[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19682]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE TO HURRICANE KATRINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Watson) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. WATSON. Mr. Speaker, we got word today that there will be a 
bipartisan, bicameral investigation into what went wrong in the Federal 
Government's response to Hurricane Katrina. This is welcome news. A 
full investigation will help us understand, in detail, how we can 
improve our disaster response capabilities to prevent this sort of 
mishandling from ever happening again.
  The problem is that an investigation will take months. Meanwhile, it 
is clear that the Federal Government still does not have its act 
together on this crisis; and in the meantime, people are dying.
  Here are just a few of the recent foul-ups:
  In the Gulf of Mexico, the USS Bataan, a Navy hospital ship, has been 
sitting in the Gulf of Mexico since Hurricane Katrina hit. Yet the 
Bataan's hundreds of hospital beds are still going empty.
  FEMA has requested hundreds of firefighters from around the country 
to rescue Katrina victims, but for 4 days they have been sitting idle 
in a hotel at the Atlanta airport and playing cards while studying FEMA 
history. Said one Pennsylvania firefighter, ``On the news every night 
you hear hurricane victims say, How come everybody forgot us? We didn't 
forget. We're stuck in Atlanta drinking beer.''
  On Tuesday, FEMA asked the South Carolina Department of Public Health 
to scramble on only a half hour of notice to receive 180 injured 
evacuees from New Orleans. The South Carolina doctors then waited for 
hours for the evacuees to arrive in Charleston. It turns out that FEMA 
had sent the evacuees to the wrong Charleston: Charleston, West 
Virginia, instead of Charleston, South Carolina, where the doctors were 
waiting.
  Now we hear that the director of FEMA, Michael Brown, waited hours 
after Katrina hit before submitting a plan to send FEMA personnel into 
action. This despite the fact that the President of the United States 
had declared a Federal emergency 2 days before Katrina hit.
  Mr. Speaker, Republicans are eager to accuse anyone who questions the 
Federal Government's response of ``playing politics.'' But this is not 
about politics. This is about getting answers as to why our Federal 
Government cannot protect its citizens. We cannot sit still waiting for 
hearings when it is clear that Americans are suffering and dying while 
their government officials learn on the job.
  Mr. Speaker, the Director of FEMA, Michael Brown, needs to go and to 
go now. This is not a political act; it is a humanitarian act. Who 
knows how many Americans might still be alive if someone other than Mr. 
Brown was in charge of FEMA. Mr. Brown should get out of the way so 
someone with experience can come in and fix this whole thing; and if 
Mr. Brown does not come to his senses and step aside, the President 
should remove him immediately.
  Some say that we cannot switch leaders in the midst of this relief 
effort because it would disrupt the efforts already under way. Mr. 
Speaker, I do not see how our worst enemies could disrupt our efforts 
much further. It seems the effort will be far more organized if someone 
other than Mr. Brown were in charge.
  One more disturbing trend I have noticed is the effort of 
administration officials to shift the blame to State and local 
officials for this scale of disaster. This is unconscionable, and I do 
not think the American people will really swallow it. The President 
declared Katrina to be a Federal emergency 2 days before it hit. He 
claimed responsibility for the emergency response for the Federal 
Government. Now it is time for him to take responsibility for the 
Federal Government's colossal failure.

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