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

Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman. It is again great to be here with my colleagues from Florida and Ohio. It is so important that we spend the time that we spend here each week helping to get the message out to our generation and. quite honestly. to the generations ahead of us and behind us. We had a devastating tragedy happen to us in our country. and that is to all of us. about 10 days ago. The gentleman from Florida and I literally live at one point or another through every storm in the "cone of error." as every storm that approaches the United States at some point or another. the gentlemans and my home and the homes of our constituents are in the cone of error for some period of time. So we know what it is like to stare down any one of a number of different levels of hurricanes or tropical storms. As we speak tonight. we have Ophelia just about 100 miles off the coast of our State. yet again another tropical storm warning. We are up to "0? now. It is just neverending. One of the things that I would like to spend some time on tonight with both of your indulgence is we do need to get the information out. and one of the things that I did on Tuesday at home in south Florida was help to try to channel the energy of south Floridians who obviously were devastated by the last Category 5 hurricane that hit the United States and that unfortunately hit us in south Florida. deep in the hearts of our community. and we had an outpouring of affection and assistance from across the world. So you can imagine listening to this. what people in south Florida so badly want to do is return the favor and give back to the people in the gulf States and across the country what was given to them 13 years ago. . They do not know where to channel that energy. because there are so many relief organizations. so many onthespot relief organizations that have cropped up in the last week. and. unfortunately. if you recall during Andrew and during the 9/11 attacks. you have groups that will form within a matter of days to take advantage of a whole lot of money that is flowing through peoples hands. So what we did in south Florida is we channeled peoples energy through one organization. Volunteer Florida. which is an organization affiliated with the State that exists throughout the year to help foster volunteerism. But we turned it into the clearinghouse for our State and gave people a phone number that they can call. I will check my notes and provide it. I do not want to give out the wrong number. Logon to www.volunteerflorida.org. We are trying to make sure that people go through an agency they know they can have confidence in. Beyond that. there is an absolute necessity. I feel. for us to talk about what has gone on in the last 6 or 7 days. or. rather. what did not go on. because it is just absolutely unacceptable to me. and unacceptable is not a strong enough word. The response. the lack of response. the indifference. the insensitivity and the actions and words of the leadership that is running this country in response to this devastating tragedy is just inexcusable to me. While I have heard many of my colleagues and other people across this country say now is not the time for finger pointing. well. do you know what? If we did not talk about what was not going on last week. then. quite honestly. I think President Bush might still be on vacation even today. I think quite honestly that perhaps there would not have been a response even to the degree that we needed it without someone saying that the emperor had no clothes. Where was the help? We know. because we live in the cone of error. so often in south Florida that you have several days notice. and they did have several days notice that a Category 5 hurricane was bearing down on the gulf coast States. Where were the troops on the border of the cone of error? Where was the readiness? Where was the preparation? Where was the response? Where was the organization? It was nowhere. We have got to make sure not only that it never happens again. but that there is an investigation and that there is a discussion in this body as to why it happened. We should talk about FEMA and why it is being led by a person who has absolutely no previous emergency preparedness or disaster experience. none. why his ineptitude was allowed to continue. Why a year ago when Florida faced four hurricanes. FEMA was handing relief checks out like candy to people who were not even victims of the storms. There has got to be some accountability. and the time is not 2 months from now. We have billions of dollars that we are appropriating here and are about to appropriate that we should be appropriating. but we are going to go put it in the hands of people who have proven that they are incapable of handling disasters like this? Something needs to happen so that we can hold these people accountable on many different levels.