“It is important that the local residents affected by the hurricane benefit from these huge government contracts,” stated Tubbs Jones. “We owe the people, who have lost everything, nothing less.”

“It is not enough to just throw federal dollars at the region,” stated Kucinich. “We must also provide the opportunity for the people of the region to rebuild their lives and provide for themselves and their families.”

In their letter the Representatives state:

Dear Mr. President,

For the Hurricane-affected regions of Louisiana and Mississippi, the economic devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina is on par with effects of the Great Depression.  Unemployment is on a huge scale.  We ask that you issue an Executive Order requiring all contractor companies receiving federal Hurricane relief dollars to hire local residents of the Hurricane-affected region and pay them a living wage.  

According to the Congressional Budget Office, of the 510,000 private-sector workers in the New Orleans metropolitan statistical area, “the majority will be off payrolls at least through September, with only a gradual rebound.”  Another 113,000 in the Gulfport-Biloxi MSA and 54,000 in the Pascagoula MSA face unemployment caused by the Hurricane’s devastation of workplaces, transportation routes, public utilities and housing.

The House of Representatives has already appropriated over $60 billion for the region, and will surely appropriate more.  But restrictions on the rule governing debate and amendments made it impossible for us to debate an amendment to require contractors receiving federal Hurricane relief dollars to hire locally and pay a living wage.   

During the Great Depression, the federal government put millions of unemployed people to work rebuilding the country’s infrastructure with federal dollars.  The hurricane-demolished region needs a similar emphasis today.   

We ask that you issue an Executive Order to require contractors receiving federal Hurricane relief funds to:

1) hire locally to the greatest extent feasible.  Specifically, contractors for non-construction projects would be required to meet local hiring goal of 50%, and contractors for construction projects would be required to meet a local hiring goal of 25%.

2) pay each employee a wage of no less than $6.55 per hour if that employee is currently being provided health insurance under a health insurance policy maintained by that employer, or no less than $7.75 per hour if that employee is not currently being provided health insurance under a health insurance policy maintain by that employer.

This is an urgent matter.  We ask that you issue this executive order at the same time you sign into law the Hurricane relief funds appropriated by HR 3673.