[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 15]
[House]
[Pages 20120-20121]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  TEXAS RESPONSE TO HURRICANE KATRINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kuhl of New York). Under a previous 
order of the House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gene Green) is 
recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this 
opportunity to again update my colleagues on the effort of Houston's 
and Texas' response to Hurricane Katrina evacuee relief efforts.
  From attending daily morning emergency operations meetings in 
Houston, I can bring a firsthand account of our progress. The city of 
Houston, which has a Democratic mayor, Bill White, and a Republican 
county judge, Robert Eckels, has produced an amazingly successful 
relief effort, hand in hand without partisanship or jurisdictional 
bickering.
  I have always held Texas politics up as an example of the principle 
that puts people first and politics second. While we have not always 
upheld that principle recently, our response to Hurricane Katrina shows 
the best in Texas

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government, a single-minded focus on getting things done.
  The Harris County Housing Department at Reliant Astrodome Complex has 
been doing an incredible job of moving evacuees out of cramped, 
uncomfortable shelters and into secure, medium-term housing situations. 
The Harris County Hospital District, our public hospital district, 
created a clinic almost overnight to treat our guests from the storm.
  The University of Texas Health Science Center has also been a key 
asset at the George R. Brown Convention Center, where they are 
providing on-the-ground health care support to evacuees with all 
varieties of health care conditions, from children to the elderly to 
the disabled.
  We have had our problems too. FEMA's communications capability has 
been slow. We have not been able to process people over the Internet or 
over the phone as fast as we would like. Faster FEMA registration is 
not just a matter of convenience. The faster we can register people for 
assistance, the faster we can get them out of that shelter which 
reduces the threat to public health from infectious disease.
  Housing right now is our number one concern. We have over 40,000 
evacuee residents already in hotels and motels in the Houston area. We 
have moved 228 families into housing over this past weekend while I was 
in Houston. As a result of our efforts in Houston, the numbers of 
evacuees at shelters are going down dramatically, which is good. 
Sharing a cot on the Astrodome floor with your family is not what I 
would call a long-term solution. It is very short term.
  However, FEMA's reimbursement certainty is also necessary for 
housing. The city and the county have been trying to get a master hotel 
contract with FEMA to speed the payment. We do not have the financial 
reserves to pay hotel bills for tens of thousands of people 
indefinitely. We understand that this situation is unprecedented, but 
we cannot let red tape hold up the need of the folks that are there.
  I am glad that FEMA now says the public assistance to Houston is 
expected to start flowing soon, within the next 1 or 2 weeks. Our 
reserves are running thin and help cannot come soon enough.
  Texas generosity has been displayed from the businesses to 
individuals, but our local tax base cannot absorb the additional 
400,000 people in the State or the 200,000 people in the Houston area. 
Red tape must be eliminated. Houston is still waiting on reimbursement 
from expenses from Tropical Storm Allison, which hit Houston over 4 
years ago. We will be watching and calling and meeting with FEMA 
representatives repeatedly over the next 2 weeks on these reimbursement 
issues.
  We cannot afford to wait until 2009 to be reimbursed for the 
sheltering, housing, transportation, feeding, clothing, and medical 
expenses of tens of thousands of these evacuees. This situation is 
unprecedented since the Civil War, which is the last time we had such a 
large number of out-of-state evacuees.
  Our laws and regulations very well may need to change to adapt to our 
new situation, and they should. The next mass dislocation like this 
could very well be the next hurricane that could hit Houston or a 
terrorist attack that could hit any city in our country. That is why 
Medicaid legislation that I had introduced gives the executive branch 
the authority to fully reimburse the State's Medicaid share it would 
otherwise have to pay for out-of-state evacuees.
  For every evacuee, that is a resident of Texas who cannot afford to 
be put on Medicaid now, who must survive without health coverage. That 
is not acceptable. This is a national disaster and a national public 
health emergency, so the Federal Government should bear the 
responsibility.
  On the plus side, I am pleased to see the announcement by Secretary 
Leavitt freeing up funding for the four new federally qualified health 
centers that were scheduled to receive funding in December. While this 
funding will be a big help, it does mean that we will have to serve 
more people for a longer period of time than expected. HHS should have 
the ability to reimburse federally qualified health clinics' costs for 
serving the uninsured evacuees.
  In addition to housing and medical care, childhood education is also 
a concern. Our local schools have taken thousands of students impacted 
by Hurricane Katrina, seven school districts that provide education in 
my own congressional district of Houston. They have taken over 5,000 
students in the last week, and we see more students coming every day.
  Even though our schools are already at capacity, we are meeting the 
challenge of educating the children in the gulf coast impacted by 
Hurricane Katrina. Estimates by the State show this may cost Texas over 
$450 million to serve the children that have come to Texas. Currently, 
FEMA will offer some assistance for these costs, and the Department of 
Education is unsure of what assistance they can grant. This issue is 
calling out for a solution by Congress, and we must step up.
  Mr. Speaker, I cannot say enough about the efforts of our Mayor White 
and County Judge Eckels in Houston; but more importantly, their 
leadership has been more than matched by the efforts of government 
workers and individual volunteers on the ground. As a result, Houston 
is showing its best side to the Nation. And I am proud to be part of 
our relief effort, but our effort is unsustainable without Federal 
financial assistance.
  Hurricane Katrina has devastated Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama. 
The ability of our local governments to provide vital services is now 
at risk of devastation as well. We need Federal help in this natural 
and national disaster.

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