[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 18]
[House]
[Pages 24031-24037]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1715
    30-SOMETHING WORKING GROUP: CALLING FOR AN INDEPENDENT KATRINA 
                               COMMISSION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Duncan). 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. As the Members know, the 30-Something Working Group, 
we come to the floor to bring about not only good change for the 
Congress, but also for the country. And we try to promote legislation 
that the Democratic side is offering towards some of the issues that 
are facing the country, but at the same time talk about the 
responsibilities of the majority that are unmet.
  Mr. Speaker, as the Members know, Hurricane Wilma hit not only my 
district, but many of the Florida delegation in southeast and southwest 
Florida, and we are constantly struggling with trying to make sure that 
we can provide for our constituents. And we come to the floor week 
after week, especially the 30-Something Working Group, talking about 
what happened in Hurricane Katrina, the lack of response in Hurricane 
Katrina and Rita by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and also 
calling up House Resolution 3764, which has over 190 Democratic 
cosponsors. Unfortunately, last I checked, there are not any 
Republicans who have signed on to it, and that is very unfortunate 
because it is an identical commission to the 9/11 Commission that 
brought about great recommendations, some that have been met, others 
that we still have to make sure that we implement to secure our 
country. It was about not making the same mistake again, again, and 
again. And that is the reason why we are calling for an independent 
Katrina Commission.
  And that is a piece of legislation that is not a Democratic plan, but 
it is an American plan. Eighty-one percent of Americans support it, and 
I think it is very important that we do not allow partisan committees 
that have been established here in the House to dictate the response to 
natural disasters and a possible terrorist attack.
  We have to make things better to protect Americans. It is almost like 
I feel like an insurance salesman saying that we have to have insurance 
not after the fact, but before the fact. And if we know we have 
shortcomings, then we need to deal with that in a very effective way.
  Being an ``evacuee'' of Hurricane Wilma due to the fact that there is 
very little power in south Florida, there are gas lines, Mr. Speaker, I 
hold up here the front page of the Washington Post that has many people 
here in south Florida, as a matter of fact in West Palm Beach, standing 
for hours for gas because we could not get the generators running at 
Port Everglades to be able to pump the gas to allow many of the 
stations to have gas and power. These are things that we need to work 
on.
  Governor Bush jumped in front of the train because folks were getting 
upset with the Federal response once again as it relates to getting the 
simple things like ice, water, and food down to the affected area. 
There was a lot of chest-beating prior to the storm, saying, we have 
2,000 FEMA personnel in place; we have a set number of trucks that are 
lined up in Florida, pre-positioned, to go in and provide ice water and 
food. And in many cases the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman 
Schultz) showed that either there were very few, trucks were extremely 
late like 8, 7 hours. People there just went through a major hurricane 
waiting 8, 7 hours just for 1 bag of ice and 3 jugs of water, and in 
some cases nothing showed up, and folks had to go back home.
  That is why we need an independent commission. We do not need 
officials that have relationships with the President to say, blame me, 
I am the State of Florida, blame me for the shortcomings of the 
response. We know in hurricanes, natural disasters, that there are 
going to be shortcomings. But as it relates to the very simple things 
that have to be provided, they must be provided. And the reason why 
they were not provided is that the supplies were not there, period, 
dot.
  FEMA was in charge of making sure that those supplies made it to said 
location. The truck drivers were not hired by the State of Florida, but 
were hired by FEMA. And I think it is important that we look at it for 
what it is.
  We do not have to have a commission for every natural disaster or 
event that takes place here in the United States, but we have a House 
resolution that, Mr. Speaker, will be part of a discharge petition here 
in the House, and I want to break that down so that everyone

[[Page 24032]]

understands what a discharge petition is.
  Basically, we are using the rules of the House to call this 
resolution up to the floor to discharge it, and we need a said number 
of signatures to be able to pull it up on the floor so that the House 
can take a vote. And if we do not have some Members of the majority 
side to see fit to have an independent Katrina Commission that 81 
percent of Americans are in approval of, then we are failing to meet 
our obligations.
  We know that we have problems. The Department of Homeland Security 
telling people in my district to be patient 72 hours after the storm, 
saying, we will get it right. Well, that is the reason why we have it. 
We are supposed to be prepared for these events, but we are not, and we 
are not even willing to correct ourselves. So that is in place as it 
relates to the Democratic response.
  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 appreciate his yielding to me. Just 
so that we can go back, and, obviously, he has outlined why we have a 
need for this independent commission. I think it is important that we 
go back and we explain what is actually happening here right now. We 
have been asking for this thing for how long now, months? Almost 2 
months we have been asking for an independent commission. We want to go 
back, Democrats and Republicans, and look at what happened with Katrina 
so that we can stop and prevent these things from happening.
  We are not doing a good job in this country of administering 
emergency services. And we have the Republicans in charge of the House 
and in charge of the Senate, in charge of the White House, in charge of 
FEMA, in charge of the whole executive branch, and we keep having these 
missteps and these failures, and no one is figuring out what in the 
heck we are doing wrong because the committee down here that the 
Republicans have appointed only gives subpoena power to the 
Republicans. So we have the Republicans overseeing the Republicans. And 
I think we might as well put Ed Gillespie in charge of the committee 
down here to oversee what is happening, the head of the RNC, because 
this has become political.
  And what we want to say to the American people, Mr. Speaker, is that 
Democrats want an opportunity to govern this place because our friends 
on the other side do not know how to govern. They have been in charge 
now in the House since 1994. They have control of the Senate, they have 
control of the White House, and they do not know how to govern. And we 
need to be prepared for not only natural disasters, but potential 
terrorist attacks to the United States of America.
  And we need to do what we did with the 9/11 Commission, an 
independent commission, independent of all of the nonsense that happens 
in this body that has gotten us to a point where the Republican 
majority does not know how to govern. Get an independent commission 
with an outside Democrat and an outside Republican, bipartisan, where 
they can subpoena people, oversee what happened for Katrina, oversee 
Wilma, oversee Rita, and figure out what we need to do, because at some 
point, at some point, something is going to happen in America that is 
going to be more tragic than these natural disasters, and we are not 
going to know how to respond. And our kids and our grandkids are going 
to look back and the American people are going to look to this body and 
say, What have you done to prevent this? What have you done to improve 
the emergency management execution in the United States of America? And 
we are saying on record here five times a week sometimes with the 30-
something Group we want an independent commission. We do not want 
politics involved. Do the right thing.
  And we are asking people at home to contact us, housedemocrats.gov/
katrina, and become a citizen cosponsor of H.R. 3764, become a citizen 
cosponsor, and I think we have over 40,000 citizen cosponsors for this. 
Get on this Website, housedemocrats.gov/katrina, become a citizen 
cosponsor so that we can become prepared for a possible terrorist 
attack that may happen in the United States, another natural disaster 
that may happen in the United States. We will be ready, and then down 
the line we will be able to look back, and there is always room for 
improvement. We watch the game film the next day, and we see what we 
did right and what we did wrong, but at the end of the day, we can say 
we have done our job. We have put the microscope up to the problem. We 
have looked at it, put the sunshine on it, and figured out what we did 
wrong.
  And it takes courage. I mean, it is not easy to be self-reflective. 
It is not easy to critique oneself. And that is what we are asking this 
Congress to do, have the courage to do the right thing: Get an 
independent commission here.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, it is not like 
we are by ourselves as it relates to calling for this independent 
commission. And the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz) 
and I were talking about an independent commission, and we have been 
going week after week here on this floor saying it is the responsible 
thing to do not only in natural disasters, but also in the aftermath of 
a terrorist attack. An independent commission will be able to look at 
the Federal response, the State response, and the local response and 
learn from either what was good or bad that took place in those events.
  If we are not going to have an independent review of our 
capabilities, then something is wrong. If we are not going to have 
that, that means that without having it, people will lose their lives 
possibly because of the lack of response, because they definitely did 
in Katrina. We had people that were running out of medical supplies. We 
had people that needed insulin, could not get it because they were 
stranded and that we were not able to reach them. So I think that is 
very important.
  There are a number of papers that have come out for an independent 
commission on Katrina: The USA Today; the Tennessean from Nashville, 
Tennessee; the News & Observer from Raleigh, North Carolina; also 
Capital Times, Madison, Wisconsin; the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 
Georgia; the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky; the St. 
Petersburg Times in Florida; the Salt Lake Tribune in Utah; also the 
Denver Post in Colorado; and the San Antonio Express, obviously in 
Texas; and the Houston Chronicle of Texas.
  There are a number of papers, and those are just the major ones, that 
have come out for an independent Katrina Commission.
  We have talked about House Resolution 3764, but also as it relates to 
contracting fraud that may very well happen in Wilma because of a lack 
of oversight. We have called for House bill H.R. 3838, a bill to create 
an antifraud commission to prevent waste and fraud and abuse of Federal 
contractors as it relates to these emergency declarations or what have 
you. This is about saving money and making sure that we do not make the 
victims of a natural disaster or a potential terrorist attack victims 
all over again because we failed to have the proper oversight.
  Mr. Speaker, I also want to add the fact that we have to continue to 
push. Once again I give the report. Every day I go on the White House 
Website. I have the Website page here. No mention of an independent or 
any evaluation of what the failures were during Hurricane Katrina, and 
we also have the Website that has not changed on the partisan committee 
that is here in the House. And I think it is important for us to 
identify that so that we do not have to continue to have Ground Hog Day 
all over again.
  One last point, Mr. Speaker, while we are on this issue here. The 
gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz) and I talked last 
night about the fact that we were here pushing for this commission week 
after week. I mentioned that. And we shared with not only the Members, 
but also Americans, Mr. Speaker, the fact that it could be them next, 
victims of a poor, short response or an inadequate response.

[[Page 24033]]



                              {time}  1730

  Little did we know at that time that we would be victims of the 
shortcomings of the fact that we say we are ready, but we are not 
really ready or really prepared; and in some cases some people question 
are we saying we have trucks in certain locations and they are not 
there, do we need to get prima facia proof that they were there? These 
are the questions that my constituents are asking.
  So I want to share with Members that this independent commission is 
very important, to make sure that one day it may be you and your 
constituents going through this and you are going to say, Gee, you 
know, it is amazing that we cannot even get a truck to come in here 
with water.
  We talked about last night the fact that the terrorists are not going 
to call up and say, Hey, I want you guys to get prepared. I am going to 
carry out an attack in another month or so, so you need to get together 
and pre-position.
  That is the reason why the 9/11 recommendations need to be fully 
implemented. That is the reason why we need a Katrina Commission to 
look at the lack of response we had on the biggest natural disaster 
that took place on U.S. soil and the Federal, State and local response 
to that. That is very, very important. It is not an indictment 
document; it is a document to make sure that we prevent loss of life in 
the future.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, he is 
absolutely right. I think the gentleman makes a great point. This is 
important. This goes beyond Katrina. The independent commission that we 
want goes beyond Katrina.
  We had a situation in Ohio a year or so ago where a potential 
terrorist was planning an attack in Columbus. You are in the middle of 
Ohio, it was something about a shopping mall. The gentleman was stopped 
and held, and I do not even know what the status is right now. But this 
was in Ohio. It is not just the gulf States or Florida.
  Katrina and the independent commission, these are all the editorials 
that have been written in support all over the country. I think a lot 
of the editorial boards understand what we are trying to say here, and 
they are being very supportive.
  We talk about an independent commission. I want to read a little bit 
from the Houston Chronicle in Texas, a little bit of what they say 
about trying to fix the problem: ``The most promising option is an 
independent commission along the lines of the September 11 problem. 
This is great, because this puts a little meat on the bone. It should 
be headed by national figures of unassailable independence and 
credibility such as former President Jimmy Carter, former Secretary of 
State Colin Powell and retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day 
O'Connor.''
  We are talking about Republicans, but just to be independent of the 
day-to-day politics that go on in this Chamber. This is not something 
that needs to be compromised. This is an issue that has long-term 
ramifications, and we have an obligation.
  We come here early in January every other year and we put our hand on 
the Bible and one up in the air. We have an obligation to make this 
government run effectively and efficiently. A lot of hard-working 
people pay a lot of tax dollars that come to us, and then we invest it 
to improve the quality of their lives.
  Part of that is to make sure they are safe. So when we had all these 
problems with body armor, where their kids, their sons and daughters 
were going over, we wanted to make sure they have the proper body armor 
and the up-armored Humvees; and we fought through the 30-something 
Group and the Democrats and put enough pressure on where we finally got 
that problem fixed. It is a whole other issue why we went to war 
without the proper equipment.
  But we have a responsibility here to make sure that this government 
runs efficiently. A component of that is emergency management services, 
which, as we found, became very apparent in the past few months. So we 
have this obligation; and we are trying, the 30-something Group, the 
Democratic Party, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), we are 
trying to move this committee out of politics into an independent 
commission, get Sandra Day O'Connor, get Colin Powell, get some good, 
solid Republicans who are going to be independent and do what is best 
for the country, because time and time again, unfortunately, my friend, 
the Republicans continue to prove their ineptness, their inability to 
govern; and we have a responsibility as the minority party, as the 
opposition party, to provide alternative views, and we want an 
opportunity to run the government.
  We proved in 1993 with not one Republican vote that we could balance 
the budget and handle those difficult decisions, and that vote in 
particular led to the greatest economic expansion in the history of the 
United States of America.
  Our friends on the other side are not only inept in trying to 
administer emergency services, because they appoint all their cronies 
to the top positions in FEMA, all friends of friends of a college 
roommate who gives a lot to the Republican Party, which led to poor 
execution of emergency services. Their party, the Republican Party, 
takes higher precedence for the people who govern this Chamber than the 
country, and they have proved that time and time again. Party over 
country. What the Democrats are trying to say is pick the country over 
the party.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, the gentleman 
is 110 percent right. I think every day Republicans want to see, and 
Democrats and Independents and even folks that are not voting in 
America, they want to see leadership. They want to see leadership on 
behalf of the country. Veterans want to see the flag that they fought 
for and that some of their friends and comrades died for, that it is 
not caught up in what we call this culture of corruption and cronyism.
  We want to talk about cronyism for a minute, Mr. Michael ``Brownie,'' 
I am not one to say it is his fault as it relates to staying on with 
FEMA for 60 days, and then the Secretary of Homeland Security extends 
his contract at the salary he was making as director of FEMA for 
another 30 days.
  The reason given for doing that is that we need to learn from 
Director Brown, or Brownie, the President calls him Brownie, we need to 
learn from him so that we can know more about what happened in Katrina. 
Now, if you could not get it in the first 60 days, he was only in 
charge for about maybe 5 or 7 days, thanks to the fact that we were 
raising the question. The Democratic Leader first called for his 
resignation because we saw that we had someone that did not have the 
experience.
  The fact he is on for 60 days, the Secretary of the Department of 
Homeland Security, I am waiting to have a conversation with him on why 
he would extend it for 30 more days at taxpayers' expense.
  Now, folks went into their pockets and said, Well, we are going to 
help you out for another whole month. That is on them. I do not have a 
problem with that. I do have a problem with the fact that we are 
rewarding him in confidence and cronyism with the taxpayer dollar.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. If the gentleman will yield further, Mr. Speaker, 
Brownie is still on the payroll, $100,000.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. $148,000.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. $148,000. Talk about rewarding negative behavior. 
Do you do that with your kids? Your kids come home, they took a 
spelling test, got a D, do you throw them $20? Good job, Kendrick. Go 
out and get another one. That is what we are doing. We are reinforcing 
bad behavior.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time once again, 
well, I can tell you, the part that I am more concerned about is the 
fact that this is a high-profile individual within FEMA. What is 
happening on an everyday basis with someone that really is not 
competent in Federal Government and is known to the managers? I guess 
it is okay, because when you think about the culture of corruption and 
cronyism, if it comes from the top, then it must be okay. If it is all 
right with the Vice President, then it is okay. That

[[Page 24034]]

means it is okay with the Department Secretaries and Under Secretaries 
and the regional directors. So that is the reason why we have to cut it 
off.
  Mr. Speaker, do you know something? Not a mumbling word from the 
majority on this. Not a mumbling word. Better yet, we have folks coming 
to the floor, and we started talking about responding to the needs of 
Americans saying we have to have offsets in Medicaid, we have got to 
have offsets in possible Medicare, that is not off the table.
  What I mean by ``offsets'' is the fact we have to take money from 
those programs to respond to the Katrina-Rita issue. We have to do 
that. But, better yet, we have an example of an individual that I think 
pretty much all Americans, and I am pretty sure that almost close to 
every Member of the House, agree with the fact that he did not know 
exactly what he was doing.
  I do not blame Mr. Brown. I do not blame him. I blame the individuals 
that placed him in that position. I blame the managers that saw that he 
was not up to par and endorsed lackluster, leave-alone performance, 
lack of competence in doing that particular job. He is probably good 
somewhere else.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. ``You are doing a good job, Brownie.''
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Yes, ``You are doing a good job, Brownie,'' on 
national television, broad daylight. The world is watching.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. The world is watching. You are not doing a good 
job. You are doing a bad job. In fact, you are fired. Get out. What do 
you mean, you are doing a good job.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. And we are going to give you a 60-day extension 
and have you on as a consultant, have you on so we can learn from your 
bad job. Maybe we can learn more. No, as a fat matter of fact, hey, you 
know, 60 days is not enough. Let us extend it 30 more days.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Maybe their plan was this: they said we will keep 
Brownie on, pay him $148,000, and when there is a situation, we will go 
to Brownie and ask, what do you think we should do? He will tell you. 
Then they do the complete opposite. Maybe that you is how they are 
using him, do you think?
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. There are too many people around here paying 
taxes, folks running around here trying to put fiscal responsibility in 
the backdrop, saying we are conservatives. Meanwhile, the Secretary of 
the Department of Homeland Security is defending and extending 
contracts of a person that the front-page national publications say is 
incompetent and not in any way knowing what to do in a natural 
disaster. So this is beyond comprehension. And not a mumbling word.
  I would say this: I do not blame him. I am not running around here 
saying I am disappointed in Michael Brown for accepting a 30-day 
extension on a $140,000 salary. I am not blaming him. He could not do 
that on his own.
  No one from the White House called and said, You know something? Over 
at the Department of Homeland Security, I think you all are probably 
not playing with a full deck if you think it is okay to do this. Not a 
mumbling word. So I am concerned, leave alone as a Congressman, as a 
taxpayer, that this is okay.
  Now, this is just a high-profile case. We talk about corruption and 
cronyism, a culture. People think, well, wow, they are just saying that 
because they can say it. No, this is a shining example, and we have 
been talking about this, and it has been in all of these publications, 
and they are still doing it, like it is okay.
  The only people that can put this administration and set us on a new 
course and put this majority in check are the American people. But, 
unfortunately, they will not have an opportunity until late 2006, and 
on behalf of the country we cannot continue to sit idly by and watch 
this kind of activity take place.
  I would feel a little uncomfortable saying that my colleagues on the 
majority side are not standing up to their responsibilities in 
oversight. The Secretary, as soon as he leaves from down in south 
Florida from Wilma, should be called on the carpet in some committee 
room saying please let us know what we can learn from Mr. Brown. Please 
let us know what we can learn from the Director of FEMA. Why do we have 
to continue to pay him and use the taxpayers' dollars? Someone needs to 
ask that question. It should be not only the Committee on Homeland 
Security; it should be congressional leaders calling and saying you 
need to reverse that.
  So I do not even feel half uncomfortable about me being upset about 
this thing, because I can tell you right now, there are a number of 
people out there that are very upset; and it is time, it is time, that 
we cut out this culture of corruption and cronyism, because it is 
weakening this country. I am going to tell you that right now.
  Folks might see little events, but I can tell you right now, I am 
concerned about clandestine operations that we have going on, 
especially in this culture of corruption and cronyism. I am concerned 
about taking people for face value when they say, well, this is what we 
have in place, and we find out later that it is really not.
  I am concerned when we come to this floor and the clock opens up for 
15-minute votes, and because the majority side is not prevailing or 
winning, they decide to hold the vote clock open for 90 minutes. I am 
concerned about these events taking place under lights, cameras, and 
action.

                              {time}  1745

  I am concerned about those events that are taking place in the back 
halls of Congress, in the White House, and in other Federal agencies 
that are not under lights and camera.
  So this is the kind of boldness, cronyism, boldness and possible 
corruption in many places that takes place. And do not take it from me, 
just pick up your local paper or turn on the news. It is full of it. So 
if we do not hold ourselves in check, and if the majority is not 
willing to rise up and police this corruption and cronyism; because, 
Mr. Speaker, I used to be a State trooper, and we had what they call a 
game warden, and I always used to say, the game warden cannot be the 
lead poacher. You cannot be leading off the poacher saying that I am in 
charge of policing the poachers. So I think it is important that we 
have folks that will leader up and say, you know something, I know I 
have been told to be quiet on this, but I have a constitutional 
responsibility to make sure that we have oversight.
  These are not personal decisions, Mr. Ryan; these are decisions that 
are affecting the governance of this country. So when we allow this 
kind of stuff to go on, it is making the country weaker versus 
stronger, because the Federal tax dollars are being spent in ways that 
they should not be spent, and we are not saving any money by allowing 
this kind of culture to continue.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I think it really comes down to the 
fact that every decision that is made by this Congress, by the 
Republican-controlled Congress, by the Republican-controlled Senate, 
and by our Republican President is based on supporting and lifting up 
the Republican Party. I hate to break it to them, but this is not about 
the Republican Party; this is about America. This is about what is best 
for America.
  You talk about violating basic House rules, and every time they have 
done that, every time they have kept the roll call open at 2:00 or 3:00 
or 4:00 in the morning; I mean, last year, I cannot remember what vote 
it was, but we were here until 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning. It was on 
the prescription drug bill, because we had to kick over $700 billion to 
the pharmaceutical industry, one of the most profitable industries in 
the whole entire world, them and oil, and the reason is they put the 
Republican Party before the country.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Ryan, I am sorry to cut in, sir, but I am 
going to tell you this: I know a lot of Republicans. A lot of 
Republicans are supporters of me. They vote for me, and some of them 
say, great job. I have some great friends on the other side of the 
aisle, I mean great friends. We do a lot together. We talk about things 
that are common interests. We are friends. My mother was here before 
me, and

[[Page 24035]]

some of them are great friends of my mother, and, because of that 
relationship, we have a great bond.
  But I can tell you this: I think this goes far beyond building up or 
doing something on behalf of the Republican Party, because some of 
these decisions that are made, it will turn the stomach of Republicans 
that I know. It would turn their stomachs. I know on the majority side, 
I know that there are some Republicans that go home, and they are sick. 
They are sick of what is going on here in this House. But you know 
something? If they were to stand up, unfortunately they would be 
knocked down politically. They will find themselves fighting the whole 
reason why we are here on this floor, fighting against them doing their 
jobs.
  So I kind of feel that there is a purpose for what we are doing here, 
because as far as I am concerned, we could sit back and just say, well, 
let them do it, or let them look the other way, because the American 
people are going to see that they are not governing. But you know 
something? We are Americans, and we have an obligation to not only our 
constituents. When our constituents voted for us, they federalized us. 
So that means that we have to care about the entire country and what 
happens to the Federal dollar, which is the taxpayers' dollar. It is 
very unfortunate.
  So, Mr. Ryan, I know that it is an influence of the special 
interests. Their pockets are full because of the relationships here on 
Capitol Hill that they have and in the White House. Guess what? The 
average Republican is paying more at the pump, the average Republican 
does not have health care; just like many of our constituents, there is 
no health care plan. The average Republican is going to have to bear 
the brunt, Mr. Ryan, and I am sorry for taking a little of your time 
here, but bear the brunt of taking away from Medicare, Medicaid, free 
and reduced lunches for poor people; taking away from projects that 
would go to local government to build communities; and all of these 
faith-based groups that are out there trying to bring about some 
change, it is going to take away from them.
  But, meanwhile, when it comes down to saying to a billionaire that we 
probably cannot give you hundreds of thousands in tax cuts that we have 
given you over the last number of years, and I am going to reference a 
report here, a third-party validator, a little later on, to say that it 
is not working, they say, no, no, no, do not worry about it, do not say 
anything, millionaire. We have you. We have your back. We are going to 
protect you, but we are going to make sure that the average Republican, 
the average Democrat, the average Independent, that they bear the 
burden, that they send their children into conflict and war, that they 
pay higher gas prices; not you, special interest. No, no, we are here 
for you.
  But see, the problem here, and we talked about it last night, Mr. 
Ryan, about the fact that this is the only legislative body on the 
other side of the aisle in the Senate, where you can be appointed by a 
Governor to the Senate if someone leaves office. But when someone 
leaves office here in the middle of a term, you have to be elected. You 
cannot be appointed to the House of Representatives. So that means that 
we are representatives of the people, not representatives of the 
special interests, not representatives of the billionaires of the 
world; we are representatives of everyday folk.
  So I think this is important, because Democrats, we have budget 
alternatives like pay-as-you-go, saying that if you are going to do it, 
you are going to show how you are going to pay for it, okay? We have 
alternatives as it relates to dealing with Hurricane Katrina so that we 
do not continue to waste the taxpayers' dollars and also make the 
victims of the event victims all over again. So, Mr. Ryan, we have the 
alternatives.
  I believe that this goes higher than the party. I believe that it 
goes right to this culture of corruption and cronyism, and I will tell 
you one thing: The American people will see us bring about great change 
if just one of the Chambers of the legislative body was to turn 
Democrat, because what you see right now, based on law enforcement 
agencies saying, listen, we need to have some level of oversight, this 
country is going down the drain, because they are dragging it down the 
drain, and we have to do this. Imagine if we had an oversight committee 
that would call some of these things into question before they get to 
the level to where they are now, Mr. Ryan.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Yes, no doubt about it. We maybe could have 
prevented, if we had been really on the stick and really open, we maybe 
could have prevented some of the things that are happening.
  I think this really goes to the fact that the Republican majority 
believe that the government and the taxpayer dollars that we have here 
are just for them. It is for them to build their party up. It is for 
them to use it to build up the Republican Party.
  I am sorry, but my citizens in my district do not pay taxes so that 
the leaders of the House, the Republican leaders of the House, can go 
out to Shake Down Street out there on K Street, just a cab ride away 
where all the lobbyists are, and go and shake down the lobbyists. I 
mean, when a Democrat applies for a job, and the leaders on the 
Republican majority say to the lobbyists, you cannot give that job to a 
Democrat because we will not do business with you then.
  And when you come to the American people and you try to say with a 
straight face about fiscal discipline, but when we are here at 3:00 in 
the morning, and arms are getting twisted to pass a Medicare 
prescription drug bill, and the Republican majority does not have the 
courage to go to the pharmaceutical industry and say, listen, we want 
to pass a Medicare prescription drug bill, but we want to give the 
Secretary of Health and Human Services the opportunity, the power to 
negotiate on behalf of the Medicare recipients to get the costs under 
control. The Republicans put a provision in the Medicare bill that 
explicitly said the Secretary of Health and Human Services is not 
allowed to negotiate down the drug prices. Can you imagine that? Can 
you believe that? And then only 25 Republican Members voted against it.
  Then you come to the energy bill, and with the energy bill, you have 
billions of dollars in there to subsidize the oil companies, and a 
major oil company comes out today and talks about 89 percent profits in 
the last quarter, $10 billion, and you are getting public tax dollars 
from middle-class Americans who live in Youngstown, Ohio, one of the 
poorest areas in the country, you are taking their tax dollars and you 
are giving it to the oil companies.
  Now, a third-party validator, right here, Cal Thomas, one of the most 
conservative Republican columnists in the country right now, suggests 
to our friends on the other side, to the Republican majority, he is 
commenting on the offsets to pay for Katrina, and the Republican 
majority is taking the money from Medicaid, free and reduced lunch, and 
college students. Cal Thomas says, here is a suggestion: Do not start 
with the poor, start with the rich. That is Cal Thomas. That is not 
Kendrick Meek, that is not Tim Ryan, that is not Debbie Wasserman 
Schultz, that is one of the most conservative Republican columnists in 
the country.
  He also goes on to say, talking about using government as their own 
little sandbox that they can play in and as a welfare state for 
corporations, because this is corporate welfare. Cal Thomas, 
conservative Republican. Did I mention he is a conservative Republican?
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. You mentioned it.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I appreciate that.
  Quote: Seventy-two percent of farm subsidy money goes to 10 percent 
of recipients, the richest farmers, partnerships, corporations, 
estates, and other entities. Corporate welfare, my friend, to the oil 
companies, to the pharmaceutical companies, and to the big 
agribusinesses, and the Republican leadership in this Chamber goes out 
to Shake Down Street and tells all the lobbyists on K Street that they 
have to hire Republicans or they are not going to do business with the 
Republican majority.

[[Page 24036]]


  Mr. MEEK of Florida. Mr. Speaker, let us just make sure that we are 
crystal clear so that everyone understands. Not just saying, well, let 
me check, let us see. Let us look at the people that apply for the job. 
Oh, there is a Republican. No. I want you to hire my right-hand 
staffer. I want you to hire him or her, put them in the position, okay, 
and so I can deal directly with them so that we can have a line of 
communications and we are not confused, because this person has my cell 
number, okay, and I want to make sure that that happens.
  Now, we are not talking about something that the House Ethics 
Committee has not already dealt with, because of the fact that this 
issue was brought up and it was very public. It was not any kind of 
clandestine operation that was going on. You just pick up the paper. 
Yes, that is what we are doing. What is the problem? If they are going 
to do business up here, they are going to hire the people that they 
want hired, period, dot, with a straight face, under the lights with 
the cameras on and the press running.
  That is a problem, Mr. Ryan, and I believe that when you start 
looking at the whole culture of corruption and cronyism, you have to 
look at these activities that are taking place under lights, camera, 
and on the front pages of newspapers. And you know something? The 
American people, Mr. Speaker, may feel, well, it is okay, because 
Congress is not calling any of these people in. Once again, you cannot 
be the game warden and the lead poacher at the same time. You just 
cannot do it. It is not physically possible. You cannot have a problem 
and be over the very thing that is the problem.
  Once again, I said it last night, I will say it again. These are not 
personal decisions, Mr. Ryan. These are decisions that are affecting 
the policy of the country and the Treasury of the country. This is not 
someone that went off and made an individual bad decision and said, you 
know, I made a bad decision, it only really affected me, okay, and I am 
sorry. It will not happen again. No, it is not that; it is a whole 
Medicare program. It is an entire industry: Energy, we are going to 
give you what you want.

                              {time}  1800

  That is what is going on, and it is affecting the U.S. taxpayers.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We are going to give you public tax dollars for the 
energy companies, public, through subsidies, billions of dollars in the 
energy bill. You are going to raise money for Republican candidates. It 
is that simple. Go out and shake down K Street. That should be called 
not Operation K Street; it should be Operation Shakedown.
  So the American people should be outraged at this, corporate welfare 
to the most profitable industries in the country with your tax dollars, 
and the Republican majority uses it to raise money for the Republican 
Party. They are putting their party, the Republican Party, before the 
country.
  And that is when it has got to stop. You did not come to Congress to 
rubber-stamp this stuff. The people in my district did not send me here 
to rubber-stamp this stuff. They sent us here to end it, because the 
average worker, the average small business person in every single 
instance, health care, energy, gas prices, natural gas, 
pharmaceuticals, wages, on every single count they are forgotten.
  They are forgotten because we spent so much, the Republicans spent so 
much time giving out public tax dollars, corporate welfare so that they 
can increase their campaign coffers and run 30-second ads. And they go 
out and shake down K Street. It is ridiculous.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. If you want to call it an energy bill, I will 
not, because it did nothing about true conservation. It did nothing 
about true price gouging. I mean, there was some language in there; but 
it was not there. We had, on this side of the aisle, a Democratic 
alternative that stopped price gouging, that put us on a track of 
alternative fuel and also protected the environment at the same time. 
We offered that.
  That is the reason why the board, the voting board was open for 90 
minutes, because it did something. Now, it did not do what the special 
interests wanted us to do. And you know many of them, I see them. It is 
not personal; it is just business. I see them. Hey, how are you doing? 
I am fine. Are you okay? I am doing just fine. Nice day out today. 
Okay.
  But the bottom line is when it comes down to my constituents and it 
comes down to Exxon-Mobil coming out today saying, hey, guess what, 
wow, 75 percent up in profits, give me a high-five. What is 
unfortunate, I think some of the folks in this Congress are actually 
giving these special interest groups a high-five, and it is unfortunate 
because it is on the backs of Americans.
  We are running around here paying more for gas than we have ever paid 
before, and there are record profits for the industry. I think there is 
something wrong there, and I think it is something that is clear as 
day. And guess what? It is happening under the lights. It is happening 
in front of the cameras. It is on the front page of the paper in print 
for historical preservation to the next election.
  And what is unfortunate is that we could stand by and allow this to 
happen and say nothing and say, you know, the American people will 
respond in an appropriate way of making sure that we have the kind of 
leadership that is willing to lead. We are trying to lead. Guess what? 
We cannot prevail, because they are in the majority, and they have the 
majority of the Members in this House.
  If given the opportunity, Americans will see a different kind of 
policy that is for the people and not for the special interests, not 
only in that case. You go back to no longer making mistakes in the 
Federal and State and local response after natural disaster/terrorist 
attacks.
  Not only that, looking at House Resolution 3838, dealing with the 
issue on contractor fraud, why do we have to read it in the paper? Why 
do we have to watch television to see that we have not provided the 
kind of oversight so that contractors do not have cost overruns up to 
millions of dollars, in some cases billions?
  Then we turn around, you want to talk about rewarding a culture of 
corruption and cronyism? Over in Iraq we have contractors that are 
under investigation by our government, and the very same Departments of 
Defense and Homeland Security investigating them, Katrina goes down, 
hey, guess what? Come on over here. We have a multimillion-dollar no-
bid contract for you. Sign right here. We ask no questions. There is no 
ceiling. There is very little oversight. And we will get around to that 
thing of oversight. But we are in an emergency so we know that you 
messed up before.
  It is almost like someone going in a convenience store, taking out a 
gun, taking a couple of hundred dollars out of the cash register, 
unfortunately it is in the millions as it relates to the Federal 
taxpayer dollar, they run out of the store, the police catch them, they 
say, well, you know, not only do you not have to give me the money, but 
you do not even have to turn over your gun. Go back out there and rob 
another store. That is what is happening right now.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Well, let us look. My friend brings up Iraq, which 
is a perfect example. We just talked about corporate welfare to the oil 
companies; corporate welfare to pharmaceutical companies; tax cuts that 
go primarily to those people who make over a million dollars a year. 
And this President does not have the guts, and the Republican Congress, 
they do not have the guts to ask the wealthiest people in the country 
to contribute. Two wars and major natural disasters, poverty is 
increasing, the tuition cost has doubled over the last 4 or 5 years, 
and this Republican Congress, they do not have the guts to go ask the 
billionaires in the country to contribute.
  But we are going to give them public tax dollars to support their 
corporations. But there is more welfare going on. Iraq has become a 
United States welfare state. Look what is going on here. 110 primary 
care centers built in Iraq with American tax dollars. Okay. 2,000 
health educators trained with the American tax dollar.

[[Page 24037]]

  3.2 million children vaccinated in Iraq with the American tax dollar. 
Great. Super. We went in there, we broke Iraq, we buy it. That is our 
responsibility. But back at the ranch, $10 billion-plus, as I have 
talked to a few of our friends on the Committee on Energy and Commerce, 
$10 billion-plus cuts in Medicaid for American kids. American citizens. 
$252 million cut for health care professionals; $94 million cut for 
community health centers in the United States of America.
  Student loans. We are building 2,700 schools that have been rehabbed 
in Iraq; 36,000 teachers and administrators trained in Iraq. We are 
cutting student loans in the United States. Iraq is a welfare state. So 
if you are sitting on the couch listening to the 30-something Group 
right now, and these are all third-party validators, this is not us 
making this stuff up.
  Cal Thomas, the conservative Republican columnist, agrees with us. 
You see a Republican-controlled government, one-party government 
spending your tax dollars, giving your tax dollars to the oil 
companies, to the pharmaceutical companies, to the billionaires in the 
world, and/or in the United States, and creating a welfare state in 
Iraq while you are cutting health care in education and research and 
development. Even the Centers for Disease Control, our conservative 
friends on the other side want to cut the Centers for Disease Control 
at a time when we have this bird flu epidemic waiting in the wings.
  We can do a better job. The Democratic Party has proposals. We want 
to create a million new engineers and scientists in the next 10 years. 
We want to build magnetic levitation trains in the United States and 
connect the United States of America. We want to invest in the research 
and development and create alternative energy sources so we no longer 
have to worry about being dependent on foreign oil.
  And that is part of the magnetic lev trains. We want arts and sports 
in all of our schools for all of our kids because we recognize in the 
21st century that learning a musical instrument helps you with math. 
And when you are good at math, you become an engineer or a scientist, 
and you will go out and generate wealth. We make good investments. The 
Democratic Party makes good investments.
  We balanced the budget in 1993 with not one Republican vote. And 
President Clinton made a lot of tough decisions, and the Democratic 
Congress made a lot of tough decisions. And, quite frankly, some 
Members lost their seat over it. But it led to the greatest economic 
expansion in the history of this country. And I do not think there is 
an American out there that would not say, boy, I would love to go back 
to the late 1990s. Boy would that not be great. Portfolio was up. 
Everything was up that should have been up. Everything was down that 
should have been down.
  But meanwhile, our Republican friends keep this culture of corporate 
welfare and corruption and keep propping up the Republican Party, 
instead of propping up the United States of America, and being more 
concerned about shaking down the lobbyists on K Street, instead of 
propping up the United States.
  The Democrats want to take this country in a new direction. We want 
to provide new leadership. We want to change the direction of the 
country, and we want to get rid of this culture of corruption and 
cronyism, and we want to prop up the country, not any one political 
party, and use the government to enhance opportunity for people in the 
United States of America.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. With that, there is nothing more that I can 
possibly say about where we stand, what we are trying to do in the 
minority right now, what we would like to do if we had the majority. So 
with that, sir, will you give the closing.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Our Web site is www.housedemocrats.gov/katrina. 
Become a citizen cosponsor to the independent commission so we can 
reform government the way it needs to be done.
  And30-somethingdems@
mail.house.gov. We have been getting a ton of e-mails lately and a lot 
of support, over 40,000 citizen cosponsors for the independent 
commission for Katrina.
  Help us change this government. Help us help the Democratic Party 
take this country in a new direction, a better direction, and help us 
get rid of this Republican-controlled government that does nothing but 
corporate welfare and create a welfare state in Iraq at the expense of 
the American worker and the American taxpayer.
  Mr. MEEK of Florida. With that, Mr. Speaker, we would like to thank 
the Democratic leadership for allowing us to come here in the first 
Democratic hour. And like I say, it was an honor to address the House.

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