Date: 2005-09-13
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Mr. Speaker. I would like to take this opportunity to -again update my colleagues on the .effort 6f Houstons and Texas response to Hurricane Katrina evacuee relief efforts. I From attending daily morning emergency operations meetings in Houston. I can bring a firsthand account of our progress. The city of Houston. which has a Democratic mayor. Bill White. and a Republican county judge. Robert Eckels. has produced an amazingly successful relief effort. hand in hand without partisanship or jurisdictional bickering. I havealways held Texas politics up as an example of the. principle that puts people first and politics second. While we -have not always upheld that principle recently. our response to Hurricane Katrina shows the best in Texas government. a singleminded focus on getting things done. The Harris County Housing Department at Reliant Astrodome Complex has been doing an incredible job of moving evacuees out of cramped. uncomfortable shelters and into secure. mediumterm housing situations. The Harris County Hospital District. our public hospital district. created a clinic almost overnight to treat our guests from the storm. * The University of Texas Health Science Center has also been a key asset at the George R. Brown Convention Center. where they are providing ontheground health care support to evacuees with all varieties of health care conditions. from children to the elderly to the disabled. We have had our problems too. FEMAs communications capability has been slow. We -have not been able to process people over the Internet or over the phone as fast as we would like. Faster FEMA registration is not just a matter of convenience. The faster we can register people for assistance. the faster we can get them out of that shelter which reduces the threat to public health from infectious disease. Housing right now is our number one concern. We have over 40.000 evacuee residents already in hotels and motels in the Houston area. We have moved 228 families into housing over this past weekend while I was in Houston. As a result of our efforts in Houston. the numbers of evacuees at shelters are going down dramatically. which is good. Sharing a cot on the Astrodome floor with your family is not what I would call a longterm solution. It is very short term. However. FEMAs reimbursement certainty is also necessary for housing. The city and the county have been trying to get a master hotel contract with FEMA to speed the payment. We do not have the financial reserves to pay hotel bills for tens of thousands of people indefinitely. We understand that this situation is unprecedented. but we cannot let -red tape hold up the need of the folks that are there. I am glad that FEMA now says the public assistance to Houston is expected to start flowing soon. within the next 1 or 2 weeks. Our reserves are running thin and help cannot come soon enough. Texas generosity has been displayed from the businesses to individuals. but our local tax base cannot absorb the additional 400.000 people in the State or the 200.000 people in the Houston area. Red tape must be eliminated. Houston is still waiting on reimbursement from expenses from Tropical Storm Allison. which hit Houston over 4 years ago. We will be watching and calling and meeting with FEMA representatives repeatedly over the next 2 weeks on these reimbursement issues. We cannot afford to wait until 2009 to be reimbursed for the sheltering. housing. transportation. feeding. clothing. and medical expenses of tens of thousands of these evacuees. This situation is unprecedented since the Civil War. which is the last time we had such a large number of outofstate evacuees. Our laws and regulations very well may need to change to adapt to our new situation. and they should. The next mass dislocation like this could very well be the next hurricane that could hit Houston or a terrorist attack that could hit any city in our country. That is why Medicaid legislation that I had introduced gives the executive branch the authority to fully reimburse the States Medicaid share it would otherwise have to pay for outofstate evacuees. For every evacuee. that is a resident of Texas who cannot afford to be put on .Medicaid now. who must survive without health coverage. That is not acceptable. This is a national disaster and a national public health emergency. so the Federal Government should bear the responsibility. On the plus side. I am pleased to see the announcement by Secretary Leavitt freeing up funding for the four .new federally qualified health centers that were scheduled to receive funding in December. While this funding will be a big help. it does mean that we will have to serve more people for a longer period of time than expected. HHS should have the ability to reimburse federally qualified health clinics costs for serving the uninsured evacuees. In addition to housing and medical care. childhood education is also a concern. Our local schools have taken thousands of students" impacted by Hurricane Katrina. seven school districts that provide education in my own congressional district of Houston. They have taken over 5.000 students in the last week. and we see more students coming every day. Even though our schools are already at capacity. we are meeting the challenge of educating the children in the gulf coast impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Estimates by the State show this may cost Texas over $450 million to serve the children that have come to Tdxas. Currently. FEMA will offer some assistance for these costs. and the Department of Education is unsure of what assistance they can grant. This issue is calling out for a solution by Congress. and we must step up. Mr. Speaker. I cannot say enough about the efforts of our Mayor White and .County Judge Eckels in Houston. but more importantly. their leadership has been more than matched by the efforts of government workers and individual volunteers on the ground. As a result. Houston is showing its best side to the Nation. And I am proud to be part of our relief effort. but our effort is unsustainable without Federal financial assistance. Hurricane Katrina has devastated Mississippi. Louisiana. and Alabama. The ability of our local governments to provide vital services is now at risk of devastation as well. We need Federal help in this natural and national disaster.