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U.S.
Senator Member of the Agriculture, Energy and Veterans Affairs
Committees |
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For Immediate
Release September 7, 2005 |
CONTACT: Cody Wertz – Press Secretary 202-228-3630 Jen Clanahan – Deputy Press Secretary 303-455-7600 |
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| SALAZAR CALLS
FOR “MARSHALL-LIKE” PLAN FOR GULF STATES
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Ken Salazar called on the Senate and the Administration to create a “Marshall-like” Reconstruction Plan for the Gulf Coast. In a floor speech given today Senator Salazar outlined the steps the Federal Government must take in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
“The basic function of the federal government is to respond to national disasters such as Katrina which has devastated 90,000 square miles of America,” said Salazar. “We can and must do that in three critical ways:
(1) Immediately provide
humanitarian assistance; “A ‘Marshall-like’ plan should include the creation of a small and effective Cabinet Member-Chaired Task Force with state and local participation and a singular focus on this challenge. That task force should:
In addition, Senator Salazar recommended:
Senator Salazar repeated his request to the President that he seek the resignation of Michael Brown, the FEMA Director, and replace him with a leader that has the experience and expertise to meet the challenges of the greatest natural disaster in our country’s history. Senator Salazar’s full floor speech, as prepared, is included below:
Senator Ken Salazar
Mr. President, I rise in strong support of the amendments offered by Senator Lincoln to ensure that the victims of this terrible hurricane have access to the health care their situation demands. This is the least we can do, and I urge my senators to support the amendment. I was moved to hear the words of Senator Landrieu earlier today, Mr. President. She has been a tireless warrior for her state throughout this battle, and I commend her for her work. To her and to Senators Lott, Cochran, Vitter, Sessions and Shelby I simply say that we should do everything in our power as a United States Senate to help the victims of this terrible storm and to help rebuild your states. Let me say, too, that I am proud of Coloradans and their response to this disaster. In the ten days since that devastating storm, people of our state have stepped up to help the victims on the Gulf Coast. Experts from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention laboratory in Fort Collins will be dispatched to the region soon . Disease trackers from Fort Collins likely will be sent to the Gulf Coast to help contain the spread of West Nile virus and other mosquito- borne illnesses in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. U.S. Northern Command at Peterson Air Force Base, which is charged with defending against military attacks within the borders, is now charged with mobilizing military resources for the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The U.S. Northern Command's Joint Operations Center in Colorado Springs has nearly 1,000 people on 24-hour duty to facilitate Federal Emergency Management Agency requests. Nearly 800 Colorado National Guardsmen and women are deployed to the region. Churches in the Denver and elsewhere are mobilizing to help with relief efforts, whether that means collecting donations, physically traveling to the devastated communities or taking in displaced refugees. The University of Colorado has started a "streamlined admissions" process for students temporarily displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Colorado State University has taken similar steps. The American Red Cross Mile High Chapter, which houses the nation's second-largest disaster response phone operation and which, for a time, was handling one-third of the calls pouring into the Red Cross national headquarters in Washington, D.C. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, more than 800 Coloradans have volunteered to receive training and field phone calls to take donations for the Red Cross. When my wife, daughter and I visited the Denver operation last week and helped man the phones, I could not have been more proud of our state and its people. 32 members of the Colorado Task Force 1 Urban Search and Rescue have been deployed to the region. The task force is composed of members from more than a dozen metro-area fire departments as well as civilian volunteers including doctors, support medical staff, search dogs and handlers. Colorado is expecting to accommodate more than 1,000 Katrina evacuees. Former Lowry Air Force Base in Aurora alone expects to house 400-600 evacuees, who have been arriving gradually over the course of this week. As of Wednesday, Sept. 7, approximately 370 evacuees had arrived in the area. Meanwhile, dozens of students have already enrolled in state schools. Frontier and United Airlines sent chartered jets to pick up evacuees while residents of Park County got into their cars to drive to Texas to pick up evacuees, offering them in many cases not just a ride, but shelter in their homes as well. I remember Sunday, August 28 very well. The country held its collective breath as we awaited landfall of Hurricane Katrina. In my faith we celebrate Feast Days of saints, symbols of the kinds of lives Catholics aspire to lead. Sunday, August 28 was the Feast Day of Saint Augustine, an intellectual giant in our Church who became so only after battling great challenges in his own personal life. Augustine had an important piece of advice for all of us. He said, "Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you." One look at the devastation on the Gulf Coast -- the destruction wrought in Biloxi, Mississippi, the obliteration of towns all along the Mississippi Coast, and the suffering in New Orleans that none of us could have imagined would ever occur in the United States of America -- and we cannot help but feel that the reconstruction of that wonderful part of our country depends on supernatural power. But to see the suffering on the faces of our fellow countrymen, women and children, and you cannot feel anything but ready to work as if the end of their suffering depends on our work. In point of fact, Mr. President, those suffering people do depend on us to end their suffering. And we owe it to them to work as though everything depends on us, and I submit, Mr. President, that a basic function of the federal government is to respond to national disasters such as Katrina which has devastated 90,000 square miles of America. We can and must do that in three critical ways: (1) immediate humanitarian assistance; (2) a Marshall-like plan to reconstruct the Gulf Coast region; and (3) learning lessons from the Katrina disaster so we can better protect America in the future. First, by providing immediate humanitarian aid and assistance to the victims of this terrible disaster. Last week, Congress provided FEMA $10.5 billion in emergency funding. Today we will provide another $51.8 billion. Passing these appropriations will help the victims of Hurricane Katrina and it is right that we have taken these steps. At the same time, the Federal Government can and should do more. That is why I commend Senators Reid and Landrieu for introducing the Katrina Emergency Relief Plan earlier today. I am proud to cosponsor it, and I urge my colleagues to join us in immediately passing this much needed relief for the victims. The people of our great Nation have the right to expect and deserve the best emergency and disaster response services in the world. It is the responsibility of the Federal Government to protect its citizens and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina much more needs to be done to live up to that responsibility. The Katrina Emergency Relief Plan is the right first step. I will also continue to press for additional immediate relief, including:
Secondly, by creating a “MARSHALL PLAN” for reconstruction of the Gulf Coast. From Jazz to William Faulkner, these affected states have given much to this country and its history. As such, I cannot imagine that anyone would consider not investing the resources necessary to rebuild this vital part of our great country. We owe it to our fellow countrymen on the Gulf Coast. That will require a recovery and reconstruction effort on the scale of the Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe after World War II. Not unlike post-World War II Europe, the Gulf States now are facing unprecedented damages which require immediate action. Entire towns in Mississippi were destroyed and it will take months to make New Orleans habitable again. Such a plan should include the creation of a small and effective Cabinet Member-Chaired Task Force with state and local participation and a singular focus on this challenge. That task force should:
In addition, I recommend: Getting our hands around the pain at the pump created by the record high gas prices, and the impact they are having on our country, including our consumers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses. A first step in that effort is for the Department of Justice to provide assistance, both technical and financial, to state Attorneys General to fight price gouging and contractor fraud; Freeze any requirements for small businesses and farmers affected by Katrina to service Small Business Administration (SBA) and USDA loans or any other federal government provided loans until the affected area is reconstructed; and Provide tax credits to business, developers and home owners who rebuild or build in the Hurricane Katrina-affected area. And if we are to have a “Marshall Plan,” we will need a leader of the caliber of General George C. Marshall. That is why I repeat today my request to the President that he seek the resignation of Michael Brown, the FEMA Director, and replace him with a leader that has the experience and expertise to meet the challenges of the greatest natural disaster in our country’s history. Thirdly, Mr. President, we must expeditiously determine what happened in response to this disaster and how we should reform FEMA and our federal agencies to ensure that this slow response does not happen again. I have already joined my colleagues in calling for an independent commission to investigate the federal response to Hurricane Katrina aftermath and how we can be better prepared for future cataclysmic events. This effort was especially helpful, and well received, in the wake of the terrible 9/11 terrorist attacks and can and will be helpful in dramatically improving our future abilities to respond to such disasters. What we do not need, Mr. President, is a partisan investigation that produces pre-determined results. Remember the history of the 9-11 Commission – the most bipartisan and successful Commission in a long, long time. It was only against the backdrop of opposition from the White House and after months of calls from the families of the victims of 9-11 that the Commission was created – and, once created, that commission faced hurdle after hurdle from the White House. I hope we can avoid that partisan wrangling this time round – and get a commission that gets right to work on this important effort. I will also propose legislation to improve training for evacuation and relocation in reaction to natural or man made disasters. We often cannot predict when natural disasters will strike but we must begin preparations for future incidents without any further delay. I hope, too, that the Conferees on the Homeland Security will keep in that Conference Report my amendment to require a national survey of first responders. I recently conducted such a survey of Colorado’s first responders and was astonished at how unprepared our first responders feel. Given what we have seen in the last 10 days – where the Federal Government’s response plan has, without question, failed – we need to hear directly from the police, firefighters and others how we can improve our response. These are the things that we can and should be doing in the United States Senate, and I hope we soon do. None of these things can get done on the expeditious timeline they need to be done if we choose partisanship over security. It is long past time for meetings where the majority plots a strategy behind closed doors to respond to this national crisis as if it were just another political debate. It is time to get to work together, on this floor, to do work of which we can all be proud. In closing, Mr. President, I am reminded of another saying by Saint Augustine. "What does love look like?" he asked. "It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like." The victims of this terrible tragedy love this country, but their country has let them down. It is now time for this Senate, this Congress, to get to work to rectify that. We are this great country's hands, and we can do more to help those victims. We are this great country's feet, and we can do more to carry assistance to those victims. We are this great country's eyes, and we must see what they are suffering through. And we are this great country's ears, and we cannot turn a deaf ear to the pleas any longer. We can do better, Mr. President, and I look forward to working with all of my colleagues to ensure that we do. I thank the President and I yield the floor.
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