Waiving Points of Order Against Conference Report on H.R. 2862, Science, State, Justice, Commerce, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006

WAIVING POINTS OF ORDER AGAINST CONFERENCE REPORT ON H.R. 2862, SCIENCE, STATE, JUSTICE, COMMERCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - November 09, 2005)

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Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill fails the tens of thousands of Texans living along the Lower Rio Grande River Valley. It is difficult to fault the conferees for this failure since they approved every dollar requested by President Bush and his Administration for flood prevention, but this Administration appears to have learned absolutely nothing from the Hurricane Katrina disaster when it comes to protecting poor people from being inundated by the failure of defective levees.

Along the Rio Grande River in the Valley, we have some 270 miles of levees and numerous drainage structures and floodways that are meant to protect our citizens from flooding. All of this levee infrastructure, every bit of the levees, is not city, it is not county, it is Federal infrastructure.

The United States Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) is a tiny Federal agency based in El Paso, Texas, and it reports through the Department of State, through Secretary Condoleezza Rice here in Washington, to the President. Its director is appointed by the President. It was originally set up to define and protect the boundary between the United States and Mexico. Now it has responsibility for seeing that the levees under its jurisdiction protect the Valley's growing population, which includes one of the poorest populations in the United States.

Only the Federal Government can change, alter, or improve these levees. The dozens of local governments, the businesses, the homes of tens of thousands of American citizens are all at risk when the Federal administration shirks its responsibility to protect them as this one has done.

In New Orleans, we saw levees breached at a terrible cost, suffered by many, but a cost particularly borne by the poorest citizens of that city.

In the Valley, as in New Orleans, the Federal Government cannot justifiably claim that ``nobody anticipated a breach of the levees,'' as President Bush mistakenly declared on September 1 of this year, in offering his first of many excuses about the Katrina disaster.

In June of 2003, the IBWC itself, the Federal agency in the Bush Administration with the expertise and the sole responsibility for these levees along the Rio Grande, issued its report entitled ``Hydraulic Model of the Rio Grande and Floodways.''

It concluded that a 100-year flood, the type that could be produced by a hurricane with far less punch than Katrina, will result in the levee system being overwhelmed along many river miles at a variety of locations. This is the type of flooding that will shut down the McAllen-Miller International Airport, affect the international trade zone and bridges, and will inundate thousands of homes and businesses, endangering people across the Rio Grande Valley.

Nor do the similarities between the Rio Grande Valley and New Orleans end with the deficient preparation of the infrastructure that this bill fails to address. After Katrina, we learned that positions at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, were filled with political cronies. Less well-known, but equally important, indeed more important to my constituents in Texas, are the findings that were made this year concerning President Bush's appointment of the Commissioner of the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission, who recently departed. His appointee, who had responsibility for these levees and the protection of thousands of Texans, was criticized earlier this year by the General Accountability Office as ``rewarding long-time friends with ranking positions'' and ``provoking a hemorrhage of qualified personnel, personnel who protect against floods, monitor the safety of water, and assure back-up electrical power for Texas.''

Sounds a lot like the great job that Ol' Brownie did. And as the painful footage of Katrina shows, the price to be paid by Americans is grave indeed.

We know that sea levels are rising around the world, and the Gulf of Mexico has entered a cycle of intensified hurricane activity: Katrina, Wilma, Alpha, Beta, so many hurricanes we ran out of names for them. But for the grace of God, had they headed toward the mouth of the Rio Grande River, we would be seeing on the evening news flood victims in Hidalgo, in McAllen and in Mission being rescued. Yet, despite repeated calls for action, the Bush Administration did not add one thin dime to its construction budget in this bill to protect our Valley residents.

This is a chart right out of the IBWC's own report showing by color, 6 feet in purple, 6 feet over the top of the existing levees with a major flood. Five to 6 feet, all this red, 2 to 3 feet over the top of the levees. What is going to happen to the City of Hidalgo? What is going to happen to all the businesses and homes and tens of thousands of people who live in this area if we do not provide an adequate amount of funding to repair the levees?

This bill approves every dime the President asked for, but he is failing the Texas Valley. He is failing to learn the lessons of Katrina and protect the people of the Rio Grande Valley, who live in the poorest statistical metropolitan area, McAllen-Mission, in the entire United States. The Federal Government is failing to meet its responsibility to provide them the security that the people of New Orleans did not have.

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