Date: 2010-02-23
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Madam Speaker. I rise in support of H. Res. 1059Honoring the heroism of the seven United States Agency for International Development and Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance supported urban search and rescue teams deployed to Haiti from New York City. New York. Fairfax County. Virginia. Los Angeles County. California. Miami. Florida. MiamiDade County. Florida. and Virginia Beach. Virginia. and commending their dedication and assistance in the aftermath of the January 12. 2010 Haitian earthquake. As you know. on Tuesday. January 12th. a massive. 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti near the capital of PortauPrince. There is still no official estimate of death or destruction but the damage to buildings is extensive and the number of injured or dead is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands. America is responding. and will continue to respond with immediate humanitarian assistance to help the people of this struggling island nation rebuild their livelihoods. I send my condolences to the people and government of Haiti as they grieve once again in the aftermath of a natural disaster. As Haitis neighbor. I believe it is the United States responsibility to help Haiti recover. and build the capacity to mitigate against future disasters. To date the United States Government has contributed over $402 million in earthquake response funding for Haiti. It has also deployed approximately 17.000 military personnel in support of the relief effort. Subsequently. as part of the new Government of Haitiled effort. the U.N. World Food Program will provide commodities. nongovernmental organizations will manage distributions. and U.S. Military will provide security escorts. American and her allies have already initiated a comprehensive. interagency response to the earthquake. The State Department. Department of Defense. Department of Homeland Security. Coast Guard. USAIDall worked overnight to ensure critical resources were positioned to support the response and recovery effort. including efforts to find and assist American citizens in Haiti. Within days of last weeks devastating earthquake. U.S. Southern Command deployed a team of 30 people to Haiti to support U.S. relief efforts in the aftermath of one of the largest natural disasters in the western hemisphere. The team included U.S. military engineers. operational planners. and a command and control group and communication specialists arriving on two C130 Hercules aircraft. Since. there has been a tremendous interagency response with support and partnering with U.S. Embassy personnel as well as Haitian. United Nations and international officials to assess the situation and facilitate follow on U.S. military support. Within hours of the earthquake. the United States sent worldclass teams of search and rescue to help search for survivors. These teams. from all across the country comprised roughly onethird of the entire international USAR effort in Haiti. In total. the United States sent over five hundred and eleven rescue workers. These rescue workers worked tirelessly to search for survivors. and found and rescued more than 130 people from under the rubble. Without these search and rescue units. it is possible that these people would not have been located in time to save their lives. The search and rescue teams were. quite literally. our first responders. At a moments notice these men and women packed their bags and left their homes to confront the aftermath of the largest natural disaster in recent memory. I commend them for their readiness and tireless commitment to saving lives. Madam Speaker. over a month has passed since the earthquake. the search and rescue missions have ended. and Haiti has transitioned to long term reconstruction and development. Recently. I proposed a plan that would increase the ability of the U.S. to assist Haiti in its efforts toward reconstruction and stabilization to Dr. Rajiv Shah. the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development. This plan would create an oversight position within the USAID that would coordinate and regulate faithbased and nonprofit organizations operating in the reconstruction efforts in Haiti. I also recommended the creation of a U.S. civilian corps. an extension of the American Peace Corps. that would be tasked the specific mission of assisting reconstruction efforts in Haiti. This civilian entity would serve as a supplemental contingent which could be incrementally dispatched as needed by U.S. Government agencies or Nongovernment Organization. Once again I stand in solidarity with the people of Haiti and will do everything in my power to assist them with rebuilding their country and livelihoods. I am proud of our first responders. and pledge that Americas long term commitment to Haiti will live up to the standard that the first responders set.