Save America's Utility Infrastructure and Secure America Now Act of 2008

Madam Speaker, even as I stand here on the floor of the House, the residents of the gulf region, the gulf coasts of Louisiana and Texas, are still suffering from Hurricane Ike. We know as well that Hurricane Kyle has been making its way up the east coast. As we look back over the landscape this past year, we see the devastation of so much that has impacted our country through natural disasters--flooding, wind, hurricanes--and we realize that that is, by Mother Nature's way, something that will occur in this Nation on a regular basis.

As a member of the Homeland Security Committee and a chairperson of the Transportation Security and Critical Infrastructure Committee, I introduce today Save America's Utility Infrastructure and Secure America Act of 2008, H.R. 7230. I do so with the hope that Americans will be better prepared, not necessarily the Americans in their homes but the utility companies who every day receive our payments for electricity and finding out in times of trouble they are not prepared.

For example, the blackout of August, 2003, in the northeast, midwest, and adjoining parts of Canada highlighted the need for infrastructure operating improvements.

As the chairperson of this committee, I believe that one of the ways of securing America and making America safe is to go throughout the Nation and address the questions of the sectors that predominately are controlled by the private community. Eighty-five percent of our critical infrastructure is controlled by the private community. By that they sense that they have sort of a pass. They don't have to invest in improving the infrastructure. So today I introduce this bill because I believe they do have to make a commitment to the rate payers to improve the infrastructure.

For example, in our own State of Texas, our public utility commission instructed, recommended to our utility company in a heavily treed area like my city of Houston to prepluck the trees that would entangle themselves in the above-ground wires. They recommended to them, if you will, to substitute the wooden polls for steel polls. They recommended to them that they should, in fact, secure the transformers.

None of this was done. And they were quoted as saying, it is far more inexpensive to clean up after the fact than to do this work beforehand. So what do we have? What we had in Texas is a tragedy of hundreds and hundreds of people, maybe thousands, impacted negatively by the lack of electricity. People were on oxygen and dialysis in hospitals that were shut down, and the tragedy of a 14-year-old asthmatic boy who lost his life, among others.

For me that is intolerable and unacceptable. If you want the benefit of doing business here in the United States, then you must do it well. So I have introduced this bill to subject those utilities who believe cavalierly that we don't have to do it, we want to keep the money in our pocket, to criminal penalties for those who don't develop vulnerable lists that will know where the hospitals and nursing homes are and where elderly persons and asthmatic persons live so that we can accept the fact that Mother Nature does not come with an appointment, but that we can be as prepared as we possibly can be. So this bill provides criminal penalties.

As well, the bill requires the establishment of vulnerable lists and vulnerable neighborhoods so that we are well aware of what to do. And it also instructs the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that our infrastructure is meeting the standards that it should meet. This I believe is the way government corrects and reforms a system to make it work for the American people.

Madam Speaker, today as a complement to my remarks, we looked to try and correct the market. We didn't quite get there. But certainly I want to express my appreciation for the hard work of the Democratic leadership. It is clear that our friends on the other side could not muster the support for their own administration. I believe however we can make this a better bill. We can make it a better bill by ensuring that homeowners are protected, by putting money into this bill that is particularly set aside for homeowners who may be going into foreclosure. And

let it be totally disregarded that people were living above their means. Yes, there are hardworking Americans who saw the opportunity to improve their lives. But the banking institutions gave them the permission to do so. And don't put this on the backs of minorities. Hardworking minorities likewise are working to make their lives better. But it was the banking entities that gave them this, if you will, predatory loan.

We can do better by making this bill better, working to ensure that there is no short selling by borrowing it, and we can as well bail out Main Street as we look to reform Wall Street.