The Congressional Connector:
The Week of
September 6-9, 2005
Congress Approves Emergency Funding for Hurricane Relief
On September 8, Congress approved an emergency funding measure containing
$51.8 billion to provide for critical response and recovery needs associated
with Hurricane Katrina. The vast majority of this funding will go to support
relief and cleanup activities by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
To date, the House and Senate have provided a total of $61.8 billion to help
address this unprecedented disaster. The House approved this legislation on
a vote of 410 to 11. Speaking in support of the measure, Rep. Levin said:
“Let me speak candidly. The response of the federal government to Hurricane
Katrina was woefully inadequate. Four years after 9-11, the federal
government was not ready to respond to a national catastrophe that has left
a major American city uninhabitable. In the weeks and months ahead, we need
an investigation of why the federal government’s response fell so far short
of the mark, and we need accountability. One thing is already clear: the
federal agency with lead responsibility for responding to national disasters
– FEMA – has lost its way since it was transferred to the Department of
Homeland Security. This is simply not the same agency that responded so
effectively to the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Since being transferred to
the Department of Homeland Security in 2001, FEMA’s ability to respond to
natural disasters has been eroded.”
Lawmakers Introduce Legislation to Remove FEMA from the Department of
Homeland Security
In 2001, following the attacks of 9-11, the Bush Administration and Congress
consolidated the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and 21 other
governmental agencies into the newly created Department of Homeland
Security. Since then, FEMA has been underfunded, mismanaged, and mired in
red tape and bureaucracy, as was evident in the agency’s slow and
disorganized response to Hurricane Katrina. To correct this situation, Rep.
John Dingell introduced legislation this week to re-establish FEMA as a
separate, independent agency whose Director reports directly to the
President. The bill also requires that the Director of FEMA be an emergency
management professional. Rep. Levin and 64 other House members have
cosponsored this legislation.
Members of Congress Call for Probe of Gas Price Fixing
With gas prices skyrocketing throughout the country, a group of 95 House
Members called for Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and U.S. Department of
Justice (DOJ) investigations into price fixing by the oil industry. In a
letter to Attorney General Gonzales and FTC Chairwoman Deborah Majoras, the
lawmakers wrote: “Although supply disruptions and refinery shutdowns from
the hurricane have certainly added to the gasoline price mayhem, we believe
it is only part of the picture, and as such we are requesting an immediate
investigation into other possible wrong-doing by industries that are making
record profits at the expense of average American families.”
Rep. Levin Addresses Hearing on Johanna’s Law
On September 7, the House Government Reform Committee held a hearing on
Johanna’s Law, legislation Rep. Levin first introduced in 2003. The bill,
which is named after Johanna Silver Gordon, a Huntington Woods public school
teacher who died of ovarian cancer in 2000, would launch a new federal
effort to educate women and health professionals about the early warning
signs of gynecologic cancers. Because cancers like cervical, ovarian, and
uterine cancer are highly treatable in early stages and often deadly in late
stages, early detection is the key to saving women’s lives. The current
version of the legislation, H.R. 1245, has 219 House cosponsors and was
recently introduced in the Senate by Senators Specter and Harkin.
Congressman Levin attended the Government Reform Committee hearing and
introduced Sheryl Silver, Johanna’s sister, who spoke about her sister’s
battle with cancer and the need for federal legislation to help address
ovarian cancer.
Lawmakers Introduce Measure to Restore Roadless Area Protections
On July 28, bipartisan legislation was introduced in the House to restore
protections to roadless areas in America’s national forests. Earlier this
year, the Bush Administration repealed the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
Signed by President Clinton in early 2001, the Roadless Rule limited
logging, road building, drilling and mining on more than 58 million acres of
our nation’s most pristine forest lands. Repeal of the Roadless Rule puts
these untouched and unspoiled places at risk from development. In response,
Rep. Levin and 142 other members of the House of Representatives have
cosponsored the National Forest Roadless Area Conservation Act. This
legislation would reinstate and codify the protections to the roadless areas
that were designated in the widely popular Roadless Rule.
