[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 15]
[House]
[Pages 20466-20472]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       30 SOMETHING WORKING GROUP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania). Under the 
Speaker's announced policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Meek) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the 
minority leader.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, once again, it is an honor to come 
before the House of Representatives; and, also, we would like to thank 
the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the Democratic leader; 
and also the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the whip; and the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez), the caucus chairman; and the 
gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Clyburn) who is our vice chair, and 
all of the hardworking Members of this Congress.
  I think it is important for us to remember, and I think in a few 
short minutes the President will address the country from New Orleans 
and the French Quarter, about the Federal commitment to the hurricane-
devastated areas. He will be in Louisiana, but I would assume he will 
also be addressing Mississippi, Alabama and some of the other 
surrounding areas that were affected by Katrina.
  I will tell you, Mr. Speaker, that I think it is important that we 
look at the contrast of what exactly the Federal commitment will be. 
There has been a lot of words, a lot of Federal jet fuel burned of the 
President and the Vice President going down to the affected area. There 
has been a lack of organized congressional visits for us to even 
understand what those people are going through in the South.
  We are going to be talking a little bit about, the 30 Something 
Working Group, the Federal commitment and the response not only to 
rescue and recovery but also the response to a national tragedy.
  There have been some good statements and some very disturbing 
statements, and I think the Members need to realize what has been said, 
what has been done and what has not been done.
  I think it is important, if we are going to follow through on some of 
these statements that have been made here on this floor, if we are 
going to follow through on what the President would say tonight in 
another 20 minutes to the country, are we going to be here for the long 
haul or are we going to give the people affected in the South what we 
call here in Washington, D.C., the Potomac two-step?
  Are we going to try to ride this media cycle out?
  Are we going to allow big-time contractors to go down, make a bucket 
of money on the back of tragedy and cut the wages for those very same 
people that were victims? Are we going to allow that to happen?
  Are we going to allow this House, in a vote that we took today, that 
I voted against, not that I am not in solidarity of the reason why we 
wanted to put together a select committee of the oversight of what 
happened in Hurricane Katrina, but the fact that the people of the 
South are not getting what the 9/11 families got and the American 
people got after 9/11.
  So there is a reason I think why we are heading off, and there are 
strange votes that are taking place. We say we do not want to 
politicize the process, but we step out on politics. We say we want to 
get to the truth, either it be city or parish or State or Federal 
Government, but, better yet, we take congressional action that does not 
even carry the language to allow us to get to the truth, does not have 
the bipartisan not only flavor but bipartisan language.
  If we are going to do something in the Congress to find out where 
government failed, where nonprofit failed and not have a 50-50 
relationship with the majority side to be able to get to the truth, we 
are going to see partisan votes on that select committee.
  I stand with the Democratic leader and I know many of the 30 
Something Working Group stand with the Democratic leader as it makes to 
not even making an announcement now, even if we are going to appoint 
Members to that select committee because I will tell you 710 lives that 
have been lost. Better yet, we are going to appoint a committee just 
like it is regular business here in the Congress. Also, the largest 
supplemental, I must add, in the history of the Congress and this 
country, outside of a war supplemental. Some are saying it will go to 
$200 billion.

                              {time}  1945

  Well, if it goes to $200 billion, what will be the Federal commitment 
in the end? A, we know the people that will be working in the 
rebuilding process that are victims of this hurricane will not receive 
the prevailing wage because Davis-Bacon has been waived. They will not 
receive what other Federal contractors will receive using Federal 
money. We know that from the beginning. We are going to shortchange 
them from the beginning. We know they need money to rebuild, yet we are 
going to do that.
  The whole issue, when it comes right down to it, I say to my 
colleague from Ohio, is that the Federal commitment is about tomorrow, 
a national day of prayer over at the cathedral, and that is fine, we 
can pray for them. But we are the Congress. We are supposed to act on 
behalf of those individuals that cannot stand for themselves. So I want 
to come out tonight and say that individuals that are in the affected 
area, I believe the country needs to rally around them and demand a 9/
11-like commission.
  We are going to let politicians stand in judgment of politicians? We 
are going to let a majority party stand in judgment of the majority in 
the executive branch? The same party that says, oh, we will get to the 
bottom of this, even if it is embarrassing? Well, people have lost 
their lives, yet we are going to sit around here as though it is 
another day at the office? I think not.
  There are individuals right now that have mold in their homes, and 
individuals right now that still do not have even the simple 
opportunity to bury their dead. There are children right now that are 
lost in the hundreds, and yet it is just another day at the office? 
Excuse me, but I have a problem with that.
  Over in the other body across the hall yesterday there was a vote 
that went down on a partisan party line. One individual from the State, 
one of the affected States, did not even vote on the amendment, and 
that amendment called for, down to the last sentence, a 9/11-like 
commission.
  It is very, very unfortunate that partisan politics has found its way 
into this national tragedy. The only reason why this Congress is 
getting away with it is the fact that these individuals who have lost 
their lives are poor. The individuals' homes that are still under water 
are poor. That is the reason why. So who are we, as a country, to go 
somewhere else and start talking about what other people should be 
doing when we are not doing it?
  Now, I am not saying the American people are not doing it. I am 
saying the leadership here in this Congress is not doing it. And if 
they can sleep well by doing that, so be it. But I will say this, that 
I believe the American spirit will rise on behalf of these individuals 
who are living in shelters right now and who do not even know what is 
happening to them.

[[Page 20467]]

  I think the reason why people are saying, well, we are moving 
expeditiously and we are trying to do this, that and the other, and we 
want to make sure people get accountability, is that these are poor 
individuals, who, by the way, work every day but who may not have the 
education that the brokers and the stock folks and all of those folks 
had in 9/11. Now, I supported that 9/11 Commission, and we are better 
because of it. We are better because there was a 9/11 Commission.
  There were families that came to this Congress. It was not the first 
idea of the Congress or the administration to have a 9/11 Commission, 
but thank God that those family members on behalf of their families who 
had lost their lives took whatever money they had, came to this 
Congress and made it happen. The only difference between the 9/11 
families and these families down south is the fact they had a little 
more money and had a little more influence. And God bless them for 
having it.
  But I will say right now, Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, that we have 
to stand for these individuals that cannot stand for themselves. That 
is why we are here. We are not here to represent the haves and haves 
more; we are here to represent the individuals that cannot afford to 
come here. We are here to represent those who got up early one Tuesday 
morning voting for representation so that they would be represented in 
this House, so that Democrats and Republicans alike would be 
represented in this House and Independents would be represented and 
those that are too young to vote would be represented.
  We come here and stand as though it is business as usual while the 
body count still goes up, the death toll and the misery. So I do not 
know how long this media cycle is going to go on. I just do not know. I 
do not know how long the press will stick with this issue to keep it in 
the forefront, but we cannot leave these individuals behind. We have to 
be resilient; and we have to make sure, even if it costs criticism from 
individuals who may say, well, what do you want us to do? We want you 
to do the right thing. We want you to pass a resolution that has some 
teeth in it.
  Mr. Speaker, this resolution 437 is a select committee that we cannot 
even get people to come and talk to us. We have to ask them to come 
talk to us. So I say to my colleague that this is going to be one of 
those things, like the Committee on Ways and Means, with partisan votes 
up and down; like the Committee on Armed Services, partisan votes up 
and down; like the Committee on Appropriations, partisan votes along 
party lines. We cannot allow that to happen.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I yield to the gentleman from Ohio.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I think my colleague is exactly right. 
What happened here today, H. Res. 437, is a tragedy. What happened 
right here on this floor today is a tragedy for the exact reason the 
gentleman just mentioned.
  Now, for those people who are at home and who may not completely 
understand the whole situation, this body is run by the majority party, 
which is the Republican Party. And the majority party appoints to the 
committees members to the Committee on Ways and Means, the Committee on 
Appropriations, the House Homeland Security Committee, the Subcommittee 
on Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs, and all 
these different committees and subcommittees. The majority appoints 
more people to the committee than the minority, so they basically 
control the committee process in the House of Representatives.
  Now, some committees have subpoena powers and they can subpoena 
witnesses. But they will only subpoena witnesses that the majority 
party wants to subpoena. If the minority party would want to subpoena 
somebody, they could not because they could not get the power out of 
the committee without majority party votes. So the majority rules.
  What is happening in this Congress and in the House and in the Senate 
is that the Republican Party controls both Chambers. So the Democrats 
in the minority have no subpoena power. And what has happened over the 
past few years here, and the great example is the later Clinton years, 
with Ken Starr, with the House Committee on Government Reform, the 
Republican Party that controlled this Chamber, they were the ones 
conducting the investigation into President Clinton because they had 
the subpoena power and they had the opportunity to do it.
  So what we were trying to say, what the minority party was trying to 
say, the Democrats were trying to say with H. Res. 437, is this select 
committee that will oversee and look at how the screwups went about 
down in the gulf coast should be equal. It should be Democrats and 
Republicans both having equal subpoena power to oversee the process, 
because the record for the majority party over the past few years has 
been atrocious.
  Now, let us look at a couple of things. We have talked here many, 
many times regarding the war, with the weapons of mass destruction, all 
the prewar intelligence. Has anybody looked into this in a real way, in 
depth? Subpoenaed witnesses? Anybody? No. Has anybody been fired? No. 
How about the Medicare bill that we passed at 3 in the morning. 
Everyone was told here it was $400 billion. It ends up being 700 or 
$800 billion after we already voted for it.
  This majority party does not have the credibility, I say to my 
colleague, the credibility to oversee what is going on here because 
they are going to do nothing but whitewash this thing. Get out the 
Brillo pads because we are going to scrub this thing clean, and nothing 
is going to happen and the country is going to be worse off for it. So, 
my colleagues, H. Res. 437 is a joke. It is a joke. And there will not 
be proper investigation.
  I just could not believe the debate on the floor today. The gentleman 
from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor), a Democrat who lost his home, for God's 
sake, was here. He is saying, should he not, as a representative of a 
State in a congressional district that lost lives and homes and 
property and everything else, should he not be able to subpoena 
somebody, just like every other Member of Congress, if I am on that 
committee? Or should the Democrats, who many lost constituents of the 
700-some that we lost, and some of those people were actually 
represented by Democrats, should the minority party not have the 
opportunity to subpoena somebody?
  But, no, this thing is going to get scrubbed. Where is the 
transparency? Where is the equal opportunity? Where is the 
bipartisanship? What this bill says is there is going to be nine 
Democrats and 11 Republicans.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. It is a select committee. It does not have any 
subpoena power. You cannot subpoena anyone.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. There is not even subpoena power.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I mean, it is like, Will you please come and 
talk with us?
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. This thing is a paper tiger. It is going to be a 
song and dance. So let us get ready. Get out the music and the popcorn 
because this is going to be nothing but a dog and pony show.
  I do not think anything is going to happen here, and it is going to 
be consistent with a lot of the other pieces of legislation that either 
came through this body or did not get reviewed.
  So I just want to say to my colleague from Florida how disappointed I 
am, how disappointed the Democrats are, and I encourage the gentlewoman 
from California (Ms. Pelosi), our minority leader, to continue her 
stance and not appoint anybody to this committee. This is a toothless 
tiger. It is a washing machine to clean up this mess politically. I 
hope that our leader stands her ground and our leadership and our party 
stand their ground and just say that this is a joke and to appoint 
people to this committee would literally be contributing to the problem 
and lending our credibility to this issue, which I think is a joke.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, let me just say this in order to 
clarify

[[Page 20468]]

the whole issue on subpoenas. In section 5 it calls for joint 
operations, and it comes down to the majority party. The majority, 
basically, the bottom line, are the only people that can actually 
subpoena. So your statement was correct, the minority view on the 
committee or the Democratic view on the committee, if we wanted a 
particular individual to be subpoenaed, could not be subpoenaed if we 
are not in the majority to be able to do so.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Unless the majority wanted to help us.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Of course. And that is in section 5 of the joint 
operations. But let me just say this. If there was an equal 50-50 power 
on the committee, then, obviously, there would be time for compromise. 
Okay, if you want to subpoena this witness, we want to subpoena that 
witness, and let us just compromise. Even though we do not fully agree, 
we will get our members to vote for it.
  But let me just say this. I think that it is important for us to 
remember that this is not the only battle as it relates to making sure 
that this never, ever happens again, especially after a 9/11 bill 
passed through, Homeland Security given all this authority, FEMA having 
the resources to pre-stage the equipment and to be able to move in for 
it to ever happen again. Whether it is something the Governor did not 
do in Mississippi or Louisiana or Alabama, or something that the mayor 
did not do in the town, wherever it may be, Gulfport, New Orleans, what 
have you, we have to get to the bottom of it.
  Americans are pouring their hearts out and their money out, and we 
are using their taxpayer dollars to send down to the affected areas, 
and rightfully so, without the proper oversight and without any real 
congressional review. If a Member of Congress wanted to go down and see 
exactly what the Federal response was, you cannot go on what we call a 
congressional visit, go down there on a CODEL. No, you cannot. You have 
to find your own way down. Good luck, Charlie. You find your own way 
down there. Catch a bus if you can, or hitch a ride with a friend, or 
take money out of your own pocket and go.
  I happened to get down there on the relief flight taking food and 
necessities down. That is how I got into the affected area.

                              {time}  2000

  The American people can take it for what it is. This is a coordinated 
campaign. Unfortunately, I do not believe it as a campaign, I see it 
preventing lives in the future from being lost. I cannot help but look 
at exactly what is going on.
  U.S. News and World Report, ``What went wrong?'' We will never know.
  Another edition, U.S. News and World Report, ``Who Screwed Up?'' We 
will never know.
  Newsweek, ``Poverty, Race, Katrina, Lessons of a National Shame.'' We 
will never learn because the majority does not want to learn.
  Some may be saying that the 30 Something Working Group, they are on 
the floor are talking about the majority party's failings with regards 
to leading and this national tragedy. This is not an issue of being 
partisan. This is an issue of telling the truth. The bottom line is we 
always talk about what would be different if we were in the majority.
  Well, the Democratic leader, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. 
Pelosi), recommended with the council of ranking members said, let us 
come back from our break and go into session and give FEMA what it 
needs to be able to respond to this national tragedy. Number one, it is 
a shame that FEMA was out of money.
  What did they say? The House leadership said, no, we will be back; do 
not worry about it.
  A day later, the President got called out on it. Time was awasting. 
That means maybe FEMA did not have what it needed to be able to respond 
to people stuck in the Superdome and in shelters.
  And in Mississippi, where I went, in Hancock County, they had 
sanctioned looting. It was sanctioned because they had no food and no 
water. It was not a situation where they said, fine, electricity is 
off, we do not have a lot of law and order going on, so we are going to 
go into this store and take things. These are individuals who work 
every day.
  Second point, the Democratic leader said we need to make sure that we 
have a FEMA director that knows what he is doing. This one does not. He 
needs to step down. Because, obviously, if he was there the day before 
the storm and his administration was there before the storm and they 
watched this come in, knowing what the National Weather Center has 
done, and I am speaking from fact. I went down to Miami, just south of 
my district in Miami, and met with the director of the Hurricane Center 
last Friday. He was here before the Committee on Science this week and 
testified. He told the officials that the levees would break. A 
Category 4 or Category 5 storm, they will break, so it was not secret.
  He called the mayor of New Orleans on Saturday night before the storm 
and said, Mr. Mayor, your levees potentially will break. The mayor put 
out the order early Sunday morning, mandatory evacuation. We knew there 
would be massive flooding from the simulation pattern a year prior to 
this storm. The officials all knew. They knew within FEMA. The State 
and city folks knew. The levee board knew.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Everybody knew.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. And people died. I think it is important. I 
think it is important that Mike Brown hung around. The President went 
down and told Michael Brown that he was doing a good job.
  Mr. Speaker, people died. I am not saying that he needs to wear that 
on his back, but the bottom line is somebody appointed him to that 
position with no experience whatsoever. It is like me leaving this 
room, leaving this floor and saying to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 
Ryan), well, you know, I am going to carry out open heart surgery. I 
know nothing about it, but I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last 
night.
  You do not get qualifications based upon we need to fill a position, 
not a FEMA position. That played around, and finally the administration 
took him out under pressure, not only pressure from the Democratic 
leader but from the media who started focusing on him, saying things 
were going poorly because we still do not have good leadership there. 
He came back to Washington, and he resigned.
  Then we called for this 9/11 Commission-like legislation to pass to 
make sure that this never happens again, never happens again. Not 
natural disasters, we have no control over that. That is an act of God. 
But when it comes down to governance and responsibility and making sure 
if you are poor, middle class or wealthy in this country that this 
government will govern on your behalf, and that did not happen. The 
response to that request was we are going to put together a select 
committee, we are going to make sure that there is a majority influence 
on it as relates to the Republican leadership side, and we will not get 
to the bottom of what happened.
  Will we have a lot of show and a lot of folks getting excited in the 
select committee? I am pretty sure they will have it. But what I am 
saying, independent individuals, I am talking about people who 
understand emergency management, individuals who understand weather, 
regular citizens from the affected areas. Regular citizens were on the 
9/11 Commission, a Democratic and Republican appointment, co-chairs, to 
look at this and professionalize our response on all levels. That will 
not happen, not right now.
  I think it is important that the American people, Members of 
Congress, no matter what community you represent, if you believe in 
making sure that people get the same representation, for us to have a 
9/11 Commission, and I must add and say to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 
Ryan), and we come to the floor to talk about what we should be doing 
and how we should be doing it or what we are doing on this side of the 
aisle, it is important for us to know the facts. This is the same 
Congress in the majority that the 9/11 families came up here, and they 
voted down two opportunities to set up

[[Page 20469]]

a 9/11 Commission. This is the same Congress, until it just became 
overbearing that there were major mistakes in our intelligence, major 
mistakes and flags, and they are still finding stuff because of the 9/
11 Commission that could have saved lives.
  Better yet, we came to this floor, the 9/11 bill came to the floor, 
and we have better intelligence, better communications between Federal, 
local and State agencies because of their work. It is one of the best 
pieces of legislation that has passed this floor. So now the difference 
between the 9/11 families and what has happened down in the South is 
the fact that these individuals are poor, that they are still in the 
recovery process, and they have not been heard from yet. They have not 
been heard from. I think it is important that we give those individuals 
voice.
  I am not saying just Democrats that are concerned about individuals 
that are affected in affected areas. I am talking about Members of 
Congress giving them voice to allow them to not ever go through this 
again and also make sure that they do not become victims when we have 
contractors with no restraints, no-bid contracts. They can run the tab 
up to whatever they can run it up to, and then the President is going 
to waive Davis-Bacon which allow the people in the recovery process to 
receive minuscule wages, not what they would ordinarily get from 
Federal procured work.
  I think it is important. The differences:
  A, coming back here in session, it would have happened without 
hesitation if Democrats were in the majority.
  B, Michael Brown would have gone to another job long before because 
the pressure, and there probably would have been a vote to remove the 
director, putting pressure on the White House to get someone more 
qualified.
  C, we would have a 9/11-type commission appointed today to start 
pulling itself together to do the work and make sure this never 
happened began.
  D, the procurement issue, it would not be an issue because there 
would be proper oversight. These are very serious issues.
  The only reason I am saying Democratic leadership versus Republican 
leadership, because that is exactly the direction we are going in now. 
The votes that are going down here are partisan votes, not votes on 
behalf of what we know. We are not talking about a Truman Commission or 
something that happened 20 or 40 something years ago. We are talking 
about a 9/11 Commission that is still doing its work, and it is the 
same administration and the same majority side in Congress.
  I am asking for the Members of this House on both sides of the aisle 
and for the American people not to give up on these poor people. That 
is the bottom line. Do not give up on them. They are not giving up on 
us. The American people, community after community, are taking care of 
the evacuees, taking care of these Americans, but we need to make sure 
that the government that they pay taxes to, that their children are 
fighting in a war for, making sure that they are not left behind 
because they do not have the economic means to be able to come up here 
to Washington and say we want a commission, we want it now, we want to 
make sure this never happens for my husband, my neighbor, for my 
family, for a family member or just someone who is unrepresented in 
this process.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, The Washington Post reported, just to 
support the gentleman's argument, five of the eight top Federal 
management agency officials came to their posts with virtually no 
experience in handling disasters and now lead an agency whose ranks of 
seasoned crisis managers have thinned dramatically since 9/11. Five of 
the top eight FEMA people had no emergency management experience at 
all. What did we think would happen if we had this kind of tragedy?
  I still say it had a lot to do with the number of electoral votes in 
Louisiana and Mississippi than anything else. Because if it was 
Florida, with all due respect, they would have been there with billions 
of dollars prior to. If it was an election year, everybody would be 
down there, and the President's brother would be running around 
campaigning.
  I think it is terrible that we have this kind of cronyism going on. 
We understand. We are not simpletons. We know that a President appoints 
his friends who make a lot of donations to posts in the executive 
branch. We know that. That is how it goes. But to appoint these people 
to FEMA? During a rise in hurricanes? Come on. It is irresponsible.
  As far as the committee goes, as far as having a committee, CNN 
Gallup Poll taken a few days ago, 70 percent of the American people 
supported an independent panel to investigate our response to Hurricane 
Katrina. That is 70 percent of the American people, 70 percent of those 
responding. I think it is important for this body to recognize that 
this toothless tiger, this paper tiger that we passed today, H. Res. 
437, is not what the American people want. They want an independent 
investigation, bipartisan, equal power among both parties to 
investigate it so there is no coverups, no whitewashing going on. That 
is what the American people want.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to start talking about something that I 
think is very important. We are going to do this. This country is going 
to make sure that we rebuild. The problem that we were talking about 
with the administration is a big hurdle for us. The money is another 
hurdle. I cannot believe that with all of the challenges that we have 
right now in this country that this President cannot go to the 
wealthiest Americans, his top campaign contributors, and ask them to 
give back just a wee little bit of their tax cut that they got over the 
past 4 or 5 years, just a wee little bit to help us fund Hurricane 
Katrina, to help us fund the war.
  We are giving millionaires hundreds of thousands of dollars back, and 
our deficit is ballooning. Now, today, it is reporting we are going to 
need another $50 billion to keep the war fund going. We are already 
hundreds of billions of dollars into the war, and now we have Hurricane 
Katrina. Hindsight is 20-20, but you do not get into elective wars that 
bog you down because you just never know what is going to happen.

                              {time}  2015

  We do not overextend ourselves, because we do not know when a Katrina 
is going to happen, when a national tragedy is going to happen. That is 
prudent leadership.
  And now we are running budget deficits as far as the eye can see. We 
are borrowing the money from the Chinese and the Japanese. We are 
giving our country away, and we have got to pay interest on it. And one 
would think, and I hope, as the President is talking right now, that 
somewhere in his speech he has the guts to ask the wealthiest people in 
the country to help us here because we need help.
  I ask the President to take the leadership role that the American 
people have given him and have the guts to ask the wealthiest people in 
the Nation to help us rebuild the gulf coast, to help us fund this 
elective war that he got us into. We pay them back. They have got their 
tax cuts. We do not even have to take all of them back. We just need a 
few hundred billion dollars to pay for the war and to pay for Katrina. 
Have the guts to ask them for it. If they are in the health care 
industry, I am sure they are doing okay. If they are in the oil 
industry, I am sure they are doing just fine. Record profits as far as 
the eye can see in the oil industry. The greatest quarterly profits, 
billions and billions and billions of dollars for BP and a lot of these 
other folks. The big money people are doing okay. But those little kids 
on the covers of those magazines, those are the ones that we need to 
help. And to not have the courage to ask the wealthiest people in the 
country to help out, I think, is poor leadership.
  So I think as much as we are talking about restructuring and trying 
to figure out what we are going to do and how we are going to make the 
government run more efficiently and how we are going to take care of 
FEMA and fix the problems that we have been talking about here the past 
few weeks, a component of that is what are we going to

[[Page 20470]]

do with our budget deficit. Because, again, this was something we have 
been talking about with the 30-somethings for months and months and 
years even now. So I ask the President to please ask these people to 
contribute. They are the only ones doing really well in the country 
right now. Ask them to help out.
  I am sure in the gentleman from Florida's (Mr. Meek) district, as in 
my mine, people who do not have a lot of disposable income are the ones 
bringing the canned goods. And I am not saying that the wealthy people 
are not doing it. Of course they are. But right now our government 
needs funds, and we need the wealthiest in the country to contribute. 
And we have got to have a President that is willing to ask them to help 
out. And to see the disparity between those who have and those who do 
not highlighted through this whole tragedy, I think, really is a call 
for all of us in public office, especially those in high-ranking 
leadership positions, like the President, to make the proper request; 
and we need to ask those who have been doing very well to contribute to 
this fund.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, we have central 
time in the affected area, eastern time. I know that the President is 
going to be on 8 o'clock central, but he is going to be on at 9 o'clock 
eastern. But, obviously, he will be coming on very shortly. But I think 
it is important that it is not the words he is going to share with the 
American people tonight. It is the action. We have to look at the 
action or the lack thereof that has been taken thus far.
  Flying down, reviewing the devastation, talking to families, we have 
to go far beyond that. We have to make sure that Members of this 
Congress feel what we feel here on this floor tonight, having an 
opportunity to touch these individuals.
  And I just want to say, Mr. Speaker, this is a picture of, I may say, 
very fortunate individuals. This is a FEMA trailer down in Hancock 
County, Mississippi. I am standing there talking to one of the FEMA 
part-time workers. And there is a row of people actually behind us. 
There are maybe 10 phones in this trailer. But these individuals waited 
about 2 hours, and that is the short line, to get the assistance. They 
say that it should be 48 hours, 72 hours when it goes into their bank 
account. Many of these individuals, some of them returned back because 
they applied 3 days earlier and they still did not receive the 
assistance.
  But I think it is important for us to realize, Mr. Speaker, that he 
mentioned the poll about putting an independent commission together. 
Because it is one thing to be able to say I will do my investigation 
and we will make sure that this never happens again and the gentleman 
from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) is my good friend and I am going to make sure that 
he did what he was supposed to do. I do not think we are going to get 
down to the real truth about how we can avoid this from happening in 
the future, the governmental response, also making sure that the 
nonprofit agencies that we tie in with, that they did what they were 
supposed to do.
  As it relates to the evacuation of poor people, there was a bill 
dropped down today on the Democratic side of the aisle that called for 
a response plan, an evacuation plan for the poor, for the elderly, for 
the individuals that need assistance the most, because what we saw in 
New Orleans, what we saw in Louisiana, what we saw in Mississippi, the 
individuals that were left behind were the individuals who did not know 
where their next $5 was going to come from or were waiting on their 
check to come in or did not have a car to get out, and it is 
catastrophic.
  So for us to be the last standing superpower, for us to have a 
President that we call the leader of the Free World, and for us to 
allow this to happen to Americans is shameful. That is not what I am 
saying. That is what weekly periodicals are saying. That is what the 
headlines on newspapers are saying. That is what everyday Americans are 
saying.
  Some folks say it has a lot to do with the fact that people just did 
not listen to us. Well, there are a lot of people who did listen, and 
there are a lot of people that are somewhere else, at a cousin's house 
right now; but their homes are gone. Many of them did not even have 
insurance because their homes were paid for or they could not afford 
it.
  Mr. Speaker, the bottom line here tonight is that we cannot allow 
business as usual or ``the establishment'' to sweep this under the 
carpet. We are not saying that blood is on anyone's hands. We are not 
saying that. What we are saying is that we cannot afford for it to 
happen again. That is the bottom line.
  So I think, Mr. Speaker, before we leave here tonight, we need to 
make sure that we give the e-mail address out. We need to make sure 
that Members know on both sides of the aisle that we have a 
responsibility to stand for these individuals. If somebody wants to do 
something, I think they need to help these individuals in the South. 
They need to help these individuals who do not have the means to come 
to Washington to organize themselves and ask for a government-
sanctioned, funded independent commission to be able to make sure that 
someone's husband or wife does not run out of oxygen because the levees 
broke and because we could not reach them and that instead they sat in 
their homes for 3 days and perished.
  On their memory, on behalf of them, make sure that does not happen 
again. Like in the charity hospital where 35 or 40 folks perished 
because the levees broke and we could not do anything, and we come to 
find out that those individuals did not even drown. They just expired. 
They did not get health care. The power ran out. The generator was out. 
All of this could have been avoided. All of this could have been 
avoided with the proper oversight and governance. So we need 
individuals that are professionals in this field to make sure that this 
never happens again.
  Mr. Speaker, I will just go ahead and say for those individuals that 
felt that the resolution that we passed today was the best thing since 
sliced bread and they are on the plane on the way back to their 
districts or what have you, off for the weekend, that they did their 
part, now they go home and do what they have got to do in their 
district, that is fine. But I think they should have a conscience, a 
conscience on the fact that these individuals are not getting their 
just due, and they are not getting represented, and they are not 
getting what they deserve as Americans.
  They are not refugees. They are Americans; and I will tell the 
Members right now, if we leave these individuals behind, if we leave 
these individuals behind, because I am going to tell the Members right 
now I do not think the American public will allow that to happen. I am 
going to be positive on this. When one is a leader and they say, okay, 
we thought we did something, maybe we need to revisit this thing one 
more time, I think that is important. And if one is in power to be able 
to make that happen, then so be it.
  The 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act never would 
have been if it were not for the people out in the streets making it 
happen. If it were not for black and white people of goodwill saying 
that somebody like me can have an opportunity to come to the Congress 
and give a Special Order to talk about the very individuals who cannot 
represent themselves; if it were not for those individuals, white and 
black, people in the North saying something is not right in the South 
and we are going to risk our lives to get the attention of the 
government that they pay taxes to allow them to have the kind of 
representation they deserve, this is far deeper than the resolution on 
the last day of a work week.
  The last vote we take, and folks go home like it is another day at 
the office, I am sorry. If these individuals had the means to be able 
to make the political contributions, maybe they would get the attention 
of the majority of the House. I am talking about majority on both sides 
of the aisle. Maybe it would be different. But all they did was they 
voted for representation, and they salute the same flag that we solute 
every day here in this House, and they deserve the representation.
  I am disturbed, Mr. Speaker, I am disturbed, by the fact they are 
partisan

[[Page 20471]]

votes that are going on the other side of the Congress and in this 
House as though it is just another piece of legislation. It is 
something we disagree on. Americans have lost their lives. Americans 
are displaced. Children are displaced. People ran out of oxygen. Folks 
ran out of insulin. People are wrapped up on the side of the road, and 
bodies are still floating; and we leave on our way to a picnic like it 
is nothing.
  Maybe all of us have made our contributions to the best 501(c)(3) or 
the relief effort that we wanted to. I know I have. But I will tell the 
Members this: it goes far beyond that. It goes far beyond that.
  So I think the 30-something Working Group has to continue to do our 
part. We have to continue to do our part.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to 
yield, he highlighted a point. This outfit that is in the executive 
branch right now, it is all politics. It is all politics all the time. 
It is not about policy. It is all about politics and trying to keep the 
Republicans in the majority. And I think when we see that five out of 
eight of the top appointments at FEMA are political hacks, I think when 
we look at passing a drug bill that does not have any cost controls for 
the drugs, does not allow for reimportation, all politics all the time. 
Weapons of mass destruction, go through all the war information we had 
before, all politics all the time. How do we sell this to the American 
people? Whether it is true or not, irrelevant. We need to go to war, 
and we are going to say whatever we have to say to get it done.
  Now, as the gentleman mentioned earlier, talking about Davis-Bacon, 
Davis and Bacon were two Republican Members of Congress who passed a 
prevailing wage law that allows for when Federal money is being spent 
in a certain area that the Feds will pay the prevailing wage of that 
area for the workers. Because if they are paying Federal money, then 
they should obviously be paying for whatever the going rate is in that 
area.
  So what the President did was he repealed the prevailing wage 
provision, basically saying that we are not going to have any oversight 
over the contractors. We are going to send them billions of dollars. 
Halliburton is going to get their money. We are going to pay them 
whatever we have got to pay them, $50 billion, $100 billion without any 
oversight from a bipartisan commission here; and at the same time as we 
are not overseeing what the contractors are doing. We are going to 
repeal the basic provision that allows for workers to at least make a 
decent wage in that area.
  And today in the Hill newspaper, these gentlemen from Americans for 
Tax Reform are saying that this repeal will make it obvious that Davis-
Bacon is nothing but dead weight. So here these guys are wasting all of 
their time, all their energy on putting the screws to the workers, guys 
in New Orleans that are now living in Baton Rouge or in Mississippi or 
in Houston who want to go back home and help rebuild their community 
and make the going rate in their community, the prevailing wage in 
their community, and these guys are wasting all their time and energy 
trying to screw them to the wall instead of overlooking and seeing what 
Halliburton is doing.

                              {time}  2030

  We are using the same administrative process with the reconstruction 
of Katrina as we have been using in the war, which wasted billions of 
dollars, no oversight of Halliburton, no oversight of all of these 
people who make tremendous contributions back to the President; and to 
have the audacity, with the great human tragedy that is there and the 
human suffering there, to say that you are going to waste your time and 
your energy making sure the workers do not get their fair share because 
that is dead weight, that is wasteful government spending.
  These are the people who are going to go back and be able to actually 
do some work. It is tremendous. It is unbelievable. It is all politics 
all the time with these guys, and this is just one more component of 
that. They want to get rid of the unions, they want to get rid of 
prevailing wage. This one gentleman in here, he says something along 
the lines of it is a waste of money because the Federal money will go 
to the worker and if it is a union worker, the union worker will pay 
union dues per hourly wage. You have to be kidding me. These union 
workers pay like 5 cents an hour to go for the union dues, 10 cents an 
hour, it depends on what union you are in. But to say that this is 
somehow going to bankrupt the government by paying a gentleman or a 
woman the prevailing wage and, at the same time, billions and billions 
and billions are getting wasted without any kind of oversight from a 
select committee in Congress is a joke, and I think it just keeps 
reinforcing ``all politics all the time.''
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is 110 percent right. 
The gentleman from Ohio mentioned an issue about being nonpartisan and 
being, I would say, third-party validators, I just want to make sure we 
are clear. On the commission procedural vote here on this House floor 
that was voted down, for us to have this week, voted down for us to 
have a 9/11 kind of a commission, I believe that was today; and 
yesterday, there is an article, and I will give it to the Members just 
in case they were not watching the Senate, www.sfgate.com, there is an 
article: ``Senate Kills Bid For Katrina Commission.''
  Now, let me tell my colleagues something. This is nothing that we 
did; this is something that the majority did. If they wanted to get to 
the bottom of it and to make sure that it never happens again and to 
make sure that Americans do not have to watch the horror, the horror of 
people dying and bodies floating, not because of Katrina, but because 
of lack of response, because the levee broke and because of a lack of 
administrative duties and governance on all levels; if we do not want 
that to happen again, why are we not passing a 9/11 kind of commission 
for the people in the gulf States?
  They do not want to hear a speech. They do not need to hear, oh, we 
are going to do this, that, and the other. We are at war right now. We 
have men and women right now with sand in their teeth and bombs blowing 
up every day around them, away from their families, some have family in 
the affected area. I just want to give credit where credit is due; some 
of them had an opportunity to come back and check on their families. 
But let me just say, we have to go far beyond allowing business as 
usual.
  I call on the Members and the American people again not to allow this 
to be swept under the carpet, not to allow individuals to sit up here 
and set the deck because these individuals are poor. We are better than 
that, and I know that we are going to do it.
  Mr. Speaker, I want the gentleman from Ohio to give our e-mail 
address out. I know our hour is coming to a close. But I will tell my 
colleague, I am encouraged. I am encouraged because the American 
people, some 70 percent of them say they want an independent 
commission, and it is not a partisan issue. Those are Democrats and 
Republicans. I am encouraged that the democratic leader, the gentleman 
from California (Ms. Pelosi) is willing to stand in there against the 
wind for what the American people believe in and not allow business as 
usual. I am encouraged. I am encouraged by the fact that people are not 
only praying on behalf of these individuals, but the American people 
have taken action on behalf of them, making sure that they have the 
things that they need. Throughout the country people are bringing 
people into their homes, paying rent for them as they are displaced at 
this particular time. I am encouraged. I am encouraged by the fact that 
these victims, many of them have praying grandmothers to make sure that 
they are even able to stand up and go through the trials and 
tribulations that they have gone through and they still go through. I 
am encouraged by that.
  So, I say that every time that we have an opportunity to come to this 
floor and speak as free Americans in this democracy, we are going to 
give those individuals voice. I am glad that there is some leadership 
on this floor that sees the importance in that.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I am going to make a prediction. The 
hour is

[[Page 20472]]

late, but I am going to make a prediction. The American people will not 
allow, will not allow the Republican Party to get away with having 
another white wash. They are not going to allow them to scrub this up 
and cover this up and clean it up without having proper oversight. 
Seventy percent of the people in this country want an independent 
commission to look at this, or a bipartisan commission to look at this. 
And I think until that happens, the Republican Party will continue to 
get pressure from the American people.
  I think the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) is going to 
stand strong. And, quite frankly, again, we should not appoint anybody 
to this commission. Eleven Republicans, nine Democrats, we do not have 
an ounce of power on this thing, and we will get slammed just like we 
do every day down here, and the end result will be a FEMA that 
continues to be inept and inadequate in its response to natural 
disasters.
  So I say that the American people, that 70 percent of them who want 
this independent commission will not let this go, will not let the 
corruption and the cronyism continue. Mr. Speaker, 
[email protected]., send us an e-mail. We will be back 
here next week for a couple more nights and keep hammering away. We are 
not going to let go until we get the kind of commission that the 
American people want, that is only fair, and that will best fix the 
problems that we have in FEMA right now, because it will have proper 
oversight.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Well said, I say to the gentleman. I thank my 
colleague for joining me in this (special order) this evening.

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