Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Hurricane Recovery, 2006
EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT FOR DEFENSE, THE GLOBAL WAR ON TERROR, AND HURRICANE RECOVERY, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - March 16, 2006)
I rise in opposition to this amendment which would prohibit FEMA from terminating its hotel and motel emergency sheltering program. This language is overly restrictive. At its peak, FEMA had more than 85,000 hotel rooms rented per night. The current subsidized hotel-room population is 3,780 households with the vast majority being in Louisiana.
FEMA is now in the process of transitioning these remaining hotel/motel residents into more appropriate housing. We do not want families living in motels. We all want to see those families in a better environment, longer term housing solutions such as apartments and the like.
This transition will occur over the coming weeks. To date, over 2,500 have already been matched up against not-yet-ready temporary housing, trailers, apartments and the like. The remainders include hard-to-place individuals, the disabled and people like that; and FEMA will continue to provide hotel/motel assistance to those people until a suitable temporary housing solution is identified and prepared.
Members should be assured that people are not being thrown out in the streets. FEMA is working with families to place them in appropriate housing solutions. This amendment would keep in place a program in the long term that is not good for the recipients or anyone else. So I urge Members to vote against the amendment.
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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Chairman, it is not true that the time is up. Eligible Hurricane Katrina victims with no other housing means may be eligible for 3 months' worth of housing assistance. And the deadline application for individual assistance has been extended until April 11. So I would urge defeat of this amendment.
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