DeLauro Announces Support for New Haven Katrina Task Force

Statement

DeLauro Announces Support for New Haven Katrina Task Force

Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (Conn.-3) today announced her support for the City of New Haven's Task Force on Hurricane Katrina. Following are her remarks as prepared for delivery.

"Thank you, Mayor DeStefano, for this opportunity and for your leadership and dedication to creating this task force. Whether it is asking 4,000 city government workers to contribute to the relief effort last week, making the city's fire stations drop-off points for supplies or personally calling leaders in the business community to donate services, you have enlisted and mobilized every piece of the New Haven community in the Katrina relief effort - and you have made us proud. You have made us proud at a time when Americans need to feel pride in their government.

"I also want to thank our city's safety officers, Yale-New Haven Hospital, the Yale Child Study Center, and Yale University, as well as the Community Foundation, the New Haven Housing Authority, the Board of Education, and all the private non-profits and for-profits that have come together in this effort. All of you remind us everyday why community is such a treasured value in this city and in America - but never more so than tonight.

"The services we will be providing these 100 families through this task force are an immensely important step toward giving them back some semblance of their lives before Katrina. And by not only putting a roof over these families' heads but also finding them jobs and giving them a place to send their children to school, that is our primary goal. But even more than that, in providing home goods like dishes and cooking ware, Internet access and cell phones to allow them to stay in touch with loved ones, and mental health services to help them cope with this tragedy, New Haven is trying to do its part to restore some dignity to the lives of these families. And we only hope that every city in America undertake a similar effort - if not in scope, at least in spirit and passion.

"Of course, this is but one city's contribution. I think I speak for all of us here when I say there were and remain serious questions regarding the Administration's competence in responding to this tragedy. In particular, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's incoherent response in the days following this disaster was-in a word-unacceptable, and I appreciate every citizen in our community whose sense of civic duty caused them to call and write my office demanding some accountability. We do not yet know how many lives have been lost as a result of that incoherent response, but when Congress reconvenes tomorrow, we will begin the process of getting some answers, I assure you.

"But tonight, we resume another process - the difficult and awesome task of rebuilding these people's lives. Assisting people as they rebuild their lives after this unprecedented natural disaster is a moral responsibility of government - I can think of no plainer way to say it. And so I would hope that the Federal government will do its part in encouraging and supporting municipalities like New Haven who, as you can see tonight, are doing everything they can to do their part. This is FEMA's chance to get this right - and for the sake of man, woman and child whose life has been ravaged by this disaster, I hope they do.

"So, let me again thank all of you for coming together over the course of this last week - for making a difference in these families' lives and letting them know they will not be left alone during these darkest of hours. That is our calling - that is our mission. Thank you and God bless."

Source