Economy & Budget

One year ago, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in New Orleans.  The result was devastating - in terms of property damage, loss of life, and broken spirit.  The hearts of the nation focused on the Gulf Coast, with Congress rushing to send the resources necessary for the relief efforts.  Regrettably, the recovery has been muddled and billions of dollars that should have been helping storm victims rebuild their lives and communities has been lost to waste, fraud, and abuse.

I supported the initial aid package of $10.5 billion to provide immediate assistance to citizens and communities that were reeling from this storm.  I withheld my support from a second aid package of $52 billion because I believed it lacked oversight and accountability necessary to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse.  I supported two subsequent aid packages that included better oversight.  Regrettably, report after report - six independent government reports this year alone - has confirmed that the mechanisms were not in place to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse from diverting funds from the people who needed it the most.

Furthermore, though Congress approved a total of $125 billion for the clean-up and reconstruction of the Gulf Coast communities, after a full year, only a portion of that relief aid has even been spent, leaving this region far from recovered.  A sizeable portion of the aid was used to merely feed the bureaucracy and meet administrative requests.  Most disconcerting is that FEMA has does not have the necessary mechanisms in place for tracking how much money is obligated or actually spent in the relief efforts.  With dozens of Federal agencies involved, each with its own tracking, rules, and timelines, the necessary oversight is nowhere to be seen.  This has been a costly lesson, but I am hopeful that the next time a storm hits our shores we will be better prepared to be meet the needs of the communities and people affected by it.  True compassion means ensuring that the resources we rush to their aid actually reach them.

A year ago today Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast.  It is important that we mark this anniversary with a renewed commitment to rebuild the communities devastated by the costliest disaster to affect our nation. While we have made some progress, much work remains.  President Bush and the Republicans in Congress made many promises to the survivors of Katrina, too many of which remain unfulfilled.

Hurricane Katrina exposed incompetence at the highest levels of our government.  Democrats are concerned that those gaps in leadership and preparedness have not been filled.  We are committed to keeping the promises we made to the Katrina survivors and to fixing the problems that the storm exposed.

This week, I have joined a group of House Democrats visiting the Gulf Coast to stand in solidarity with Katrina survivors.  While I am frustrated by the slow pace of the recovery, I find hope in the optimism and resilience of the Gulf Coast residents with whom we've met.

I believe that our nation has a moral obligation to rebuild Louisiana and Mississippi.  Our wealthy nation must invest the resources necessary to make the Gulf Coast whole again.

I am currently touring New Orleans and the Gulf Coast with a delegation of Democratic lawmakers. What has shocked me one year after Katrina is how little has been done. The problem isn’t more money. Congress has already appropriated $110 billion.  One year later though, less than half of it has actually been spent.

There is a great deal of fraud in the Gulf rebuilding, with the 10 largest contracts going no bid. It is estimated that about $2 billion was lost because of waste fraud and abuse. There are 128 schools in New Orleans and only 56 of them will be open for enrollment this month. There are 10 acute care hospitals in New Orleans, and only three of them are able to receive patients. The largest one, Charity Hospital, took 95 percent of the city’s indigent patients and is still completely closed because it was flooded out and has to be torn down. Clearly, the dollars are not reaching the causes most in need.

The situation in New Orleans and many parts of the Gulf Coast is unacceptable and has got to change. The federal government must get its act in gear and get the money down where it is needed.  Reports of insurance fraud by major companies are especially troubling. Congress needs to hold hearings on the waste, fraud and abuse that is taking place. One year later, it’s a disgrace that so many of these people are still homeless, so many communities have not been rebuilt and so many peoples’ basic needs continue to go unmet.

I’m pleased with the re-opening of beef trade with Japan, but frustrated by reports out of Japan that consumer confidence in U.S. beef is weak. Considering the extensive efforts to lift Japan’s ban on U.S. beef and the importance of the Japanese market to the Nebraska and U.S. beef industry, it’s bothersome that U.S. beef has not even made its way to a majority of retailers and restaurants because many are still cautions about offering the product.

I sent a letter last week to U.S. Dept of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Johanns asking the agency to outline its plan to revive the fledgling Japanese market for U.S. beef. America’s beef producers have already endured enough delays in lifting Japan’s ban. Now that we’ve cleared that hurdle, we shouldn’t experience any more delays on behalf of the USDA’s lack of foresight and planning. According to a recent news report, the last time the ban was lifted the U.S. exported 700 tons of U.S. beef to Japan between Dec. 16, 2005 and Jan. 20, 2006 when trade was first reinstated. Since Japan re-opened its trade once more this month, the U.S. has only exported just over 17 tons of beef between Aug. 7 and 17, 2006.

I know the beef industry and exporters are doing their best to try and regain the confidence of Japanese consumers and I want to ensure that the USDA is also engaged in these efforts. I’d also like to offer my assistance in helping U.S. beef find market acceptance in Japan.

I don’t want to be too ominous, however. Just this week one of Japan’s largest barbeque chains announced it would be receiving its first imports of U.S. beef. I hope to hear more hopeful stories like this in the near future. Now that we’ve jumped the bureaucratic hurdles and resumed trade, we need a plan to reassure Japanese consumers of something I’ve long believed—that U.S. beef is the highest quality and safest beef in the world.

Today we say thanks to our fellow citizens, including many from our district, who contributed financially and played a critical role in the rescue and recovery efforts on the ground during Katrina and its aftermath. However, we must also reflect on what went wrong, so we do not repeat our past mistakes. What we witnessed a year ago was heart wrenching and terrifying; what we have seen in the last year from Washington in the millions wasted on no-bid contracts is inexcusable. The federal government has promised to fix FEMA and to improve emergency planning and preparedness, but where has the oversight been? How much more prepared will America be if another Katrina happens? The people of this district deserve better than ‘FEMA-style’ government. They deserve a new direction in the way Congress handles the critical needs of the American people.

Recently, my campaign began airing a commercial on cable television that notes the disappointing direction Bush Republicans have taken our country in these past few years. The President and his rubber-stamp Republican Congress have failed us in Iraq and in the fight to lower the cost of prescription drugs and gasoline prices. We need common-sense change in Congress, and we need it soon. Watch my commercial and let me know what you think.

This week, House Democrats launched the Waste, Fraud and Abuse Truth Squad. Congressman Henry A. Waxman (D-CA) and I will serve as co-chairs for the Truth Squad and we will be joined by Congressman David Obey (D-WI), Congressman John Tanner (D-TN), Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), and Congressman John Tierney (D-MA).

The Truth Squad will conduct oversight of the Bush Administration’s handling of taxpayer dollars. Under the Bush Administration’s watch, billions of taxpayer's dollars have been squandered, contributing to the largest annual deficits in our nation’s history. Despite documented instances of waste, fraud and abuse, the Republican Congress has failed to provide meaningful oversight or hold the Administration accountable.

To kick start the Truth Squad, we have released a new report on wasteful procurement spending in response to Hurricane Katrina. In the year following Hurricane Katrina, citizens of the Gulf Coast needed government to be at its best. Instead, they got the cronyism, corruption, and incompetence that has been far too commonplace under the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress.

The Republican leaders in Congress and the White House have abdicated their responsibility to manage our nation’s finances. Congress cannot continue to buck its constitutional duty of checks-and-balances. Future generations will have to pay for the money the federal government is borrowing from other countries to spend in Washington.

In my campaign for Congress in New York's 21st district, I hope to bring voter attention to the various ways our government wastes money.

The most striking waste of money is the $200B we spend each year defending Europe, Japan and South Korea. These are wealthy countries who can take care of themselves. We've been doing this for over 50 years (over 60 for Europe and Japan).

Everyone's talking about an exit strategy for Iraq. We need an exit strategy for Europe, Japan and South Korea. Voters responded well to this message in my 2004 campaign, even with minimal campaign spending. Better financed challengers could make a lot of headway with voters if they talk about this issue.

It is time for the United States and the United Nations to call Iran's bluff and impose strict economic sanctions if Iran refuses to meet an August 31 deadline for suspending its nuclear enrichment program. After 11 weeks of delay, Iran formally responded Tuesday to a United Nations incentives package aimed at persuading Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment.  Iranian officials offered what they called a "new formula" to resolve the dispute, but they repeatedly vowed to push ahead with their nuclear program.

I have closely monitored developments in Iran as a member of the International Relations Committee and the ranking member of the Terrorism and Nonproliferation Subcommittee. It is clear that the Iranian government has no intention of suspending enrichment by August 31, as required by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1696.

The Iranian tactic is always to offer a glimmer of hope that some settlement can be achieved, and threaten all kinds of counter-measures if sanctions are imposed.  For the past four years, Iran has played that game.  It is high time the Security Council and other concerned countries call their bluff unless Iran verifiably suspends enrichment efforts.

It is time for the Security Council to ready a package of tough economic sanctions should Iran fail to do anything short of a full suspension by August 31.  It also is time for the Bush administration to start using the tools at its disposal.  It is time for the United States to impose an embargo on all Iranian goods, punish any American companies with subsidiaries operating in Iran, and actually enforce the Iran Libya Sanctions Act by imposing sanctions on foreign firms which invest in Iran's energy sector.

The U.S. should remain ready to negotiate with the Iranian government, and we should be willing to offer improved relations with Iran should Tehran agree to abandon its nuclear weapons program and its support for terrorists.
At this point, however, Iran must be forced to take such discussions seriously.  Right now, it is just a game for them.  We should stop playing.

From the Peppermill Steakhouse in Valentine, NE:

Over the past few days I have traveled across the state of Nebraska visiting with community leaders to discuss ways to enhance our rural communities and preserve our rural way of life.

Yesterday in Ogallala I visited Lake McConaughy for a briefing on drought conditions in the area and water conservation efforts. The drought in Nebraska is in its 6th or 7th year and continues to inflict damage on our agriculture industry. A couple of years ago I named the drought "David" in order to raise awareness that it is a natural disaster, just like a hurricane. Since then Congress has fallen woefully short in addressing the economic losses of the drought. Along with many of my colleagues, I hope that the $4 billion disaster assistance package approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee will be considered and passed by the Senate.

This morning I met with hospital officials in Scottsbluff to discuss Washington's failure to understand rural health care. I have a bill that would prevent damaging new rules on rehabilitational care proposed by CMS from being implemented. If they are, many rural areas will see greatly diminished health care options or may even see their hospitals close their doors. I've often said when it comes to rural life, Washington just doesn't get it. This is a perfect example. Read more...