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Providing for Consideration of H.R. 4939, Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Hurricane Recovery,2006

Date: March 15, 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Defense Government Budget and Spending


PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 4939, EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT FOR DEFENSE, THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR, AND HURRICANE RECOVERY, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - March 15, 2006)

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Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, New Orleans is not the only place where tens of thousands of Americans stand in peril from flooding and drowning because of defective levees. The good people across three congressional districts along the Rio Grande River at the southernmost tip of Texas are just as much at risk with hurricane season only weeks away. That is why I will be offering today an amendment to prevent the next Katrina-like disaster.

We Texans in the Valley must rely on the Federal Government, which has the exclusive, sole responsibility for ensuring the integrity of our levees and protecting our lives and livelihood from flooding. Exactly 1,018 days ago, this Administration received an alarming report from a part of its own State Department that those Federal levees are up to ``9 feet deficient in height,'' geologically flawed, structurally unsound, and would ``overtop along 38 river miles.''

So urgent is the problem that last year the Appropriations Committee asked the Administration to request additional levee money, and I believe the State Department wants to do this, but the President's request is strangely silent on this matter.

Recognizing the risk of loss of lives, the disruption of families, the substantial economic harm that would be caused, 39 local governments, chambers of commerce and economic development corporations have called on this administration to act. So have Congressmen ORTIZ, REYES, HINOJOSA and myself, working together, to seek the $7.8 million requested here which represents the difference between the little bit that was appropriated last year and what the IBWC says it needs to prevent a flooding disaster.

A few million in flood prevention today could save billions of dollars in flood relief. The Federal Government should not shirk its responsibility, its sole responsibility, to protect the lives and livelihood of the good Americans who live and work in the Texas Rio Grande Valley.

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