At a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Disaster Recovery Subcommittee hearing on FEMA’s progress after Katrina, FEMA’s Deputy Administrator, Admiral Harvey E. Johnson, says the Administration is working hard to remove bureaucratic red tape. He says FEMA released a national response framework to create more streamlined, efficient responses. (0:54)
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery held a hearing on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) performance in handling disasters since Katrina. Chairwoman Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said there have been 169 major disasters and 250 federal emergencies since Katrina. (more…)
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held a hearing on “Nuclear Terrorism: Providing Medical Care and Meeting Basic Needs in the Aftermath – The Federal Response.” Chairman of the Committee, Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), said that although preventing a nuclear terrorist attack is the top priority, the is risk is so real that serious preparations must be made for an attack on an American city. (more…)
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) , chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, discussed the influence his committee has on public policy in the United States at the National Press Club. Waxman discussed a number of topics including proceedings involving tobacco executives, steroids in Major League Baseball, Iraq, and Hurricane Katrina. Waxman said his committee is able to enact changes without passing laws due to its visible role in many aspects of American life.
Waxman emphasized the importance of congressional oversight and criticized Republicans for taking a partisan position on the topic. He said the Republican controlled committee investigated numerous trivial topics during the Clinton administration and failed to analyze large profile events during the first six years of Pres. George W. Bush’s administration. Waxman said the committee’s purpose is to monitor government decisions and to make government work for people, not to enhance party politics.
An example given by Waxman of the committee’s failure to better the lives of Americans involved the presence of formaldehyde in the FEMA trailers provided to those without homes following Hurricane Katrina. Waxman accused FEMA of “sitting on its hands” and ignoring its obligations to help those in need while criticizing the Oversight and Government Reform Committee for allowing such events to occur. He stated that FEMA failed to help those in need and that the committee’s indifference allowed FEMA to be run inefficiently.
When asked if Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would be subpoenaed by the committee to discuss when the Bush administration realized that Iraq had no nuclear weapons prior to invasion, Waxman said “maybe” and that the idea is under discussion. Waxman also suggested that the success of the Iraqi insurgency can be attributed in part to the American ambassador’s decision to distribute $8.8 billion to Iraqis without any form of accountability.
Congressman Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) testified in a hearing for the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management. He said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) needs to get its priorities in order and produce the National Disaster Housing Strategy, which was due in July 2007 as part of the Post-Katrina Reform Act of 2006. He said that 5,741 families still living in temporary housing units provided by FEMA.
He said that The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been diverting funds that were necessary for reconstruction in Mississippi. Thompson said that the Governor of Mississippi redistributed $600 Million of HUD money that was appropriated for building low to middle income housing and diverted it towards a project towards port expansion. Thompson said that this is one of the major problems facing Mississippi, along with the fact that there are only 1,500 available rental properties statewide.
He said that we must hold federal agencies accountable for their mistakes, especially when they endanger the health of disaster victims.
Kathy Alter, web content editor for The Gazette Newspaper in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, tells her personal story of being evacuated from her home and the resulting problems with going back in to her home (she says there are 12,000 people displaced), dealing with FEMA, her disabled mother (she got stuck in the bathroom in the hotel because it was not handicap accessible), and issues with needing dialysis available only on the other side of the river (Kathy is an end stage renal disease patient). “The stuff that was there was just stuff,” she says, “the important thing is that we both came out of it and we both came out of it relatively healthy.” (8:04)
Ashley Sheda, a resident of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, says that she has been let back into her home and has tried to start cleaning it up. However, all of her children’s things have been ruined, and they cannot actually been able to move back in the house. With her family, she said, they’ve been in a hotel room with three children, and all the things her neighbor had put in her garage to be safe from the flood had been lost. She had renter’s insurance but because the house was not in the “five hundred year plain,” they didn’t buy flood insurance. Upon learning that the house might go under water, she says they tried to call the insurance company to add flood insurance but was told it would take 30 days to activate it. (1:37)
The House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Homeland Security Appropriations held a hearing to review whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is on the right track. However, even that may not be enough as ranking member Hal Rogers (R-KY 9) noted by quoting Will Rogers as saying “even if you’re on the right track, you will still get run over if you just sit there.” (more…)
Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA) asks Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff about the FEMA trailers, referring to them as “Formaldehyde Trailers.” Chertoff says they are trailers sold on the open market, and Waters asks if they have formaldehyde in them. Chertoff says like every other trailer sold, yes, and Waters says “then they are formaldehyde trailers.” You’ve got families in those trailers, she says, and Chertoff says that he would like to answer but he keeps getting interrupted. The Chairman tries to intervene, and Waters says that she didn’t interrupt anyone else’s question and would appreciate if they didn’t interrupt hers. Chertoff says yes, like every other trailer sold on the open market, there is formaldehyde in them. They are using every means at their disposal, he says, to get people to leave those trailers. (1:30)
Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) criticizes FEMA, HUD, and government spending following Hurricane Katrina at Senate Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery hearing entitled “Is Housing Too Much to Hope For?: “FEMA’s Disaster Housing Strategy.” (0:42)
