Gulf Coast Recovery Act of 2005

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to begin by thanking Chairman Don Young, Ranking Member Jim Oberstar, and, of course, my subcommittee chairman, Bill Shuster, for their leadership in acting together to assure that unemployment benefits are available to the many victims of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita who want to work.

We are acting in virtual unison, though under the wire, to pass S. 1777, the Katrina Emergency Assistance Act of 2006, which extends unemployment assistance under the Stafford Act, providing essential unemployment benefits before they lapse on Saturday. This bill extends the period that victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita would be eligible for unemployment benefits to an additional 13 weeks, for a total of 39 weeks.

Currently, the disaster unemployment assistance benefit period begins the week following the disaster or the date thereafter that the individual becomes unemployed and can extend up to 26 weeks after the declaration or until the individual becomes reemployed. This bill means 39 more desperately needed weeks, in addition to the first 26 weeks. The Department of Labor has the usual authority to administer the program.

The extension of these benefits would help untold thousands of workers who lost their jobs as a direct result of the unprecedented storms that hit the gulf region late last summer but do not qualify for regular unemployment assistance. The Labor Department reports that more than 500,000 individuals have already filed new unemployment claims.

Unemployment at 12.5 percent for those who had returned in November was more than twice the national rate; and for those still displaced the rate was an amazing 27.5 percent, more than twice the rate for those who had returned.

Unemployment benefits are available, of course, only for workers in search of actual employment. These benefits may, nevertheless, of course, be used wherever these workers are living today. However, the benefits also may encourage needed workers to take the many risks associated with returning to gulf cities and towns at a time when all the basic ingredients of working communities, from housing to health care, are at unprecedented low levels.

For example, relatively few workers have returned, despite a high rate of job openings in New Orleans. With at least the guarantee of unemployment benefits during the job hunt and much more rapid and sensible job training and reconstruction policies, these benefits could leverage new work opportunities for gulf residents that were unavailable even before the storm, leave alone what the benefits could do in helping the reconstruction of the region itself.

At the same time, I regret that a provision similar to the one approved by the committee of jurisdiction in the other body to increase unemployment benefits to 50 percent of the national average of unemployment benefits had to be removed from the final bill to achieve the rapid agreement needed. Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana have the lowest unemployment benefits in the country. As a result, disaster unemployment benefits for these States are as low as $87, $90 and $97 per week, respectively.

Fifty percent of the national average for unemployment benefit amounts to $135 a week. In an area of the country that even before Hurricane Katrina suffered long-term unemployment at record levels, this increase could have made a major difference to families who need much more assistance than the typical unemployed worker, because many have lost everything, including their homes.

For the gulf victims, the job search that S. 1777 will afford is much more than finding a job. This bill will help some victims return to the gulf region to begin building their lives from scratch. Many who qualify for these benefits were in the lowest wage categories and are among the neediest for assistance. This extension will help them move forward after experiencing the worst natural disaster in the Nation's history. The American people would want us to take at least the step of passing this urgently needed legislation today.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I must say, Mr. Speaker, we thought of going forward with this bill under unanimous consent because we did not think there was a single Member of the House of Representatives who would want to deny to people searching for a job after the worst disaster in American history the funds that would enable them to live while they search for a job. So I am amazed. I will be amazed that there is a single vote against the bill.

But I think the chutzpah to stand on the floor and say we are throwing money at a problem, when I have just recounted what these benefits will mean in that part of the country, less than $100 a week for families looking for work, is an amazing statement to make. We are throwing money at a problem? We are giving unemployment benefits to people looking for work who have no other means because Mother Nature has taken their means from them. Moreover, may I remind this House that twice after 9/11 we extended unemployment benefits.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).

(Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's comments. The kind of small business owners, for example, that the gentleman was talking about, if you are a hot dog vendor, those are some of

the most industrious people in society. An example would be people who are willing to work for themselves where they get no benefits of any kind, but work harder than most of us.

I used the hot dog vendor, because that is fairly typical of the kind of person we are talking about.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to say that I mentioned 9/11 because I think there is a standard here, a kind of control group. I mentioned that we had had to extend unemployment benefits twice during 9/11. This was a terrorist attack, 3,000 people killed. Thank God, the entire City of New York was not wiped out.

Compare, however, that disaster, as tragic as it was, with wiping out an entire city, the whole city gone, all means of employment gone, now being slowly revived. And I think we will have some appreciation for the American heart.

We knew what to do on 9/11. We will be there for people as long as you need us. And the wonderful thing about unemployment benefits is, they go straight to the person. And, of course, what unemployment benefits do, because the people who get them spend them for necessities in their communities, so what unemployment does at the same time is, of course, to help the community, the economy of the community where the unemployment benefits are being spent.

This is very good money for very desperate people.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich).

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from New Orleans (Mr. Jefferson), the city which suffered the worst natural disaster of any big city in American history.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I just want to say, Mr. Chairman, thank you once again for the kind of bipartisan cooperation that I think truly reflects the spirit in which this bill comes to the floor today.

Our country is so well known for disaster relief, generously and spontaneously given to the rest of the world, that the rest of the world actually came forward and offered relief to the United States after Katrina occurred.

In a real sense the standard we have set for ourselves in the rest of the world sets the standard for what we do in our country. Will we be known when this disaster has cleared for the generosity of the response to Katrina?

Despite the sour note of one Member only at the beginning, I want to say that I have seen anything but that in the workings of our committee. It did make it necessary for us to make the case in a way we thought would have been unnecessary. For example, when you talk about throwing money at a problem, it makes me realize that some people do not even understand what unemployment benefits are about. They do not understand that you can only get unemployment benefits if you have had a job so that we are by definition talking about working people. And because many have not been unemployed, they may not understand what you have to go through to keep getting your benefits, to report to the office, to show evidence of having looked for a job.

In other words, we are talking here about people who worked, who have every desire to work, and who need a meager benefit in order to keep looking for work. That is why this bill is minimally reflective of where most Members would be. I think the bill at its base reflects the bipartisan spirit of this House when it comes to extending benefits that would allow people who want to work to, in fact, do that work.

And, indeed, if we should be so fortunate that these benefits may inspire some to go back home to places few of us would want to go because of all the future comforts that are gone, to go back home with meager benefits, with no housing, with insufficient health care, to go back home to help rebuild their community, that is the America that we all know.

Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have?

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased at the way the press has not closed up shop and gone home after Katrina. Story after story continues to tell us what is happening in the gulf region. We have just seen Mardi Gras stories over and over again. I was pleased to see Mardi Gras celebrated in the region.

The region is doing for itself what it can do. As I think about this bill, I think that there are people who are on unemployment benefits who got a job during Mardi Gras and who came back home who no longer need unemployment benefits.

I want us to also remember that New Orleans, in particular, which is known for its Mardi Gras gaiety, this is the oil producing, the energy producing region of our country. We need it to get back on its feet.

This bill will help the region, the whole region, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, to do just that. We are helping the people, and that is the way to help the region.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me the time to speak on this legislation.

I want to thank the bipartisan group that has developed this legislation. We, of course, had hoped for more from it. We were hoping that we would get to $135 a week, as the Senate had proposed. And we, of course, hoped for other provisions in the bill.

But, nonetheless, this is an important step forward, and an important response to the needs of the people in our area. I regret that there is objection to this legislation today, because I think it can only be objected to because folks just do not understand. I will not say that anyone is so callous as to not care, but I would have to say that you cannot really understand the dimensions of this issue if one objects to what we are doing here today.

In many ways, the district that I represent and the area that I represent and the whole gulf region is frozen in time. Not a whole lot has changed since August 29 in this aftermath, except that in our city the water has been pumped out. But other than that, the city is largely depopulated. Business has still not stood up. Hospitals are not working. The school system is not working. Our city has no tax base. People do not have jobs. Many have no place to come back to, even for temporary housing.

And those few who are there, of those who are there now, some 16,000 of them who are there in temporary housing, other housing conditions that are not ones that any of us would really like to have to put our families into, 16,000 of them do not have jobs now and are seeking this unemployment extension benefit.

Across the Gulf there are 165,000 families who are either there or displaced some other place around our country who do not have jobs, not because they are not seeking them, not because they do not want to work, but because the storm has displaced them and destroyed not only where they live but where they worked as well.

So the things we have talked about on the committee that reviewed the Katrina lawsuit, I do want to give some compliments to those who worked on that issue, who helped to, I think, make some critical decisions about it that I think will in the future portend better outcomes for these disasters as they occur. We hope they do not occur to anybody like they occurred to us; but if they do, I think we are in a far better position to deal with them now.

I do want to say there is a great deal more to be done in our area. And we are hoping that this Congress as a result of the trip that will be taken in just a few hours down there to take some 35 or 40 Members of Congress down to take a look at this, that people can continue to develop an appreciation for the extent of this disaster. Many of us have said it was not just a natural disaster that drowned our city. There are also some man-made issues here about how our levees failed and about how we could have done more to make sure that that did not happen. Frankly, had the levees had not failed, our city would not have drowned and we would not have had the 80 percent of our city under water, and all of the untoward consequences I just talked to you about would not have happened. We would have had a serious storm, a series of brief clean-up, and people would be back in town, and we would not have to be here talking about extending unemployment.

We are extending it today because this is a long-term set of issues here. This is not the ordinary disaster. We will be living with this for a very, very long time. It will take a lot of hard work on the part of all of us to make this close to right down the road.

So I hope this Congress is prepared to stick with the people of the region. I hope we will get a full understanding of exactly how folks are suffering and how this approach is a Band-Aid approach to helping people who are in the most dire circumstances, as I said, not because of anything they have done or have failed to do, not because they are not looking for work every day, but because they are displaced. They are disconnected. Their jobs are destroyed. They have no place to go. And they have no means of support for their families except this Congress and this country come to their aid. And this is a small measure to do that.

I am grateful to the committee for the work that it has done. I look forward to our committee realizing that there may be more work to do in this area. I hope we can make a rebound in this work as quickly as we can. But the biggest thing now is how we can keep families together, how we can give them a little support while they struggle to get back to normalcy, and how at the end of the day we can give them the choice to return to the place where they lived, where they have their cultural connections, and where they have dedicated a part of their lives and their influence and where they, frankly, want to return to.

All of us have someplace we call home around here; and for them, no matter how dangerous we think it is, how difficult it is for them, these people, all of our people, all of us want to have a way to come back and reconnect to our home, at least to make a decision about whether we want to make a reconnection or not.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to this issue. I hope that whatever objections there are they will be withdrawn because this ought to be an issue on which we are all together, on which there is bipartisan agreement.

Mr. Speaker, before Katrina slammed into my city, we had 2,100 hospital beds. Now we have 400 beds between Touro and Children's. When Katrina struck, about 22 percent of Louisiana residents and 23 percent of New Orleans residents were living in poverty, $16,090 for a family of three. Over 900,000 people or 21 percent of all residents in Louisiana had no health insurance before Katrina and after the storm 1.2 million were uninsured. Tied to these poverty and uninsurance rates, Louisiana also had some of the poorest health statistics in the country with high rates of infant mortality, chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, and AIDS cases, and lower than average childhood immunization rates.

To this end Mr. Speaker, I am proud to join Congresswoman Christensen and a number of my congressional colleagues in introducing the first in a series of healthcare bills that I will be introducing in the coming weeks. The Katrina Health Access, Recovery, and Empowerment Act of 2006 or KHARE Act of 2006 has 4 main provision areas, each which addresses a key component in rebuilding the health care infrastructure in the Gulf Region, and meeting the unique health and health care needs of those displaced by the hurricanes. They include the following:

Title I: Rebuilding the Health Care Infrastructure. This title will meet the immediate

and longer-term needs of the health care providers in the hurricane- affected regions by directing the Department of Health and Human Services in consultation to provide forgivable low-interest loans to eligible small business concerns for the restoration of health care and other services connected to health care.

This title will extend tax-credits for medical malpractice insurance to health professionals whose primary place of employment is located in the Hurricane Katrina-affected area and offer grants to eligible non- profit hospitals and clinics to assist hospitals and clinics in defraying qualified medical malpractice insurance expenditures.

In addition, this title will allow healthcare professionals whose healthcare practice is located in the Hurricane Katrina-affected area and is in a high risk specialty, will be allowed to deduct from gross income an amount equal to 125 percent of the aggregate premiums paid for medical liability insurance.

Title II: Rebuilding Pipelines of Providers in Medically-Needy and Underserved Areas and Communities. This title offers support to health care facilities in the hurricane-affected areas in order to expand access to needed health and health care services for hurricane affected individuals in medically needy and underserved areas and communities. The title establishes a Healthcare Safety Net Infrastructure Trust Fund. The Trust Fund will provide Federal guarantee of loan repayment, including guarantees of repayment of refinancing loans, to non-Federal lenders making loans to eligible healthcare facilities for healthcare facility replacement (either by construction or acquisition), modernization and renovation projects, and capital equipment acquisition.

Title III: Providing Relief to Academic Institutions. This provision provides support to academic institutions, with health and health care related programs, in hurricane-affected areas in order to ensure that they have the capacity to retain health and health care-related staff and personnel, and continue to offer programs that are important to bolstering the health and health care workforce in hurricane-affected areas.

Title IV: Restoring Key Components of the Health Care Infrastructure in Medically-Needy and Medically-Underserved Areas. This title provides grants and technical assistance support to low-income communities with noted health disparities in order to implement programs to improve health and healthcare. It also provides disparity grants to organizations and others in hurricane-affected areas to implement programs to healthcare programs. Finally, this provision expands access to care for low-income hurricane-affected residents by offering disaster relief Medicaid.

Mr. Speaker, this bill codifies legislatively the framework needed to implement sound public health and healthcare practices and this bill is a start to a new direction for healthcare in the Gulf Coast region and I urge my colleagues to support this bill, so that we do what is so clearly needed to improve the health and health care for millions of Americans.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the order of the House of March 1, 2006, I call up the Senate bill (S. 1777) to provide relief for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on S. 1777.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, S. 1777, as amended, extends the disaster unemployment assistance for those affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Unfortunately, the economy in the gulf coast area remains devastated and re-employment opportunities are greatly limited.

Currently, disaster unemployment assistance is only available for 26 weeks following a disaster declaration. March 4, 2006, is the current deadline for program assistance as a result of Hurricane Katrina disaster declarations for Louisiana and Mississippi. Unless we act, unemployment benefits will expire this Saturday. This bill would extend that period for an additional 13 weeks, making disaster unemployment assistance available for 39 weeks total. This assistance is only available to those persons who are not eligible for regular unemployment assistance.

By extending these benefits, we are helping those most in need in the gulf coast region as they continue to recover and rebuild. We extended disaster unemployment assistance benefits after September 11 in the same fashion as we are extending these benefits today. I support this legislation and encourage my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Neugebauer).

(Mr. NEUGEBAUER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I want to respond to the comments of my good friend from Texas (Mr. Neugebauer). I certainly understand his concern about some of what has gone on in the gulf coast region, things that have not been efficiently moved forward. There have been cases of money being spent unwisely.

But on this bill, S. 1777, with the disaster unemployment assistance, this is important, to go to people that do not get normal unemployment. This goes out to people that are self-employed, small business owners. It is critical to the recovery that they have income until they are able to get their businesses back up, or if they are a professional, to get their operations running again.

So again I understand the concern of my colleague, but this bill is about disaster unemployment assistance. It is critical to get it back on line. It expires on Saturday. So I would urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, responding to the gentleman, we are not a day late and a dollar short. We are responding in a timely fashion. We certainly would have liked to have done this a couple of weeks earlier, but we are here on the floor today. We are going to respond to this situation in time.

I think it is important. As we move legislation forward in a situation like this, I think the folks in the gulf coast know that those of us in Congress are concerned about their situation; and that is why we are acting in time for this to be extended. I don't believe that responding 6 months prior to the need is something that is wise policy.

Let's move forward, let's study the situation and when it gets to a point where we have to extend, where we have to act, I think it is prudent that we do that.

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from Ohio's support on this piece of legislation today. But I want to remind my friends on the other side that Congress does have a role. And we took it very seriously when we set up the Katrina committee. It was the Democratic leader who refused to appoint Members from the minority to the Katrina committee.

But there were courageous Members on your side, I see Mr. Jefferson here today, who defied the leadership and who came to the committee hearings for the last 4 or 5 months. We did the hard work. We put forth a document that pointed out some serious problems that we had. It was critical of this administration. But the minority was MIA, missing in action from the Katrina committee.

So Congress does have a role. We took it very seriously.

And once again I just want to applaud Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Taylor, Mr. Melancon, Ms. McKinney. I hope I am not forgetting anybody. But as I said, they defied their leadership and came to these important Katrina committee hearings, and they were a big part of, I believe, the hearings and had great input into what we produced.

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her comments about the press talking about some positive stories coming out of Louisiana, but we should not forget there are also positive stories in Mississippi. The gentlewoman has traveled to the Gulf Coast on a couple of occasions, and the people of Mississippi were devastated as well.

The gentleman from Louisiana talked about the hard work. There is a lot of hard work left to do in rebuilding the Gulf Coast, but it is important that we at the Federal level do it in a fiscally responsible way in conjunction with the State and local governments in the Gulf Coast. But we also have hard work ahead of us in fixing the emergency management system, and that is something we are already starting to engage in. And we are going to have, I think, a significant debate on how we move forward.

This legislation today is important. The extension of the disaster unemployment assistance, it is money that, as I said earlier, is going to people that traditionally are not eligible for normal unemployment. These are small business owners, many of them. I think the gentlewoman from the District used the example of the hot dog stand owner, people working hard, small businesses. They do not have any income, and this is going to give them that income they need to get them back on their feet.

I want to also remind my colleagues that there is not an additional appropriation required for this. This has already been appropriated. The funds are in the disaster relief funds and CBO has scored this as no net increase in spending.

So as we move forward, I think it is responsible for us to do this. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. I also want to thank my colleague from the District for the work she has put into it.

This has been a bipartisan effort. I also want to thank Chairman Young and Ranking Member Oberstar. I also do not want to forget members of the committee from the Gulf Coast, Mr. Boustany and Mr. Baker, for their leadership, and Mr. Pickering for his leadership.

I want finally to thank the majority leader for working with us to get this legislation on the floor today.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of S. 1777, as amended. The bill provides much needed aid for individuals left unemployed after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita by extending the period of disaster unemployment assistance from 26 weeks to 39 weeks from the date of the disaster declarations. Without this extension, disaster unemployment assistance for those left unemployed by Hurricane Katrina would expire this Saturday, March 4, and unemployment assistance for those left unemployed by Hurricane Rita would expire by the end of this month. There is no doubt that the people of the Gulf Coast need this assistance, and I strongly support this bill, and thank the Democratic Leader, Ms. Pelosi, for joining me in urging its consideration in the House today.

Let's be clear about what this bill does. It extends unemployment benefits for those 165,000 workers left unemployed as a result of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita for an additional 13 weeks. People in the Gulf Region are still struggling to reclaim their lives. It is the right thing to do to extend these benefits--just as we did after September 11--so that people can put food on their table. It is simply shocking to me that some Members on the other side of the aisle have stood up to oppose this bill. Where is the compassion for those who have suffered most dearly over the past several months?

Mr. Speaker, I support this bill. Nevertheless, I believe that Congress can do more, and should. Last December, the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure reported H.R. 4438, the Gulf Coast Recovery Act, a bill that would have extended the period of eligibility of disaster unemployment assistance for those left unemployed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to 52 weeks from the date of the disasters. Further, the bill provided a much-needed increase to the minimum amount of assistance available to an individual. Right now, assistance provided to individuals in the Gulf Coast is among the lowest in the Nation. H.R. 4438 would have provided an increase in the amount of assistance to 50 percent of the national average ($135 per week). Currently, the minimum is set at one-half the state average (approximately $100 per week in Louisiana).

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4438 also addresses other pressing needs of the Gulf Region. It allows the President to provide assistance to financially distressed state and local governments to cover base pay and overtime expenses for essential response and recovery personnel for six months--from January 2006 through June 2006. At Committee hearings, and on a tour of the region, I have heard from Gulf Coast representatives, including Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans, that without help from the Federal government they would have to continue to layoff workers that are essential to the recovery, thereby adding to the scores of unemployed in the region and substantially hindering the recovery.

In addition, to help communities with limited resources, the bill amends the Community Disaster Loan Act of 2005 to allow local governments to receive loans up to 50 percent (an increase from the current 25 percent limit) of the local government's budget.

Further, there is considerable confusion among local governments regarding the cost of debris removal. H.R. 4438 provides clarity on this issue by establishing a 100 percent Federal cost share of debris removal for disaster declarations resulting from Hurricane Katrina or Rita.

The bill also provides an increase in the Federal cost share of the Hazard Mitigation Grant program (HMGP) to at least 75 percent for one year. Many of the Gulf Coast communities simply do not have the ability to meet the Federal cost share and that will severely limit their ability to utilize cost-effective mitigation measures during the recovery. Mitigation saves lives, reduces property damage, and saves limited government funds. Congress should ensure that we have strong mitigation programs that will help encourage communities to rebuild safer and smarter.

H.R. 4438 also makes a permanent change to the Stafford Act and restores the percentage used to calculate the availability of HMGP funds following a disaster from 7.5 percent to 15 percent. This House has previously approved this change in H.R. 3181, the Predisaster Mitigation Program Reauthorization Act of 2003, in the 108th Congress. This change will help improve the use of HMGP for any future disasters in every part of the country.

Finally, the bill establishes a national program by which FEMA can provide grants to state and local governments to purchase or improve emergency interoperable communications equipment (including satellite phone and satellite communications equipment); mobile equipment to generate emergency power; and to train first responders and emergency personnel on how to best use such equipment. The bill authorizes $200 million for each of fiscal years 2006, 2007, and 2008 for this program.

It is a sad fact that this Nation still does not have sufficient interoperable and emergency communications equipment that can be relied on in the event of a disaster. Since the Transportation Committee reported H.R. 4438 in December, many of the recent government investigations into what went wrong with the Federal Government's response to Hurricane Katrina have concluded that having operational, emergency communications equipment is essential to respond to any disaster. The program authorized in H.R. 4438 will go a long way to ensuring that emergency responders have this vital equipment by providing states and localities much needed resources to purchase and improve their equipment and also train emergency personnel on how to use the equipment.

H.R. 4438 is an important component to rebuilding the Gulf region. It should be scheduled for an up or down vote on the House Floor. The people of the Gulf Coast deserve at least that much.

Given that the Republican Leadership has been unwilling to schedule H.R. 4438 since the Committee reported the bill in December of last year, we are faced with passing a simple extension of the unemployment benefits for Hurricane Katrina and Rita survivors or facing the prospect of 165,000 survivors losing their benefits.

Although Congress can and should do more, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation to extend the hurricane survivors' unemployment benefits, and I commit that I will continue to work to ensure that the people of the Gulf Coast are not forgotten.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentlelady for her leadership, as well as Mr. Shuster. I also thank Mr. Young, and certainly Mr. Oberstar.

Mr. Speaker, I represent the bulk of Texans, those of us who are now hosting more than 200,000 Katrina survivors and Rita survivors. Might I say to my good friend who lives a little further from the gulf that he should recognize that this legislation also includes Hurricane Rita survivors, who are all throughout the southern part of Texas.

But this is not an isolated whose-State-are-we-in type of legislation. It is a legislative initiative. As a member of the Homeland Security Committee, I see my ranking member has come who has worked very hard on these issues, this is an answer to the cry of Americans. For anyone to suggest this is frivolous or throwing good money after bad is wrongly focused and misdirected.

Let me suggest to you the parameters, or at least the scene, that we are now talking about. We already know that we have suggested that the government in all of its power absolutely abysmally failed in its ability to save the lives of those on the gulf coast, and they knew that there was going to be a catastrophic event.

So what we are trying to do here on the floor of the House is, on the backdrop of our failure, not to look back, we wish there was a 9/11- type commission, but to go forward with solutions.

I want to applaud my colleagues for going forward. We are going forward by providing assistance to those Katrina and Rita survivors, who are scattered now through 44 States. I would like to ask my colleague, when in the history of America did we scatter Americans throughout 44 States? This is to help those States, because many of the individuals who are there are layered on top of the citizens of Utah, the citizens of Kentucky, the citizens of Georgia, who may be themselves unemployed; and therefore it makes it difficult for them to find jobs, even to be able to develop an income to be able to return home to the gulf coast region.

Mr. Speaker, this provides a cushion for those who are scattered in the 44 States. Then it helps additionally those who are in large urban areas like Houston. Houston, of course, a percolating economy, still has its unemployment. So for you to indict people, to suggest that they are doing nothing to find work, you don't know the economy in America.

Let me also acknowledge that this particular provision will pay back communities for buying soap and food for those who have been in our community. It also provides for student scholars who are on visas, whose visas may be expiring and they have no paperwork, so they will not be deported, not because they are here illegally, but because they cannot find the paperwork coming from that region.

This is an emergency. This is a life-saver. We will be in a devastated condition this Saturday if this bill is not passed.

Let me say that the bulk of Texans, the majority of Texans, 90 percent of Texans, understand the value of this legislation; and they want this bill to pass because we see firsthand those who are trying to struggle to survive.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the proposed legislation, S. 1777, the ``Katrina Emergency Assistance Act of 2005.''

As the law stands, unemployment assistance to those affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita is going to be running out. We urgently need to act to extend unemployment assistance to the survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

S. 1777 extends disaster unemployment assistance, DUA, to individuals affected by Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Rita. It does so by expanding FEMA's authority to help individuals affected by Hurricane Katrina and Rita by allowing the President to waive the limitations on direct and financial assistance and by providing 13 additional weeks of unemployment benefits.

With merely days remaining before the unemployment benefits begin to expire, the people displaced by Hurricane Katrina and Rita are facing a dire crisis. The survivors of Hurricane Katrina, and from Hurricane Rita, have faced tremendous stress over these past months. Not only have these men and women lost their jobs, but their homes have been razed to the ground, their beloved city swept away, and their livelihoods destroyed. They have suffered through unspeakable devastation, both to their mental and physical states. But, these proud people have not lost hope. Thousands of people, many in my district of Houston, are working hard to find jobs and rebuild their lives. It is very difficult for them to integrate into their new community, and very difficult for them to find a job.

In these most trying times, however, their government is threatening to remove them from their temporary, emergency unemployment assistance. Many of these people, their last options exhausted, will be left on the streets. It is a moral, public safety and public health imperative that this not be allowed to occur. I am making an urgent appeal to my colleagues in the House to take the necessary steps to avert this disaster and vote to provide disaster unemployment assistance for the displaced persons.

Late last night I received an urgent call from a constituent of mine, Dr. Ikili Graham. Dr. Graham explained that his friends and family were affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Many had lost their homes and their jobs, and were struggling to integrate in their new city of Houston. Jobs were scarce, but progress was being made.

He called to urge me to support S. 1777, a bill that would provide much needed help to those who are still unemployed as a result of Hurricane Katrina and Rita. This bill would extend unemployment assistance for just 13 additional weeks--hopefully enough time for people to find new jobs and sources of income.

I would like to passionately thank the Minority Leader and the Speaker of the House for their wisdom in bringing this necessary piece of legislation to the floor. The survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita need our continued support.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly support the proposed resolution for the foregoing reasons, and I urge my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to follow suit.