[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15823-15824]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  FEMA

  Mr. PRYOR. Madam President, in some ways, I hate to come to the floor 
and talk about this because I very seldom do, but I am announcing to 
all my colleagues and to the administration that I am putting a hold on 
all Treasury Department nominations until I get something resolved.
  Let me back up and tell the story. Some of my colleagues are familiar 
with this story because this has come up a few times before and I have 
already spoken on the floor a couple times about this and certainly in 
the Homeland Security Committee I have spoken about this.
  A few years ago, in Arkansas, we had some floods. In this one 
particular area around Mountain View, AR, some people's houses were 
flooded. FEMA came in. In one particular case--in the Guglielmanas 
case, which is a family there--they talked to this couple. They are on 
Social Security. They talked to this couple about how they are entitled 
to some FEMA recovery money to repair their home. FEMA was actually in 
the home, took pictures, helped them fill out the paperwork, walked 
them through the entire process, and they ended up getting $27,000 in 
FEMA money for disaster recovery. The Guglielmanas did everything 
absolutely by the book. They followed all of FEMA's directions. They 
did it picture perfect, exactly the way we would think all citizens 
should conduct their business.
  Then, 3 years later, they got a notice in the mail and FEMA said: Oh, 
we messed up. We shouldn't have given you that money because of some 
technical reason and because of that we now want all that money back.
  They worked a great hardship on this family. This is supposed to be 
government of the people, by the people, and for the people. That is 
not what has happened in this case. This has worked a great hardship on 
this family.
  There are lots of community efforts around these floods: local civic 
clubs, churches, the community at large rolled out to help people. The 
Guglielmanas said they didn't need that because they had FEMA's help. 
So they have foregone a lot of local assistance, a lot of charity 
assistance, general help from their friends and neighbors because of 
FEMA. Now FEMA has come back and said they owe them the entire $27,000. 
This could ruin them financially.
  I have met with FEMA Director Fugate. He and I have had what I would 
think of as productive conversations, although this matter hasn't been 
resolved. One of the things we talked about is to get an amendment to 
the existing statute. We are working on that. We are working that bill 
through the system right now in the Senate. I have worked with 
colleagues on the Homeland Security Committee and also the 
Appropriations Committee. I am not saying we would have unanimous 
agreement on my approach, but certainly I have been trying to work with 
anybody in the Senate to make this bill better.
  Unfortunately, what has happened in the last few days is FEMA has now 
taken the additional step of turning this matter over to the Department 
of Treasury for debt collection. To add insult to injury and to rub 
salt in the wounds, this $27,000 debt, now with fines and penalties and 
interest, has gone to $37,000--$37,000 in debt after these folks were 
assured by the government they were completely entitled to because this 
was flood recovery; and the only reason they are not entitled to it is 
because of some technical issues that FEMA should have recognized from 
day one. They should have

[[Page 15824]]

never offered to help these people, but what they have done is, they 
have now caused them great injury.
  This is a matter of equity and fairness. Enough is enough. We have 
been talking to FEMA for months about this. Now Treasury is involved. 
Enough is enough. We need to get this resolved for this family and 
maybe a few others.
  It is not just localized in Arkansas. We are going to see this happen 
over and over around the country because FEMA has a backlog of these 
cases--it is a long story--that got tied up in litigation for a few 
years and I can almost guarantee that virtually every Senator in this 
Chamber at some point is going to have to deal with this.
  I hope all will listen to what I am saying and, hopefully, help me 
get this resolved. But that is why I am putting a hold on all the 
Treasury nominees. We need to get this resolved, and we are going to do 
whatever it takes to get it resolved. We want to resolve this situation 
fairly for this family in Arkansas. Again, they are just the first of 
many whom we are going to see who have this same type problem.
  FEMA has done them harm. Our government has done them harm and put 
them at a disadvantage. There is a principle in law called detrimental 
reliance. These people clearly relied on the government and relied on 
FEMA to their detriment and they are paying the price and the penalty 
for that now. When the IRS and Treasury gets involved, there are 
penalties and interest. American citizens should not be treated this 
way, especially those who are playing by the rules and don't have any 
other recourse.
  That is all I wanted to say in my morning business--I see we have 
several in the Chamber to talk on other matters--that I am putting 
Treasury on notice that I am going to hold all their nominees until we 
sit down and work through this and, hopefully, get a good and fair 
result for this one family in Arkansas.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Nebraska.

                          ____________________