[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19674]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HURRICANE KATRINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LIPINSKI. Mr. Speaker, the whole country continues to be focused 
on the millions of Americans who have been displaced by Hurricane 
Katrina. As we begin to understand the enormity of the situation in the 
gulf region, it is becoming clear that this is one of the worst natural 
disasters to ever strike our country. My thoughts and prayers go out to 
the families grieving the loss of their loved ones and to the survivors 
who are struggling to cope and to find shelter, food, and medical care 
in the wake of this terrible disaster.
  These are the moments that we realize that we are our brothers' 
keepers. It is clear that we must all come together to help our fellow 
citizens. And Americans are donating record amounts of money, time, and 
supplies to help those who are displaced by the hurricane. The most 
important thing right now is to make sure that we are saving lives and 
we are providing the food, shelter, and medical care for the people 
affected by this tragedy.
  As has happened in many other States, four jetliners arrived 
yesterday in my home State of Illinois with the first group of 540 
hurricane evacuees; and Illinois expects to provide housing, food, and 
medical care for up to 10,000 evacuees.
  I am pleased that Congress was called back to Washington last week 
for a special session to pass the $10.5 billion in relief funding for 
the victims of this horrific natural disaster. This funding is only the 
first step on a long and challenging path to recovery for the entire 
gulf coast region.
  Unfortunately, many of the victims have had to endure not only the 
natural disaster of Katrina but also the unnatural disaster of the 
delayed and deeply flawed relief effort. In this time immediately 
following the disaster, we have an obligation to correct the mistakes 
in crisis response. We must find answers to basic questions that the 
American people are asking right now as they watch the aftermath 
unfolding on their television screens minute by minute and hour by 
hour. They are saying over and over again to themselves, How could this 
have happened in the United States of America, the most powerful 
country on the Earth? How could our country allow people to die without 
getting them water, food, and medical care?
  One thing that is clear is that the Federal Emergency Management 
Agency, FEMA, must assume a large share of the blame for the woefully 
inadequate response to the hurricane. Somehow FEMA has lost its way. 
During the Clinton administration, FEMA was transformed into an 
exemplary and effective cabinet-level agency under the leadership of 
James Lee Witt, a veteran emergency director. Unfortunately, as part of 
the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the President and Congress moved 
FEMA from an independent, cabinet-level rank to a subagency of the 
Department of Homeland Security under the authority of the Secretary of 
Homeland Security.
  It is time for us to return FEMA to its status as a cabinet-level 
agency that reports directly to the President and establish it once 
again as an independent agency.

                              {time}  1900

  I have signed on to legislation to do this, and I urge my colleagues 
to quickly and carefully review this bill.

  We have important questions to answer about how the Federal 
Government could have better handled the events that unfolded as a 
result of this catastrophe. These are serious questions on which we all 
need to work together. We need to make sure that we are responding 
quickly not only to those in need today, but also prepare for anything 
that may happen in the future.

  Today, we live under the specter of terrorist attacks, and we may 
face a situation much worse than we have faced with Katrina. We have to 
be ready. We have to learn from this catastrophe, from the mistakes and 
the lack of adequate response, and we have to quickly fix the problems. 
As we have all too painfully seen, the lives of millions of Americans 
depend on how we handle this, depend on how FEMA handles these 
emergencies. So it depends on what we here in Congress do to correct 
this situation so it never happens again.

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