[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19679]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           HURRICANE KATRINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Corrine Brown) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, what we are witnessing in 
Louisiana and in Mississippi right now is the complete meltdown of the 
Federal Government, and in particular, the Department of Homeland 
Security. Given that the Federal Government can't even dole out 
adequate assistance to this one area of the country during this 
tragedy, how can U.S. citizens feel safe at a time when we are faced 
with the threat of a terrorist attack on a national level?
  What I find truly amazing is that the disaster planners have said 
that a direct hurricane strike on New Orleans is one of the top 3 
catastrophic scenarios facing our Nation. So how is it that the 
agencies have been so slow to respond to this crisis, claiming to have 
been caught off guard? The President himself said that the levee breach 
was not anticipated . . . how can that possibly be true? In addition, 
while the Superdome has long been considered as the city's main 
hurricane refuge spot, no supplies were stocked there before the storm 
hit on Monday. It is simply incomprehensible to me how Federal 
officials had not deployed equipment and relief supplies before Katrina 
struck land, or even bothered to mobilize in the region beforehand? 
This lack of response is outright shameful, an outrage, and an 
embarrassment!
  This is one more example of the complete failure of the Federal 
Government under the Republican led administration. Since 9/11, the 
Republican led Congress has given natural disaster preparedness 
secondary status in the Federal budget, undermining the effectiveness 
of FEMA, and has cut funding for the Army Corps floor control projects 
in and around New Orleans, and throughout the Nation.
  In the post 9/11 reorganization, FEMA joined 21 other agencies to 
form the new Homeland Security Department, and was stripped of the 
Cabinet rank that had allowed it to report directly to the President. 
Later, in a further department shuffle back in July, FEMA lost its 
mission of working with State and local governments on preparedness 
plans even before a disaster hits. FEMA used to be a very powerful 
organization, with veteran staffers, that is, up until the Bush 
administration threw everything together into one huge department, 
ironically labeling it ``Homeland Security.'' What the new department 
should have been called is the ``Department of Insecurity!''
  And now, as many here in Washington and around the country have been 
urging for the agency to have its independence restored, the Republican 
Congress has just taken away people and money, as well as power and 
authority from FEMA, doing away with our national security while doling 
out tax cuts for the rich. This agency, which in the past has given out 
hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to State and local 
responders, has now lost the ability to do so, leaving grant giving in 
the hands of the overextended Homeland Security Department. Moreover, 
the Bush administration has canceled other FEMA programs, including a 
Clinton administration-era disaster mitigation effort known as Project 
Impact. And what's more, at a time in our history when homeland 
security experts are calling for a greater emphasis on preparing for 
calamity, Michael Brown, FEMA's current director, has faced years of 
funding cuts, personnel departures and the downgrading of the 
department. And of course, worse yet, Michael Brown himself is a mere 
political appointee, who obtained his current position because of his 
close friendship with Joe M. Allbaugh, who managed President Bush's 
2000 presidential campaign. I think many would agree with me that for a 
position as important as this one, past experience in emergency 
management is crucial.
  One other terrible decision made previously in the administration was 
the transferring of the Coast Guard to the Department of Homeland 
Security. Let us remember that the Coast Guard was the first agency to 
respond to the terrorist attacks on September 11th. Within minutes 
after the attacks, their ships were guarding our bridges and waterways.
  In closing, it is clear that we really need to evaluate our country's 
ability to handle national disasters. It is simply unacceptable for the 
Federal Government to wait until there are bodies floating down rivers 
to begin activating the National Guard! Again, I would have hoped that 
FEMA would have had a contingency plan in the case of a major hurricane 
hitting the Gulf Coast. Yet obviously, they did not.

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