[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 31 (Tuesday, February 26, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H1057-H1058]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT ADMINISTRATION HAS FAILED DISPLACED GULF 
                            COAST RESIDENTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker and Members, I rise today to share with this 
body the unbelievable circumstances surrounding the victims of 
Hurricanes Rita and Katrina.

[[Page H1058]]

  I thought the American people had been shocked at the lack of 
response by our Government to the victims of these hurricanes. I 
thought the American people could hardly ever get over the fact that 
they witnessed victims of a natural disaster held up in a convention 
center in New Orleans for days without food, without water, begging for 
help.
  It was unbelievable when we discovered that the head of FEMA, Mr. 
Brown at the time, said that he did not know that those victims were 
out in front of the convention center waving white flags, inside the 
convention center sick and even dying.
  It was unbelievable to witness one of the richest, if not the richest 
country in the world with the lack of adequate response to its citizens 
at a time when we were needed most.
  And so we're trying to work through this. We have been working to try 
and get money to the gulf coast, to New Orleans, to Mississippi. We 
have tried to work to save public housing so that residents could 
return who had been evacuated and told that the housing would be 
rehabilitated and they could return.
  Many of us have been pushing not only on FEMA and our government, but 
working with the State and local government trying to correct the 
injustices that we have now come to know that have taken place in the 
gulf coast.
  And now we're confronted with another unbelievable situation. How 
much bungling can you do? How much mismanagement can you be responsible 
for?
  Finally, we find there's more. The Federal Emergency Management 
Administration, that is, FEMA, has admitted what people living in 
trailers have known for several years: that these trailers contain high 
levels of formaldehyde that pose serious health risks for residents. 
Almost after moving in, trailer residents started to complain about 
respiratory and other formaldehyde-related health problems.
  The first private study on the unacceptable levels of formaldehyde in 
these trailers was in 2006. A few months later, the Occupational Health 
and Safety Administration conducted its own testing and found 
formaldehyde concentration as high as 5 parts per million, or 50 times 
higher than the level the Environmental Protection Agency considers 
elevated. But FEMA didn't stop the sale or deployment of trailers until 
July of 2007. And here it is 2008, and it still has no plan to move 
families out of these environmental health hazards and into safe, 
permanent, and affordable housing.
  Mr. Speaker and Members, we've got to force FEMA to rise to the 
challenge of getting these 38,000 families out of these toxic trailers 
as soon as possible and move them into safe, permanent, and affordable 
housing. Unfortunately, because affordable housing creation has not 
been a priority of this Bush administration, I know this is going to be 
a difficult task.
  The Bush administration has failed to ensure that the gulf coast 
region has an adequate supply of affordable housing for its displaced 
persons, including those in trailers. The administration approved 
redevelopment plans in Mississippi and Louisiana that provide less 
affordable housing than was available before Hurricane Katrina. It even 
allowed, believe this, the State of Mississippi to move $600 million 
away from housing assistance to the redevelopment of the Port of 
Gulfport.
  Now, mind you, there are still people who are out of State who want 
to come home. There are still people living in trailers. There are 
still people doubled up with family members. And this administration, 
this Housing Secretary said to the State of Mississippi, go ahead and 
take $600 million from housing assistance and you can go ahead and use 
it for the redevelopment of the port.
  In New Orleans, the administration has approved the demolition of 
4,500 units of public housing, with no regard to the fact that there 
are 12,000 homeless persons who could have benefited from having a roof 
over their heads. The demolition of New Orleans' public housing during 
an affordable housing crisis is a prime example of this 
administration's shortsightedness and lack of concern for our country's 
lowest income renters.
  Mr. Speaker and Members, I simply close by saying, here we are, FEMA 
again, mismanagement, lives at stake. They have no answers.

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