[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 7348-7349]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                ON NATURAL DISASTERS AND GLOBAL WARMING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 31, 2006, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, beyond the day's headlines of crimes, 
scandal and foreign affairs, there are still stories of flooding, fire, 
hurricanes, tornadoes and mudslides still in the news. They are much on 
the minds of the American public. After years in local government and 
in Congress, I share their concerns about these threats that we face 
from natural disasters, how we make these threats worse by what we do, 
and how we learn little from our experience. Mostly I wonder what it 
will take to provoke a coordinated, thoughtful response from the 
Federal Government to the challenges posed by natural disasters.
  For years before Katrina, I had been discussing on this floor what 
was likely to happen in New Orleans when the ``big one'' hit. My 
concerns became more urgent as I witnessed firsthand the devastation in 
Asia from the tsunami.
  It is not like we don't know what to do to protect our constituents. 
After the floods in the upper Mississippi River, FEMA in the Clinton 
Adminisration, under the leadership of James Lee Witt, took a 
coordinated approach with the natural environment, forming partnerships 
with private companies, landowners and local governments to 
dramatically reduce the damage in subsequent floods. We took similar 
actions in Portland, Oregon. We know what works.
  After years of struggle, Congress is finally reforming the flood 
insurance program to stop encouraging people to live in harm's way, to 
reduce the damage by building smarter, or moving families to safer, 
higher ground. For years we have been sponsoring round table 
discussions with experts on coordinated policy response in all of these 
elements, from fire and earthquake to flooding. People are ready to 
support legislation introduced before Katrina, to provide resources for 
communities to plan to avoid disaster.
  There are national and local visionaries ready to develop a 
comprehensive response to Katrina throughout the gulf region so that we 
are ready for the next inevitable round of hurricanes. But what will it 
take for people to act on the discussion, the plans, the legislation, 
to get real action?
  What about the Federal Government? Will it take the next disaster 
season to force Congress and the administration to respond thoughtfully 
with simple changes? After 25 years, will we update the hopelessly 
outdated operating principles and guidelines of the Corps of Engineers? 
Can we eliminate the perverse budget rules that make it actually 
cheaper for Congress to spend billions of dollars on emergency flood 
relief than a few million on prevention? Can we see past the next 
sensational headlines so that the Federal Government can exercise its 
responsibility on its own land in order to prevent development from 
sprawling into forested areas near cities, putting more people at risk 
and sending the costs of firefighting spiraling upward exponentially? 
Can we avoid another example like Los Alamos, where the Federal 
Government incredibly put sensitive, dangerous and expensive nuclear 
facilities in the middle of an area that has

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burned repeatedly from wildfires every few years for centuries?
  Will the next round of disasters prompt the Federal Government to 
finally show leadership on global warming, which will make all of these 
problems more intense? With global warming, it is not just the damage 
to New Orleans from hurricanes but risks to coastal communities from 
New York's Long Island to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. Rising 
temperatures have already defrosted and eroded ever larger portions of 
Alaska. Will scientists at NASA and NOAA at last be able to speak 
freely about global warming?
  These questions are not beyond our capacity. Simple, cost-effective 
solutions are at hand that can be understood by the public who will end 
up paying the bill. I think progress is possible because this is not a 
Red State or a Blue State issue, not liberal or conservative, not big 
government versus small government. Exercising common sense, bipartisan 
cooperation and a tiny bit of leadership will save lives and money.
  I had hoped that the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina would 
have already spurred us toward some meaningful, comprehensive action. 
Instead, our response to Katrina has stalled and people are trickling 
back into harm's way without a real plan or a vision, and the 
protections against the next hurricane are not in place.
  I do think there is hope. With the evidence so clear and the Katrina 
memories so vivid, we begin another predicted serious hurricane season. 
Maybe this will be the time that we learn from what has happened and 
finally act to make our communities safer, healthier, and more 
economically secure.

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