Date: 2005-10-28
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

We have two more storms that have hit us since Katrina. Rita and Wilma. and it is not like they have fixed it. It is not like Brownie has gotten it right now and we have seen the fruits of continuing his contract. Now we have people who -are sitting in the dark in my two counties that I represent. Broward County and MiamiDade County. We have lift stations that are off. all 2.000 lift stations in my county have no power. The sewage is backing up. People have to boil water. but they cannot boil water because they do not have any power. or they have to add chlorine to their water. The ice and water trucks that were touted as being prepositioned prior to the storm. they were lost. they could not find them because they relied on cell phones for communication. Now. hello. How tall are cell phone towers? I would think that if you have a cell phone tower getting hit by 120mileanhouro winds that perhaps you would anticipate that they would be damaged and you would not be able to use them. Where was the planning? I could nitpick every little detail. but. obviously. in the aftermath of a storm. there are going to be kinks. there are going to be problems. I do not want to be specifically critical of the response to this storm. I want to be more generally critical. because they have learned nothing. We have had the two additional storms following Katrina. and they have learned nothing. Sixty days have gone by. They have not fixed it. They have not. made adjustments. Why? We have people who are sitting in harms way who have suffered damage. and they continue the contract of the man who was clearly declared as incompetent and removed from being in charge of Katrina. but not removed from the payroll. and the stated purpose was so they could continue to get advice from him. A person who was not qualified for the job to start with. because his previous experience was being head of the Arabian Horse Association. You are absolutely right. Mr. RYAN. In terms of cronyism. that was the ultimate. You had a guy get a job because he was the college roommate of an ally of the Presidents and put in charge of the agency that has to be the command center for every agency in the government and directing their response to the aftermath of a hurricane. or any natural disaster. What happens is. if you put an unqualified person in that position. you are going to end up having the result that we saw in the aftermath of Katrina and the result that we have now seen in the aftermath of Wilma. Now we have Secretary Paulison. Acting Secretary Paulison. who is in place now. He is a constituent of mine. he does have the qualifications. he does know what he is doing. but Brownie is still on the payroll. and FEMA is now in the Department of Homeland Security. It -is no longer an independent agency that answers directly" to the President. that has the ability to direct things on their own. They have to run it up the food chain to the head of Homeland Security. When you put obstacles in the path of a decisionmaker. it makes it harder to make the decision. And in the aftermath of a storm. you cannot have obstacles. Obstacles harm people. I am hoping that at some point someone in the administration decides that it is more important to take care of people than to accomplish their own agenda and their own goals.