[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 23954-23961]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2215
                       30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. McCaul of Texas). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Meek) is recognized for half the time until midnight.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to be here on the 
floor once again. I thank the minority leader, the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Pelosi), and the minority whip, the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), and our Democratic Caucus leadership, the 
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez) and the gentleman from South 
Carolina (Mr. Clyburn).
  I was moved by my colleagues that came to the floor to honor the late 
great Rosa Parks, and also the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) 
who is a Member of this body for a very long time, and actually worked 
very closely with Mrs. Rosa Parks. I know she is smiling on the 
gentleman and this Congress tonight for recognizing her contributions. 
I thank the gentleman for standing up at a time it was not popular to 
stand up for Rosa Parks and allow her to be a part of your operation. 
And obviously she allowed you to be a part of her life. Thank you for 
keeping her memory alive.
  Mr. Speaker, I entered my comments for the Congressional Record of 
condolences to not only her family, but recognizing Rosa Parks's 
contributions to our great country, and to the world. Many leaders are 
not revered until they have passed on, and I can tell you that many 
Members of this Congress, especially in the Congressional Black Caucus, 
let Rosa Parks know how much we appreciated her contributions. I have 
read many letters to the editor from around the country from people 
from all backgrounds commending the life and memory of Mrs. Rosa Parks.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to come under regular order in the 30-
Something Working Group to come to this floor once again and talk about 
some of the issues that are working in our Federal Government and some 
of the issues that we need to continue to work on.
  My State was hit recently by Hurricane Wilma, closely following 
damage wrought by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and there is a lot of 
work we have to do. I want to commend those first responders trying to 
save lives and making sure that we prevent accidents and future 
accidents. I want to thank Florida Power & Light and light companies 
from throughout the country for coming down to south Florida to try to 
restore power to so many Floridians.
  But I can tell you it was very disheartening that yesterday, and I 
just got back this afternoon, there were thousands of people waiting on 
ice and water. Whatever the issue is as it relates to the communication 
lines, we are going to have to work on those issues. I know that in 
south Florida we have the most populated area in the State. We have the 
west coast hit, but we never can tell what Mother Nature is going to 
do. The east coast ended up being hammered quite a bit. A number of 
individuals were left without electricity. Roofs were ripped off. 
Things like that happen in category 2 and category 3 hurricanes. Water 
lines were ruptured, but hats off to the local government for making 
sure that we have potable water in many parts of Miami-Dade County and 
parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties.
  But what we have to do is go back to what we were talking about 
originally, a Hurricane Katrina commission to make sure that we are 
able to work the kinks out so we can provide Americans what they need 
in their time of need. Unfortunately in this particular instance, that 
did not happen. I want to thank the National Guard for doing everything 
they could do, but the coordination is still not where it should be.
  I wanted to talk tonight about what just happened, what has happened 
in the past, and how we can correct it in the future. I think that is 
something very, very important, especially as Members of Congress. I am 
joined by the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz). Both of 
us rode the storm out and both of us live in communities where the 
lights are out.
  Both of us called directly to the director of FEMA to recommend to 
the White House that we be granted individual assistance for 
households. In Hurricane Katrina, that was not granted. Many Floridians 
in south Florida lost their homes. They did not meet the quote/unquote 
800 threshold for damage to their homes, something that was a 
discretionary call. The entire Florida delegation asked, with the 
leadership of the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz), for 
the White House and FEMA to reconsider. It was denied both times.
  This time we assumed nothing and worked very hard to make it happen. 
It was very obvious, and I am sure people in Washington, D.C. could 
watch the news and see that the need was there. We needed to meet it, 
but the Federal response is not what it should be at this particular 
time. I can tell you as I yield to my colleague, I was very, very 
disturbed by the fact that a person that I communicate with that I 
think is a very decent individual, and I still feel he is a decent 
individual, but when you come down to Florida, the Secretary of 
Homeland Security says, you just need to be patient. We know you just 
went through a storm, but be patient.
  I can tell you before that, the State director, the Governor of 
Florida was saying, make sure you have what you need to have, water, 
ice, 24 hours after the event. Then when folks ran out, they waited in 
lines for hours. In some instances, water did not show up, ice was not 
there, and food was not there; and folks were promised it was going to 
be there and it did not happen.
  There are a number of comments going back and forth between State, 
local, and Federal governments. This goes back to the importance of the 
independent Hurricane Katrina commission so we can have folks that can 
sit down and evaluate what happened in Hurricane Katrina, what happened 
in Rita and Wilma. What happened in other storms, so we can come out 
with best practices, not just for hurricanes but even if there is a 
terrorist attack.
  This is a perfect example to show how the people who sent us here 
will not get what they need from the local, State, or Federal 
Government that is overwhelmed by the event that took place. That is 
why we have a FEMA, and I think that it is important that

[[Page 23955]]

we work on these issues. I am glad to be here with my colleagues. We 
are quote/unquote evacuees. The airports just opened in south Florida, 
and I am glad to be here.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman 
Schultz).
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, it has been stressful, and that 
is the mildest word I can use, last several days. We both rode out the 
storm in our houses in south Florida.
  I have to say, if I had not been impressed by looking at the 
aftermath of Andrew, and I live in Broward County and so Andrew did not 
devastate Broward County like it did Miami-Dade County, we got grazed, 
but if I did not appreciate the kind of power Mother Nature has after 
observing the aftermath of Andrew and Hurricane Katrina on TV, I can 
tell you, being hit by an category 3 storm is awe inspiring.
  When you are cowering with your kids and husband and your family in 
your home and you are boarded up in your house, it feels like God is 
literally throwing bowling balls on the roof. It is an emotional, 
stressful situation. For those of us who live in structures that have 
been built under the south Florida building code since Hurricane Andrew 
and have a sturdy structure in which to live, where we were not worried 
about our homes caving in around us, and then yesterday when I had an 
opportunity to ride with FEMA on their preliminary damage assessment 
review and saw the mobile home parks in my district and across south 
Florida spanning the gentleman's district, and literally see that the 
walls caved in around the foundations of these homes and just furniture 
was left. Massive trees fell, falling completely over or snapping in 
half and falling on people's houses. We can urge people to leave their 
homes as much as possible, but human nature often motivates people to 
stay with their belongings and protect their home base.
  I just could not believe what might have happened. The fact that we 
avoided a huge loss of life is just a miracle. It really is. I have to 
say, the insensitivity on the part of the Governor as well as the 
President, both spanning from Hurricane Katrina to Wilma is just 
shocking. Governor Bush literally said today in our newspaper that he 
did not understand, and I will quote him: ``We had a lot of people 
standing in line yesterday that we did not like to see. That is why we 
tell people to have 72 hours of food and water so you do not have to 
stand in line.'' That was Secretary Paulison. Then the Governor said he 
did not understand why people did not heed the warning and get 72 
hours' worth of food and water in advance of the storm. That is an easy 
thing to do.
  Well, I do not think Governor Bush was in south Florida for the 
several days, 6 or 7 days' progress that Wilma made across the 
continent and saw the lines in advance of the storm. And you know what, 
if you do not have money, if you cannot buy gas for your car or get to 
a store, it is going to be a little difficult to stock up on 72 hours' 
worth of food.
  When I went on this preliminary damage assessment, I will be honest, 
I am quite certain that a lot of these people could not afford to buy 
72 hours' worth of food and water. So the insensitivity between the 
Governor's comments and the President's comments after Hurricane 
Katrina. The President said something similar after Hurricane Katrina. 
He said in advance of the storm, we warned people and it is our 
responsibility to get people prepared; but if they did not listen, 
there is not too much we can do about it. I guess like brother like 
brother.
  But what is the most disappointing, really, as someone who went 
through the storm myself and now have had literally thousands and 
thousands of constituents whose lives are affected who are sitting in 
the dark tonight as we speak who cannot hear our voices unless they are 
listening to C-SPAN Radio, honestly, it is just unbelievable that last 
week when we had our Florida delegation meeting, to listen to the 
supposedly organized and well-prepared preparations that FEMA and the 
State of Florida were putting in place to pre-position supplies that 
people needed.
  You would have thought that there would not be a kink in the works 
after the hurricane went through. Honestly, the reports that I am 
getting are so disturbing, price gouging of over $6 a gallon for gas in 
our districts. Where is the accountability? Where is the protection 
from the State government?
  We have trucks that have been lost for 2 days that they still cannot 
find, that they bragged to us last week that they were pre-positioning 
ice and water and meals ready to eat in Jacksonville and Homestead, but 
then they lost the trucks because the only means of communication they 
had available to contact the trucks was cell phones. Maybe they did not 
notice, but cell phone towers are tall; and the tall things in south 
Florida when they got hit by a category 3 hurricane fell down or were 
damaged.
  So that means communication went down. No water, no ice, no diesel 
fuel. Senior citizens older than 85 years old in Hallandale Beach stuck 
in their condominiums, the glass blown out of their places, no power, 
no food. The generators operating their power running out of diesel 
fuel. The mayor of Hallandale Beach had to call an emergency session of 
the city council and declare a state of emergency within her city so 
she could get ready to commandeer gas from a gas station to help those 
people.
  This is the model State for natural disaster preparation. If we are 
the model, and we have already seen what the model is not, if we are 
the model, we have a lot of work to do.

                              {time}  2230

  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I feel very strongly also there is 
a lot of work to be done. What I am disturbed about, I was at the 
emergency operation center last night in Miami-Dade County speaking 
with the county manager and several of the county commissioners. The 
mayor was on his way back from Homestead Air Force Base meeting with 
National Guard personnel and management, and the bottom line is that 
they did not get the supplies that they were supposed to get. The ice 
was not coming, Mr. Speaker. The water was not on the way, and it is 
not the Kendrick Meek report. It was on the Weather Channel. It was on 
CNN. It was on Fox. It was on MSNBC. It was on all the major news 
networks saying we are prepared because we are Floridians, and we are 
used to doing this. Well, I can tell the Members that we are never 
perfect.
  And I am holding up just one picture here, Mr. Speaker, from the New 
York Times of the Orange Bowl. Everyone knows about the Orange Bowl 
throughout the country, but it is not known for what it was known for, 
for a number of championship games, a number of professional football 
games. It is a place of chaos and a place of frustration right now. And 
I use the word ``chaos,'' and I do not use that loosely.
  I can tell the Members I happened to be with the National Guard 
yesterday. I wanted them to take me to all of these distribution 
centers by a Blackhawk, and we had an opportunity to see them. There 
were lines around, literally if we were to go out the front door of the 
Capitol, we can go clear across the street to the Cannon Building and 
around, all the way around that building. People were waiting for 7 and 
8 hours to get 1 bag of ice and 3 jugs of water.
  I do not blame the local government officials. I do not even know if 
it was the truck driver that needed someone to sign a paper before they 
released the ice. What I do know is that Americans count on this 
government for them in their time of need. Local government can only go 
so far. State government can only go so far. The Federal Government, as 
far as we are concerned as it relates to the Federal Emergency 
Management Agency, this is what that Agency does 24-7. They plan for 
catastrophic events. And as far as I am concerned, as it relates to 
catastrophic, comparing Wilma to Katrina, it is very hard to compare 
it, but I can tell the Members that many of the Floridians that are 
being rationed for gas, we are not saying it is the government's 
problem for all of that. We are just saying that we need to manage our 
part of this thing. We need to make sure that

[[Page 23956]]

if we tell someone that ice is going to be somewhere at a particular 
time, I can see a truck an hour late or 2 hours late, but 7 and 10 
hours late?
  This is not the Kendrick Meek report. This is in the papers 
throughout Florida and throughout this country and on several of the 
news outlets. And I have this here from the Sun-Sentinel, after the 
Governor made the comments about they should have been ready. And it is 
not about the Governor and the State of Florida. This is about 
responding to Americans in need, and we have a pattern.
  In Rita we heard the same complaints from some members of the Texas 
delegation and some of the folks that came up here from Rita about what 
should have happened did not happen. We definitely heard those 
complaints in Katrina. So we know that we are having complaints, and we 
know that we have a problem, but we are not doing the things that we 
need to do to correct those problems. We are not doing it. And that is 
the problem. That is the main problem that we are not learning from 
recent events. We are talking about within the last 2 to 3 months. This 
is not like 1967. We do not have to go back that far. Just this year we 
should learn from it.
  And the reason why I am alarmed by this, thank God we are in a 
hurricane season, but I do not know what these terrorists are thinking 
about. I really do not. I do not know if they are going to plan to hit 
a city in the Midwest or the east coast or the west coast. We 
definitely know that we are not able to respond in a way that we are 
supposed to respond throughout the country no matter where it is.
  So it is important that we have this Independent Katrina Commission 
that many papers throughout this country has endorsed. It is important 
that 81 percent of Americans have said that they want an Independent 
Katrina Commission. It is named Independent Katrina Commission because 
so many issues happened during that event. And then we had Rita, and 
then we had Wilma, and no telling, we may have something else.
  But what happens when we get a dirty bomb? What happens when we have 
to evacuate a whole U.S. city and we have to find not only housing, but 
shelter for folks? What happens when a local government sends out an 
SOS? Obviously they are sending out an SOS in south Florida. I do not 
want us to be too proud to beg, but if we need help, we need to say it. 
And if we are all collocated with FEMA, and everyone is talking to 
everyone, we cannot be concerned about this is my friend and I do not 
want to say anything about him, or this is my brother and I do not want 
to say anything about him. The bottom line is it is not personal, it is 
just business.
  And I had constituents that were told to be at Hadley Park in the 
middle of my district. Not a truck of ice, water, anything. We had to 
argue with the emergency management people. We had to argue with the 
State. And finally it took an act of Congressmen getting involved for 
that to happen. What happened then? Well, I believe they ended up 
getting ice and food because there was no water to send over there.
  So the bottom line is we do have people in the real world that cannot 
afford to buy a generator to keep their refrigerator and food fresh. We 
have people in our country, the working poor and some middle-class 
folks, that are working from paycheck to paycheck, that cannot afford 
to have ice reserved for 72 hours.
  That is an interesting number because it keeps sliding. I heard we 
need to have enough to preserve ourselves for 24 hours. I heard this 
come out of the mouth of the Governor, the chief emergency management 
person, the FEMA people. And now we have problem. Now that number has 
slid to 72 hours. What is it going to be next, 150 hours because we 
cannot respond?
  So I am very serious about this because it is our job. Even before 
Wilma, I am so glad that we were on this floor, and someone said, oh, 
it is just politics. And it is a perfect example. And, Mr. Speaker, I 
have said this time after time again. I have shared with the Members. 
We come to this floor. We say we need an Independent Katrina Commission 
to evaluate the local, State, and Federal response to these events, and 
folks said, oh, it is just politics. Guess what? Now it is us. Now it 
is Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz. Now it is me. Now it is Congressman 
Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, Congresswoman Ros-
Lehtinen, Congressman Foley, Congressman Shaw, Congressman Hastings of 
Florida. Now it is us. Now it is Senator Martinez. Now it is Senator 
Nelson. Now it is Florida. Who is next?
  And when are we going to be able to say, regardless of how it may 
look on the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of 
Homeland Security, the White House, the Congress, individuals, we have 
to work this out? That is why people sent us up here. They did not send 
us up here to be friends and hug and tell each other, ``I have got your 
back if you have mine.'' People sent us up here for us to have their 
back. And unless we are willing to do that, then we might as well just 
stay in our districts and say, call me when you want me to do 
something. Somebody calls me from the back of the Chamber and says, 
this is the way you are supposed to vote. If they are one of those kind 
of folks and they come and put their card in because someone else told 
them how to vote, and they say do not talk about that because this is 
the message for the day, we need to talk about it. We need to critical 
of one another so we can be better. And, unfortunately, it is now our 
constituents.
  But I feel half all right about this thing because we have been about 
the solution and trying to bring about over 190 Members of this House. 
Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, on this side of the aisle, it is not 
politics. It is just business. And guess what? It is reality.
  We are calling for an Independent Katrina Commission, along with 81 
percent of the American people that are calling for it. What has to 
happen next? Do we need to have a terrorist attack? Do we need to have 
a horrific event somewhere to say maybe we need to review what we are 
doing because what we are doing we are not doing right? It is almost 
like taking a carton of milk out of the refrigerator and saying, oh, it 
is spoiled, let me put it back in, and maybe it will be fresh tomorrow. 
It is just not going to happen. And until we leader up and until we 
work in a bipartisan way, it is just not going to happen.
  So, I mean, I do not know how to make it any more plain of what we 
need to do and what we have to do, because Americans are suffering, and 
now, as we stand here today, a supermajority of our constituents cannot 
even see us here on this floor representing them. And guess what? Other 
Americans that now are sitting at home saying, oh, that is just a 
shame, or Members sitting in their office, that is a shame what 
happened in their district, we are going to pray about it, we know 
prayer without works is dead. We know that, and we know that we have to 
have action. And that is the reason why we have it in our hearts and in 
our minds to do the right thing. But guess what is standing in front of 
it? Politics; the politics of saying I have your back, you do not have 
to worry about it.
  This majority over here in Congress is saying, do not worry, we are 
going to do a partisan commission. You do not have to worry about it. 
We are not going to be critical of you, White House. White House, do 
not be critical of us, and we will get through this thing. Let us just 
ride it out. But somehow, some way, there is a constant reminder of the 
disorganization of emergency management, and it starts from the 
Federal, and they will blame the State, or they will blame the local 
government, and the local government will blame the State, or the State 
will blame the Federal. We are not into the blame game. We are getting 
down to how we can get a system that will work for all Americans.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. I yield to the gentlewoman from Florida.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is so right, and

[[Page 23957]]

his comments have brought up so many different things that I want to 
say.
  But let us go back to what we have been talking about on this floor 
lo these last few weeks. We have been talking about the three or four 
Cs that are the real issue in this administration and in this 
government. We have been talking about corruption. We have been talking 
about cronyism. We have been talking about competence. I think what has 
happened in our community in the last few days just points arrows in 
the direction of every one of those C words.
  Let us talk about competence. The Governor can say, golly gee, our 
goal was to get up and running and be ready with all this water and ice 
and response and trucks and generators in 24 hours, and we will just 
have to work a little bit harder. Honestly, if they point to themselves 
as the model, if FEMA points to Florida as the model, and says that we 
are the most prepared State in terms of natural disasters, then they 
are owning up and saying, ``I am competent.'' We are competent. We are 
ready to do the job.
  I think if we traveled through South Florida tonight and asked people 
on the street, whom the gentleman and I have talked with, and asked 
them if they think their government is competent, I think the answer 
would be a resounding no, because these are some of the things that our 
constituents are having to deal with tonight, that our families are 
having to deal with tonight. the reality of getting hit by a Category 3 
storm and not having the government respond to their needs is that in 
Broward County there is no potable water. The entire county is under a 
boil water order, which means that when I had to give my 2-year-old a 
bath the other day, I could not pour water over her head because the 
water could give her pinkeye. That is what I was cautioned about. We 
have to make sure that our children do not rinse their toothbrushes 
with the water because it can make them sick.
  We have a myriad of issues. We have water and ice and food needs. We 
have people in high-rises who have had windows blown out. We have 
trucks that have been lost. How could the trucks get lost? If they 
prepositioned them in strategic portions of the State so as to ensure 
that they could be moved out and sent to places that they know they are 
going to be needed, how is it that they could not find them and in some 
cases still have not been able to find them?
  Today in Miami-Dade County, which we both represent, although now I 
am told that Miami-Dade County does have drinkable water, except for 
Miami Beach, which I represent about half of, these are the water and 
ice distribution centers, Mr. Speaker, that we were supposed to be set 
up and fully equipped with water and ice. So let us peruse the 
availability of the supplies today.
  This is for the model State in terms of preparation and the 
prepositioning of hundreds of trucks to be able to be distributed as 
soon as the storm is over.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. And over 2,000 FEMA employees there prior to the 
storm.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. In advance of the storm, 2,000 FEMA employees 
who were supposed to be ready to be dispatched to get this stuff 
distributed. We had the Miami Beach distribution center supplied. Metro 
Zoo in South Dade, no water, partial ice. Homestead Sports Complex, 
which is near where the trucks were prepo-
sitioned, no supplies. None. I mean, in Homestead they did not have 
water or ice, and the trucks were right there to start with. The Orange 
Bowl was supplied, but we had massive chaos in terms of the thousands 
of people that showed up to try to get access to that.
  We have Miami-Dade College North, which is in the north part of the 
county, no water, partial ice. Miami-Dade College Kendall, which is 
more towards south Dade, partially supplied, meaning they did not have 
enough water or ice for the people that showed up. And let us keep in 
mind that what they were distributing to people when they were able to 
get it were six bottles of water and a bag of ice. I mean, that is what 
people were able to take home while they are sitting in the dark with 
no ability to cool their food and keep it fresh.

                              {time}  2245

  A.D. Barns Park, no supplies. Tamiami Park, no supplies. The Mall at 
163rd Street, in both your and my district, no supplies. And Landmark 
Property, no water, partial ice. This is the model State for natural 
disasters.
  Let us talk about the IA, the granting of individual assistance or 
lack thereof. Why did the State of Florida, why did Governor Bush, not 
request automatic individual assistance for both the East Coast and the 
West Coast? He asked for that assistance immediately in advance of the 
storm for the West Coast, as if Wilma was going to hit a wall when she 
crossed over the West Coast and not cross over southeast Florida too.
  I mean, it took literally until 7:30 last night with the gentleman 
talking to Secretary Paulison, me talking to Secretary Paulison, who, 
by the way lives in my district and is a constituent, and obviously 
knows the devastation, and he was in Washington, and much to his wife's 
dismay, he told me. But we even have the acting director of FEMA living 
in our area, and they still were not able to get individual assistance 
granted.
  They literally went out on preliminary disaster assessments 
yesterday, as if you had to drive through a neighborhood to see the 
devastation. I mean, it was just so frustrating. This is what people 
are talking about when they say they do not feel their government is 
responsive to their needs, when they are frustrated beyond belief with 
the red tape.
  I mean, it is so simple. It is very difficult to respond to natural 
disasters, there is no question about that. We lived through the chaos 
in the last few days. But, come on, if you are going to hold yourself 
up as a competent model and you are going to say that you are the 
example to which all others should be held, then you have to live up to 
that example.
  Before I turn it back over to the gentleman, I just want to make sure 
we are not only talking about the one C, competence, we are talking 
about the cronyism too.
  I was interested to come across an article today that talked about 
how Mr. Brown, ``Brownie,'' who was ejected because of his incompetence 
from FEMA, Secretary Chertoff, the Homeland Security Secretary, 
extended Michael Brown's contract for another 30 days. For what?
  The gentleman is on the Committee on Homeland Security. We had this 
partisan, dependent committee asking the right questions, supposedly, 
or at least that is what it was set up to do. How are they letting this 
happen? That is why we need an independent commission. If we had an 
independent commission, this would not have happened because there 
would be some accountability.
  Our constituents want answers. I want to go home and make sure that 
FPL has the ability as much as they can humanly do to get those lights 
turned on. They are telling our people they are not going to be able to 
get those lights turned on possibly until November 22 at the earliest.
  The other thing really disturbing that I heard and read in the 
Governor and the State and FEMA's comments today was that they did not 
anticipate the intensity of the storm and they made a mistake in their 
calculations. The director of the State EOC, Emergency Operations 
Center, said today in the paper that they made a mistake in their 
calculations and did not account for the size of our population in 
South Florida when calculating how much ice and water was going to be 
needed.
  We have the biggest media market in the State. There are more than 6 
million people, 7 million people that live in our three counties, if 
you count Palm Beach too?
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, 3.8 million in 
both of our counties.
  Mr. Speaker, I am going to tell you, being a part of the solution is 
what we do. We are a part of the solution, Mr. Speaker, and I think it 
is important that even when it comes down to the individual assistance, 
I mean, you just

[[Page 23958]]

had to turn on the television and see that there were over 800 homes 
damaged in Florida. That would automatically allow the people of the 
State of Florida to be able to call FEMA for individual assistance. 
But, no, we watched the sun rise and set twice in Florida.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield 
further, let us not even let people believe that now that individual 
assistance has been granted and that it is being supplied. They do not 
even have the registration sites set up now.
  I was driving through the district with the FEMA folks yesterday and 
people were coming up with their houses crushed in saying, I have got 
to have some help here. I have a baby. I have a grandmother who needs 
medicine. When is FEMA coming?
  The poor guy who I was riding with, he does not know what to tell 
people. He said, ``This is why we are doing this assessment, ma'am. I 
understand we are going to try to get help to you as soon as 
possible.''
  Now we are 72 hours out. Every day the Governor says it is going to 
get one day better. It does not feel that way.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, that is the 
only way we are going to get better. We were calling directly to the 
FEMA director about this individual assistance. You call the 800 
number, and the folks of Texas and Louisiana and Mississippi and 
Alabama, I think they kind of know about that FEMA 1-800 number.
  I am going to put it to you this way. We had to talk to the director. 
Obviously, I am going to tell you something, I am going to be the first 
one to tell you, when Michael Brown left, well, he did not leave, he is 
still on, and I want to talk about that, when Michael Brown was 
removed, it is almost humorous, but it is sad, when he was moved from 
the director to whatever job he has now, at the same pay rate, okay, 
you are rewarded for not doing your job under this whole culture of 
corruption and cronyism. Because I can tell you right now, folks know 
that if you were at the helm of the ship and you did not know what to 
do or how to do it and you did not have the credentials, that you were 
not only fired, but you were fired yesterday; not, hey, you know 
something, you are doing a horrible job, but we are going to pay you at 
the same rate the day before we knew that you were not capable of doing 
the job, and not only that, we are going to extend you, because under 
this whole thing of cronyism, this is what we do.
  It will be okay if it was a private company somewhere that decided to 
do that for a member of that company, because it was in their 
prerogative. It is their money, they make their own money. But when you 
are using the taxpayer's money to commend cronyism and incompetence, I 
have a problem with that. I do not think I need to be a Democrat or 
Republican to have a problem with that. I just need to be an American 
taxpayer that has a big problem with that.
  How does this happen? It happens because it bubbles up from the 
bottom to the top, or I am going to say from the top it bubbles down 
from the top to the bottom. If the President is doing it, it is okay 
for the department heads to do it; if the department heads can do it, 
assistant secretaries can do it; if assistant secretaries can do it, 
area regional coordinators can do if; if regional coordinators can do 
it, it can go all the way down to the person that is making the 
decision in FEMA to foot drag or not, because they are okay.
  Because if you are going to preserve a Michael Brown in the Federal 
Emergency Management Agency, then guess who also is being preserved 
around here? I mean, I cannot even imagine for the folks not under the 
spotlight that are being preserved and rewarded under this culture of 
corruption and cronyism. And I do not use this corruption and cronyism 
lightly, because there is a big cloud over Washington, D.C. right now 
about outing CIA agents, and not a mumbling word from the Congress 
about it. Not a mumbling word.
  I can tell you one thing: If there was a Democrat in the White House 
and the Republican Congress, as it is right now, we would have to hold 
Members of Congress back from the gates of the White House, under this 
whole thing of outing a clandestine agent working to find out more 
about weapons of mass destruction to harm this country.
  So, I say to the Congresswoman, this goes a lot deeper than just the 
regular Potomac two-step that is going on in Washington. It has gone to 
a whole other level.
  The reason why we were on him on individual assistance to get better, 
it is because we are a part of trying to make FEMA right. We are a part 
of trying to make our government work. When we work and when we call 
and when we plead with Members of Congress and we talk to the 
department heads and say, listen, grant individual assistance. We 
already know we are eligible. Just do it so folks will know we are 
responding. ``Well, we are doing assessments of the assessments, and I 
haven't heard back from the people that went out in the field.''
  Let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, thank God for the National Guard. I 
talked to them. They said listen, anyone from FEMA, who needs to do 
anything about getting us more, we will fly you down, we will do 
whatever we have to do. You could go up in a helicopter in 5 minutes 
and counts 800 homes and it is over.
  But, no, this Congresswoman here had to get in a car with a 
gentleman, and I commended those frontline workers when I first started 
this hour. I think the first responders should be commended. They are 
the individuals that do what they are supposed to do. I think the FEMA 
folks on the ground are trying to do the best they can. They were going 
out, trying to do whatever they have to do to make it happen. Let us be 
happy for them, police officers, National Guard.
  But, you know something? It comes down to the management of making it 
work. If you go to a Burger King or McDonald's, I am not picking on 
them, a fast food establishment, and things are not moving the way it 
is supposed to be moving, I cannot be mad at the guy on fries. I have 
to be upset with the manager standing there with a tie on looking 
important. Either you are going to be a part of the solution or you are 
part of the problem. Apparently you have a management problem.
  And that is what we have. Unfortunately, it is the response to 
catastrophic events or a possible terrorist attack. This is real stuff. 
So what we are seeing here on the Floor, just like well were fighting 
not only on behalf of the people of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, 
Alabama, but we are fighting on behalf of Americans about the fact 
that, guess what? We are not prepared. And all of the paperwork and 
documents we have that say, oh, we are ready. We have this plan here, 
and when it is time, we are going to implement this plan.
  Guess what? Diddly-squat. Because people are not ready to do what 
they need to do. What is the bad part about it is we have people 
covering for one another. Now, the President is going down there 
tomorrow, and I am glad the President is going down. He is going to fly 
around and he will take a look at what happened and then he is going to 
go back to the Hurricane Center and he is going to have a discussion 
with State and local folk.
  Okay. That is good. I am glad the President is going. He should have 
been down there today, but I am glad he is going.
  But I am going to tell you this: I told my people back home, and I 
told the State folks, if you do not tell the President the truth, then 
you are buying in to cronyism. You cannot sit there and go through the 
whole this is the script, and I do not even want to talk about scripts 
as it relates to press conferences with the President and the troops 
selected to speak at that press conference. But I am going to tell you 
this right now: The business of I have got your back and you have my 
back and we are elected or appointed and what have you, and you watch 
out for me, and if I end up getting removed from a location, I just 
want us to be okay so I can get a 90 day contract or can continue to go 
6 months for doing a bad job. Those days are over.
  And, guess what? As it relates to the 30-Something Working Group on 
this

[[Page 23959]]

side of the aisle, we are going to call it the way it is. Bottom line: 
It is not personal, it is just business. That is the bottom line. We 
are not going to allow this to happen.
  It is a shame, it is a real shame, that there is not an outrage, 
there is no outrage from this Congress, this Republican Congress, 
Republican Senate, the White House, the fact that, you know something, 
it is not working, we are going to get it right. The Secretary of 
Homeland Security went down and said you all be patient. What is the 
problem. What is going on here? What are you crying about? Why are you 
upset? Oh, you were waiting for a day-and-a-half for ice, or whatever 
the case may be, or were out there at 7 o'clock and we were supposed to 
be there at 12 and we did not show up until 7 o'clock?
  I was at the 163rd Street location, got there at 10 o'clock. There is 
the ice trucks, pallets of them. Guess what? A few people there were 
frustrated because they left after waiting 10 or 15 hours for ice. And 
these are the victims of Wilma. These are not the folks coming in here 
saying, hey, listen, I want to suck off the government because I 
understand you all have milk. No. They came down there for help. We 
told them to come, and we were not there for them. And we had 2,000 
FEMA people, let FEMA tell you, the Governor, oh, we have trucks, and 
trucks and trucks as far as the eye can see of ice and water. No ice 
and water. They lost trucks in Broward County. I do not know how trucks 
can get lost.
  Thank God for the National Guard. They put helicopters in the air 
trying to find the trucks. This is serious business.
  Let us just say it. If we have to evacuate Washington, D.C., what is 
going to happen with the people of the District of Columbia? What is 
going to happen to the people in Sioux City, Iowa, if they say you have 
to clear that town now? We are all going to be standing around here 
saying, oh, my goodness. What are we going to do?
  Because you know something? We were not critical of our failures, and 
we have to be critical of our failures so we can have better days in 
the future.

                              {time}  2300

  It just does not get better. If you take it out of the refrigerator 
and it is sour, you put it back in and say maybe it will be fresh 
tomorrow. It just is not going to happen, and it does not make sense, 
doing the same thing expecting different results. It is beyond 
partisanship. It comes down to leadership.
  I will say this to the majority: if you are not willing to lead, the 
American people will allow individuals that are willing to lead and are 
willing to call in, even if it is the same party in the White House, 
the party that is in control of the White House or in control of this 
Congress, and it has been proven. When there were issues with President 
Clinton or issues with President Carter, it was a democratic Congress 
that called them to the mat. Because we are Americans, and that is our 
role constitutionally in making sure that this country operates in a 
good way, because we are the representatives of the people of this 
country. A Senator can be appointed, but if you are a Member of the 
House, you have to be elected, and we are elected by the people to 
what? Lead and have oversight. And if you are not willing to do that, 
and I say this to the Majority side, I guarantee you, Democrats, 
Republicans, Independents, white, black, veteran, nonveteran, they want 
people to lead and they are going to get it. And I am going to tell you 
right now, I would much rather see some correction take place in the 
very near future so that lives are not lost and individuals are not 
told one thing and it is another, turn right, I meant left. We do not 
have time for that. We need accountability.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, we absolutely need 
accountability. There are people's lives at stake here. We are not here 
to be partisan.
  I remember a few weeks ago when Katrina hit and after Katrina hit, 
and you and I and the gentleman from Ohio had been on this floor day 
after day, week after week, and talking about what the government's 
response needed to be and should have been and what our process should 
have done, which is establish an independent Katrina commission so that 
we could get some of these things resolved. Because it is very nice 
that the President is going to come down and land his helicopter or fly 
Air Force One or whatever he is going to do because the airports have 
not been open so, hopefully, he is going to have a place to land. That 
is very nice. I remember the movie ``The Candidate,'' and Robert 
Redford's character is running against another guy for the U.S. Senate, 
and there is a big fire, and his opponent flies the helicopter down 
into the disaster area to survey the damage. And you know, the whole 
thing is a fiery mess and the guy flies in, surveys the damage, and 
flies out, looks important and impressive, and that is great. But what 
help did he provide to the people who were there? Did he grab a hose 
and start spraying?
  I am glad that the President is coming because he is the symbol of 
the United States of America, and there is one person in this country 
who everyone looks to, but it is only helpful if, when he sits down at 
the hurricane center and goes through that briefing, it is only helpful 
if he learns something, if the Federal Government and the 
administration learn something and change it for the next time. Because 
we were on this floor weeks ago offering our advice and our suggestions 
and our opinion about the aftermath of Katrina and how disturbed we 
were, because we said, and I remember using these words: there but for 
the grace of God go I, and now we have. Now it has happened to us. So 
it is our responsibility.
  Mr. Speaker, there are those on the Majority side of the aisle that 
will accuse us of doing this on a nightly basis to be political and to 
be partisan. No. It is the fact that particularly with natural 
disasters, natural or manmade disasters, you just know that at some 
point, especially where we live and in other parts of the country that 
are more prone to natural disasters, you just know it is going to 
happen to you at some point. I have talked to constituents, I have read 
constituents' comments in the paper, that it is all well and good that 
they come in and they do this review and this assessment, but it is 
only good if they learn something.
  One of the things, when I was at the Broward Emergency Operations 
Center yesterday, Tony Carper, the director, was talking about how they 
are trying to find generators, both the big generators that can help 
run the power grid while they are trying to get the power lines up and 
running again, and the small ones that people are going to need to run 
their facilities, and I asked him, I said, why, if we knew this storm 
was coming for so many days in advance, why did we not get those in 
position ahead of time? He said, because we do not have enough 
flexibility in our homeland security funding, because we get a lot of 
money for terrorism, but they are not able to use that money to respond 
to natural disasters. Well, we are much more certain on a regular basis 
that we are going to get hit with natural disasters than we are, God 
forbid, going to get hit by a manmade disaster.
  That is the kind of responsiveness that could have been fixed several 
storms ago. I mean, we have our eighth storm in 15 months. How is it 
that that was not fixed already? How is it that we still have people 
sitting in the dark? How is it that we were denied individual 
assistance after Katrina in Florida, when you had people looking 
through the roof at sky, both in Florida and in Louisiana, and then the 
very next time that we get hit by a storm, we have to fight to get 
individual assistance granted when all you have to do is walk out your 
front door or turn on the television and you can see 100 or 800 homes 
damaged, severely damaged. Do they not care? I mean, have they no 
shame? Have they no heart?
  It feels like that. It feels like they are up on high in the White 
House and Capitol Hill and it is not me, it is them. They are 1,100 
miles from here and: my roof is not caving in, so I am okay. And I have 
money, I have water, I have ice, my kids are not going to get

[[Page 23960]]

pink eye when I give them a bath and run water over their heads. I 
just, I do not understand. I do not understand why we had to spend the 
last 72 hours pounding on people, pounding on this government to get 
our folks some help. It is just inexcusable. It is incompetence. It is 
corruption, it is a crisis. We are going to have a whole collection, a 
whole necklace full of seeds by the time we are done with this year. 
God forbid. I hope that somebody decides to read the book, ``Everything 
I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten'' and start remembering that 
we need to care about each other and that we need to be responsive and 
put partisan politics aside. It is not about the next election; it is 
about taking care of each other.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Congresswoman, the issue is the fact that if 
folks would say, well, why are the Democrats not doing something? They 
may well, I do not know, maybe they are saying what they should be 
doing and they are not doing. Guess what? I just want to remind the 
Members just in case, Mr. Speaker, someone bumped their head and has a 
little amnesia going on, the Republican-controlled Senate, Republican-
controlled House, a majority, okay? A Republican-controlled White 
House. That is legislative and executive branch, all right? They are in 
control of this government.
  The bottom line is in the minority, as it relates to the rules, they 
cannot agenda bills here on the Floor, they cannot call committee 
meetings. They cannot even get votes to take place here on this floor, 
and within the time that it is supposed to take place, especially when 
the majority is not on the prevailing side, because it is bad policy 
that they are passing. All we can do is make sure that not only the 
Members know exactly what they are doing, not only fight them in 
committee as it relates to amendments to try to make bills better and 
shame the majority into accepting those amendments so that the bill and 
the legislation could be better, or we can have better oversight over 
Federal agencies to make sure what? That the American people get their 
taxpayer dollars' worth of accountability out of those Federal 
agencies, and even sometimes out of individuals that are within the 
Federal Government.
  So when that does not happen, we are at the point that we are now: a 
brick wall. A brick wall of just saying, listen, I am in the majority, 
and guess what? Live with it. It is not personal, it is just business. 
And believe it or not, it would be okay if things were properly managed 
in the Federal Government. It would be okay if we did not have White 
House folks outing, or rumors of well, the Vice President told his 
chief of staff who the agent was, the CIA agent was, and somehow it got 
out to a reporter, and then now her life is in jeopardy, and we have 
lost someone who had the opportunity to go to the other side where many 
of our intelligence officers could not go to find out where or how 
individuals possessed weapons of mass destruction to what? To protect 
our country, and someone thought because of politics, that they should 
out her. Okay? It would be okay, Congresswoman, but guess what? It is 
not.
  We have one of the highest deficits in the history of the republic as 
we stand here in the 109th Congress. We have an emergency management 
agency/homeland security agency that cannot perform in the way that it 
is supposed to perform, let alone the public assistance that is 
supposed to go to local governments after these disasters to be able to 
replenish their dollars so that they can provide for who? The people 
that we represent and the Americans that are counting on us to respond 
in their time of need, let alone the fact that goodness, we cannot even 
get water and ice right and food. If we cannot get that right, then how 
can we count on, if we are under the gun of a terrorist attacks, and we 
do not know what area is safe, can we breath the air, can you drink the 
water, when is the next attack taking place, at least we have an 
opportunity with a natural disaster to say, we can see a storm coming, 
we can prepare for it as best we can, and say this is what we need to 
do and folks get in place. You get a terrorist attack, you do not get a 
warning. The terrorist did not call you up and say hey, guess what? We 
are going to carry out a terrorist attack in maybe another month so we 
want to make sure you guys are ready.
  So unless we scrutinize our system that we have now, it will not be 
better and we will not be prepared. That is far beyond politics. And it 
should be far beyond cronyism. And you would say, as much as we talk 
about cronyism which is, in reality, we do not need to paint a picture 
there; just open your local paper. Just turn on the television. It is 
covered with corruption and cronyism. I mean I do not even need to 
waste time on that. I just need to say that for us to get better, 
either the majority is going to say, you know something, we are going 
to do what we are supposed to do, even if it embarrasses some of our 
friends in and outside of our party, because this is what we have to 
do. And that is not happening right now.
  We have a committee right now, a partisan committee that has been 
created, more Republicans than Democrats, that is are supposed to be 
assigned to the committee. I am glad the democratic leader and other 
folks here on this side of the aisle have said, you know something? We 
are not going to participate in Operation I Have Your Back, You Have 
Mine. We are not going to participate in, you know something? We have 
lunch together and I am going to make sure that you are okay and you 
look good, because we are friends, and what time are we going to play 
golf? We are not going to participate in turning our backs on those 
victims of Katrina and storms after Katrina who are counting on some 
assessment, true assessment, an independent assessment of what took 
place so it would never happen again. The fact that water, ice, and 
food cannot be distributed in Florida right now or is spottily 
distributed in Florida right now, and yes, I am pretty sure things are 
getting better before they get worse, but I am going to tell you, if we 
cannot do that, then how in the world can we sit here with a straight 
face and say, well, the White House is doing a review of what went 
wrong with Katrina so that we can correct the future, when it is not 
even stated on their website of who is on this committee or what is 
going to happen with the findings, or where are we going to go from 
there? And in the House, we have a partisan committee that is calling 
folks up, that is supposed to put together a report by February, 
Congresswoman. So I guess we are supposed to take that and say, we have 
it right now. Oh, I am sorry, I go back to my example. My name is 
Kendrick Meek and I know we had some missteps and I have done possibly 
something wrong or something, but maybe I need to, I will tell you 
what, I am going to do a review of myself and I will be back and I will 
give you a report of where I went wrong. It is just not going to 
happen. And even on the other side of the building here, they are 
having some sort of evaluation of what took place. We need an 
independent Katrina commission.
  Congresswoman, I just want to share this. USA Today said we need an 
independent commission. Let me put my little chart up here, right here. 
These major papers throughout the country, and these are just the major 
ones. I am not talking about the small paper that said it is the right 
thing to do. The News Observer in North Carolina; the Capital Times, 
Madison, Wisconsin; the Atlanta Constitutional Journal; the Courier 
Journal, Louisville, Kentucky; St. Petersburg Times in Florida; Salt 
Lake Tribune in Utah; Denver Post in Colorado; the San Antonio Express 
News, that is in Texas; Houston Chronicle, they have all said, and that 
is just to name a few, that we need an independent Katrina commission 
to evaluate what went wrong and how it went wrong so that we can be 
better.

                              {time}  2315

  They are not saying, well, we need to do it so we cam figure out who 
was wrong. No, we need to have an independent Katrina Commission so 
they can put together a report and so that we can correct our wrongs.
  Unless we are willing to do that, because I guarantee you right now, 
it is

[[Page 23961]]

not going to happen under normal circumstances.
  I think we must, on behalf of Americans not only our constituents 
that are Americans too, continue to push and fight and get in the face 
of folks who are supposed to be doing the right thing and allowing an 
independent commission to come about so that we can have this kind of 
change that is needed in our country, so that we can have a better 
America and a safer America.
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, if I can close us out by saying 
that their priorities are wrong. It is not an independent Katrina 
Commission; it is Katrina, Wilma, Rita. We have got to do better.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I want to let you know that we did 
not try to pass the time. But we want to thank the Democratic leader 
and thank you for your indulgence here.

                          ____________________