Date: 2005-09-07
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

You talk about the quarterback. and let us continue the football analogy. If you have got the quarterback in the FEMA Director not having any ability to get things done. let us continue the football analogy and call Secretary Chertoff the coach. and the President the man in the front office. You have got both of those people who we cannot. have any confidence in either. And I will take a less than leftleaning example here. an excerpt from Fox News Sunday. because the gentleman from Florida talks about it not being intentional. The gentleman is right. It is not intentional. Their response was not intentional. It was just indifferent. The indifference is what is shocking. And you had Chris Wallace go through this exchange with Secretary Chertoff on Fox News Sunday this past Sunday. Mr. Wallace said. "But Mr. Secretary. you know there are an awful lot of people around the country that are asking these questions and want to hear answers from you today. During the week. during this past week you seemed to minimize or not to know about a lot of problems on the ground in New Orleans. Let us watch some of those." And then he went on to show him some of the clips. And this was Secretary Chertoffs response: "We are extremely pleased at the response that every element of the Federal Government. all of our Federal partners have made to this terrible tragedy. There have been isolated incidents of criminality. We have all seen pictures of looting." Then he goes on to say: "I have not heard a report of thousands of people in the Convention Center who do not have food and water." Well. I can understand why. because yesterday when we had the briefing in this Chamber from most of the members of the Cabinet. you had one of the Secretary of Defenses military leaders stand up and say that the pictures we have all seen on TV are just like looking through a straw. that that does not show the full picture. We are looking through a straw. that they are extremely pleased with their response and it is going exceedingly well. So then he goes on to say. what Chris Wallace says: "Mr. Secretary. how is it possible that you could not have not known on late Thursday. for instance. that there were thousands of people in the Convention Center who did not have food. who did not have water. who did not have security. when that was being reported on national television?" Secretary Chertoff says: "Well. Chris. you know. that is one of the issues we have to look at. I mean. we were in constant touch with what was going on in .the field. getting information from State and local officials. As it happened on that very Thursday I was in a video conference with State officials and did not get any information about this. And one of the things we will look at is why in the middle of this emergent crisis there was a conflict in the information." You know. I can tell Secretary Chertoff why the State and local officials did not feel like they had to tell you that there were people at the Convention Center. because.you could not turn on your TV and not see them dehydrating in front of your very. eyes. How about the woman who had her dehydrated baby who she could not even wake up? I mean. I have a 2yearold. God forbid that ever happened in.my family. I can assure you that if it happened in the community that I represent. I have a hunch that the response would have been a little bit quicker because my constituents are not poor and they are not African American primarily. " You know. you talk about the South. and obviously I am one of those Members that would be very protective of the South. But this could be a natural disaster in Detroit or in Wisconsin or name any State with a black community or a predominantly poor community. and there but for the grace of God go them. I mean. really. We are not here to point fingers. We are just here to point at what has been happening in front of our very eyes. And this has just got to stop. We do. have to come up with solutions. We cannot hand out $50 billion to a person who is running the show like it is a circus. like he is the ring leader in a circus. and not a very good one. It is just inexcusable. We cannot ever let this happen again. and we have got to draw a line in the sand and say this far and no further.