September 16, 2005

Cutting Through Red Tape To Help Katrina’s Victims

By Congressman Joe Pitts

The terror attacks on September 11, 2001 revealed mammoth shortcomings not only in our ability to stop attacks on our soil, but in our ability to respond.  In the weeks and months following the attacks, we put in place agencies and departments tasked with addressing these shortcomings.

The devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina was no less rich in lessons of how we might improve.  But her lessons were more an indictment of the red tape and excessive government spending put in place over decades at all levels of government. 

Whereas 9/11 caused us to centralize security efforts by strengthening federal programs, Katrina should cause us to consider the effects of bureaucracy and the wasteful spending they empower.  Our response to Katrina should be to encourage local first responders and communities to be the first line of defense when crisis strikes.  We can do this by cutting through the red tape that bred hesitancy instead of decisiveness and caused local leaders to look to Washington instead of City Hall in Katrina’s wake.

When the 2001 attacks revealed a need for mobile health units prepared to respond quickly to crises, bringing the latest medical technology to victims of disaster, we invested taxpayer dollars to develop such mobile units to carry state-of-the art medical capabilities to disaster zones on a moment’s notice.  When Hurricane Katrina made landfall, one of these units mobilized to the Gulf Coast.  However, Louisiana health officials stationed the hospital on wheels 70 miles north of New Orleans, preventing it from addressing escalating health problems. 

Also, for no apparent reason, state homeland security officials prevented the Red Cross from trucking in supplies in the immediate aftermath of Katrina despite the agency’s readiness to do so. 

As if that were not enough, churches in Louisiana asked by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to take in victims of the Hurricane were offered no assistance because of the agency’s refusal to work with “uncertified” faith-based groups.  As survivors slept on church floors, FEMA sat on unused cots. 

The chaos and confusion incited by violent gangs and criminals certainly did not help the response, but bureaucracy slowed even the government’s ability to apply force in response to these lawless acts. 

Today, in the wake of the inconceivable devastation in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, we are left with an unprecedented rebuilding effort.  Sadly, our first response to such needs is often endless spending and more programs that add to the red tape that has hurt the relief effort in instances like those cited above.

In fact, as the waters recede in New Orleans we have an opportunity to cut through existing red tape to ensure an efficient rebuilding process.  The Administration has done this by temporarily suspending several federal provisions that would hinder the attempt to rebuild flood-ravaged neighborhoods.

The Davis-Bacon Act was established during the Great Depression.  It mandates antiquated and cumbersome job classifications and ignores the efficient and productive work practices employed today.  The Act requires the Department of Labor to set certain wage levels and suspends construction projects until this information is furnished.  Consequently, the Act delays the start of construction projects in the hurricane ravaged region.   In the end, it simply presents an obstacle: an endless amount of red tape and wasted tax dollars. 

By suspending the Davis-Bacon Act the President has allowed more timely, efficient and effective rebuilding to occur.  The presidential proclamation suspending the act brightens the future for countless Gulf Coast residents eager for work – in an area that desperately needs the work to be done. 

Simply put, absent the suspension of Davis-Bacon, the Gulf Coast's entry-level workers would not have been able to work on projects that they were funding with their own tax dollars. Everyone deserves the opportunity to help put back together their homes, lives, and livelihoods. 

Before we commit ourselves to spending so much money that the rebuilt New Orleans becomes known as the federal city of New Orleans, we should look at how federal regulations force families and small business to rely on Washington instead of on each other in the effort to rebuild their communities.

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