[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 14]
[Senate]
[Pages 19465-19467]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 KATRINA AFTERMATH AND RECOVERY EFFORTS

  Mr. FRIST. I did have the opportunity to travel to the gulf coast and 
participate, not as a Senator but as a volunteer physician, and to see 
firsthand the tremendous response on the ground among our medical 
personnel, our health personnel, and our volunteers, but also to 
witness firsthand that scope of human suffering and need that was 
caused by last week's catastrophe, which affected those three Gulf 
States and indirectly affected the entire region--indeed, the entire 
country. What I saw was staggering. Hurricane Katrina now stands as the 
largest natural disaster in American history.

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Ninety thousand square miles, an area larger than the United Kingdom, 
have been utterly devastated.
  Many of my colleagues have had the chance to fly over that region. As 
we all know, many of our colleagues and their families have been 
directly and personally impacted. The cities are flooded, the entire 
coast along southern Mississippi destroyed, towns demolished, farmlands 
turned to swamp, transportation, distribution channels totally wiped 
out, and local communication destroyed, slowly coming back but totally 
destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of residents affected across these 
three States are now displaced.
  In our leadership meeting a little while ago, we went around the 
table. Everybody has received the displaced persons in numbers of 
thousands and thousands.
  Many of these people have health problems, short-term and long-term 
problems, that must be addressed. It is going to take all of us pulling 
together to do this.
  Secretary Leavitt, Health and Human Services Secretary, estimates 
that thousands of innocent people have died in the hurricane's wake. As 
the floodwaters recede, more and more bodies, unfortunately, will be 
found--people who were unable to escape the torrential flooding that 
took place shortly after the hurricane struck. The loss is so profound 
that none of us will be able to express what we have seen or what we 
feel in words.
  I have had a chance to be in other areas, in Sri Lanka after the 
tsunami and in the Darfur region in Sudan. Everybody says, Is this 
worse? How do you compare it? You can't compare it; all were tremendous 
tragedies. But I will say that what I had the chance to see there, in 
terms of the mass of humanity in that convention center and in the New 
Orleans airport, I can't compare it to anything I have seen, even 
having seen such tragedies elsewhere in the world.
  One of the other things I need to mention early on is that human 
connection you do see when you are in the middle of a response such as 
this--the compassion, the concern. You saw patients lying together on 
scores and scores of stretchers, hundreds of stretchers that were on 
the floor, and you have one patient leaning over, taking care of 
another patient even though they didn't know each other. Patients were 
taking care of themselves, especially early on when there was a clear 
shortage of personnel to respond to that initial disaster, as people 
came flowing into the airport.
  You had rescue workers from all walks of life, volunteers from 
college campuses, health personnel from what are called DMAT or 
disaster medical assistance teams from around the country, all enduring 
crushing heat and exhaustion to pour out their hearts and use those 
skills they had, whatever those skills, so we could maximize that 
response to those people being evacuated from this place.
  Volunteer workers were from the State of the distinguished President 
pro tempore, the State of Alaska. I had the opportunity to work side by 
side with them, and with volunteers from Hawaii and from Tennessee. I 
saw a number of my colleagues from medical college, from Vanderbilt in 
Nashville, and Boston, MA, where I worked in the past. They were 
contributing in such a positive way.
  Many people were so moved by the stories they read they got on the 
road and went to that Gulf State region to volunteer their services. 
They didn't ask; they didn't pay attention to the redtape or people who 
said stay away, and went in. They were all very useful as they poured 
out their hearts to those who were suffering from this catastrophe.
  I have to also mention the Knox County Volunteers, because the 
sheriff's department there sent down several helicopters early on, 
again before even being asked, and they were very instrumental in 
dropping food and dropping supplies and helping people trying to 
evacuate their homes. I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with 
them for both days, both at the convention center where we spent time, 
as well as at the New Orleans airport and, indeed, over in Mobile, AL. 
They were there and all along the Mississippi coast, as we touched down 
there.
  I will have more to say about what I have been able to observe in 
those experiences because I think it does reflect both the misery but 
also the great compassion and the pulling together, the great spirit of 
the American people that we are going to absolutely have to call upon 
as we continue to address this tragedy.
  We in the Senate are acting. We are acting aggressively and 
responsively and early. We are going to continue to do so. This has 
become our major priority, even though there are a lot of other issues 
we are addressing. We have the skyrocketing energy prices, gasoline 
prices, and oil prices. We have the ongoing war in Iraq. We have the 
judicial nomination which is underway. And we have the response to 
Katrina. The response to Katrina right now, because it is an ongoing 
catastrophe, an ongoing natural disaster, needs to be first and 
foremost. We are acting and we are going to continue to act 
aggressively.
  Last Thursday night we came in and the Democratic leader and I helped 
usher through, in a highly unusual emergency session, the $10.5 billion 
aid bill. As we said then, that was only the beginning. We have so many 
urgent responsibilities now that we will be working together in a 
bipartisan way to address these issues.
  Last Tuesday we sent out a note to all committee chairmen to begin 
bringing their legislative proposals to us. Over the next 48 hours we 
will be talking to each of the chairmen and ranking members, to pull 
together their ideas both for the immediate response and the midterm 
response and the long-term response. There are a lot of human, 
practical needs that have to be addressed right now. The Federal 
Government has a major role as we look at health and we look at social 
services and we look at housing and we look at food and we look at 
shelter, and then, in the longer term, solutions to putting the Gulf 
Coast back on a fast track to recovery and to rebuild, and rebuild with 
a goal of even greater prosperity in the future.
  The Energy Committee is conducting hearings today and will be 
addressing the supply/demand issues. There will be many more hearings 
addressing these issues. I have encouraged our Members to look at some 
of these real warning flags that have arisen, things such as the price 
gouging and excessive profit taking by energy companies and by oil 
companies. These are issues we have to be aggressive with, especially 
in this time of need.
  Even before the hurricane hit, having spent about 2 weeks traveling 
across Tennessee, listening, we heard again and again the price of 
gasoline and diesel at the pump was wiping out any margins of even 
survival for many farmers and people who rely on our transportation 
industry.
  I do want to call upon the energy industry and the energy sector to 
be a responsible corporate actor. If not, there is going to be a real 
focus placed by this Congress because they absolutely must respond 
appropriately. I mention that because of the reports, people calling in 
about price gouging and excessive profit taking. If that is occurring 
anywhere, it absolutely must be reported immediately to the Department 
of Energy and must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
  We have asked the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 
Committee to conduct vigorous oversight hearings on what went wrong 
during those initial days and hours, and what lessons we can learn from 
this awful tragedy. Most of our response and energy needs to be focused 
on the victims right now, both their evacuation and responding to their 
needs, but at the same time that committee will begin their vigorous 
oversight hearings in an orderly way to collect the appropriate 
information. Emergency response was unacceptable early on and in many 
ways I saw it firsthand as a medical volunteer. We have to fix it. 
Those sorts of things should not happen in America today.
  Every issue before us we will be addressing. Again, we are just 
coming back in. I look forward to doing that.

[[Page 19467]]

One of the biggest problems on the ground will be the issues 
surrounding communications, command and control structures, and we will 
be addressing the longer term issues of housing long term but also 
temporary housing, and issues such as health coverage and unemployment 
insurance, getting power back, restoring the ports back to activity, 
dredging channels for those displaced, and making sure their insurance 
coverage--if they were so lucky to have insurance--is actually provided 
to them in a timely way.
  Let me close by simply saying I am humbled and inspired by the 
tremendous generosity of all Americans who have given so much of 
themselves and their time and their energy over the last several days--
and their money--and the resources of compassion. I thank you and I 
know America thanks you.
  We are going to have to continue to invest. We are going to have to 
continue to pull together. The Senate is rolling up its sleeves. It has 
done so. We are at work and will work aggressively to respond 
appropriately.
  I am confident that America will be able to meet the challenges that 
lay ahead. Through all of this, we will be made stronger and better and 
more unified and more hopeful as we pull together as a government and 
as a people in this time of crisis. The American people are leading the 
way, and together we will all be able to overcome these challenges.


                           The Supreme Court

  Tomorrow, I will have more to say about Chief Justice Rehnquist and 
the nomination of Judge Roberts for Chief Justice.
  Today, let me briefly say the Senate and the Nation mourn the loss of 
the Chief, as he was affectionately known by so many of us and known on 
the Supreme Court. We will all miss Chief Justice Rehnquist--from his 
brilliant legal mind to his efficient and effective administration of 
the Supreme Court.
  We look forward with confidence as the President's new nominee for 
Chief Justice, Judge Roberts, is considered. Judge Roberts learned from 
the best. He was, in fact, a clerk, as we all know, for then-Associate 
Justice Rehnquist. There is no doubt in my mind that Judge Roberts has 
the temperament, has the skill, and has the mind to lead the Supreme 
Court for decades to come.
  With that, we have a lot to do. I know the Democratic leader has a 
statement. Then we will have time this afternoon after our lunches for 
people to come back and make statements as well.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, it is my understanding the Senate, under the 
standing order, is to go out of session at 12:30 today. Is that right?
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. That is correct.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent, if my remarks take 
a little bit longer, that we wait until after my remarks to put the 
recess.
  The PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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