| One Year of A New Direction Congress
Thursday, November 1, 2007
 Printable Format
At an event on Thursday, November 1, marking the one-year anniversary of the New Direction Congress, Majority Whip Clyburn highlighted the work the 110th Congress has done to help the Gulf Coast Recover. He invited Dr. Norman C. Francis, President of Xavier University and Chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority to talk about this issue. Below are their remarks.
CLYBURN: Good morning.
I'm Jim Clyburn and I'm pleased and honored to represent the 6th Congressional District of South Carolina and serve as the Whip of the 110th Congress.
(APPLAUSE) One of the most distinctive ways that we defined our new majority and the meaning of New Direction was our response to our brothers and sisters along the Gulf Coast.
CLYBURN: All of America watched while Mother Nature devastated an entire region and our government failed to adequately respond.
That could have been any one of our neighborhoods. It could have been a fire -- wildfire in California, an earthquake. It could have been a tornado. Or it could have been a hurricane along South Carolina's coast.
That could have been any one of our backyards.
And when such a thing happens, we look to people -- not just our government, but to people. And it's people like Dr. Norman C. Francis who heard the call of his neighbors and rose to the challenge of helping his fellow citizens along the Gulf Coast recover and rebuild.
Dr. Francis has been recognized for his great service as chair of the Louisiana Recovery Authority with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
(APPLAUSE)
I would like to thank Dr. Francis for his friendship and, most of all, for his dedication to this country and to his friends and neighbors along the Gulf Coast.
Dr. Norman Francis.
(APPLAUSE)
FRANCIS: Thank you very much, Mr. Clyburn.
Hurricane Katrina left New Orleans, 80 percent of it, under water, when the federal levees failed us. Katrina destroyed communities across the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
FRANCIS: And then, less than a month later, Hurricane Rita devastated our southwest coastline, literally wiping out small towns in both Louisiana and Texas.
This was the worst catastrophe, not just disaster, in American history. And it left us facing the greatest challenge of rebuilding since Reconstruction.
Our recovery is both a sprint and a marathon. We must keep working fast to bring our families home. We must stay the course to rebuild our churches, our schools, our colleges, our hospitals, our businesses, our neighborhoods.
To the Speaker, Pelosi, to the Whip, Clyburn, to Mr. Hoyer, and all the House leaders, let me say thank you for all the victims of hurricanes, both Katrina and Rita. You have delivered on your promise, and you have truly created a new partnership for the Gulf Coast.
You visited us in August of 2005. You found out what we needed. And when you assumed the leadership of Congress, you took action. The result was a $6.4 billion Gulf Coast recovery package that was signed in May.
You waived the requirement that our devastated local governments must pay 10 percent in matching funds for FEMA cleanup and construction costs to rebuild our communities. That saved local governments in Louisiana alone $1 billion.
But probably as important, waiving this requirement cut the federal red tape in half, because it meant we didn't have to use block grant funds to pay our matching.
Now, the 20,000 construction projects that are under way to rebuild police and fire stations, schools, roads, and water and sewage systems in Louisiana can proceed with only one set of federal rules, not two.
And I don't think you understand that when you try to work with federal red tape.
The Gulf Coast recovery package also included $1.3 billion to complete key levee protection and flood control projects in Louisiana and Mississippi, so that our citizens will be better protected for future storms.
You've included millions more for social services, crime prevention, education and housing tax credits.
And, Madam Speaker and Whip Clyburn, you came back this summer, back in August, to see our progress. And you asked us, "What else needs to be done?"
Grateful for your commitment to help us fully fund our Road Home Project. By doing what you said you would do, by staying the course, by being partners in recovery, you have given us, the resilient people of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, the hope we need to fight another day.
FRANCIS: And you've given us the confidence we need to be able to say to the public -- to the American public that the Congress of the United States and their representatives in Washington believe in us. You believe in our future. You believe in American cities and in places we all call home.
Because of your help, the Gulf Coast will be rebuilt -- will be rebuilt better, safer, stronger than it ever was.
We thank you very much.
|
