Hurricane Regulatory Relief Act of 2005
HURRICANE REGULATORY RELIEF ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - November 16, 2005)
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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume.
First of all, Mr. Speaker, let me commend the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Jindal) for developing this legislation. I might also note that we were able to work with the majority on several provisions in this bill and were able to make some greatly needed improvements.
As the gentleman from Louisiana pointed out, this bill offers the gulf coast areas much-needed flexibility in the area of No Child Left Behind, Head Start programs, child care, higher education, OSHA and ERISA. This new flexibility will help them begin the long and arduous task of recovery.
States have asked for this flexibility, and it is only right that we provide them with it.
However, we must note that it has been over 2 months since the hurricanes hit the gulf coast area, and for 2 months now, we have ignored the fact that the States who have taken in these students and families have been serving these families with limited resources, and even worse, we have ignored the immediate needs of the education systems directly hit by the storms.
For 2 months now, schools across the Nation have borne the additional responsibility of educating over 370,000 students displaced by the storms.
Almost every State has welcomed students from the gulf coast areas. No one has been turned away. These schools have opened their doors to the 12,000 Louisiana teachers that were displaced.
Unfortunately, States and school districts have also had to bear the additional costs of doing so without any real assistance from the Federal Government.
In the gulf coast areas, school districts are running out of money, unable to pay administrators or teachers.
Over 4,000 teachers have been furloughed from the New Orleans school district alone.
Even worse, for those school districts damaged by the storm, Federal assistance has been slow in coming, although Louisiana alone estimated their immediate need at $2.8 billion.
The shame in all of this is that if this leadership really wanted to do something for these families, they would have reached across the aisle and worked on a bipartisan effort to address the needs of these school districts. Instead, over 2 months now since the storms, these school systems are still waiting.
According to Health and Human Services, 18,000 children attended Head Start in the counties most directly impacted by Hurricane Katrina. More than 700 centers were damaged or closed, and 82 remain closed because of significant physical damage or serious mold problems.
The regulatory waivers in this bill are good, but they ignore the most important need, funding that will get Head Start centers back up and running and funding to help centers in areas like Houston expand their capacity to serve displaced Head Start families.
Two weeks ago, the President requested Congress to appropriate $90 million immediately for helping these Head Start centers, and the Congress has yet to send an additional dime to Head Start centers in the gulf coast.
Community action agencies across the country administer other programs that are essential to low-income Americans, programs like Meals on Wheels, energy assistance, child care, after school programs and workforce programs.
Health and Human Services reports that in the 6 weeks after Hurricane Katrina, community action agencies nationwide have served over 196,000 individuals displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Though the waiver provisions in this bill may help the operations of community action agencies, it continues to ignore the most pressing and obvious need, additional resources for these agencies to meet the increased needs of the communities and individual families affected by the hurricanes.
Child care and child care assistance is critical to any effort to rebuild the gulf coast. Families looking to put their lives back together need a safe and healthy place to leave their child as they seek employment or go to work.
In the counties most affected by the hurricanes, reports are that as many as 90 percent of child care centers and family-based child care have been wiped out.
Waiving regulations will not help families find affordable child care. Additional resources are critically needed and still absent from this Congress.
Over 100,000 students and approximately 30,000 faculty and staff at 30 colleges have been impacted by Hurricane Katrina alone. As a result, hundreds of thousands of gulf coast residents are jobless, homeless and displaced. It will take decades to restore the economic strength to the gulf coast region.
While this bill will help impact the students and borrowers, by echoing provisions in the Gulf Coast Hurricane Student and School Relief Act introduced by the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee) that provide loan deferment and by ensuring that the amount that families are expected to pay towards college for the current term and the next academic year is readjusted, it completely fails to help rebuild the devastated colleges and universities.
Dillard University, Xavier University of Louisiana and Southern University at New Orleans, all historically black colleges and universities, suffered at least $1 billion in flood and fire destruction. Yet this bill provides no assistance to help rebuild the schools, recruit or retain students, faculty and staff.
We share the majority's concern that rebuilding in the hurricane-affected areas occur under safe working conditions.
While we prefer that the Secretary use existing trained OSHA staff and grantees, we agree that volunteers may be used in appropriate circumstances. The majority has agreed that all volunteers will be appropriately trained and will not carry out existing OSHA enforcement activities.
We also understand that hurricane-affected families may need to tap into their 401(k) retirement nest eggs in this time of financial need and crisis. Congress has already passed legislation that the President has signed into law that enables pension plan participants to access their 401(k) moneys.
This provision permits the Secretary to waive department requirements that may conflict with these 401(k) distributions. Again, we hope the Secretary will exercise this authority judiciously and in a way that assists participants without taking away any of their rights under current law.
Mr. Speaker, the provision in this package will offer gulf coast States much-needed flexibility in each of these areas. It is an important first step. However, it is unfortunate that the majority has yet to move forward with a supplemental package to address the critical needs of families and students who have relocated.
In fact, it appears that the leadership is more focused on providing tax breaks to the rich, cutting critical safety net programs, cutting student loan programs and cutting Medicaid than they are on providing assistance to the victims of Katrina.
Instead of getting funds directly to these schools and families that are in dire need, this House leadership wants to slash vital services for working families.
Nearly $9 billion of $11.9 billion in Medicaid cuts fall directly on enrollees. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that most of the Medicaid cuts are achieved by requiring Medicaid enrollees to pay substantially more for the health care they need, including requiring the poorest children for the first time to pay copayments for prescription drugs and emergency room care.
Congressman Miller and Congresswoman Woolsey have introduced a K-12 relief package. Congressman Kildee has introduced several higher education packages. As we move forward with this package of waivers, I hope that we will continue to find other ways to deliver much needed help to the students, schools, and families of the gulf coast region.
Mr. Speaker, let me just once again commend the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Jindal) for not only this package of legislation but also the many efforts that he has put forth since Katrina to try to provide relief to the gulf coast area and especially relief to those individuals who are uprooted, dislocated, and are searching for their way. I commend the gentleman once again and urge that we pass this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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