[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 56 (Friday, March 30, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E699-E700]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      INTRODUCING THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY CENTERS ESTABLISHMENT ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. ALCEE L. HASTINGS

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 29, 2007

  Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today to reintroduce 
the National Emergency Centers Establishment Act, a bill I first 
introduced in the 109th Congress.
  Many of us share the belief that the Federal Government's response to 
Hurricane Katrina was disorganized and inadequate; the Federal 
Emergency Management Agency--FEMA--was far too slow to arrive and 
evacuees were left stranded in massive shelters with egregious standard 
of living violations.
  Sixteen months following the devastation wreaked by Hurricane 
Katrina, more than 13,000 residents who were displaced by the storm 
were still living in trailers provided by FEMA. Eighteen months after 
Katrina, half the homes in New Orleans still did not have electricity. 
FEMA had informed Congress that 60,000 families in Louisiana still live 
in 240-square-foot trailers--usually at least 3 to a trailer.
  Even President Bush realizes the shortcomings of our Federal 
Government to respond to the immediate and long-term needs of these 
disaster victims.
  As recently as March 1, 2007, President Bush acknowledged that many 
gulf coast residents remained frustrated with the slowness of 
rebuilding after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and pledged to continue to 
help hurricane victims and their communities rebuild.
  The sluggish and derisory reaction of our Federal Government to 
disaster victims affects me personally. In 2004, four hurricanes 
ravaged my home State of Florida, all of which literally destroyed 
parts of the counties in my district. In the immediate and long-term 
aftermath, our communities saw FEMA's shortcomings. Eighteen months 
after Hurricane

[[Page E700]]

Wilma struck in 2005, citizens are still residing in trailers labeled 
on the outside ``FEMA.''
  The lack of natural disaster preparedness efforts and temporary 
housing options for disaster stricken citizens has only exacerbated an 
unbearable situation. Deficient recovery responses have led to 
elongated recovery rates in my district and across this Nation.
  Two main problems--increasing the availability of temporary housing 
in times of national emergencies and improving training and 
preparedness for national emergencies--must be resolved to ensure that 
the humanitarian catastrophe that occurred in the gulf coast and 
continues to happen today will never occur again.
  We have an obligation to better prepare and more adequately respond 
to the needs of communities hit by natural disasters. We have a 
responsibility to ensure that the most basic needs of disaster victims 
are met immediately following the devastation.
  It is for this reason that I come to the floor today to introduce the 
National Emergency Centers Establishment Act. My bill establishes no 
fewer than six National Emergency Centers spread throughout the United 
States. The centers would be used, first and foremost, to provide 
temporary housing, medical and humanitarian assistance, including 
education, for individuals and families displaced due to an emergency. 
The centers would also serve as a centralized location for the training 
and coordination of first responders in the instance of an emergency. 
In addition, the centers will improve the coordination of preparedness, 
response and recovery efforts between governments, private, not-for-
profit entities and faith-based organizations.
  The National Emergency Centers would be located on military bases, 
with a preference wherever possible for those installations closed 
during the most recent Base Realignment and Closures--BRAC--round. I am 
proposing these sites because the necessary infrastructure to house, 
feed, educate and care for evacuees over an extended period of time is 
already in place, thus limiting the cost and time needed to construct 
these facilities.
  Madam Speaker, our Nation was not prepared for the disastrous 
hurricanes that struck Florida and the gulf coast in 2004 or in 2005. 
The establishment of National Emergency Centers will go a long way to 
ensuring that our response to national emergencies are not as 
disastrous as the disasters that created the emergencies in the first 
place.
  I ask for my colleagues' support and urge the House leadership to 
bring this legislation to the floor for its swift consideration.

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