[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 20175]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     RED TAPE AND HURRICANE RELIEF

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, many of us were appalled at the red tape that 
hindered the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. Hundreds of surgeons and 
paramedics were stranded in a state-of-the-art mobile hospital without 
patients to treat, prevented by Louisiana State officials from 
mobilizing their taxpayer-funded hospital closer to the disaster zone. 
State homeland security officials prevented the Red Cross from trucking 
in supplies in the immediate aftermath.
  Police shut down a key bridge after the hurricane hit, preventing 
escape by victims of the storm. Churches in Louisiana asked by FEMA to 
take in victims of the hurricane have received no financial assistance 
from the agency, because FEMA cannot offer assistance to uncertified 
faith-based groups.
  Survivors sleep on the floors of these churches while FEMA is storing 
unused cots in Louisiana warehouses. The worst thing that can come from 
all of these hearings, investigations, and commissions is more red tape 
of the sort that has slowed current relief efforts and probably cost 
many, many lives.

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