides, we are going to make sure that the truth really does not
come out. God forbid if we actually admit that we made a mistake. That
is just irresponsible.
And to me the most devastating thing, besides the loss of life and
the children, the little babies that we see being held by people who
are not their mothers, because their parents are gone and no one knows
where they are, the thing that is most devastating to me is knowing
that there are millions of people in this country who do not believe in
us anymore, who do not believe in this process. Look at the polling
numbers on Congress and how Americans feel about the job we are doing.
Our constituents might like us as individuals, and that is only some of
us; but as a body, as an institution, we have lost their faith. And we
have lost their faith because all we do is throw up our elbows and duke
it out and fight to the finish. They want us to do our jobs and do
right by them, and that means putting aside winning, and making sure
that we can come together as Americans, like we did after 9/11, like I
saw Congress do after 9/11 when we were all linking arms and working
together.
Maybe Katrina, because it only happened to one region of the country,
was not a unifying enough event. But if there is ever a time. We just
had Rita hit Florida. It is bearing down as a category 5 on Texas now.
I mean, clearly no one is immune from this in this country, and it is
time that we exercise some leadership. And I think we should ask our
leadership, especially the leadership running this Congress, to say to
themselves, it is not all about me. That is what the American people
want us to do. I just wonder whether they have the courage and the
nerve to do it. It certainly does not seem that way.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to
yield, it does not look like it. And I think David Broder had a great
quote saying that majority Republicans see themselves first and
foremost as members of the Bush team. Well, this is not about their
team winning. This is not about politics, and we know for the last 5
years it has been all politics all the time here, as I talked about
Medicare and all the other issues. And now here we go again.
Here is the thing I think that we need to recognize. When we have
this colossal of a screwup, somebody is going to get embarrassed. It is
not going to be pretty. Someone has got to hang for this, and someone
has got to take responsibility. And that is the thing I think the
American people want from their government. They want responsible
Members, but they want accountability. And accountability means someone
is going to get embarrassed, and it means that someone in FEMA screwed
up. But do my colleagues know what? It is not about President Bush. It
is not about that one person who screwed up. It is not about the series
of people who contributed as the days went on from the screwup. Do the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) and the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms.
Wasserman Schultz) know what this is about? This is about fixing the
problem, as they said earlier. And if someone needs to get embarrassed,
they need to recognize that this Chamber, this country, and the way we
respond to emergency situations, whether they are natural disasters or
terrorist attacks, that response and our responsibility is bigger than
the couple of people who are going to get embarrassed.
There are certain things that are bigger than winning and more
important than winning, and that means we have got to make sure that we
do this in the right way. This cannot be a whitewash. We cannot get out
the Brillo pads and try to make this look clean. We have got to find
out where the ugliness is, where the lack of communication was.
Knowing about the simulation last summer in July of 2004 of Hurricane
Pam, a simulated hurricane that FEMA did a study on that, if it hit New
Orleans what would happen, and they predicted right down the line every
single thing that would happen. A category 4 in New Orleans, levees
would break, a million people would need to get evacuated. And every
other situation that happened, FEMA's response, the simulated Hurricane
Pam told us exactly what is going to happen.
So my point is that someone is going to get embarrassed here and it
is not going to be pretty. But at the end of the day, the system is
going to be stronger because we are going to know what the mistakes
were and we are going to know how to fix them. But if they are not
willing to find out what the problem is, then they are not going to be
able to fix it. And our responsibility is to fix it. So although this
may be painful for the majority party and it may be painful for the
Bush administration, this system that we have is bigger than all of
them put together, and that is what we are here to do is preserve this
system.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan)
heard me once before speak of the fact that it is not personal, it is
just business. And that is the reason why we are here. We are here to
conduct business.
I have very good friends on the other side of the aisle. I am talking
about good friends that I had long-lasting relationships with prior to
becoming a Member of Congress. As it relates to this select committee,
those individuals that were fortunate enough to be appointed by the
House leadership, many of them are good friends of mine. I mean, these
are individuals that I talk to, and we talk about football and we talk
about things that just regular everyday associates would talk about.
But it is not about them. It is about the fact that there has been a
select committee elected on partisan lines, partisan lines, with a
partisan vote that will meet tomorrow and, as we read through the
media, will meet next week, a partisan committee to carry
[[Page H8226]]
out a bipartisan job. A bipartisan job. How can they carry out a
bipartisan job when from the beginning it already smacks of political
overtones? It is almost like, as the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms.
Wasserman Schultz) said, and I think she said it right, we are going to
do our in-house investigation. What usually happens when people do an
in-house investigation is someone screams for an independent
investigation. For those men and women that are in business out there
in America, they always have to get, 9 times out of 10, an outside
audit for their company versus an inside audit. Independent it is
called. And I think it is important for an independent commission, when
we get one, because we are willing to fight. The Democrat side of the
aisle is saying we are willing to fight on behalf of what the American
people want.
Now, I did not hear one speech during the creation or the vote last
Thursday on this partisan commission or select committee of saying that
the people want a partisan select committee, and I am here to say that
it is important that we have one. Not one speech. But that is what we
have now. Because there are some individuals here in the Beltway that
want vindication and validation, which, I guess, vindication, not
rightfully so, but just to say, well, I had nothing to do with it and
to beat up on Michael Brown of all people. And I think there is pretty
much consensus on the fact that he did not possess the experience and
the leadership qualities to be able to carry out the mission of being
Director of FEMA. We know that. I mean, that is almost like the
President's showing up 3 or 4 days later, or what have you, after he
was supposed to be there, and saying there are a lot of homes, a lot of
flooding going on. And people say, oh, really? We saw that on TV like 4
days ago. We are getting blankets and all these things in now when they
should have had them 3 days ago. The world watched people on top of
their roofs, and thank God for the Coast Guard who were there trying to
pluck people off when we had mountains of Federal resources sitting
somewhere at some staged area while people are there starving.
I went to Mississippi, Hancock County. Folks said they had sanctioned
looting. The mayor standing out in front saying go in and get what they
need, the essentials to survive. In America. This is not behind a war
zone. This is not in a fort area. This is America where they can go in
and help people, but failed to do so.
Once again I want to make sure that I am crystal on this and we are
crystal. We are not only talking about what did not happen as it
relates to the Federal response. We are talking about the State
response. We are talking about the local parish response. We are
talking about whoever was in charge of carrying out the plan, making
sure it does not happen again. This is not isolated to the Gulf States.
This is America, because we all learned what happened on 9/11 happened
here in Washington, DC, happened in Pennsylvania with the plane going
down, happened in New York City. But guess what? Having that
independent commission helped prevent terrorism throughout the country.
LAX is a more secure airport because of the 9/11 Commission. More
secure. And I think it is important that we realize that this battle is
not on behalf of what we want on the Democratic side. The battle is
worth fighting on behalf of the American people. And I will tell the
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz) and the gentleman from
Ohio (Mr. Ryan) I know for a fact that there are some Republicans that
sit on that side of the aisle that know 110 percent that we are right.
And I will say this, just like I have said it before, when it came down
to some of the votes that took place and when I called for some of my
colleagues on the other side of the aisle to go see the wizard, get
some courage, and stand up publicly to this rhetoric of a partisan
select committee to investigate yourself.
If I messed up and I was to come to the floor and say I have decided
that I am going to investigate myself, I mean it sounds a little funny
because it is.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. It would be funny if it were not so sad.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. If it was not so sad. I will investigate myself,
and we will be back in a number of months and give our findings. That
would be fine if we did not live in a democracy. But we do live in a
democracy, and I think it is important that we call it for what it is.
It is a partisan select committee based on trying to find out what
happened or what did not happen in Katrina, and it is not bipartisan.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to
yield, let us put a little meat on this bone. Let us put a little meat
on this bone. Why do they not want us to look at this thing? Because
they know what we are going to find out. They know we are going to find
out that FEMA became a haven for political hacks, period; end of story,
dot. Political cronyism at its best. College roommates, the campaign
manager's college roommate gets the head of FEMA. They get the head of
FEMA? They have no emergency management experience at all, none. James
Lee Witt, who was there for President Clinton, was the FEMA emergency
manager for Arkansas. So if we have a bipartisan commission that maybe
is not run by this House, that will come out. It will come out that
eight of the top-level people in FEMA were all political cronies, all
political hacks given a job. We do not give people jobs in FEMA. We
give people ambassadorships who make big campaign donations. We know
that happens. But we do not put them in charge of FEMA.
What would come out is that we would find out that FEMA's budget was
slashed.
{time} 1830
All the offense that the Clinton administration was playing with FEMA
to prevent some of this stuff: budget cuts, tuck FEMA in with Homeland
Security, make it more bureaucratic, and you put a bunch of political
hacks in charge of it. That is what is going to come out. That is what
is going to come out. You cannot run down government at every turn. For
the last 10 or 15 years down here, everybody has just been running down
government: Government cannot do anything right, government is the
problem, government is bad, government is in our way, government this,
government that. Every problem in the whole world was the government's.
And then when we need the government there to help, well, no wonder it
is ineffective. It has been disrespected, the budget has been cut, we
do not have professionals there. We need the best and brightest in
government. If you keep running it down, you are not going to get them.
So that is the meat on that bone, is that they are going to find out
it was a haven for political hacks, the budget was cut, no
professionals over there, no certified emergency management
specialists. And that is what happened, and that is what will come out
if there is a bipartisan commission.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, let us make the meat on that bone
turkey, and let us talk turkey now, because beyond the partisan
commission and beyond what we are saying, which is that there should be
an independent commission so that we can truly get to the bottom of
this, let us go a step further, because there are other things going on
in Congress related to the reaction to Katrina.
We know that for the next several years we will have what will be a
massive public works effort to rebuild the Gulf States, which we will
be behind wholeheartedly, because there but for the grace of God go we,
and we would want our colleagues to do the same and be supportive if it
happened in our State. Our colleagues were very supportive of
Floridians when we faced Andrew down and the follow-up to Andrew. But
there are going to be some serious needs that will need to be met.
How is the Republican leadership talking about responding to those
needs? Well, let us go through it. First, they are talking about
keeping the tax cuts in place: Let us not touch the tax cuts, because
wealthy people, they need them. It is really important. So those are
off the table, those are off limits. On top of that, they are saying,
you know, we got some concern occasionally about the deficit, so the
right-wingers on the other side of the aisle are saying that, you know,
the cost of rebuilding the Gulf States is going to be prohibitive, and
we want to preserve wealthy people's tax cuts while we are rebuilding
the Gulf Coast States, so we need to look to some more spending cuts.
And where are they talking about those spending cuts being from? Well,
[[Page H8227]]
they are starting off with delaying the prescription drug benefit for
Medicare recipients, for senior citizens who can barely make ends meet,
for senior citizens who have to choose between medicine and meals, for
people who literally live, bottom line, day to day. Then, they are also
talking about cutting transportation projects, thousands and thousands
of transportation projects, billions of dollars.
Now, who did Katrina hurt the most? The poor people, the people who
are poverty stricken, 100,000 of them at least, who could not get out
of New Orleans and who had to go to the Superdome to be able to find
refuge. So how, when we are trying to find them jobs, are we going to
get them to those jobs if we cut transportation projects, if we do not
have mass transit assistance? That is how poor people get to work.
Where is the heart? Where is the trust? There is no heart in this
leadership, no caring, no feeling. It is all about them. It is, you
know, we got ours and the people that support us, we gave them theirs,
and we are going to make sure they keep it, and everybody else be
damned. That is what these people are all about.
When it comes down to it, over the next 14 months, as we go through a
discussion with the American people about the choices that they will
have, it is going to be about trust. Who do you trust to take care of
you? Who do you trust to be there for you in your time of need, to
protect you when you are in potential danger, and to be there for you
when it is time to clean up and help you move your life forward?
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And let us be honest. This outfit, this gang has
had their chance for the last 5 or 6 years, in Congress for the last 11
years, going on 12 years. They have had their chance. Look at FEMA.
Look at the economy. Look at the tax structure. Look at the Medicare
program. Look at the health care situation. Look at the poverty that we
saw, with no real attempt to even try to fix it. I mean, let us be
honest, there has been no attempt, none. Tax cuts? Wait a minute. How
are tax cuts helping people that can barely survive?
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, in the last few minutes, and if
the gentleman from Florida wants to go over this, I would be happy to
yield to him.
We have on our side of the aisle a series of proposals, an action
plan that Leader Pelosi has put forward related to housing and economic
security and health care that we are going to be talking about over the
next several months, because it is not all about complaining. It is not
all about we do not like what they are doing. We have a series of
proposals that we want to see happen to ensure that people can move
their lives forward. We have to make sure that these people have health
care. We have to make sure that they have roofs over their heads. We
have to make sure that they have access to jobs and job training. We
have to make sure their kids have a place to go to school and that the
communities where these kids go to school can actually make sure they
have room for them, like our community. The people coming down to south
Florida, we are exploding in our public schools. We could barely take
on another kid who is moving to south Florida voluntarily. So we have
plans, and we are going to make sure that those plans are outlined and
that we pursue them and that the American people understand that we are
going to be there for them when they need us.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Well, plans would actually be action if we were
in the majority, or if we had a majority party that were willing to
move in a bipartisan way in responding to the aftermath of Katrina. And
also what Hurricane Katrina has exposed in America is the fact that we
are not prepared to face a natural disaster or a disaster, period. We
are not coordinated in this country to be able to have a response that
will be appropriate to the American people in their time of need.
Mr. Speaker, the gentlewoman left off with what is being proposed,
and what is also being proposed is a $9 billion cut in student aid. I
know we passed a bill to kind of help with a Pell grant, but this week
the majority comes back with a $9 billion discussion of helping to pay
for Katrina. So it is almost like I am going to give you something, but
I am going to take $9 billion back.
Mr. Speaker, I am so glad that we have the opportunity to come to the
floor, and we have had to double up on 30-Something, because it is too
much, too much going on.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Too much to talk about.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. I will tell my colleagues, and I will warn my
colleagues on the majority side, especially those who are making
decisions, it is time to start making the right decisions. When you
have 8 States who say that they want the Federal Government or this
Congress to investigate oil companies, we are paying $3.50, $3.90 a
gallon; meanwhile, profits still soaring as it relates to the oil
companies that are saying, oh, we have to go up on gas prices because
the oil production is not what it should be. But they are not hurting.
There are some people who could not make it to work because they could
not afford to put a quarter of a tank of gas in their car or their
truck if it was a small business. Sure, prices went up, because they
could not move product. Diesel fuel went up, let alone jet fuel.
Flights were canceled. But, meanwhile, the folks that provide the oil,
they are having record profits. So eight Governors have asked for
intervention by this Congress.
And, I have been passed a note here that they are also predicting
that gas, based on what Rita does, could go to $5 or better. So I hate
to say to not only my constituents, but also Members of this Congress,
run out and fill your tank now, because Rita is a reality, and it is
going to be a category 5. Because we gave money away to billionaires,
not to the folks that we are talking about, not the folks that are on
the cover of these magazines. What happened? How did it go wrong? Is
this America? Question: Is this America?
Deficits. The deficits were here prior to Katrina, prior to Rita.
When this administration came into power, that is when we started
getting into deficits. We had surpluses as far as the eye could see.
So I am saying that, and I am hopeful that some of our friends,
especially the ones making decisions on the other side of the aisle,
will say, well, you know, maybe we need to rethink this.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Maybe we made a bunch of mistakes. Maybe we made a
couple mistakes.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. They do not make mistakes.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Maybe we need to sit down as adults and look at
how we can approach this and use not only the contributions, but the
wisdom of all Members of Congress into, into what? Achieving what the
American people want. That is not a radical idea. That is very simple.
We have one side of the aisle that is saying that we want to do that.
We have one side of the aisle, if given the opportunity to be in the
majority, will do that. But tomorrow, I say to my colleagues, there
will be a committee meeting, a partisan committee meeting, to organize
themselves to get to the bottom of what really happened and did not
happen, to report to the American people the truth. I will tell my
colleagues right now that that just will not fly.
I am asking, as a member of the Democratic Caucus and asking as a
Member of Congress period, and Leader Pelosi, the Democratic
leadership, I am on the second floor of a 9-floor building. Hang in
there, because there are a number of people and Americans, Republicans,
Democrats, Independents, those that cannot even vote yet and those who
choose not to vote are counting on our leadership to make sure that
this never happens again.
They deserve an independent commission to be able to look at what
happened, what did not happen. Subpoena those that need to be
subpoenaed and pulled in, because Michael Brown, as far as I am
concerned, is just crust on the pie. We are not really getting down to
what is in the pie when we deal with Michael Brown. Michael Brown is so
exposed he is just like the Washington Monument that sits in the Mall;
everyone can see it all over Washington, D.C. If you get lost here in
Washington, D.C., just look for the monument and you know you are on
the right track. Michael Brown is there. I feel bad for him, because
the guy cannot even go to the Mall without people looking at him and
saying, it was you. No, it was not Michael Brown. It was those
individuals that allowed Michael Brown to be
[[Page H8228]]
the director of FEMA. It was those individuals that made partisan
decisions based on political activity in a partisan campaign, and said
we are going to park our people here, our precinct captains in the
emergency management agency. In our time of need, we want our friends,
political friends, to be in those positions.
Better yet, even if FEMA, let us say if they did not have the ability
to be able to govern themselves in a time of a natural disaster and
respond, those individuals that were overseeing FEMA, it goes further.
Yes, the Department of Homeland Security, you have people in the White
House that are in charge of certain agencies that bring about
accountability on those agencies on behalf of the President; you have
so many people that are from the top, which is the President of the
United States, Commander in Chief, if you want to speak militarily, all
the way to the parish commissioner or levee board in New Orleans. In
that track, need it be elected, appointed, they have to be brought in
to task to make sure that it does not happen again.
Were there plans? Of course there were plans to be able to evacuate
people, to be able to make sure that the Federal response is staged,
and to go in when the winds die down to 40, the wind count or what have
you. I am not a meteorologist; I feel like one, because when you watch
TV, and it is hypnotic watching the reporting of this, 40-mile-per-hour
winds. But it did not happen. And we can get down to the truth. It very
well could be; I mean, I heard some folks from Louisiana saying, yes,
the National Guard was in there trying to do the best they could. They
did have food in the Superdome. They did have food in the Civic Center
in New Orleans. No, we were there. We were here in the streets. They
were not here by themselves. We will never know the truth until we have
an independent commission.
I am glad, once again, I am going to say it again just in case. I
want it to be printed correctly in the Congressional Record that the
leader, by not appointing to this partisan committee, select committee,
partisan, I want to say that, partisan committee that will have
partisan findings, I commend not only her leadership, not on behalf of
the Democratic Caucus, but on behalf of the American people. The
question should not be, why are you not appointing Democratic Members
to this partisan committee? It should be, why do we have a partisan
committee, select committee in the first place for this bipartisan job?
{time} 1845
Restore this bipartisan job. It is bipartisan because that is what we
call it. No, that is not bipartisan. You have 11 members on the
majority side, including the chairman who controls everything, and you
have nine members on the minority side who cannot even call a committee
meeting or call a witness up without the permission of the majority.
So once again, we are in a situation where we are saying, we will
investigate ourselves and we will get back to you in a number of months
on our findings of what we did wrong.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, you know, it certainly does not
have to be that way. It certainly was not that way when the shoe was on
the other foot, because some people listening might feel, well, you
know, this is just the way Congress does it. Congress is a partisan
body, it is a political body; and you know when one side is in charge,
they run the show. They run these investigations, and that is just the
way it is.
Well, in this situation, you have got a Republican Congress
investigating a Republican administration. And let us go back to the
Reagan years when you had the Iran-Contra scandal. Then you had a
committee set up within the Congress, which was a Democratic Congress
investigating a Republican administration, so obviously there was some
inherently built-in accountability in that situation.
And when it came to the way that committee was appointed and
developed, even internally within the Congress there was mutual
agreement on both sides of the aisle that it was done in a bipartisan
fashion. And I will quote then-Representative Dick Cheney from Wyoming
who is now our Vice President. He said, because he was one of the key
sponsors of the committee of the legislation that created the Iran-
Contra Committee, he said at that time, ``I must say the majority has
been exceedingly fair in the proceedings. The leadership of both
parties has worked in a truly bipartisan fashion to create this
committee,'' referring to the Iraq-Contra Committee.
Well, it is really unfortunate that when the shoe is on the other
foot and they have the opportunity to do the right thing and work in a
bipartisan fashion, that they are choosing not to. And it is certainly
within their discretion. It is within their choice, and they are just
wiping their hands and refusing to do it.
I know the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) is pulling over our 30-
something board, and we want to let people know how they can get in
touch with us, and we want and we urge their feedback. We want to hear
from people.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Before I give away the magic address here, I think
we just need to call this what it is. This is a Republican committee.
This is a Republican committee that will oversee a Republican mess.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. Period. Dot.
Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Period. End of story. Dot. And you might as well
put Ken Melman or Ed Gillespie in charge of the committee, because you
are going to get a political response. You are going to get a political
whitewash from this whole thing.
And the American people are going to let this stand. I made the
prediction last week, and I stand by it today, the American people will
not let this stand. When there are 11 Republicans there tomorrow
organizing this committee, you will be able to do it in a phone booth,
because the Democrats are not going to be around. We are not going to
lend any credence to this at all.
And put Ken Melman in charge of this committee because that would
reflect accurately the end response in what it is going to be.
30somethingDems, 30 the number, [email protected].
E-mail us. Let us know what you think. Tell us your thoughts. Share
with us.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, the way I want to conclude for
us, or my portion of the conclusion, is to reiterate that at the end of
the day we have plans.
If we were in charge, we would be moving to ensure that we got health
care to the people who are victims of Katrina. We would be making sure
that we helped get them some economic security. We would make sure that
there was some accountability in the process of the doling out of
contracts for the clean-up and the construction.
We would be making sure that education was of primary and paramount
concern. We would be initiating an agenda to assist people and restore
confidence in the emergency preparedness and disaster response
procedures in America.
Because Katrina was not the first hurricane that bore down on our
country; and as we have Rita churning in the gulf as a Category 5, we
know she is not going to be the last. And, you know, I think we should
conclude by praying for the people who are going to be experiencing
Rita in the next few days and sending them our best wishes and urging
them to heed the warnings that your emergency managers are going to be
sending out to you.
So I look forward to joining you again as we do each week, and now,
you know, in double session, because we have so much to talk about and
let people know what is going on here in the Congress.
Mr. MEEK of Florida. The gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman
Schultz), you are 110 percent right as it relates to individuals taking
Rita very seriously. Also I am hoping that emergency management, FEMA
and other agencies, are doing the appropriate things that they need to
do to be able to stage themselves so that individuals do not wait 3
days, 3 or 4 days.
We are coming in for a close here, but this is Louisiana,
Mississippi, or the eastern part of Louisiana, Mississippi, and, also
Alabama, and we have some of Florida in there, or all of Florida. I
think it is important for us to understand, in this area right here,
this is where Katrina struck.
The individuals that lived here had a slow response, but a response.
A slow
[[Page H8229]]
response. We had loss of life here after the storm because people could
not get what they needed as Americans. Here, this same area, President
signs a proclamation waiving Davis-Bacon which will allow these
individuals in these States, and these communities right here, real
people in these counties and the parishes right up here in Louisiana,
same place, same President, flying in there, four, five visits, what
have you, that are without a prevailing wage, which means a contractor
can go in and say, no minimum wage for this job, even though Federal
jobs in other parts of the country that are paid for with Federal
dollars, paid for, they make a prevailing wage.
It is not a union issue. This is an American issue. We want to make
sure that these folks rebuild. Better yet, the $62.3 billion-and-change
that we have appropriated here in this Congress, when it comes down to
these individuals receiving a paycheck when many of those jobs have
been shut down and some have decided was the final blow for them to
move somewhere else will not be able to receive a prevailing wage on
the tax dollars that they have given in this area.
That is why we need an independent commission. These individuals,
these very real people right here in Hancock County in Mississippi, one
of the hardest hit areas here in a FEMA trailer waiting to speak to an
operator, I know personally that they were outside for 2 hours waiting
to get into this trailer of 10 phones. 10 phones.
They deserve an independent, bipartisan commission to make sure that
the Federal response is better, quicker. So this goes far beyond
regular order that we say here in the Congress. This is not a committee
that has been standing for 50-something years and that is just the way
we do business. This is a natural disaster and failure of governance.
And that is where we come in, on the failure of governance side.
These are real Americans that are suffering. I ask our Republican
leadership, do not allow this institution to do what it is doing now.
Do not split us further by having a partisan committee meet tomorrow
because they can, not because it is the right thing, it is because they
can. That is wrong.
If we were supposed to be the shining example of government, elected
in a democracy, do not allow that to happen. Do not do it because you
can. Because I can do things as a grown up, I do not do certain things
in front of my children, because it is a bad example. This is a bad
example.
And I will tell you that it is far beyond regular order. I am talking
to my colleagues in this Congress, and you know exactly what I am
saying. This is far beyond, because we are in the majority. That is
right. We are supposed to have more people on the committee. This is a
natural unprecedented disaster.
And this was a slow response or no response at all. So I say to
Members that it is important that we do this. I want to thank, Mr.
Speaker, our Democratic leader for allowing us to come to the floor
once again.
I want to also say that it is an honor to address the House of
Representatives, but this is a very pressing time, not only for our
country, but also as it relates to our leadership, and I hope that we
can come together and make sure that we have a bipartisan independent
commission that the American people are calling for so badly.
____________________