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Emergency Relief and Recovery Bill Offers
Some Relief, But it is Totally Inadequate
House of Representatives - October 6, 2005

Mr. Speaker, our hearts go out to the people in the Southeast. The magnitude of the destruction and distress and the dislocation of the gulf coast cries out for a national response that only the Federal Government can meet.

Instead, we continue to see missteps, mismanagement, misinformation, sort of reminiscent of the continuation of the Brown Factor.

Hurricane Katrina left hundreds of thousands of people wet, homeless, and destitute. And the Federal response is leaving thousands more high and dry.

We have not provided adequate housing for the homeless, health care coverage for the sick, protection for vulnerable children, and unemployment benefits for the jobless.

This bill, in my view, is like throwing a 100-pound sandbag on a ruptured New Orleans levee. There is some relief, but it is totally inadequate.

While suggesting otherwise, this legislation provides almost no real relief to jobless disaster victims, and I must say at this point I feel for the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. McCrery). I think he would like to do better, but the portions on his side are such that this is what we have.

Those who survived the natural disaster in the gulf now face a man-made disaster in the House of Representatives. There are three major problems we are ignoring.

First, over 6,000 people have already exhausted unemployment benefits in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Another 20,000 jobless workers in these States are projected to run out of benefits by Christmas. These workers need a federally funded extension of their benefits while they put their lives back together and search for unemployment.

Secondly, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana have the three lowest levels of average weekly unemployment benefits in the entire country. In all three States, the average benefit is less than $200 a week. That is $800 a month. That is about half the poverty level for a family of four. Such small amounts are difficult to defend during any period of job loss, but these paltry sums we have to remember are unconscionable when a family has lost not only their job but their home, their car, their belongings, the very fabric of their lives; and we give them 40 percent poverty and stand out here as though we are doing something.

The third is that the disaster-affected States are seeing an enormous surge in unemployment claims and bankruptcy claims. In Louisiana alone, new claims for unemployment benefits have surged 10 times above their normal levels, and State officials expect Katrina-related unemployment benefits to exceed $800 million. Now, the money is supposed to come from a State economy that has been devastated by the loss or dislocation of 70,000 businesses, many of which, they estimate less than half of those, are going to go back into business.

Under Louisiana law, once their unemployment trust fund slips below a certain level, benefits are automatically cut for jobless workers and tax increases for employers are triggered into effect. That means that people who get the unemployment benefits in Louisiana can see their benefits being slashed by as much as $37 a week. Remember, they are getting $170 a week. That is the generosity we have already given them, and it started in January. It could easily be cut another $37. That is like Rita hitting after Katrina except that we can control that. We can make it different.

We owe the people of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama a full measure of national compassion.

Instead, in response to these enormous problems, the bill before us simply sends a lump sum of money that forces these hard-hit States to bear another burden. The mayor of New Orleans yesterday laid off 3,000 people. Tell me how that economy is going to come out of it.

What we are sending covers less than half the cost of regular unemployment claims caused by a disaster. There is no money at all for extending expiring benefits or to supplement the meager benefits currently available. Does anybody on this floor really believe this is the best we can do? I know the chairman does not believe that.

Ask the people in the shelters, with no place to call home. Ask Americans on any street corner in any American city. They would be embarrassed all over again if this got on the television.

Perhaps part of the reason this legislation is limited in scope is the sudden demand by the Republican majority to cut spending regardless of the need or consequences.

Fiscal offsets did not concern Republicans when they gave every millionaire a $100,000 tax break or kept charging $215 billion for the Iraq war to future generations. Nobody's talking about offsets there, but we have got to have offsets here. We cannot spend too much on these unemployed people.

But now that it comes time to meet the needs of unemployed Americans, Republicans require that an American get hurt for another American to get help.

Mr. Speaker, President Bush promised that we would do whatever it takes. It takes more than what the President's party has offered today. People in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi are waiting for the President to make good on his promise. People across the country are watching and hoping the President will say something other than, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

It was not so then, and it is not so now in this legislation. We can and should do better.