Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, today I filed two amendments very important to my home State of Florida that I want to discuss. The first is an amendment that would authorize the Central Everglades Planning Project. The Florida Everglades are a national treasure. We have to work together to restore these lands.

The State has experienced a wetter-than-average winter. The rains have elevated the levels of Lake Okeechobee which triggered the Army Corps of Engineers to discharge billions of gallons of water to the east through the St. Lucie River and to the west through the Caloosahatchee River. These discharges have been ongoing for months and have negatively impacted the delicate ecosystem in the area as well as the agricultural and tourism industries.

In order to diminish these discharges, we must authorize the Central Everglades Planning Project. Once complete, this project will allow water to flow south from Lake Okeechobee to Everglades National Park and to Florida Bay.

I had hoped this project would be authorized in 2014 by the administration, but the administration delayed the Army Corps of Engineers' Chief's report, which is the final step before Congress can authorize new projects, but this year we have a real chance to get this done. Thanks to the good work of Chairman Inhofe of the Environment and Public Works Committee, I expect the Central Everglades Planning Project to be included in the forthcoming water bill, which is slated to be marked up in committee next week.

I will not ask for a vote on this amendment today, but I want to draw attention to this essential Everglades restoration project. I am hopeful this body can come together to restore our Everglades, but in the meantime I will continue to push for this vital authorization.

Mr. President, the other amendment I filed today, cosponsored by Senators Shelby, Nelson, and Sessions, also highlights the importance of water management. The issue at hand there involves water that is naturally supposed to flow south, but it has not done so due to the Army Corps' actions in and around the State of Georgia.

The results of this mismanagement have led to a 2013 Department of Commerce fishery disaster. It was declared for oysters in the Apalachicola Bay. During that same year, Senator Nelson and I held a field hearing in Apalachicola, where we heard from local fishermen whose livelihoods and family traditions were injured by the collapse of these fisheries.

While we must continue to explore ways to fish more sustainably, a large part of the fisheries' collapse was the lack of freshwater flows. I have long supported the role Governors play in water allocation when the water in question greatly impacts multiple States. However, absent such an agreement between Governors, water continues to be withheld, and the situation has now become dire in my home State of Florida.

The bottom line is, the status quo is only working for one State. I, along with the senior Senator from Florida and our colleagues from Alabama, have stood lockstep to bring our respective States to the table to finalize water allocations that will take into account our shared goals.

Today we filed an amendment to do just that--to require the Governors to agree on water allocation before the Army Corps of Engineers can reallocate waters between the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin and the Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa River Basin. The amendment also stipulates no funds would be available for reallocation of water within the States if an agreement between the Governors is not finalized. I urge my colleagues to support this commonsense measure. Eureka Gardens

Mr. President, on a different matter, I want to take this moment to applaud the residents of Eureka Garden Apartments in Jacksonville, FL, for coming together as a community during a time of hardship. While they face dangerous living conditions and bureaucratic indifference to their concerns, they have remained united and resilient.

The bottom line is, the Federal Government has failed them. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has for years certified a living facility that has put hundreds of families at risk. When HUD inspected the property in question last summer, they passed the apartment complex, and they passed it with flying colors. Eureka Gardens received an 85 out of 100, but less than a month later, residents were complaining at tenants' association meetings and to their city council members about how bad their living conditions had become.

When my staff visited the complex, what they witnessed was literally unbelievable. They saw crumbling stairs and black mold. They saw exposed electrical wiring that had been covered up by a trash bag. They smelled the natural gas that would soon hospitalize residents just days later.

That was and that is unacceptable. My office, along with Mayor Curry of the city of Jacksonville and the city council and the tenants association, pushed for months to have improvements and repairs done to this complex. In February, HUD finally had a date by which all repairs must be completed.

When they came back to reinspect Eureka Gardens, it passed the inspection, and they eventually renewed their contract with the property's owner, but the residents continued to say what they have been saying all along--HUD's inspections weren't working.

Just recently, HUD revealed that Eureka Gardens passed with a score of 62. The passing score is a 60. However, a senior HUD official admitted that HUD officials do not believe the property would currently pass another inspection. So HUD has just admitted it has certified a failing facility. Something is clearly wrong with the HUD inspection process and Floridians are being hurt because of it.

I would like to read part of an article from the Florida Times-Union, which was published on Monday that quotes one of the residents at Eureka Gardens.

Dwan Wilson, who said she has had to go to the hospital at least six times with asthma issues since the mold remediation, cried as she spoke about her apartments' problems.

``We thank you all for what you're trying to do,'' Wilson said. ``We thank you all for pushing. But we're telling you they aren't doing anything.''

How many more years must the residents of Eureka Gardens suffer under this mismanagement? How many more children have to be put at risk due to lead poisoning and gas leaks? How many more facilities will HUD continue to rubberstamp approval of only to further sell slumlike conditions for the most vulnerable tenants? How many taxpayer dollars will be wasted by this agency on failing projects such as this?

These are the questions HUD must answer. In the meantime, the residents of Eureka Gardens are forced to deal with the consequences of HUD's failures. I will continue to look for solutions to make sure what has happened at Eureka Gardens isn't repeated elsewhere. Americans deserve better from their government.

Senate, Washington, DC, April 18, 2016. Hon. Secretary Julian Castro, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, DC.

Dear Secretary Castro: For over five months, my office has been involved in the investigation of shocking health and safety conditions at Eureka Garden Apartments (Eureka Garden) in Jacksonville, Florida. It is appalling that American taxpayer dollars have been wastefully spent over the years to fund a facility that has repeatedly put hundreds of people and their families at risk. I am writing to highlight these many problems and to ask for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to conduct a thorough review of its inspection process.

As you may know, following reports of code violations at the Westside complex, my Jacksonville staff toured Eureka Garden in early October 2015. They witnessed crumbling stairs disguised with duct-tape and covered with apparent black mold, faulty electric wiring covered with a garbage bag, and a distinguishable natural gas odor being sucked from an outdoor piping system into residents' air-conditioning, among other obvious health and safety issues. HUD confirmed these conditions in an inspection of the property in October 2015, in which physical deficiencies were found in at least 340 of the 400 units. According to HUD's own criteria, almost 50 of those deficiencies represented ``Exigent Health and Safety concerns,'' including mold, water damage, exposed wires, carbon monoxide hazards and leaking gas pipes.

Despite these findings, just three months earlier in July 2015, HUD gave Eureka Garden Apartments an 85 out of 100 score in its Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) inspection. Although many of the problems were witnessed during the summer inspection, HUD representatives defended the passing score to my staff in a meeting last October, saying they did not contribute to the assessment of the property as they are not relevant criteria under HUD's inspection process. Had it not been for the residents calling attention to their dire situation, the facility would not have been reviewed again for another two years.

Your Department recently notified my office that the most recent inspection of Eureka Garden gave the complex a REAC score of 62 out 100, despite the many repairs that have been completed since the last REAC inspection. This discrepancy indicates something is clearly wrong with the REAC scores. Your Department visited Eureka Garden again on March 17th and 18th and witnessed what my staff and the city of Jacksonville has seen all along--Eureka Garden remains in poor condition.

After visiting Eureka Garden most recently, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing wrote in a letter that ``HUD officials do not believe the property would currently pass another REAC inspection.'' However, HUD's protocol has placed enough confidence in the previous inspection that it has renewed GMF's $6 million contract for Eureka Garden. In doing so, HUD has knowingly certified a substandard facility because of a faulty inspection process.

Your Department is ultimately responsible as the steward of the taxpayer funding that supports this property. Therefore, to address these concerns, I respectfully request a timely response to the following questions:

With conditions at Eureka Garden going unidentified for so long, what does HUD plan to do about reforming its inspection process to identify problems earlier and to ensure passing grades are not given to failing properties?

Will HUD explore a broader reform of inspection that expands the role of and resources available for state and local partners to regularly check the status of HUD-certified facilities to ensure greater accountability?

Does the Department plan a re-inspection of the complex?

During this difficult time, I am proud of the Eureka Garden community for standing up and coming together on behalf of their vulnerable neighbors. This community has demonstrated great strength by collectively voicing their concerns and showing resiliency in the face of bureaucratic indifference and property mismanagement. It is time they are given the respect and quality of life they so deserve after waiting far too long for critical improvements to be made at Eureka Garden.

Thank you for your attention to this matter and continued work on this issue. I look forward to your prompt response. Sincerely, Marco Rubio, U.S. Senator.

Calling for the Release of Raif Badawi and Waleed Abulkhair

Mr. President, one last item I want to discuss today, and I think it is appropriate, given where the President finds himself at this moment in Saudi Arabia. It is regarding a letter I sent earlier this week, along with Senators Durbin, Risch, Leahy, and Johnson to President Obama asking him to raise human rights issues during his meetings in Saudi Arabia--in particular, the case of Raif Badawi and his lawyer Waleed Abulkhair. Raif Badawi is a Saudi blogger. He was arrested in 2012 on the charge of insulting Islam and indicted on several charges, including apostasy. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes.

In January of 2015, Raif received his first set of 50 lashes in public. This resulted in an international outcry. Raif's subsequent lashes have been postponed. They have been postponed on health grounds. They have been postponed because just the first 50 lashes were so brutal, there were doubts whether he would survive 50 more, but he continues to serve his sentence in prison.

Last week I met with Raif's wife to discuss his case. Raif and his lawyer should be immediately and unconditionally released. While I deeply value and think it is a very important alliance between the United States and Saudi Arabia, this alliance cannot allow our country to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses. I hope we will take up this cause.

Senate, Washington, DC, April 19, 2016. Hon. Barack Obama, The President, The White House Washington, DC.

Dear Mr. President: As you prepare for your upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia, we are writing to express concern regarding the Government of Saudi Arabia's continued treatment of human rights advocates, particularly the documented prosecutions of non-violent activists who are engaging in freedom of expression. Intolerance for freedom of speech and the imposition of travel bans and lengthy prison terms for peaceful dissidents harm Saudi Arabia's reputation internationally and stifle Saudi innovation and creativity. We are concerned that unless you make these issues a priority during your trip, human rights abuses will continue to occur with impunity and the full potential of the U.S.-Saudi relationship will continue to be impeded.

Specifically, we request you raise the case of blogger Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail and 1,000 lashes for launching a website that suggested a peaceful discussion about religion. Mr. Badawi endured a first round of 50 lashes in January of 2015 but the remainder of his lashes has been postponed due to his health condition. During his unjust imprisonment, Mr. Badawi has been a recipient of prestigious international awards such as the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. We are also concerned for the case of Mr. Badawi's lawyer, prominent human rights activist Waleed Abu al-Khair, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Additionally, we are concerned about the 2014 travel ban placed on Mr. Badawi's sister Samar Badawi, for her activism defending human rights. In 2012, Ms. Badawi received the U.S. State Department's International Women of Courage Award. In recent months, Ms. Badawi has been called in for questioning by security forces on several occasions and is subject to ongoing harassment.

In your meeting with King Salman, we urge you to advocate for the immediate and unconditional release of Raif Badawi and Waleed Abu al-Khair. Additionally, we urge you to request that Ms. Badawi's travel ban be lifted and ensure that she is not harassed further for her work. This is an important time for Saudi Arabia to play a leadership role in the region and the world by setting an example of religious tolerance and civility.

We value the United States and Saudi Arabia close partnership and support efforts to find common approaches to addressing such critical issues as combating terrorism. However, true partners need to be able to have a frank dialogue about disagreements and areas of concern in our relationship. It is thus essential that the United States does not turn a blind eye to Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses. Sincerely, Marco Rubio. James E. Risch. Ron Johnson. Richard J. Durbin. Patrick Leahy.

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