Hurricane Relief Extension Act of 2006

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5354) to authorize the Secretary of Education to extend the period during which a State educational agency or local educational agency may obligate temporary emergency impact aid for elementary and secondary school students displaced by Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Rita, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 5354.

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

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5354, the Hurricane Relief Extension Act of 2006, amends the Hurricane Education Recovery Act to allow the Secretary of Education to extend, beyond the 2006 school year, the period during which a State educational agency or local educational agency may obligate temporary emergency impact aid for elementary and secondary schools that enroll students displaced by Hurricanes Katrina or Rita.

In addition, the bill includes a sense of the Congress that urges State educational agencies to distribute expeditiously any education relief funds received under such act to impacted schools and institutions.

I want to thank Chairman McKeon and the Education and the Workforce Committee staff for working with me on this legislation.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita created real and pressing educational needs in the gulf coast region. According to the U.S. Department of Education, more than 370,000 students were unable to attend school in the weeks following the hurricanes. About 158,000 students were still displaced as of October 1, 2005, and are eligible for impact aid. More than 1,100 schools, public, private, and parochial, were still closed 2 weeks after the storms.

In the immediate days after the hurricanes hit, I worked closely with my colleagues on the Education and the Workforce Committee to assess the damage caused by the storms and to move forward and send Federal aid to the highest need areas in the shortest amount of time possible. We supported an innovative electronic reimbursement proposal that would have enabled

parents and schools to bypass government bureaucracy and receive Federal aid more quickly.

Unfortunately, many of our colleagues opposed these efforts as a backdoor attempt to implement a voucher system. Let me be emphatic: That was not the case. This proposal would have prevented the delays we are now seeing in Federal support reaching our teachers and students who most need it.

As an alternative, when Congress passed the Hurricane Education Recovery Act in December, we included stringent timelines to ensure the money would quickly be sent to local educational agencies to help schools in need. In addition, the U.S. Department of Education accelerated the application process for these funds in order to quickly release education-related relief. Yet, Federal education aid is still not reaching the ground in many Gulf States, including my home State of Louisiana.

I recently visited Johnson Bayou High School in my congressional district in Cameron Parish hit directly by Hurricane Rita, and school officials had yet to receive one penny in Federal assistance. This was only 3 to 4 weeks ago. A headline last month in the Baton Rouge Advocate read, ``East Baton Rouge Schools Await Hurricane Funds.'' At an April 26 Education and Workforce Committee hearing, education leaders from throughout the gulf coast testified that Federal aid had yet to make its way to the local level.

This bill allows the Secretary to set a date to obligate the funds for displaced students that is beyond the end of the school year because several districts have indicated the difficulty in meeting the current statutory July 31 date. The extension of this date will give the districts the extra time needed to ensure the funds are obligated toward the allowable expenditures from the 2005-2006 school year.

The bill makes certain that the funds can only be used for expenses from the 2005-2006 school year and that the funds will not be extended into the 2006-2007 school year. These funds are desperately needed by the districts to help with the costs associated with educating the displaced students.

Districts should not have to return the funds because they were not able to obligate them by the July 31 deadline. Mr. Speaker, schools should not be penalized because bureaucratic red tape has delayed the process on the State level, which, to me, is very unacceptable.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5354, the Hurricane Relief Extension Act of 2006.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I am prepared to close at this time. I want to thank my colleague, the gentlelady from New York, for her support, and for all the support of my colleagues across the aisle. I think this is an important piece of legislation, because much of the money that we have obligated has not reached where it needs to go, to those students and schools in need.

When I was back home just about 2 months ago, I was at a school in Erath, a small town that was devastated by flooding, and they were rebuilding the school. In fact, they had just reopened some of the classrooms there. One of the teachers showed me her bright new shining classroom, freshly painted with a new bookshelf, and she had actually spent $1,600 of her own money to do that, because the Federal money that we had obligated had not reached the ground level. So I am urging the States to release the money that we have sent down so that we can get the money where it needs to be to take care of those students in need and get those schools up and running.

With that, I strongly urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5354.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 5354, the Hurricane Relief Extension Act, and thank Mr. Boustany for introducing this very important measure.

Mr. Speaker, in March of this year, Democrats from the House Committee on Education and the Workforce traveled to New Orleans and surrounding areas to survey and see firsthand the damage left by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The members of the delegation were clear in their assessment: Until you see the damage firsthand, it is very, very difficult to understand the magnitude of these storms and what the devastation that they left behind is.

The school systems in the gulf coast were hit particularly hard. The wind tore off roofs of schools, and storm surges brought additional water into classrooms, sometimes reaching over 10 feet. These school systems, both public and private, lost books, computers and desks. Teachers, principals and students lost their homes to the storms.

At the time of the delegation's visit, families had started to return to the area, and due to the leadership of local superintendents, principals and teachers, students were returning to the classrooms. Across the country, school systems in nearly every State opened their doors to enroll displaced students. They continued to educate these children, expending their own resources to meet the increased enrollments.

In spite of the pressures on schools to reopen and enroll displaced students, it was not until December, nearly 5 months after the levees broke, that Congress designated funds to assist schools along the gulf coast and the schools that had taken in displaced students. And it appears Congress did not live up to its own promise. The funds provided were less than what was promised, nearly one-third less.

H.R. 5354 does not fix the funding problem, nor does it address the challenges these same schools will have next year, particularly those in New Orleans, which expect their enrollment to double in the fall. H.R. 5354 will, however, resolve an immediate issue by extending the time in which funds are to be obligated for the current school year.

H.R. 5354 also addresses a concern heard by the delegation during its visits to schools that State educational agencies were delaying the distribution of these funds to local school systems. As such, H.R. 5354 includes a sense of the Congress that urges States to expedite the release of these funds to local school districts.

Families are eager to return to their communities, but will only do so if they can be assured that their children can attend school. H.R. 5354 will assist schools in their efforts to educate displaced students and reopen schools.

Again, I want to thank the gentleman on the other side of the aisle, Mr. Boustany, for bringing this bill to the floor, and urge my colleagues to support it.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5354, the Hurricane Relief Extension Act. I thank my Education and the Workforce Committee colleague, Mr. Boustany, for his work on this measure--and for his efforts on behalf of his constituents in the wake of last fall's hurricanes.

Last year, the Gulf Coast endured one of the worst series of hurricanes in our nation's history. Students, workers, retirees, and families from the region were impacted in ways seemingly incomprehensible before the storms struck.

The Education and the Workforce Committee and this Congress have been active in driving legislation to provide resources to schools and families as part of the recovery effort. Last year, led by Mr. Boustany and his Louisiana colleague, Representative Jindal, we passed legislation to reimburse public, including charter, and private schools that have enrolled displaced students and to help those schools get supplies and equipment to help educate those students.

Now, as the academic year during which Katrina and Rita struck draws to a close, we want to ensure that available money will be used by the schools and districts. The bill before us today will allow the U.S. Secretary of Education to extend the date by which these funds must be obligated to beyond the end of this school year. While the funds must still be used on expenses for the 2005/2006 school year, by extending the obligation date, the districts and schools will be able to make sure that funds are used on appropriate expenses and do not have to be returned to the federal government. It is not just a necessary move-- but an appropriate one as well.

Last month, the Education and the Workforce Committee held a hearing highlighted by educators from across the Gulf Coast region. We listened as they discussed the challenges faced and successes achieved by Gulf Coast schools in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and

Rita. And we heard them provide their unique insights into what we have done well with regard to education in the Gulf Coast region, as well as what obstacles we still face.

Unfortunately, some officials testified that they have yet to receive their full, expected sum of federal impact aid dollars. And as we consider this legislation today, I am especially hopeful that some of the bureaucratic problems we've witnessed in the past several months will end--and end soon.

Mr. Speaker, the bottom line is this: as educators, joined by parents and students from the region, work to rebuild an academic way of life, they ought to have all of the necessary tools at their disposal. The measure we are considering today takes a major step toward providing just that. And I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting it.