[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 19844-19845]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            CLEANING UP FEMA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cohen) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, on the 3rd of July in my hometown of Memphis, 
Tennessee, I discovered there was ice being disposed of by being dumped 
on a driveway, more or less, at Spottswood and East Parkway. What that 
was about was FEMA dropping and disposing of ice.
  FEMA had purchased thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds of 
ice after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita when they didn't have enough ice. 
To try to compensate, they bought way, way, way too much ice.
  I have discovered that FEMA spent in purchasing, in transporting and 
in storing ice in 23 different American cities, Mr. Speaker, $67 
million of our taxpayers' money, and FEMA is now spending nearly $4 
million to dispose of that ice over a period of 11 months. That means 
over $70 million of American taxpayer dollars going down the drain. 
That is not the way an American government or any government should 
work, any business should work, or what Americans should expect of 
their government.
  Fortunately, this Democratic Congress is doing what legislative 
branches are supposed to do; oversight. We have lacked oversight for 
the last 6 years, Mr. Speaker, and faults of the administration have 
gone unnoticed. But as I deal on the subcommittee that deals with FEMA, 
I will see to it on August 29th when that subcommittee meets in New 
Orleans on the second anniversary of that horrendous event, Hurricane 
Katrina, that we will ask the director of FEMA and the others about 
their programs, of why they buy excess commodities and excess ice, of 
why they spent $70 million of American taxpayers' money on an ice 
folly, and why they didn't try to dispose of that ice during the period 
of time when it had a

[[Page 19845]]

useful shelf life and give it to 501(c)(3) charities, Federal, State or 
county institutions, so it could be used and utilized by American 
people who could have used that ice to save some money.
  The same thing happens with commodities. Chairman Eleanor Holmes 
Norton, the chairman of that subcommittee, had a hearing on food 
distribution of commodities where FEMA had wasted other precious 
commodities and dollars.
  Mr. Speaker, this needs to stop. Our tax dollars are valuable and 
people expect their government to do right with their tax dollars. I 
will not stand by. When I see incompetence, when I see inefficiencies, 
when I see ineffective use of tax dollars, I will speak up. I am 
fortunate to be on the subcommittee to ask the questions on August 29th 
of FEMA.
  It seems like the horrendous events that we had when Brownie didn't 
know what he was doing and the people in New Orleans were left in a 
tragic circumstance are replicating themselves. FEMA has not been 
cleaned up.
  We will try to see that FEMA spends our money properly and responds 
properly. They haven't responded to the American people and they 
haven't responded to Congress. This is a wrong that needs to be 
righted.

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