Hurricane Katrina Emergency Relief CDBG Flexibility Act of 2005

HURRICANE KATRINA EMERGENCY RELIEF CDBG FLEXIBILITY ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - October 06, 2005)

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Ms. WATERS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, today we stand here in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, considering uses for the community development block grant to address the housing and infrastructure crisis wrought upon us by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. Madam Speaker, it is ironic because it was not more than a few months ago that I stood with my colleagues, opposed to the administration's attempt to block grant CDBG to the States and to move CDBG and 17 other programs to the Commerce Department. I am so pleased that did not happen.

Today, based upon the proven merits of this program, based on the effectiveness and consistency of a statutory mission, based on the need to quickly and effectively provide relief, the administration is now looking to CDBG, and I support that. H.R. 3896 attempts to make two major temporary changes to the community development block grant. H.R. 3896 seeks to weigh the public services cap, which is currently set at 15 percent, and which I support, that is, with a caveat, and H.R. 3896 seeks to waive the requirement for public hearings concerning the use of CDBG funds, and I am concerned about that.

Madam Speaker, at the core of CDBG is its original statutory goal to develop viable urban communities by providing decent housing and suitable living environments and the expansion of economic opportunities, principally for persons of low and moderate income.

When I traveled to Baton Rouge and New Orleans, I toured the devastation, the homelessness and the desperation that had been created by this disaster. This hurricane certainly exacerbated the poverty and lack of education, lack of economic opportunity that has plagued New Orleans and surrounding areas throughout the gulf, specifically the African-American population.

This hurricane has shown a virtual spotlight on problems that are emblematic of inner cities all across this country. I spoke to people about their needs and their hopes for their immediate future. The one thing that was consistent, the one thing that was unchanging, was the determination of people to return home.

Madam Speaker, community development block grant is a proven program that provides critical infrastructure resources, and it is a program that can help Katrina victims in their stated goal of returning home. CDBG is one of the best mechanisms that we can employ to help in the reconstruction of the gulf region, because it puts money in the hands of the community and the city government, and they know what to do with it. Furthermore, it is directed to rebuild critical infrastructure, which is a step or step one in reestablishing community. But, again, that amounts at best to flexibility and at worse a little more than a legislative process, exercise.

H.R. 3896 provides no additional resources to the directly affected areas. Rather, this bill simply creates programmatic waivers which will allow flexibility but not expansion.

Let me just say this: We all agree at this critical moment that CDBG is a great program. Many of us have thought to expand CDBG, because it is such a great program. This program helps large cities, small towns, communities, not only to repair its infrastructure but to provide services that cannot be provided in any other way because there are no other resources to provide these services.

My colleague from Louisiana just identified a number of those services, helping people with down payment, helping with child care, helping with other programs. I would have hoped that we could have expanded this program. We could deal with the identified needs, not only of New Orleans but the other parishes and the surrounding communities and with Mississippi, Gulfport, and Alabama, but because CDBG is proven to be able to help move whole cities and communities from communities and cities where they have disproportionate poverty that they have no resources to deal with.

I am pleased that we have it here today so that we can lift the cap, and they will have a little bit more flexibility. Ladies and gentlemen, I want this to be a lesson for us, a lesson for us all, that we should not only fight to maintain CDBG in HUD and not transfer it out to Department of Commerce, where we would get people who do not know what to do with it, do not know how to administer it and would only mess it up; but that we would expand it so that we would have the resources to deal with housing crises, because this is a great program to deal with housing needs in every city and every town across this country that is eligible for it.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank), our ranking member, to further support CDBG.

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Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to say to my colleague on the opposite side of the aisle, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Baker), that I agree with him that there should be a mechanism by which people who have goods and services to donate to these small towns and these parishes, there should be a way by which they should be able to do that; and I would support such an effort. Because as I traveled throughout my community, in the churches where we talked about this disaster, I had many of the parishioners say to me that they owned land in Louisiana or in Texas and they would like to donate their land for the siting of manufactured housing or even for RVs or something of that nature. They were not sure, but they knew they wanted to put the land to use for the victims of the hurricane. So I think we should find a way by which to do that.

In addition, CDBG is such a good program that I could not help but wonder as I sat here whether or not some of the money that may not be well spent in FEMA should be transferred in some way over to CDBG. Because, again, I wonder about those persons who lost their homes and all of their furnishings and they have no flood insurance. They will receive FEMA assistance of $26,000, some of which will go toward rent, and then it will run out, but the house is still left there, to be rehabilitated if it can be, or to be rebuilt and furnishings need to be purchased, et cetera, et cetera. It seems to me that CDBG would be a wonderful way by which to do rehabbing of housing and reestablishing of housing and homes.

I am just wondering aloud and hopeful that we will all give it some very, very deep thought, about how we can truly be of assistance to these victims long after the FEMA assistance is no longer operative or the Red Cross assistance is no longer operative.

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