Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, homecare presents--a tremendous value for Americans' healthcare dollar. Homecare provides a family-friendly, clinically proven way of receiving quality healthcare for millions of Americans where they prefer to receive care--at home. November, National Homecare and Hospice Month, is an opportunity to recognize the importance of homecare as an essential component of healthcare in the United States.

This important segment of the health care continuum allows patients with medical needs to remain in their homes, including those who are recovering, disabled, chronically or terminally ill who need medical, nursing, social, or therapeutic treatment.

Homecare represents a family value and a value for families. It's about quality healthcare and quality of life for at least 8 million households across the United States.

Recent studies of homecare services support the following conclusions:

Homecare for selected conditions can shorten inpatient hospital stays.

Homecare can reduce the overall costs of care without compromising outcomes.

Homecare can improve clinical outcomes including mortality. This improvement can be striking in degree.

Homecare can improve patient and caregiver satisfaction.

Homecare can improve functional independence and reduce the risk of institutional placement.

For Medicare beneficiaries with selected conditions, formal homecare is the most cost-effective strategy for achieving functional improvement compared to in-patient rehabilitation, nursing-home-based rehabilitation, and discharge to home without formal homecare services.

Homecare is expected to grow in the years ahead because of several large-scale trends:

The American population is rapidly aging. The 85-and-older group is the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population.

Advances in technology allow virtually every service short of surgery to be delivered at home.

Homecare does not require brick-and-mortar investments since it's provided at home.

So today I join homecare patients and caregivers throughout the United States in celebrating National Homecare and Hospice Month.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and pay tribute to the Diageo Spirit of America Fund and its efforts during the recent devastating hurricanes that hit Florida in August and September. As we Floridians have dealt with the aftermath of these storms, it became apparent that the most precious commodity needed to jumpstart the road to recovery was electricity. Without this precious commodity, our relief workers were left literally in the dark to sort out what steps needed to be made to restore order, security, and normalcy to our devastated state.

Recognizing this need and even before either Hurricane Charley or Frances made landfall, Diageo was poised to help our cause by bringing four giant portable generators to the areas most likely in each storm's path. These generators were made available to relief workers in St. Lucie County and throughout each storm's most devastated areas.

Diageo's generosity and unique foresight helped us literally jumpstart our move down the road toward recovery. Diageo's generators were first put to task by providing power to operate Hardee County's only solid waste facility, a facility critical to public health in crisis situations. Two additional generators were used to power a local campground being used as a temporary shelter for displaced families.

In my district, Diageo helped us after Hurricane Frances by supplying one of these generators to power the Port St. Lucie pumping station, sending safe drinking water to the homes and shelters of over 88,000 residents of Port St. Lucie and the surrounding area. Water usage was restored to my constituents much faster than in hurricanes of the past because of the Diageo Spirit of America efforts. The others were used at the will of the Fort Pierce Emergency Operations Center wherever the need was greatest

This assistance effort is part of Diageo's ongoing humanitarian efforts. In the hours and days after 9/11 Diageo and its employees provided numerous relief activities and assistance. In December 2001, Diageo brought the first corporate humanitarian airlift to war-torn Afghanistan by delivering more than 100,000 pounds of food and emergency supplies to 800 orphans in Kabul. In June of 2003, the company chartered a DC-8 plane and brought a cargo of food, medicine and school supplies to Baghdad, becoming the first American company to embark upon a humanitarian mission into Iraq. In November, Diageo provided more than 12,000 turkeys to the Connecticut Food Bank so that 72,000 disadvantaged families could celebrate a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. And this past June, the Diageo Spirit of the Americas Airlift brought in and distributed emergency supplies to flood victims in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Diageo's Spirit of America Humanitarian Aid Missions are facilitated by the Bridge Foundation, a nonprofit humanitarian aid and development organization which provides humanitarian aid worldwide. Diageo is the world's largest total beverage alcohol company.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in thanking Diageo North America and its Spirit of America Fund for its rapid response to the crisis created by these hurricanes. Their on-going generosity and understanding of this crisis and these others throughout the world represent the finest and most compassionate qualities in America.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman very much for yielding me this time, and Florida cannot thank him enough for his hard work and dedication to our State. On military issues, or just name the range of issues that are covered for this country, and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) has been and is such a great patriot and a wonderful man and we thank him.

There has been a lot of conversation on the floor that they did not do enough, they did not add enough, they did not provide enough, whatever. You know what, people lost their lives in Florida. Some have lost everything they own. So what I would like to do is be thankful, thankful to all the people in this process that have done so much for our State.

My colleague, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Boyd), and others have worked so hard. It is not about politics. The storms are not political. Neither Republicans or Democrats ordered

storms to hit Florida. People are suffering now, yet we still get a little backbiting in the room. So I would just like to thank so many people. The President, the Governor, Senator Graham, Senator Nelson. And I know I am not supposed to mention the other body by name, so I retreat from that; but I would at least like to say in a bipartisan fashion that we have worked hard for the people of Florida taking care of our agricultural interests, taking care of our beaches and FEMA, the Red Cross.

Mr. Speaker, I can go on and on with the litany of people that have worked hard. The National Guard was mentioned. They have been down there in 95 and almost 100 degree heat and humidity handing out water and ice and providing MREs and things so people could just have a decent meal.

Storms have a way of bringing people together. Crises have a way of bringing people together. My proudest moment in this House, having served here for 10 years, was after September 11, when both sides of the aisle decided America needed to come first. And in these storms we find oftentimes that is the same integrity that is brought to this magnificent body.

So I want to thank all the people in both Chambers, both sides of the aisle, and recognize, on behalf of Floridians, who are watching us today, who are more interested in putting their lives back together and not necessarily who gets credit. There will be plenty of credit to go around. There will be plenty of opportunities to hand out the laurels and to receive the hardy handshakes to each and every one of us. But for the moment, the people working the hardest are in this room, the two Members who have allowed MilCon to proceed in order with this hurricane relief: the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young).

So while I want to once again thank everyone involved, I especially want to thank these two gentlemen again for their splendid cooperation and integrity. And though we do have fights on policy from time to time, when it is important for the Nation, when it is important for our families, when it is important for our fighting forces, uniquely we come together behind this Flag recognizing our responsibilities are not to our political parties or to our leaders, but they are to our constituents who sent us here.

Mr. Speaker, due to a family commitment I missed rollcall No. 528. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, due to a family commitment I missed rollcall No. 529. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, due to a family commitment, I missed rollcall No. 530. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

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

I rise today in support of our amendment, the Foley-Ackerman amendment to H.R. 10, the Anti-Atrocity Alien Deportation Act that will help strengthen our Nation's security.

Every year, according to Amnesty International, an estimated 800 to 1,000 war criminals and human rights abusers seek refuge in the United States.

Due to loopholes in current law, these criminals could be living in our States, in our towns, and even in our neighborhoods. There is nothing in current U.S. law to bar such monsters from the United States or to legally justify their removal from our country.

This headline, the INS says it cannot deport them. The Justice Department will not prosecute them. Torturers, death squad leaders, and human rights criminals who seek refuge in the United States have nothing to fear except their victims.

Let me be perfectly clear: Torturers are terrorists. Many of us here today probably think of torturers as domestic terrorists, those just committing unspeakable crimes in their own Nations, but that cannot be further from the truth.

Let us look at the facts. North Korea, Iran, Syria, Libya, Cuba, Sudan, the former regimes in Afghanistan, the Taliban, and Iraq, they are all State sponsors of terrorism, and all have some of the worst human rights records in history. They detain people for indefinite periods of time, commit brutal acts of torture and kill with little regard for human life. We would be naive to believe that torturers and terrorists are in many ways not one in the same.

The Anti-Atrocity Alien Deportation amendment, which the gentleman from New York (Mr. Ackerman) and I have worked on for over 4\1/2\ years, we are offering it today, will give the Federal Government another weapon in our war on terror. This amendment will, among other things, make aliens who commit torture or other human rights violations inadmissible and removable.

This bipartisan and bicameral provision will strengthen H.R. 10 by adding additional layers to our immigration laws, barring these criminals with clear ties to terror from even entering our country.

For decades, those who have committed some of the most horrific acts against humanity have sought sanctuary here with impunity. This amendment would strip their protection once and for all. We cannot let these criminals continue to be around our families any longer. They have committed crimes against their own people. They have committed crimes against the United States. They have committed crimes against humanity.

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

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Hostettler), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims.

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

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

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank my colleague the gentleman from New York (Mr. Ackerman) and the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Hostettler), Richard Krieger from my district, who brought this important issue to our attention who has been diligently tracking and identifying these criminals.

Let me read a couple of names: Marko Boskic, Bosnia, member of a group that killed 1,200 Bosnian Muslims in one day; Major General Jean- Claude Duperval, Haiti, implicated in the massacre at Raboteau, Haiti, 1994; Nikola Vukovic, beat Bosnian Muslims with rifles and metal pipes; Mohamed Ali Samatar from Somalia, oversaw the killing of more than 50,000 northern Somali Issaks; Abdi Ali Nur from Somalia, assisted in sham trials and the execution of hundreds of civilians. That is just a few of them.

I will enter this into the Record at this point so people can see.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young) for his hard work on behalf of Floridians. I want to thank the White House, and I want to thank the President specifically and Governor Jeb Bush for their tireless efforts to help those who have suffered the damages of four hurricanes.

This has been a unique and unusual year in our State. The gentleman from Tallahassee said it very brilliantly when he said that we have all suffered in Florida. Virtually every one of 67 counties has had some impact from the four storms that have visited our State.

The gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young) has designed a supplemental bill on behalf of the OMB and the White House that does meet many of the critical needs of our State, from NASA to FEMA to the Corps of Engineers to beach renourishment to fixing problems, including a generous allocation to the Red Cross which has expended considerable resources to helping those Floridians who are in a time of desperate need. But I also want to suggest that the gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young) has a bill that will enhance and further the efforts that have been left out of this supplemental package.

Now, I appreciate all that has been done on behalf of Florida by our colleagues from 50 States and the territories we all represent. We are deeply grateful for the efforts made on behalf of the leadership and others to bring this bill to the Floor in a timely manner to remedy and remediate the problems we have experienced in Florida. But, as the gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young) clearly stated, more needs to be done.

Not all crops have been considered in this supplemental. In my district, sugar suffered a drastic and dramatic loss of crop, as have citrus, as have row crop, as have plant nurseries, as have cattle and dairy. Those are considered in the bill; others have not been. We want to bring equity to the table. Anybody who has suffered a loss should be brought whole.

I want to thank those, specifically FEMA's director, Mike Brown, and all of the FEMA employees that are in Florida today and other States that have suffered as a result of the hurricanes. We have over 3,000- plus FEMA active-duty workers as well as volunteers who are in our State assisting the governor in bringing relief to the desperate citizens of Florida.

So I applaud the gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young) for his deliberation and the speed in which this measure was brought to the floor. And I commend to the leadership and to the White House H.R. 5227, a furtherance of that effort to bring whole the damages suffered by Floridians.

Hurricane Charley came to Punta Gorda on August 13; followed by Frances to Stewart, Florida, a district I represent as well as Punta Gorda; followed by Jeanne hitting the very exact same territory. The gentleman from Florida (Chairman Shaw) has been extraordinarily helpful in coordinating the efforts of our State delegate agencies and bringing relief to our citizens. The effort is largely made whole by the work of the gentleman from Florida (Chairman Young), but I hope we are able to consider in the remaining hours of this session H.R. 5227, authored by the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) to remedy the remaining issues outstanding.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica). I never thought I would leave Florida today and find the remnants of Jeanne here in our Nation's capital, but so it be.

One of my interns, Adrian Sferle, has basically done what I think is an outstanding map; it was not prepared by NOAA. It was prepared by a college intern, that tracks the four hurricanes that the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica) so eloquently described, the hardships they have created, the damage they have wrought and the injuries they have inflicted to a fragile Florida. The purpose today is not necessarily to recount the damage, the totals, the numbers, because they are all stark and they all bring weight to the human spirit because they have endured and caused great pain, great physical, emotional, exhausting pain. People in some parts of Florida, my friend Jeff Miller knows from Pensacola, Adam Putnam, virtually every member of the delegation has had these four storms hit parts or portions of their district. I had the distinction of having three: Charley, Jeanne, Frances, Jeanne and Frances entering almost at the exact same spot in Martin County, Florida; Charley hitting Punta Gorda; Ivan hitting Pensacola, then through Alabama. And, of course, those storms have wrought great tragedy. But the beautiful thing about a storm of this magnitude, if there can be a positive outcome, it is what the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) described, and that is the spirit of America coming forward to aid and assist their fellow man in time of need. The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica) mentioned the organizations, American Red Cross, United Way, Salvation Army, among many who have stood up with leadership, compassion and capability to bring Florida back together again. Spending time in emergency operating centers of several counties, we have seen volunteers, professionals, firefighters, Corps of Engineers, you name it, police, sheriff, county administrators, county commissioners, soldiering on and dealing with the pre-hurricane preparedness and the after-hurricane response. Insurance agencies coming down quickly to solve the problems of those that have been injured. Corps of Engineers and their blue tarp program working expeditiously to secure the roof of those who have lost their roofs. FEMA. The tremendous response by Mike Brown, Under Secretary of Homeland Security, and his entire team. Over 4,000-plus people from FEMA are working in the State of Florida. The Governor of our great State, Jeb Bush, has spent the last 7 weeks tirelessly dealing with the needs of the citizens of Florida. The bipartisan spirit of our delegation has been superb. Our two Senators have worked so hard and have fashioned resolutions to deal with the aftermath of these storms. The President coming to Florida on three occasions and will again be in Florida tomorrow to deal with the after-effects of the disaster, ordering FEMA and other Federal agencies to prepare not only in advance of the storms but after to remedy the needs of Floridians.

But we could not do it without the volunteers, the people who have assembled to hand out ice and water. Today,

I was in West Palm at the fair grounds. There were kids who were remanded to the drug court that were participating. There were several Miami Dolphin football players participating. There were people from all walks of life, doctors and nurses who were there on the scene, taking time out of their own lives when they had their own homes to rehabilitate, when they had their own homes and families to deal with. Nonetheless, they stood shoulder-to-shoulder in the blazing Florida sun to make certain no person was left behind without the basic, necessary essentials. These are the heroes that I come to the floor today to commend.

We would have never expected four storms in Florida. Maybe we should, because Florida is in the tropics, and we are in a way where storms will make their progress and path toward our State. But we will bounce back. We will be better. We will be stronger. And we will be united. Storms know no partisanship. They certainly know no direction. They find their way, and they do their devastation. But humanity rises to the call and to the occasion. I am deeply gratified for everyone in the process who has worked so hard. I know we will bounce back in the travel and tourism industry. I know we will bounce back in some of the other things that we are going to deal with. There are many measures we are sponsoring on regional emergency energy reserves, on review of energy repair efforts after a disaster, on insurance disaster relief reserves using IRA accounts and so many other things. But I do not want to cloud this resolution with a lot of future endeavors but to thank those who took time out of their lives to share with their fellow Floridians the hard work and handiwork that they are bringing to bear to relieve the suffering of our constituents.

I thank first the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis) for giving me an opportunity to proceed out of order. I thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica) and his committee for giving us the chance to have this resolution heard.

Mr. Speaker, I come to the well today to congratulate our Florida colleague and great friend, Porter Goss, on becoming the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Porter is one of the most decent, kind, humble men in this building, and his task before him is enormous. Seventy-seven Senators, including our own Florida Senators Bob Graham and Bill Nelson, courageously supported the man who we know is such a decent human being, who will use his utmost ability to protect and defend the people of the United States.

Porter Goss and his wife Mariel have been solid citizens, great Floridians and now the Nation will know the kind of dedication he has shown to the pursuit of making America safe.

We are proud of you, Porter. We are standing by you, and we know, at the end of your tenure here in Congress, Floridians salute you and Americans will get to know a great, great humanitarian, a great leader, and a terrific Central Intelligence Director.

Mr. Speaker, this year we celebrate our 10th anniversary as the governing party of this great Chamber.

In 1994, the Dow Jones industrial average was at 3,834. Today, it is 10,453. Homeownership was at 64 percent. Today it is a record high of 69.2. Violent crime is down. Interest rates are down from 8.5 to 4.42.

Charitable giving among Americans is at its highest, from $150.7 billion in 1996 to over $241 billion now. Bankruptcy rates are down from 17.9 to 2.8. Per capita incomes are growing. Poverty is shrinking. African Americans living in poverty are decreasing and their homeownership is at record highs. Unemployment is down from 6 to 5.4.

These may be dry statistics to some, but they are progress to many Americans, thanks to the direction we have taken this country and this Congress. Yes, America is safer, and I thank the President for standing steadfast against terrorism, against tyranny.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall Nos. 464 and 465, I was meeting with the Governor of Florida concerning hurricane damage. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 464 and ``yea'' on rollcall No. 465.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to praise Sam Budnyk, a remarkable coach in South Florida who is retiring this year as head football coach for the Cardinal Newman High School Crusaders in West Palm Beach.

After 43 years as the school's only head football coach ever, Coach Budnyk has decided to retire his position. He also coached men's basketball and women's softball and track over the course of his career.

As first coach and athletic director, Coach Budnyk was responsible for pushing both minority and women's rights in high school athletics in Palm Beach County.

In 1965, he hired the first African-American assistant football coach to work at a private school in the state. By 1967, he was the first coach in the county in an all-white high school to have a football game against the all-black John F. Kennedy High School. In 1973, he was recognized by the National Organization for Women for allowing the first girl in Palm Beach County to run varsity track.

Not only have his victories been represented on the playing field, they also have resonated through the student-athletes who went on to various college institutions on scholarships and completed their education successfully. As the winningest coach in Palm Beach County history, Coach Budnyk was responsible for sending at least three of his Crusader football players to the NFL.

Sam Budnyk is a legend in his own time among all those who have met him, learned from him, became better people because of him--including my own father, who had the honor of serving as his assistant coach in football, baseball, basketball and track in the late '60s.

Sam Budnyk will still contribute at Cardinal Newman by remaining its athletic director and by teaching there. But his presence on the football field will be missed.

I would like to congratulate and thank him for all his selfless years of giving that have affected countless Newman graduates.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for organizing this opportunity for us to come to the floor and let the rest of the country know what Florida has been living through.

I came to Florida from Massachusetts at the age of 3, and I remember waking up early one morning in 1960 to a storm that we had never known in Massachusetts, and that was Hurricane Donna. We went about putting masking tape on our jalousie windows. That is what we were told to do for safety. My, how things have changed.

The people of Florida are storm weary and they are fatigued. Their resilient nature and strong character have been tested over the last few weeks. But as we have done before, Floridians are banding together, helping their neighbor and slowly rebuilding their homes, their businesses and their communities.

Never in our Nation's history have two storms brought this much destruction back to back to one State. Unfortunately, the people of the 16th District have weathered the worst. Hurricane Charley reached landfall on August 13, 2004, and blasted its way

through southwest Florida with winds of upwards of 145 miles an hour and 10-foot storm surges.

This is Hurricane Charley as it originated off the African coast. It was upgraded along the way, became a very, very distinguished storm in intensity. We heard it would probably go to Tampa. I can remember watching that storm at 3 in the afternoon in West Palm Beach, my home, and watched as that storm made almost a right-hand turn into Punta Gorda and increased in velocity and intensity.

That was a Friday afternoon at 4:30. At 7 a.m., Governor Bush and FEMA Director Mike Brown and I hit the tarmac at Fort Myers airport to begin a very telling and shocking look, an aerial observation of death and destruction. It is hard for anyone to quantify the feeling you have when you watch somebody who is about 80 years old walking out of a totally destroyed mobile home park with nothing more than a pair of white dress shoes. That was all she could find. I watched that repeated home after home in beautiful Punta Gorda, Florida, never before known to many, now known to all. The names Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte have been replayed on every national news broadcast as the scene of just total and complete devastation.

Hurricane Frances reached landfall 3 weeks later on September 4, 2004, and battered Florida's East Coast and central region with 105- mile-per-hour winds and up to 17 inches of rain. Again another storm, I must tell you, coming from a similar track and a similar trajectory, coming towards us at quite a bit of speed. Fortunately it started to slow as it approached the Bahama chain and clearly then stalled off of West Palm. I remember watching from the emergency operations center at West Palm as that storm seemed to set there for an incredible amount of time. It finally made landfall again in the 16th District in Sewells Point, Florida, which is located in Martin County close to the city of Stuart, and proceeded to do damage and destruction as it virtually made an X across Orlando. The gentleman from Florida (Mr. Feeney) will be talking a little bit about how it impacted his district, which has Brevard and I believe Osceolo and Orange Counties, but he will tell you how it basically made an X over Orlando as if they were charted and plotted to take that trajectory.

Twenty-seven people lost their lives from the wrath of Hurricane Charley to date. Eighteen people lost their lives from the devastation caused by Frances. Insured property losses for Charley are climbing in excess of $7 billion. Hurricane Frances damages are estimated up to $4 billion. More than 20,000 farms were in the path of Hurricane Frances and damage estimated to Florida's agricultural community exceeds more than $2 billion. The travel and tourism industry faces millions of dollars in lost revenue. Power outages have affected more than 6 million people and, boy, have we heard it. At times I felt like I was the service representative for the power company, we had so many calls coming to our office. Believe me, I understand your aggravation because I too was without power for a significant part of last week.

Florida's Governor Jeb Bush took immediate action to declare a major disaster for the entire State of Florida and deployed necessary resources to deal with the crisis. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, has more than 2,700 agency workers helping with the recovery effort. The National Guard was quick to mobilize more than 4,100 troops to help in the relief efforts, both to provide security for people in the region as well as provide humanitarian relief for those impacted. $2 billion has been requested and granted thanks to the hard work of the Florida delegation, including its chairman, Mr. Bill Young, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Chairman Clay Shaw of the entire delegation, and $2.5 billion of emergency moneys is now being forwarded to this Chamber by the White House.

Some reforms are in the process. We filed a bill that would allow one-time penalty free withdrawals from IRA accounts for people living in natural disaster areas. We have asked for the potential halting of cement tariffs so we can quickly rebuild our communities. We have asked to consider the insurance disaster relief reserve accounts that we think would stabilize and make insurance companies more financially sound to weather these storms and the burdens they place on those companies' reserves, regional emergency energy reserves to look at the coordination between Federal-State agencies bringing fuel supplies to regions most impacted to run the diesels, the power, the waste treatment plants, and, of course, to review our energy repair efforts after a disaster.

And now Ivan is somewhere stirring in the coast and we are praying, I have prayed more in the last 4 days than I did in 10 years of Catholic school, hoping that Ivan would not do the destruction that was contemplated just several days ago. We pray for all those in the Panhandle. Our colleague Jeff Miller and I were speaking today and worried about its potential impact on the Panhandle, of course, New Orleans, any of those areas. We just hope maybe the storm loses its steam and subsides. But you see now why Florida and even areas in Virginia were hit by hurricanes.

But I just want to thank again my colleague from Florida for providing this opportunity to kind of let people know how difficult it has been the last 5 weeks in Florida but how strong the people have been and how I know with the help of the Federal Government and our colleagues in this Chamber that we will do our best to remedy. We will not be able to right every wrong or every problem people have suffered, but we are certainly going to work on trying to make their lives at least better as we prepare to deal with these back-to-back tragedies.

It is interesting you mention that, because last night I saw Joe Allbaugh, who was the former FEMA Director under President Bush, the first FEMA Director under this administration. He told me how President Bush during his term as Governor had suffered 14 hurricanes in Texas over the course of those 3 years. One of the things they talked about is the plan that they put in place to rapidly position rescue efforts, relief efforts, water, ice and other things in staging areas so that we would not repeat the tragedies of years past, Andrew being one of them, where it was a week before even then Governor Chiles asked for even Federal help.

So it is interesting as we watched particularly in Charley, if I can take you for a minute to that day, Saturday, when we were aerial above the community. Hundreds of trucks moving in on the highways. Very little other traffic. But these relief trucks were already there. The winds had only stopped blowing a few hours before and they were making their way into Florida to try and remedy the damage. I know we have not got everything right. There are still some kinks, but the difference in the way they have approached restoration of basic utilities, of water, of the basic provisions, including two visits by President Bush to Florida, helping hand out supplies himself. We are all touched by these storms and we cannot work miracles, but I can tell you and I thank you for bringing that to the attention of our colleagues, because FEMA and its response through its lead agent, Mike Brown, has been tireless, relentless and has been thorough. I salute them because they are under a lot of pressure, as you can well imagine. Constituents are upset, mad, aggravated, tired, hot. Every emotion you could possibly have has been felt in Florida. But FEMA really has stepped up to the plate.

The other person is Governor Bush. You have got to give him credit. I have known Jeb probably since 1982, when he was a Secretary of Commerce, a young real estate lad in Florida and now obviously our esteemed Governor. I do not think he has taken his eye off the ball

once in the last 5 weeks. It has been an incredibly focused effort, hourly updates. You cannot imagine what I Blackberry him about. I am wondering when I am going to get the Blackberry back fully. Take a nap. But he responds. He is getting the problem solved. It has been a very, very wonderful thing to watch. And he does not have an election before him. He is in his second term. He cannot run for reelection. The kind of effort he is putting through, I have heard a few people say, oh, it's all politics. He is not running for anything. He is finished. He has done his two terms. He is working hard on behalf of the people because he feels their pain. And he was in Andrew. He was in Miami at the time. He remembers the lack of response and he is not going to let that be repeated to the citizens of this great State.

Let me expand on one thing, if I could. You mentioned the persons that are part-timers. That is a very significant new part of FEMA. From around this great country of ours, there are people standing ready in reserve, that have other jobs, other lives. They may be firefighters, nurses. You mentioned those trades. They are ready to receive the call at a moment's notice. A bag is already packed in their home. They get the call. I met several of them in Punta Gorda. They are coming from Oregon, Washington State, Texas, you name it. These are people that give up 2 weeks of their own lives to come help, aid and assist, not as a volunteer, they are paid for their 2 weeks, but they leave their own homes to come provide the relief, which means the Federal Government does not have to have all these full-time employees.

That was one of the most incredible things I had seen. They had set up a MASH unit in the parking lot because we lost all three hospitals in Punta Gorda. Those people were in there that were medical doctors, surgeons that came from their communities to give their 2 weeks. It is just one of those things that you realize we are not in this world alone no matter what problems we face. This country rises to the challenge and the people that are part of this great Nation are up to the challenge of remedying whatever is thrown in our way.

I want to thank the gentlewoman for the chance to discuss, and I know our good colleague from Florida (Mr. Feeney) is here. I thank the gentlewoman for the opportunity to be part of the special order tonight.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this moment to thank the wonderful hardworking and dedicated employees of the emergency operating centers of Charlotte County, Highlands, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Okeechobee, Glades, and Hendry. I would like to thank Mike Brown and his capable staff at FEMA. I would like to thank President Bush for visiting our citizens in the storm-ravaged communities of Punta Gorda and, tomorrow, Fort Pierce. I would like to thank Governor Bush for his tireless commitment to our State's fragile citizens, the United Way, and the Red Cross.

It is amazing to me how beautiful this Nation is when our fellow citizens have been found wanting and hurting. You have all heard the plea from Florida's citizens for help, and you have answered that plea today, not just with money but with prayers, not just with prayers but with help, and not just with help but with hope. We will rebuild. We will be stronger and better than ever. I ask my citizens in Florida to be patient. I know you are under great stress, but help is on the way. This bill will provide it. This Congress will respond. And our President is doing all he can with the help of FEMA to make certain this misery and pain is short-lived.