Christen O'Donnell Equestrian Helmet Safety Act of 2004

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce a bill with Senators Domenici, Boxer, and Dayton to allow youth service and conservation corps to partner with public land management agencies to restore and protect public lands threatened by severe fire. I have dubbed this public-private partnership the Healthy Forests Youth Conservation Corps.

Last year, I authored a similar provision that was included in the Senate version of the Healthy Forest legislation. Unfortunately, this provision was stripped out of the bill before it was signed into law.

First, this bill aims to help Federal, State, and local governments implement priority projects using the cost-saving resources of youth corps.

It is estimated that youth corps generate $1.60 in immediate benefits for every dollar in costs. This figure is important given the great need and cost associated with fighting fires.

Every year, land management agencies are charged with conserving, protecting, and maintaining millions of acres of public land. This is a daunting task that requires an incredible amount of human and material resources.

For instance, the Federal Government, alone, is responsible for overseeing 689 million acres of this land. Last year, five Federal agencies reported spending $1.6 billion in 2002 on fire fighting suppression efforts--a whopping $300 million more than the previous record. To fight those fires, 28,000 fire and support personnel were activated--the maximum civilian resources available in the Forest Service on top of the 600 Army troops, and 950 foreign firefighters who joined in the effort.

As an example of what can happen in one State, consider last year's catastrophic wildfires in southern California. Before they were contained, the deadly fires of last fall scorched a total of 738,158 acres, killed 23 people, and destroyed approximately 3,626 homes and thousands of other structures--amounting to the most costly and devastating fire ever to hit California. The insurance payouts alone will cost more than $3 billion, with public expenditures to fight the fires and recover from them running into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

And those statistics make no mention of the resources expended to fight fires in other States.

I want to prevent this type of catastrophe in the future. That is why I was an ardent supporter of the Healthy Forest Restoration Act that was signed into law last year.

I also believe that we must use every resource at our disposal to meet this challenge. In my opinion, youth service and conversation corps can play a significant role in reducing the physical and financial strain that public land management agencies bear and help protect our Nation's public lands from wildfires.

Secondly, this bill allows young people, particularly those youth who are people of color, low income, or are at high risk of dropping out of school, to integrate themselves into their communities and to learn skills that could lead to jobs or a greater interest in higher education in the future.

I have seen firsthand the benefits that youth corps bring to their communities and the difference that the work can make in the lives of at-risk youth.

In 1983, I founded the first urban youth corps as mayor of San Francisco, and during that time I saw a great improvement in the quality of life of the corps members and of the city itself.

When we first began the program, we ran it on a million-dollar budget employing 36 disadvantaged young people ranging in age between 18 and 23 years old who needed some direction, wanted a challenge, and wanted to make themselves socially useful.

That first year, we paid corps members $3.35 an hour to repair bathrooms in affordable housing for senior citizens and ex-offenders, build a park in Hunter's Point, clear scotch broom from the Twin Peaks hillside, and fix up Alcatraz Island. And in the 21 years since the program began, it has grown into a multisite, multifaceted agency that engages more than 500 young adults annually who have completed over 3.5 million hours of community service.

It has given thousands of corps members a sense of personal pride, helped to connect them with their community and see for themselves that hard work pays off.

I started the San Francisco Conservation Corps to help young people break out of the cycle of poverty and crime and improve their job skills by giving them guidance and support through labor-intensive activities.

For this same reason, I am introducing this bill with the hope that the success of the San Francisco Conservation Corps can be duplicated nationwide.

Specifically, this bill does the following: It authorizes the Agriculture and Interior Secretaries to enter into contracts or cooperative agreements with existing State, local, and nonprofit youth conservation corps to carry out land management initiatives on public lands.

It directs the Secretaries to give priority for projects that will reduce hazardous fuels on public land, restore land located in near municipal watersheds and municipal waters supplies, rehabilitate land affected or altered by fire, assess lands afflicted or imminently threatened by disease or insect infestation, work to address windthrown land or at high risk of reburn, provide emergency assistance and disaster relief to communities.

It allows the Secretaries to grant, at their discretion, noncompetitive hiring status for corps alumni for future Federal hiring.

It authorizes $25 million for the alliance for fiscal year 2005- fiscal year 2009.

I know this program will not take all of the burden off public land management agencies as they work to protect and restore public lands, and I know this program will not reach every disadvantaged young person in need of guidance and support. But it is a start and I urge my colleagues to join me in my efforts.

Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation to reauthorize the Department of Homeland Security's Emergency Food and Shelter Program. This vital program enables communities nationwide to provide services to help individuals who are at risk of becoming homeless or going hungry due to an emergency or economic disaster. As a 1999 General Accounting Office report concluded, ``in most areas of the United States, the Emergency Food and Shelter Program is the only source of funding for the prevention of homelessness.''

I am pleased to have the support of Senator Lieberman, the ranking member of the Governmental Affairs Committee, which oversees this important program as well as the Department of Homeland Security generally. I commend Senator Lieberman for his work on this important issue, including his efforts in the 107th Congress to pass legislation very similar to the bill that we are introducing together today.

Since its creation 21 years ago, the Emergency Food and Shelter Program has provided a helping hand to local social service organizations that assist thousands of people in need of food and shelter. This program is effective because of the way it is structured. A national board, chaired by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, governs the program. The board itself is composed of representatives from organizations who work every day to look out for those who are less fortunate--representatives of the American Red Cross, Catholic Charities, United Jewish Communities, the National Council of the Churches, the Salvation Army, and the United Way.

This program is a model for an effective public-private partnership. The volunteer participation by these charitable organizations has kept administrative costs to less than 3 percent of the total program, making even more funds directly available for communities.

Funds are distributed by the national board to local boards according to a formula that takes into account unemployment and poverty statistics in each community. Once local boards in counties and municipalities across America receive the funding, they decide how to best address the needs of their residents. These local boards are key to this process. That is because they are composed of individuals and organizations who live and work in the communities they serve. Therefore, they can best decide how to meet the needs of those who are at risk of becoming homeless.

In recent years, communities in Maine have put the funding to good use. Communities in Cumberland and Franklin Counties, for example, have used most of these funds to supplement the efforts of local soup kitchens, Meals-on Wheels programs, and food pantries. The Wayside Soup Kitchen in Portland, ME, uses this funding to enhance their efforts to provide three separate food assistance programs to those in need.

Demonstrating the flexibility of this program, communities in northern Maine's Aroostook County used more than 30 percent of their 2003 funding to address emergency shelter and housing needs. This diversity in how communities spent these funds highlights the importance of letting local organizations decide how best to spend these resources, tailored to local needs.

The Emergency Food and Shelter Program helps individuals maintain their dignity during difficult times. It also prevents dependency by providing emergency services to individuals and families on a limited basis so they can remain self-sufficient.

Although Congress has continued to provide funding, the program's authorization expired in 1994. My bill, the Emergency Food and Shelter Act of 2004, seeks to again authorize this program and provide modest increases to reflect an increasing need.

I urge my colleagues to join me in cosponsoring this legislation to help families across America who are at risk of losing their homes or going hungry because of circumstances beyond their control.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the following legislation be introduced and printed in the Congressional Record.