[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 58 (Friday, May 12, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4515-S4518]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AFTERMATH OF HURRICANE KATRINA
Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, last Friday, May 5, at the invitation of
Senator Landrieu, I went down to New Orleans, LA, for a second trip to
the State since the hurricane. I wanted to have a chance to be able to
get around the city, meet with people, and measure the recovery effort
up close and personally now that we are 8\1/2\ months since Hurricane
Katrina.
Let me, first of all, express my gratitude to Senator Landrieu who
has been tireless, as I know Senator Vitter has. They both have been
pushing hard for their State, as they ought to. But I particularly want
to thank Senator Landrieu who spent the day with me and who, together
with me, sat through a small business roundtable with a great many
small businesspeople in New Orleans who were struggling to make things
work in the aftermath of the hurricane.
She took me around New Orleans East, and we drove through on the
interstate, able to see on both sides of the interstate the still-
current state of abandonment of so much of the city. The statistics
somehow don't really convey what is happening there and what is not
happening there.
I know Washington is a tough place to make anything mean anything
right now. We are caught up in an awful lot
[[Page S4516]]
of partisanship, and there is a lot of back and forth and not a whole
lot that is going on legislatively as a consequence of that, though we
all hope there is going to be a breakthrough on the immigration bill in
the next days. But I have to tell my colleagues that somehow we have to
find a way to break through on the reality of what is happening to a
whole bunch of folks down in New Orleans and on the gulf coast, whose
lives have been disrupted, who have all the hope in the world of being
able to return to their homes but increasingly are finding a lagging
effort and a bureaucracy and other kinds of problems standing in their
way. That has a huge cost--a huge cost. Before Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita, Louisiana had 86,000 small businesses, employing more than
850,000 people and contributing $22 billion to the local economy. Of
those 86,000 small businesses, 71,000 were in the disaster zones, and
nearly 20,000 were catastrophically destroyed. More than 365,000
residents were left homeless. But those statistics 8\1/2\ months later
do not tell the story of New Orleans.
I thought I was going to go down there and I was going to see this
incredible burst of energy of the cleanup, unbelievable numbers of
folks out in the streets loading trucks and moving debris and doing
things. But instead what I saw in New Orleans East and, most
importantly, what I heard from people who are there struggling to make
ends meet, to make this work, stunned me as to how little organized,
fundamental activity is still taking place 8\1/2\ months after New
Orleans was devastated.
When I went to New Orleans the first time in the immediate days after
the hurricane, I saw a region that was damaged by a storm but at that
point in time still very strong in spirit. I saw people determined to
turn things around and to make it work. I talked to people who proved
their resilience and their love of their State when they committed
themselves to not just not giving up, but to not leaving, to rebuilding
their homes and their businesses. On that trip I met people who felt
that if the words of the Federal Government and the State and the city
were, in fact, followed through on, they had hope for the future.
On this trip that I just made a week ago, I met with small business
CEOs. I met with people who have spent a lifetime there who are
beginning to feel a kind of despair about the lack of presence of real
leadership that is changing their lives for the better. As I went down
streets, I saw street after street after street filled with debris,
garbage bags just out in the streets, cars with the word ``tow'' on
them waiting to be towed. Eight and a half months later, we can't tow
cars.
Where were the trucks lined up with people loading them up with the
debris being taken out? I expected to see a backed-up line of trucks
with an enormous burst of energy. No such thing.
I met people in New Orleans who are increasingly afraid, angry, and
disillusioned. I was reminded by small business owners and homeowners
last week that New Orleans doesn't only have a hurricane problem, New
Orleans has a levee problem. And the levee problem is more than just a
problem of the levees that broke, it is an overall levee problem. And
if that levee problem were addressed with the speed--I know there are
some who say, well, we just allocated additional money and this and
that. I tell you, we are building bases in Iraq a lot faster than we
are rebuilding New Orleans, and we are putting more energy into saying
we will stay the course there than we are staying the course in New
Orleans.
Too little has been done in any kind of rapid fashion to help deal
with those levees with respect to the hurricane season that starts in
just a few weeks. I left New Orleans convinced that the gulf coast
doesn't have a morale problem, but I will tell you what: Washington and
the community there have a leadership problem, and it is up to us to
change it before it is too late. I want to explain that.
We all understand the response immediately after Hurricane Katrina,
and there is a lot on the record about who did what, and so forth. I
don't want to go back to that. That is not what this is about. But what
is most distressing to me is that after that lesson was supposed to
have been learned, the people I met in New Orleans told me they were
fed up with empty promises that have followed the initial shock of what
happened at the Superdome. They believe the promises have been broken
and more mistakes have been made after they had been promised that
mistakes weren't going to be repeated.
What I heard from people on a very personal level is that schools are
overcrowded, that parents are struggling to hold on because they want
to stay there, but they don't know if they can. There is an enormous
personal anxiety that takes a toll day after day after day as people
are living like that.
One of the businesses I visited is a linen and laundry business that
used to take care of all of the hospitals in the region. Well, now
there is only one trauma center open. They are paying more employees
than there is work because they want to try to keep the employees
there, but the CEO just left last week. He took his family and left New
Orleans. Gone because they don't see the revitalization taking place
that they need.
Across the way from that particular business was another business:
Tommy's Seafood. He has been there a long time. He bought a new
building. The new building was mortgaged. The new building was hurt,
damaged in the winds. So he gets the insurance check, but guess what.
The insurance check is made out to the bank. So the bank gets the money
and the building still has to be fixed.
That is not what we intended in the U.S. Congress. That is not what
disaster assistance is supposed to do in a smart way. There are all
kinds of examples like this where people are waiting for SBA loans,
trying to get the loans. They can't get the loans. More loans have been
denied than have been granted. Out of $9 billion--the administration
says: Well, we have given $9 billion in loans. Guess what. Only $1
billion of that $9 billion has actually gone out to people.
On September 15, the President spoke to the Nation from Jackson
Square, and he made a series of promises. Here is what he said:
Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what
it takes. We will stay as long as it takes to help citizens
rebuild their communities and their lives. When the streets
are rebuilt, there should be many new businesses, including
minority-owned businesses, along those streets. When the
houses are rebuilt, more families should own, not rent, those
houses. When the regional economy revives, local people
should be prepared for the jobs being created.
Over 8 months later--over 8 months later--history is repeating
itself. Too little has been provided in real response, and a lot of
time has been wasted without real solutions for getting the gulf coast
back to business. Eight months after the President stood in Jackson
Square, there aren't trucks massively lined up, hauling this debris out
of the city and garbage out of the city. In fact, there seems to be
very little activity from the Federal Government.
I know the President has been down there 12 times. That is what they
will tell you very quickly. They will tell you about the amount of aid
that has flowed into the region. We will talk about that in a minute.
The fact is, the piles of debris that remain standing before every
building are an unbelievable reminder of the devastation to people, but
they also stand as a blockade, as a barrier to the ability of
businesses to get going, to the ability of people to be able to come
back and figure out what they are doing with their homes. The more they
see that, the more a homeowner sees that kind of debris just stuck
there, the more they begin to say: This ``ain't'' happening. I am out
of here. I am out of here.
Local officials told me they have fears that mosquitoes and rodents
are carrying diseases as a result of the piles of garbage on the
streets. In the richest country on the face of the Earth, we shouldn't
have Americans abandoned to the worry that their children are going to
be at risk for Third World health problems because Washington didn't
meet its most basic obligations to those citizens. More than $10
billion in contracts have been awarded for debris removal, emergency
response, and reconstruction efforts, but where is it? Tens of
thousands of abandoned cars are still littering different streets.
There is garbage, hurricane debris, trash in front of virtually every
home or business that I saw. Most of those homes are abandoned still,
obviously.
[[Page S4517]]
Katrina pulled back the curtain, and it revealed poverty and squalor
that many didn't believe could exist in our country. But 8 months
later, after people said no more and never again, and the cameras went
away to a large degree, those images are still there on the streets of
New Orleans.
I don't know any Americans who remember what they saw in the
Superdome who feel that their dues have been totally paid by making a
one-time contribution to the Red Cross. And in the same way, when you
look at what the Federal Government response is, people in New Orleans
are left wondering whether we have come to a different conclusion.
Eight months after the President promised the revitalization of new,
small, minority-owned businesses, the businesspeople who have shown
great courage staying in New Orleans are literally fighting to keep
their doors open in the face of such a slow and woefully inadequate
Federal response. Orleans Parish, which is the center of Louisiana's
economy, had 12,695 small businesses employing 245,000 people before
August 29 of last year. Today, it is estimated that only a little more
than 2,000 of the 12,600 have opened. Where is our response? Those
businesses need people to sell things to and people need a place to
live.
The President seems to mean something when he speaks about staying
the course in Iraq, but it doesn't appear as if we are staying the
course down in New Orleans, notwithstanding the money that has been
allocated. It takes more than money. It takes a strong leader who is
rolling up his sleeves and bringing people together and organizing all
of these contractors and different efforts in a way that maximizes both
the volunteer and paid effort of the United States of America.
One person I spoke with confirmed what I could see with my own eyes.
One person said to me--this is a professional who has spent years down
there, whose home is there, who helped rescue people, who stayed
through the whole thing, and he was rescuing people in boats blocks
away from his house. He said: Basic services in 70 percent of the city
don't exist. In those areas, there is no fire protection, police
presence is minimal, there is garbage, hurricane debris, trash in front
of all of the homes. Billions have been spent. Yet the city is piled
high with debris of every kind.
Those are his words. Those are his words.
The residents of New Orleans are beginning to put their hopes
elsewhere. That is what is happening. Maybe some people want that to
happen. That is a question that ought to be asked. They are starting to
put their future in a new place. Over 3,400 private homes are for sale
in New Orleans, more than at any other time since we started tracking
this indicator 6 weeks after Katrina made landfall. This is up from
approximately 2,800 homes that were for sale in February, and it is the
highest number since October of 2005.
Jim Funk, who is CEO of the Louisiana Restaurant Association, said
the pre-Katrina restaurant workforce of New Orleans has been reduced
from 133,000 to 22,000. Only 1,500 of the almost 3,500 pre-Katrina
restaurants are back open. Of course, restaurants need people and need
workers. The unemployment rate of those who remain displaced jumped to
nearly 35 percent in March, a 54-percent increase from the month
before. Unemployment is up 54 percent from the month before, even
though we are supposed to be putting people back to work.
I met Pat Murphy, who owns United Cab. United Cab is a 66-year-old
business. He spoke at our roundtable. After wading through redtape and
months of administrative delay in a process that he described as,
quoting Pat Murphy, ``turning into harassment,'' he finally received
his SBA loan.
Why does a small business that has existed for 66 years have to go
through 8\1/2\ months of a painful process, which they term
``harassment,'' in order to get a loan after a disaster and come back
into business, from the very agency whose sole purpose is to be able to
provide that kind of assistance? The worst part is that Pat Murphy will
tell you he is one of the lucky ones. He actually received a loan, and
he knows a whole bunch of folks who are still waiting around for that
money.
Some may have heard that the administration brags about that $9
billion of disaster loans they have approved. But as I said, only one-
ninth of that, only $1 billion, has found its way into the hands of
people. Why can't you deliver the checks? If you approve it, why can't
you make sure people get it right away? Mr. President, 11 percent of
the funding has actually reached the people who are asking for it. In
addition, what is more, about half of those who applied for disaster
loans were denied. What are they going to do? All these folks who have
been denied loans have nowhere to turn.
If you are serious about revitalizing New Orleans, you have to be
willing to put that money into their hands. One of the biggest problems
they have is capital, being able to pay some people for a period of
time so they can stay. For people who need to put food on the table and
take care of their kids, if there is no certainty as to that
availability of money, they are going to go somewhere. They have to go
somewhere. What happens is the fabric of New Orleans gets destroyed
because people put down their roots somewhere else.
For those who have been fortunate enough to receive housing
assistance, they are living in front of their damaged homes, many of
them in trailers that are sitting on concrete blocks. What is the
problem with that? Let me tell you what the problem is. No. 1, the
trailers FEMA is providing cost $70,000 a piece. They are not
permanent.
Hurricane season starts in a few weeks. The National Weather Service
is predicting 14 named storms to hit the gulf during this next
hurricane season. I might add that they were accurate last year in the
number of named storms they predicted. Do you know what is going to
happen when the wind hits, 90 miles an hour, 100 miles an hour or more?
Those trailers are going to blow around, and they are going to create
more damage.
I am told by people in New Orleans you could have built modular
housing for less money with greater permanency. If you had been smart
about this, you could have set up a village of modular housing for
people who are working on their permanent housing, you could create
lumber distribution centers, you could bring carpenters from around the
country, plumbers, electricians. Labor unions from all around the
country would be willing to donate, come down and live in a special
village and then to rebuild. None of that kind of basic organization
effort that America is supposed to be so good at--that we are so good
at, when led--is taking place.
I want to know what kind of leadership spends $900 million to buy
25,000 manufactured homes and 1,300 modular homes and they can't be
used because FEMA rules say they are too big or unsafe in a flood zone.
Bureaucracy, lack of imagination, lack of willingness to do what it
takes--which is what the President said we would do in Jackson Square.
What type of leadership spends $249 million to secure 8,136 cruise
ship cabins for 6 months at a cost that Inspector General Richard
Skinner estimated at $5,100 a month per passenger, six times the cost
of renting a two- bedroom apartment?
Eight months after the promises were made, New Orleans has only one
level 1 trauma center. The largest medical complex, Charity Hospital,
needs to be rebuilt, but FEMA will only fund repairs, so they are not
going to rebuild, or can't yet.
So what do the residents of New Orleans do during the coming
hurricane season if one of those named storms is severe? Eight months
after promises were made to expand local business participation in the
recovery, guess what, FEMA is continuing its business model of hiring
megacontractors to oversee the recovery efforts. Why is it that debris
removal contract dollars aren't making it to the local businesses? We
had one particular guy who has been in business for I think it was 27
years. He does tree removal and tree work. He has not been used. In
fact, he was called and told by FEMA that they are using an outside
contractor. He is one of the people trying to stay, and they are going
to take his business away for somebody out of State.
Why are so many local contractors waiting for FEMA to pay them
millions of dollars for work they have already completed?
[[Page S4518]]
Last Thursday, the Senate passed an emergency spending bill that
includes $2.2 billion for levee reconstruction in southeast Louisiana,
$1.5 billion for Orleans Parish levee projects, and $1.3 billion for
the disaster loan program. Senator Landrieu and I offered--I
cosponsored an amendment that she proposed--two amendments. One was to
ensure the SBA sends up its disaster response plan to Congress before
June 1, which is the start of the 2006 hurricane season; and second, to
require the SBA to report to Congress monthly on the status of the
disaster loan program now and after future disasters.
Senator Landrieu, Senator Snowe, and I also cosponsored an amendment
by Senator Vitter that declares areas hit by Hurricanes Katrina and
Rita as historically underutilized business zones--HUBZones, as we call
them. It makes sure, though, that small, local businesses will get
first consideration for Federal contracts. This is something we have
been trying to get done since last September. We put that on the floor
of the Senate right after the hurricane, and still it has taken the
Congress to this day to get this done.
But that is only part of the story. We passed bipartisan legislation
which offers a more comprehensive approach to help get small businesses
back on their feet. Let me tell you what we wanted to do. We wanted to
give some small businesses grants--not loans, grants--because clearly
those small businesses are going to need a tide-over period of time
until you can get a population back that is going to begin to use them.
If you are serious about keeping the integrity of this city and you are
serious about rebuilding it and allowing those citizens who have been
told they will have the opportunity to stay there, to stay there, you
have to give them some money. They can't repay the loans if they can't
do the business right now.
How much money have we spent in Iraq that is going to turn out to be
a grant versus what is happening down in New Orleans, to our own
citizens.
The Senate passed that legislation. I will tell you what, it has been
blocked. It has been blocked since we passed it after Hurricane
Katrina. There has not even been a serious effort, despite our efforts,
Senator Snowe and mine, to try to get some sort of negotiation on it--
not even serious. It was dropped from the 2006 CJS conference, and now
it is waiting for action as a freestanding bill. This legislation
includes essential bridge loans and the grants that would help those
suffering the most to be able to keep their doors open so you do
maintain the integrity of New Orleans.
The Senate has yet to take action on a bill introduced by Senator
Landrieu which I cosponsored to follow on this other bill which has
additional provisions, recognizing the situation and the needs on the
ground. There is no excuse for us not making every good-faith effort
possible, in a bipartisan way, to do what makes sense if we are going
to keep faith with those folks and with all of our citizens, to whom
this sends a message.
I don't want to just talk about the slow response. I think we have to
find a way to get some urgency here. The businesses in the gulf coast
cannot and should not have to face bureaucratic redtape and delays.
They will not be able to last much longer. Many of the businesses that
didn't have business interruption insurance are already gone. Many
others are on the verge of closing unless they are able to secure
financial assistance in an expedited manner. These companies cannot
survive on empty promises. What Louisiana and Mississippi need,
obviously, is a level of leadership that is prepared to break through
the bureaucracy and come together and create the ingenuity and
creativity to rebuild the region.
There are a lot of Americans who would be prepared to volunteer time
if you want to organize them. That could be done. You could have a
civilian assistance corps of experts who are willing to undergo some
hardship for a period of time, live in tough circumstances--a tent city
or whatever it is--to lend their expertise to helping to rebuild and do
certain things. There are all kinds of ways you could do more cleanup
and more rebuilding in an expedited fashion.
The fact is, we saw after Katrina, when the National Guard was
there--I give them great credit. Under General Honore, a career soldier
in the Army, he showed what strong leadership, what a hierarchal
organization with clear lines of command, what a real structure could
bring. In those areas where the National Guard did cleanup and did
immediate work, a great deal happened. That is what should have
continued. But guess what. They have gone. I thought we were going to
stay as long as it takes. I thought we were going to do whatever it
takes. Those are the words of the President. But they are gone. They
could be there today still doing things if we had the will.
New Orleans is one of the great cities of our country. It has an
amazing history, a diverse and ethnically rich population, and great
culture. I think every American has a stake in its resurrection.
I thank Senator Landrieu again for inviting me there for a firsthand
look. I really thought I was going to see something very different. I
know there have been about 40 Senators or more who have gone down there
at one point or another. They have seen a lot of this with their own
eyes. It just defies my sense of what the possibilities are in our
country. With all of the unbelievable equipment we have, with all of
the skilled labor we have, with the volunteer spirit of our Nation, it
is stunning to me that we are not proceeding more rapidly to do for New
Orleans what New Orleans needs.
My hope is that we will pass those bills I talked about and that over
these next 8 months, over the next months, we can ramp up.
Everybody said never again. I will tell you what is happening in New
Orleans today. The images people saw at the Superdome, of people who
felt abandoned, who didn't have adequate shelter, while misjudgments
were being made around them by those who were supposed to be
responsible, is actually being repeated at this very moment.
There is a Superdome II taking place in New Orleans today, for those
citizens who can't get back on their feet, who don't know what to do
with their property, for the 70 percent of the city that has no basic
services, for the people who cannot move because of the debris or the
garbage, the people who don't have a prayer of getting their home going
again or their business going again because of the lack of adequacy of
the housing and a clear plan that says to them with certainty that
there is a future. Right now, that future for a lot of folks is very
difficult.
One of the problems I heard about from a number of responsible
people--there were chamber folks there and other folks there--is the
mental health issue. There are a lot of citizens who have been living
under an extraordinary level of stress since Hurricane Katrina. Some of
them have lost family members. Almost all are struggling to pay bills.
It is hard to think about the future. That stress takes its toll.
I was told how crime is rising, about how the sense of despair is
taking a greater toll, and how there is going to be a larger mental
health problem within that region, as a consequence of the lack of
adequacy of response and the plight in which people find themselves.
We can do better. I think everybody here knows we can do better.
We have strong leaders in this country. We have excellent generals
and military personnel. They know how to manage. We have business
leaders who run extraordinary companies, who understand the hierarchy
and understand how to get things done. Clearly, FEMA doesn't, and
clearly whatever the structure is that is there, it is inadequate to
get the job done.
My hope and prayer is that we can deliver on the promises to New
Orleans and turn this around.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________