[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 10981]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             KATRINA BILLS

  (Ms. McKINNEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Ms. McKINNEY. Mr. Speaker, this week several of my colleagues and I 
are circulating a chart listing 176 Katrina bills, out of which only a 
dozen have become law to date. As we sit here today, dozens of 
survivors are protesting the injustices suffered at the hands of FEMA. 
Hurricane season is upon us again, and FEMA continues to deny housing 
assistance to tens of thousands of needy families, many of them now 
rendered homeless.
  New Orleans remains a toxic disaster zone that still looks much like 
it did the day after the hurricane. Despite the tens of billions of 
dollars spent on no-bid, sweetheart contracts, much of it wasted.
  Will the 163 Katrina bills sitting in committee also go to waste? Or 
will Congress address the ongoing specific needs of the survivors by 
moving existing legislation and checking fraud and abuse by providing 
real oversight of appropriations?
  The choice is ours.

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