[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 17]
[House]
[Page 23379]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  SAVE AMERICA'S UTILITY INFRASTRUCTURE AND SECURE AMERICA ACT OF 2008

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, even as I stand here on the 
floor of the House, the residents of the gulf region, the gulf coasts 
of Louisiana and Texas, are still suffering from Hurricane Ike. We know 
as well that Hurricane Kyle has been making its way up the east coast. 
As we look back over the landscape this past year, we see the 
devastation of so much that has impacted our country through natural 
disasters--flooding, wind, hurricanes--and we realize that that is, by 
Mother Nature's way, something that will occur in this Nation on a 
regular basis.
  As a member of the Homeland Security Committee and a chairperson of 
the Transportation Security and Critical Infrastructure Committee, I 
introduce today Save America's Utility Infrastructure and Secure 
America Act of 2008, H.R. 7230. I do so with the hope that Americans 
will be better prepared, not necessarily the Americans in their homes 
but the utility companies who every day receive our payments for 
electricity and finding out in times of trouble they are not prepared.
  For example, the blackout of August, 2003, in the northeast, midwest, 
and adjoining parts of Canada highlighted the need for infrastructure 
operating improvements.
  As the chairperson of this committee, I believe that one of the ways 
of securing America and making America safe is to go throughout the 
Nation and address the questions of the sectors that predominately are 
controlled by the private community. Eighty-five percent of our 
critical infrastructure is controlled by the private community. By that 
they sense that they have sort of a pass. They don't have to invest in 
improving the infrastructure. So today I introduce this bill because I 
believe they do have to make a commitment to the rate payers to improve 
the infrastructure.
  For example, in our own State of Texas, our public utility commission 
instructed, recommended to our utility company in a heavily treed area 
like my city of Houston to prepluck the trees that would entangle 
themselves in the above-ground wires. They recommended to them, if you 
will, to substitute the wooden polls for steel polls. They recommended 
to them that they should, in fact, secure the transformers.

                              {time}  1530

  None of this was done. And they were quoted as saying, it is far more 
inexpensive to clean up after the fact than to do this work beforehand. 
So what do we have? What we had in Texas is a tragedy of hundreds and 
hundreds of people, maybe thousands, impacted negatively by the lack of 
electricity. People were on oxygen and dialysis in hospitals that were 
shut down, and the tragedy of a 14-year-old asthmatic boy who lost his 
life, among others.
  For me that is intolerable and unacceptable. If you want the benefit 
of doing business here in the United States, then you must do it well. 
So I have introduced this bill to subject those utilities who believe 
cavalierly that we don't have to do it, we want to keep the money in 
our pocket, to criminal penalties for those who don't develop 
vulnerable lists that will know where the hospitals and nursing homes 
are and where elderly persons and asthmatic persons live so that we can 
accept the fact that Mother Nature does not come with an appointment, 
but that we can be as prepared as we possibly can be. So this bill 
provides criminal penalties.
  As well, the bill requires the establishment of vulnerable lists and 
vulnerable neighborhoods so that we are well aware of what to do. And 
it also instructs the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that 
our infrastructure is meeting the standards that it should meet. This I 
believe is the way government corrects and reforms a system to make it 
work for the American people.
  Madam Speaker, today as a complement to my remarks, we looked to try 
and correct the market. We didn't quite get there. But certainly I want 
to express my appreciation for the hard work of the Democratic 
leadership. It is clear that our friends on the other side could not 
muster the support for their own administration. I believe however we 
can make this a better bill. We can make it a better bill by ensuring 
that homeowners are protected, by putting money into this bill that is 
particularly set aside for homeowners who may be going into 
foreclosure. And let it be totally disregarded that people were living 
above their means. Yes, there are hardworking Americans who saw the 
opportunity to improve their lives. But the banking institutions gave 
them the permission to do so. And don't put this on the backs of 
minorities. Hardworking minorities likewise are working to make their 
lives better. But it was the banking entities that gave them this, if 
you will, predatory loan.
  We can do better by making this bill better, working to ensure that 
there is no short selling by borrowing it, and we can as well bail out 
Main Street as we look to reform Wall Street.

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