Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011

Floor Speech

SPEECH OF
HON. LAURA RICHARDSON
OF CALIFORNIA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2011

The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1) making appropriations for the Department of Defense and the other departments and agencies of the Government for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2011, and for other purposes:

Ms. RICHARDSON. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to Sections 1628 through 1634, and 1648 of the bill, which cuts funding to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

I oppose these provisions because they are unwise, irresponsible, and undermine our nation's ability to prepare, respond, or mitigate natural and man-made disasters and terrorist attacks. In short, I oppose the bill because it puts the security of our homeland at risk.

This bill that the Republicans are bringing to the floor today is reckless not only to our economy and American workers, but also to our national security.

The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 revealed the catastrophic consequences of the inability of first responders, fire, police, and rescue personnel to communicate with each other via radio during emergencies.

Communication glitches also occurred during the response to Hurricane Katrina. Yet the Republicans want to terminate grants for interoperable emergency communications. Have we not learned anything from the communications failure during 9/11?

These draconian cuts will put our first responders at risk and slow down the response to terrorist attacks and natural disasters. I cannot in good conscience accept these cuts to interoperable emergency communications.

The irresponsible Republican plan also put our nation's fire fighting ability at risk. I am from California and we know about fires. The bill eliminates the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grant program, (SAFER), which is why it is strongly opposed by the InternationalAssociation of Fire Fighters (IAAF).

The IAAF estimates that these cuts will result in the loss of 5,200 jobs on top of the 5,000 fire fighter jobs lost since 2008. These cuts will put our communities at risk.

The City of Compton in my district is home to an Emergency Operations Center operated by FEMA. My district is also home to several major oil refineries, gas treatment facilities, and petro chemical facilities. California's 37th Congressional District is also home to the Port City of Long Beach and is located on the outskirts of Los Angeles. A centralized emergency response center is vital to my district and the surrounding communities.

This Republican job-destroying continuing resolution seeks to eliminate these Emergency Operations Centers. Not only will the elimination of these centers result in the loss of jobs, they will put my constituents and other Americans across the country at risk. This Emergency Operations Centers are needed to coordinate the necessary resources during an emergency.

I cannot support depriving first responders, firefighters, and police officers of the tools needed to respond to public emergencies, natural or man-made. Why would we want to risk a repeat of the disaster we witnessed in the response to Hurricane Katrina? How are we better off by depriving our first responders the ability to communicate with each other during an emergency? It defies common sense.

Terrorists that are trying to attack our country are modifying their techniques to try to find our nation's vulnerabilities. Unfortunately, the Republican's bill reduces Federal, State, and tribal capabilities to secure our nation against terrorist and other catastrophic threats. This bill also diminishes our ability to protect our borders and significantly scales back our ability to detect chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats.

Mr. Chairman, H.R. 1 continues the Republican avoidance of bringing job creation bills to the floor. Since the Republican's have been in control of the House, they have not brought one job creating bill to the floor. Not one. Worse, the bill before us today will actually kill jobs. Thousands of Americans will lose jobs under this Republican bill. Instead of our keeping our economy moving forward as was the case during the Clinton Administration and during the 111th Congress, this bill will reverse the economic progress we have seen for the last several months.

I urge my colleagues to vote against H.R. 1. Let's work together to ensure our first responders have the tools and resources needed to respond to natural and man-made disasters and terrorist attacks.

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