[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 57 (Thursday, May 11, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S4478]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 94--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF CONGRESS THAT 
THE NEEDS OF CHILDREN AND YOUTH AFFECTED OR DISPLACED BY DISASTERS ARE 
     UNIQUE AND SHOULD BE GIVEN SPECIAL CONSIDERATION IN PLANNING, 
  RESPONDING, AND RECOVERING FROM SUCH DISASTERS IN THE UNITED STATES

  Mr. COCHRAN (for himself and Ms. Landrieu) submitted the following 
concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Homeland 
Security and Governmental Affairs:
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, the hurricanes of last summer brought new 
demands on all of our nation's rescue resources. The needs of children, 
particularly young children and their families, are unique and not a 
part of local and national recovery plans. Mental health, physical 
needs, day care, education, and family separation continue to be needs 
that for communities to address.
  The National Center for Rural Early Childhood Learning Initiatives 
and the non-profit Save the Children, continue to lead the focused on 
the special needs of children. While assessing damages and recording 
destroyed facilities, the Rural Early Childhood center and Save the 
Children, with assistance from others, also developed a plan for future 
disasters.
  Today I am introducing a Senate concurrent resolution that expresses 
the sense of the Senate that the Federal Emergency Management Agency 
should consider the unique needs of children and consider the recent 
experiences, suggestions and solutions of organizations and research 
centers. We ought to support the incorporation of child-specific needs 
and concerns into the National Response Plan. The Senator from 
Louisiana, Ms. Landrieu, is cosponsoring this resolution. We invite all 
Senators to join us.

                            S. Con. Res. 94

       Whereas major disasters resulting in Presidential disaster 
     declarations in the United States have increased from an 
     average of 38 per year in the 1980s, to 46 per year in the 
     1990s, to 52 per year during the first half of this decade;
       Whereas the occurrence of major disasters in the United 
     States is expected to continue to increase in the foreseeable 
     future;
       Whereas the number of people in the United States affected 
     by disasters each year is a staggering 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 
     as measured by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (even 
     outside of truly catastrophic events as occurred on the Gulf 
     Coast in 2005);
       Whereas 5,192 children were reported missing or displaced 
     to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children as a 
     result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and it took 6 \1/2\ 
     months to reunite the last child separated from her family;
       Whereas the most serious of such cases were those 45 
     children arriving at shelters separated from parents or 
     guardians with no adult supervision and it took more than 1 
     month to resolve all of those cases;
       Whereas 1,100 schools were closed immediately following 
     Hurricane Katrina and 372,000 schoolchildren were initially 
     unable to attend school in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast due 
     to the hurricane;
       Whereas in Mississippi 7 percent and in Louisiana 21 
     percent of elementary schools and secondary schools remained 
     closed 6 months after Hurricane Katrina;
       Whereas more than 400,000 children under the age of 5 live 
     in or have evacuated from counties or parishes that have been 
     declared disaster areas by the Federal Emergency Management 
     Agency;
       Whereas the numbers of licensed child care facilities in 
     areas affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita declined by 4 
     percent (54 facilities) in Mississippi and by 25 percent (356 
     facilities) in Louisiana after the storms;
       Whereas children are known to benefit from rapid mental 
     health programming following disasters to mitigate longer 
     term impacts;
       Whereas the existing system of disaster management in the 
     United States is the purview of Federal, State, and local 
     government emergency management organizations and the 
     disaster management programs and activities of these 
     organizations are not mandated nor are able to fully respond 
     to the unique needs of children;
       Whereas Federal, State, and local government emergency 
     management professionals lack the technical knowledge, 
     support, and contacts to address the unique needs of children 
     that need to be incorporated into such professionals' 
     disaster management programs and activities; and
       Whereas existing legislative constraints on Federal 
     disaster response and recovery aid programs restrict disaster 
     officials from responding to the specific needs of children 
     in a disaster and there is no government liaison or program 
     concerning children's issues in disasters: Now, therefore, be 
     it
       Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives 
     concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) the needs of children and youth affected by major 
     disasters are unique and should be given special 
     consideration in planning, responding, and recovering to 
     major disasters; and
       (2) the Federal Emergency Management Agency should consult 
     with appropriate child-focused non-governmental organizations 
     and public university national research centers with 
     experience in addressing the needs of children in major 
     disasters to address the needs of children and youth in 
     disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation, 
     including by--
       (A) incorporating suggestions from such organizations on 
     children's issues into the National Response Plan;
       (B) seeking the recommendations of such organizations on 
     how to address the needs of children in emergency shelters, 
     trailer parks, and transitional housing sites;
       (C) jointly developing child-, family-, early childhood 
     service-, and school-focused disaster preparedness materials 
     to support understanding of the impact of disasters on 
     children and strategies to mitigate them; and
       (D) jointly developing risk assessment tools for 
     communities to use in determining children's specific 
     disaster risks.

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