[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 15]
[House]
[Pages 20233-20234]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING THE OREGON NATIONAL GUARD

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to thank the Oregon 
National Guard. There is a lot of discussion here about the things that 
went wrong with the response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster; but 
yesterday, I had the experience of accompanying the adjutant general, 
Major General Fred Rees of the Oregon National Guard, to New Orleans to 
see the guard units there in action.
  We have one of the largest, if not the largest, contingents in New 
Orleans. They have one of the most difficult sectors, a large portion 
of the city, particularly the portion of the city that is still 
submerged; and I had an opportunity there to meet with the troops. They 
are basically living in battlefield conditions, eating meals ready to 
eat, sleeping in an abandoned school and a university that is vacant at 
the moment, and they are doing extraordinary work.
  One of the first people I met from the city when we made our first 
stop was a woman who was still in her house. I went to ask her why she 
was still in her house, because they have been trying to encourage 
people to evacuate. She said, well, I feel safe. I said, well, I can 
understand that. She said, no, thank God for the National Guard; I feel 
safe. She says, you do not understand. She was telling me that she felt 
safe in her neighborhood for the first time in years, an incredibly 
high crime neighborhood, because of the Oregon National Guard presence.
  Then we went on from there to the flooded areas where, in the 
preliminary stages, they are still rescuing people. The day we were 
there they rescued people; 570 people rescued so far by the Oregon 
National Guard.
  They have begun in their own small way to contribute to the 
restoration effort of the school, the high school that they are living 
in which was pretty trashed and this other university campus that they 
are on, beginning cleanup; but their efforts are just extraordinary.

[[Page 20234]]

  The thing about the National Guard is they do not just bring the 
military precision to these sorts of efforts. I mean, they have got the 
discipline, the training, the logistic support, the unit cohesion, 
those sorts of things; but they have something else special. They are 
citizen soldiers, and they have other skills, and those other skills 
are needed more than ever in a disaster, more than regular Army troops.
  They can certainly restore order. We have quite a number of police 
officers who have been heavily relied upon by other troops and other 
units of Guards not from Oregon in dealing with the residents and some 
of the problems still in the neighborhoods that they are assisting.
  We have firefighters. We have people with expertise in heavy 
equipment. They found and repaired an abandoned bulldozer to begin 
clearing streets for access around one of the headquarters. We have 
electricians who are trying to wire the school so that they can use the 
generators, at least have some basics for the troops.
  This is the National Guard at their finest. Many of these troops have 
just recently returned from Iraq. They have not even been home 6 
months, and many are signed up to go to Afghanistan next March; but I 
did not hear a single complaint. They said, this is a great mission. We 
are saving people's lives. We can see we are making a difference here. 
We are proud to serve.
  I am proud as an Oregonian to represent many of these individuals. 
The Guard is a tremendous success story in a disaster which has too 
many other problems, things that must be investigated by Congress in 
terms of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, returning it to being 
an independent, professionally run, high-functioning agency. Many of us 
objected to putting it in Homeland Security. We were all too right, 
unfortunately.
  We must oversee the relief and recovery effort. The government is 
borrowing and spending $500 million a day. That must be strictly 
overseen to make sure there is not crisis profiteering that has 
happened after some other disasters and other hurricanes. Congress has 
a role in that, and Congress then is going to have to look at the 
rebuilding effort in terms of the infrastructure that serves that area, 
the intricate infrastructure, the Corps of Engineers and what steps we 
are taking for the future, where we will rebuild, and how we will 
protect those things.
  It will be massively expensive; and in the face of that massive 
expense, in addition to a deficit, I hope that the President and the 
majority party drop their push for more tax cuts for the wealthiest 
among us. Those who earn more than $300,000 a year and those who have 
estates worth more than $6 million, should they not contribute to this 
effort? Are they not part of this country, or do they just live behind 
walled compounds with their private security and their private jets?
  We are all in this together, as was demonstrated by my citizen 
soldiers who are not paid a whole heck of a lot of money to do this. So 
let us do this right. Let us recognize the National Guard and others 
who volunteered and have done so well. So far let us support their 
effort, and let us enter into this rebuilding effort in a wise and 
cost-efficient way, protecting both the taxpayers and the people who 
have been ravaged by this storm.

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