Bobby Jindal

Mr. JINDAL

Mr. JINDAL. I thank the chairman and the ranking member for their support.

Mr. JINDAL. I thank the gentleman, and I want to thank the chairman and the ranking member for their work on this amendment. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. JINDAL

Mr. JINDAL. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. JINDAL. It is in title III, page 34.

Mr. JINDAL. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. JINDAL. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. JINDAL. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment to enhance the real- time capabilities assessments. The events of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita highlighted serious flaws and deficiencies in our national response plan, the National Incident Management System, and State and local regional responses that were caused by a lack of valid, real-time data related to resident capabilities. For example, one Texas community had an overflow of special needs residents that were using dance studios, abandoned shopping centers even though it was determined later there were over 10,000 special needs beds available within 100 miles. The city of New Orleans had an emergency excavation plan, but it couldn't be executed as written because assumed capabilities not functional and prior coordination of assets were not implemented. Response plans called for the utilization of National Guard troops even though at the time of Hurricane Katrina one of the designated units was deployed to Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of hours were spent on phone calls and e-mails to obtain real-time capability information, finding suitable replacements or options, or to redirecting assets from locations with excess capabilities to those with critical needs. The underlying bill takes important steps to build upon the existing Department of Homeland Security requirements to build a national assessment and reporting system by September 30, 2006. The intent of my amendment is to further direct the Department to develop a system that verifies and validates in real-time what qualified assets are available in order to meet emergent or anticipated events, even when the information supplied is coming from disparate or incompatible databases. These technologies are already being used by the Department of Defense and should be applied toward DHS preparedness goals.

Mr. JINDAL. I yield to the gentleman from Kentucky.

Mr. JINDAL. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment to reduce FEMA waste, fraud, and abuse. In the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, FEMA provided $2,000 in individual and household program payments to affected households. Individuals could apply for disaster assistance using the Internet or telephone. As of mid-December, such payments totaled $5.4 billion with almost half of that, $2.3 billion, in the form of expedited assistance. According to Social Security Administration data, FEMA made millions of dollars in payments to thousands of registrants who submitted false Social Security numbers. According to a GAO study, 165 of 248 sampled registrations contained false Social Security numbers, and 80 of 200 alleged disaster addresses were false. This amendment says that FEMA should implement a fully tested process that can provide real-time access to data required to validate identities and addresses for those seeking disaster assistance. While FEMA has taken certain steps to curtail waste, fraud and abuse within its program, more needs to be done. The intent of my amendment is to direct FEMA to implement an identity verification system that assures disaster assistance payments are made only to qualified individuals. In a statement I will submit for the Record, I have some specific criteria that will be used. The intent of my amendment is to allocate $1 million to FEMA to implement an identity verification system that assures disaster assistance payments are made only to qualified individuals. Specifically by (1) establishing detailed criteria for registration and provide clear instructions to registrants on the identification information required, (2) creating a field within registration that asks registrants to provide their name exactly as it appears on their Social Security Card in order to prevent name and social security mismatches, (3) fully field testing the identity verification process prior to implementation, (4) ensuring that call center employees give real-time feedback to registrants on whether their identities have been validated, and (5) establishing a process that uses alternative means of identity verification to expeditiously handle legitimate applicants that are rejected by identity verification controls. I want to thank the chairman and ranking member for their work on this bill and their consideration of my amendment.

Mr. JINDAL. I yield to the gentleman from Kentucky.

Mr. JINDAL

Mr. JINDAL. Mr. Speaker, recently more than 1,200 students from across the country participated in the national finals competition of We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution. This is one of the most extensive educational programs in the country developed specifically to educate young men and women about the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. The program is administered by the Center for Civic Education and funded by the U.S. Department of Education. It is my distinct pleasure to announce the competition's Unit 5 Award winner: Grace King High School from Metairie, LA. The national finals are an arduous 3-day academic competition that simulates a congressional hearing in which the students testify before a panel of judges on constitutional topics. Students from many schools demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of constitutional principles as they evaluate, take, and defend positions on relevant historical and contemporary issues. This year's winner, Grace King High School, is an educational institution known for high standards of academic achievement that has produced many talented students. The winners of this competition have proven through their hard work and meticulous study of our Constitution that they are no exception. Mr. Speaker, the names of these outstanding students from Grace King High School are as follows: Aaron Baer-Harsha, Patrick Berrigan, Jaime Bruno, Lily Chen, Caitlyn Clarke, Paulius Donauskas, Janice Fan, Rebecca Felix, Jeremy Finnegan, Alice Ho, Tony Huang, Thomas Lambert, Krysten Le, Donald Leverson, Ali Mahbod, Elise Murphy-Mejia, Jacob O'Neil, Sean Olsen, Veronica Oro, Anna Plaksiy, Rachelle Ross, Olivia Saito, Sara Sands, and Murielle Telio. I also wish to commend Jamie Staub, the teacher who was responsible for preparing the student class for the national finals competition. Also worthy of special recognition is John Alexander, the State coordinator, who is among those responsible for implementing the program in my district. Mr. Speaker and my colleagues in the House, please join me in congratulating these young constitutional experts from Louisiana for their outstanding achievement.

Mr. JINDAL

Mr. JINDAL. Mr. Chairman, I, too, want to thank Chairman Hunter, the staff and members of the committee for their very good work on this bill. I rise to offer an amendment. The National Guard and active duty military troops and assets deployed since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita constituted one of the Nation's largest domestic deployments of military assets since the Civil War. The National Guard and active duty military response saved lives, provided urgent food, water, shelter and medical care to many hurricane victims. The deployment of National Guard forces before active duty troops is consistent with current U.S. Department of Defense strategy for homeland defense and civil support, which relies on the National Guard in the first instance for civil support. However, in the wake of these particular hurricanes, Federal and State officials lacked coordination and consideration of requests for National Guard and active duty troop deployments. Local, State and Federal offices had differing perceptions of the number of Federal troops that would be arriving and the appropriate command structure for all troops, causing confusion and diverting attention from response activities. This amendment requires the Secretary of Defense, in coordination with the Secretary of Homeland Security and State governments, to develop detailed operational plans regarding the use of Armed Forces to support activities of civil authorities in response to a catastrophic disaster. The amendment works to significantly strengthen the response options to hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, pandemic, and other natural disasters. My amendment is consistent with the findings and recommendations from both the Select Bipartisan Committee to Investigate the Preparation for Response to Hurricane Katrina and the report from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, and it builds upon provisions in the base bill, which require DOD to maintain real-time capability assessments of responsibilities under the National Response Plan.

Mr. JINDAL

Mr. JINDAL. Mr. Speaker, whereas, the historical record of the United States, as acknowledged by the highest court in our land, reveals a clear and unmistakable pattern woven throughout our Nation's history; America was founded upon the principles and truths revealed in the Holy Scriptures; and Whereas, as a Nation with a Judeo-Christian heritage, prayer has been and remains an essential element of our national conduct as we seek divine direction and blessing; and Whereas, our Nation's leaders, beginning with our first president, George Washington, to our current president, George W. Bush, have called upon Americans to individually and corporately pray for and seek God's divine blessing upon our Nation in both times of peace and in times of conflict; and Whereas, in times of great crisis we have been prompted by officially proclaimed days of prayer to ask for God's guidance; and Whereas, Holy Scripture instructs in 1 Samuel 2:30 to give God honor; and Whereas, in 2006, on the 54th Anniversary of the National Day of Prayer, America once again finds herself in the midst of danger and uncertainty making it essential that we as a people seek God's direction through prayer so that our world might enjoy peace. Now Therefore, I encourage all of the citizens of Louisiana to participate in honoring God by seeking His blessing both upon our State and our Nation.

Mr. JINDAL

Mr. JINDAL. Mr. Speaker, the Nation's energy prices continue to rise. Families and businesses are feeling the pinch. We are paying the price for decades of extra taxes, poor energy policy, curtailed exploration and a lack of new refineries. The Nation needs to take a new approach to our energy problems. We need to break our dependency on foreign sources of oil, which leaves us at the mercy of foreign powers. To do that, we should increase domestic energy production. My bill, H.R. 4761, gives States control over the waters off their shores and encourages them to increase energy exploration by giving them a share of the revenues generated. We should increase our development of alternative fuels, taking advantage of renewable resources, like using corn and sugar to produce ethanol or soybeans to produce biodiesel. Finally, we should help developing nations like China and India curb their exponentially increasing consumption of oil and natural gas, which is driving world prices higher. India, in particular, is looking to develop nuclear power for domestic, commercial use, and we should work with them. This is a good deal for both countries. India develops its own self-sustaining nuclear power sources, which will limit their need for oil and natural gas. We get a reduction in the demand for world energy, lowering prices in the process. Clearly, the energy problems facing us are too big to use yesterday's thinking.

Mr. JINDAL

Mr. JINDAL. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. JINDAL. Mr. Chairman, in the days and weeks after first Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, it became very clear that the lack of communications was one of the biggest obstacles to a rapid recovery and a rapid rescue effort in the face of these awful disasters. The purpose of the amendment that I offer today is to use $2 million for the Department of Defense's Technical Support Working Group to deploy in hurricane-affected States existing technology that provides wireless, interoperable, mobile, encrypted broadband communications for first responders, National Guard, Federal response personnel in the case of future disasters or in the case of the temporary absence of communications. FEMA has already been tasked with identifying and providing existing commercially available capabilities in time to provide responders with this capability before the next hurricane season begins. The capability exists and needs to be rapidly deployed. The purpose for my amendment is to use $2 million for the working group to deploy in these areas existing technology. Federal, State, and local law enforcement and first responder agencies were limited in their ability to respond to Hurricane Katrina because they couldn't communicate. The House Select Committee on Katrina identified this as a key failure at all levels. The Select Committee's recommendation states in part that the Department of Homeland Security should establish and maintain a deployable communications capability to quickly gain and retain situational awareness when responding to catastrophic incidents. My amendment takes a step in the right direction and, importantly, does so before the next hurricane season, which starts June 1. We must provide responders with the capability to talk across agencies, within their agency when customary communications systems like phones are disrupted or destroyed. This is not, obviously, a cure-all approach to solve our Nation's interoperable problems; but it is one solution that provides a stopgap system that allows responders to talk to each other using their existing hardware from mobile or fixed locations when existing systems aren't available. FEMA has already been tasked with this responsibility before the next hurricane season. The capability exists and needs to be rapidly deployed. This amendment does not require additional Federal dollars. It simply provides $2 million and directs the Department of Defense and its technical support working group to work with FEMA using funds Congress has already planned to provide FEMA to identify and deploy the capability. From a personal perspective, I can state, being on the ground in the days and weeks after Katrina and Rita, this was one of the biggest gaps in our Federal, State and local response, the inability to have interoperable communications.

Mr. JINDAL. I yield to the gentleman from Florida.

Mr. JINDAL. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. JINDAL. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. JINDAL. Mr. Chairman, I intend to offer and withdraw this amendment. The purpose of my amendment is to restore the administration's request to rebuild New Orleans' VA Medical Center. I do intend to withdraw this amendment pursuant to a colloquy with my colleagues. I want to, first of all, state the rationale for my amendment in the first place. The VA Medical Center suffered significant damage after the hurricane. It is a 354-bed acute care facility. It provides health care to more than 220,000 veterans who live in a 23-parish region served by this medical center. It is absolutely critical to get this hospital rebuilt as quickly as possible to continue serving these thousands of veterans, our men and women who have served us so proudly in uniform. Ironically, it was not the hurricane that did the majority of damage to the VA center. Instead, the facility actually initially weathered the hurricane with minimal damage. However, the breach of the levees days later flooded the entire area around the medical center. Let me correct myself, I am sorry, Mr. Chairman. It was the breach of the levees, not days later, it was the breach of the levees caused by the failure of design and construction. It was the breach of the levees that flooded the entire area around the medical center, the facility's first floor basement and sub-basement. Those floors housed the facility's major electrical, mechanical and dietetics equipment. Of the 1,819 VA employees in New Orleans, 40 percent lost their homes. Despite this destruction, despite the obstacles, the VA was one of the few bright lights to shine through the devastation that hit the region. Advanced planning, a well-known electronic medical system helped to ensure that VA could coordinate and move thousands of staff and patients to facilities across the United States without a single loss of life attributed to the lack of medical attention. In addition, VA staff members volunteered thousands of hours of their time to assist veterans and other citizens in the affected communities to ensure that the aftermath of this storm and the response could go as smoothly as possible. Right now, the current situation is that thousands of veterans are being forced to drive a long distance or do without the health care they need. The President initially requested over $600 million to rebuild the medical center in addition to the previous $75 million that was included in the December supplemental for planning and land acquisition. This is an important facility for the VA. I also want to commend the VA for working together with LSU, which operates the city's Charity Hospital. They have announced an intent to try to work together to construct a shared facility, so the new hospital would have the economies of scale, for example, sharing potentially laundries and other facilities with the State hospital that will also need to be rehabilitated, maybe even rebuilt before it reopens. It is crucial to restore this funding; it is crucial that we get this hospital open as quickly as possible. I do intend to yield to one of my colleagues. It is my understanding in working with the committee, that they will work with me to ensure that the VA does have the funds they need to reopen this facility in its entirety. I think there was some discussion about the adequacy of the funds, and there was some analysis of how much funds would actually be needed to reopen this facility. I yield to the gentleman from New York.

Mr. JINDAL. I want to thank my colleague and thank the committee. With this agreement, I am willing to withdraw this amendment. My understanding was there was some confusion in the initial estimates about the actual cost of constructing a parking garage that might have caused an inflated estimate. I do thank my colleagues for being willing to work with me to make sure this facility is reconstructed as quickly as possible so the veterans can get the health care they deserve. I thank my colleagues. I thank the Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw my amendment.

Mr. JINDAL. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. JINDAL. Mr. Chairman, I again intend to offer and then withdraw this amendment pursuant to a colloquy with my colleagues. The purpose of this amendment, but before I do that, I want to explain the rationale and importance of this amendment. I have offered an amendment to provide funding requested in the amount of $142 million to allow the reconstruction of the National Guard facilities in New Orleans, Louisiana. Replacement of these facilities are absolutely critical for the function of the Louisiana Army National Guard. Hurricane Katrina severely damaged these facilities, so that they must be replaced. These units are now currently in temporary interim facilities and have less than half the required training area and storage facilities. These makeshift facilities are overcrowded and disjointed in terms of the capacities they offer. Proper facilities need to be constructed immediately to prevent further deterioration of the equipment. On August 29, 2005, the Jackson Barracks, in particular, suffered massive flooding from Hurricane Katrina. Several weeks later, after the floodwaters had subsided from the hurricane, the readiness centers were again flooded from Hurricane Rita. Together these two hurricanes caused extreme catastrophic damage to the readiness centers that housed the Joint Force Headquarters and the 1/141 Field Artillery Battalion. Portions of each facility were completely destroyed, suffering from building collapses, collapses as a result of the storm's wind, rains and floodwaters. The damage inflicted upon the readiness center and all other facilities on the Jackson Barracks has rendered them completely useless. The 512 soldiers of the Field Artillery Battalion and the 216 soldiers of the Joint Forces Headquarters are now operating out of small corner spaces in numerous buildings spread across the State of Louisiana until interim facilities can be provided for these units affected by these hurricanes. These interim facilities should be ready for use in a few short months. However, they will be nothing close to what is authorized or required to provide for mission ready combat units of the United States Army. The Field Artillery Battalion will have less than a quarter of its authorized square feet required for unit training assemblies and a readiness center for a unit of its size. This is the space needed to provide the facilities needed for the unit to meet its wartime training requirements. The unit will share this space with another unit as well. Not only will it have a quarter of the space, it will be sharing the space with another unit. This heavily cramped facility, though, we are grateful for this in the aftermath of the storm, will hardly satisfy the long- term mission capability for the two units. Over time, readiness levels to meet training requirements, retention and recruiting will all suffer greatly. Moreover space required to store unit equipment is insufficient. These same issues have also plagued the Joint Force Headquarters. The post-hurricane plan for the Joint Force Headquarters has resulted in splitting the headquarters into several locations. This strategy is important for recovery of the State. However, facilities for the operation of the headquarters are not available to consolidate the organization at each location. These long-term operations will not be acceptable as this will result in critical management issues for the Joint Headquarters mission providing command and control to the Louisiana National Guard. This will result in poor oversight provided by the headquarters which could significantly affect the readiness for the National Guard. My amendment seeks to restore the administration's request to rebuild these facilities in New Orleans. Replacement of these facilities should be provided to sustain the readiness posture of the Louisiana Army National Guard. Hurricane Katrina has severely damaged the facilities and these facilities must be replaced, and certainly, we need to send a signal to the Guard that we want to help them increase their readiness even before next hurricane season. Many of my colleagues have done me the honor and privilege of coming to my state on CODELs to see the damage. Many of you have landed at Jackson Barracks and been accompanied by Louisiana Army National Guard members on your tours. Many of you have seen the heroic footage of what they did in the aftermath of the storm to rescue people out of the water. Many of you are very aware of their extreme sacrifice serving us overseas in Iraq. Mr. Chairman, I want to enter into a colloquy with my colleagues. My understanding is the committee will work with me once information is provided from the Louisiana Army National Guard to make sure that these facilities are indeed rebuilt and repaired.

Mr. JINDAL. I yield to the gentleman from New York.

Mr. JINDAL. I want to thank the gentleman and my colleagues. Based on their commitment to work with me to make sure we do provide the funding to rebuild the facilities, my understanding is there are some questions that need to be answered and some additional information that needs to be obtained, but once that information is obtained, that we are confident we can do that before conference. Based on that, I will seek unanimous consent to withdraw my amendment. Before I do that, I want to thank my colleagues on the committee for working with me on each of my three amendments. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw my amendment.