Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, listening to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan), I am thinking about all of the reasons I ran for Congress, and I decided that public service was a career choice for me, and that is because I want to make the world a better place. We all do. Certainly the three of us do. Our colleagues do. The vast majority of the Members here want to do that. It leaves such a bad taste. What has happened over the last several months and what came down today with one of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, what came down a few weeks ago with another colleague on the other side of the aisle, the whole thing swirling around with Mr. Abramoff and the lobbyist, and we even had a gangland murder connected with that in my district in Hollywood, Florida, it is so pervasive, it is so disturbing, it gives me deep concern that people end up thinking that we are all just like those individuals who have strayed. We have got to make sure that we can restore some confidence, we can go back to why we all ran in the first place and move this country in the right direction again. You have got cronies and phonies that are infiltrating the government. The culture of corruption that has become so pervasive here, not just in this body but at the executive level as well, it is worst than startling.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I do not know where to start here, I have so many things swirling through my head. The both of you have been here a couple of terms now, but I just got here. I am a freshman. I have been here all of 10 months. In January, like you did, but for me it was my first time so it was perhaps a little bit more sacred and special, because you know how it is when you do it your first time, you hold up your hand and swear to uphold the Constitution; and when you are doing that, you swear to uphold the integrity of this institution. We have all served in legislative bodies. The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) served in Ohio, and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) and I served in the House and Senate in Florida. One of the things that the staff who have been around a long time, one of the things they impress upon new members, they stress how critical it is that we uphold the integrity of the institution, that the perception of the institution, that each of us as individuals, we impact the perception in America of the American people's view of the U.S. House of Representatives. Now there is a pall cast over this House. There is a pall cast over this House because it feels like almost every month since I have been here, there is another Member of this body being accused of something. I recall 11 years ago, in fact, it was 11 years ago Monday, that the Republican Contract With America was issued in 1994. Part of that contract, from my recollection, had to do with the integrity of this House and how the Republican leadership talked then about how they were going to, and they were very sanctimonious about it, they were going to restore integrity to this institution and inspire confidence in the American people. My constituents have a pretty significant difference in the way they define integrity. My kids are watching tonight. The 6-year-olds are awake, and they are watching and I have to go home and explain to them why this man is all over the news; and, Mommy, what did he do? I have to have that conversation, as do parents across this country, every other week. The reason that is important is not just because we want to uphold the impression and integrity of this institution, let us bring it home here. It exemplifies why we need an independent commission. If there are Members' ethics called into question, how are the American people going to be able to expect and get an independent, objective investigation of what went wrong? The example that the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) just used is a good one. It would be like, to use the example of Enron executives saying Mr. Prosecutor, you do not have to do the investigation about what went wrong at Enron, our CEO and our executive board will take care of that; or Tyco. Now we are doing that in this very House of Representatives, people who have been accused of wrongdoing, for whatever reason, not related to Hurricane Katrina, but we have got to make sure that this institution's integrity is upheld and maintained. While you have people who are in the midst of their own personal situation, it is inappropriate, on top of the fact it was inappropriate to start with, to have a partisan select committee investigate the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, now it is underscored even more so because there are people's integrity called into question in this Chamber. We need to make sure that we can restore the American people's confidence in the direction that this country is going, in the job we are doing here, and without an independent investigation of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we are not going to be able to do that. I am hopeful in the coming years, I will be able to talk to my kids and tell them this is an institution in which they should be proud that their mom is serving and there are people who are serving in it who have the highest values.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Madam Speaker, the thought occurs to me that people might be wondering why this even matters. I mean, so many times I talk to people and they say to me it is just the way politics is. They are going to reward their friends. They get into power and they are going to reward their friends, and that is just the way politics is. And what I have to say to them, what we are trying to say to them, is that this culture of corruption is pervasive. The culture of corruption is pervasive. It would disturb me deeply if it was just Members of Congress and we could say, there are some bad apples where people have gone astray and that is all it is. But it goes so much deeper than that with this administration, with the leadership on the other side. This is how deep it goes: We have got cronyism and corruption that runs all the way up the ladder. I will just outline for you what I am talking about. Let us look at the appointments that have been made. As recently has come to light, Mr. Brown was totally unqualified to be the director of FEMA.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Madam Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Brownie's previous experience was being head of the Arabian Horse Association. I saw him attempt to defend himself at the hearing the other day, and he outlined his vast array of experience being the assistant to a city manager, essentially a glorified intern. But, to me, I just feel like there needs to be a couple more lines on the resume when it comes to the man who directs the response of the Federal Government to natural disasters. Let us take if it was just the Congress or just Michael Brown heading up FEMA where the cronyism stopped. Then I could say, you know, occasionally that is going to happen. But let us look at the gentleman who was appointed as the Deputy Commissioner for Medical and Scientific Affairs at the Food and Drug Administration. The Food and Drug Administration is charged with assuring the safety of everything from new vaccines and dietary supplements to animal feed and hair dye. They are the one that approve medicines and say whether medication can go on the market. So Mr. Scott Gottlieb was named the Deputy Commissioner, and he was 33-years-old. This is the 30-something Group, so we are not going to be critical of that. But this is a person who got his medical degree at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and his previous experience prior to taking this job at FDA, and they declared him a ``noted authority'' who had written ``more than 300 policy and medical articles,'' his biography neglects the fact that many of those articles that he wrote criticized the FDA for being too slow to approve new drugs and too quick to issue warning letters when it suspects one already on the market might be unsafe. I think if you asked the family members and people whose loved ones died from taking Vioxx and some of the other inhibitors that people have had horrendous reactions and even deaths from because some of these drugs have been raced to the market too quickly before they have been fully vetted by the FDA, I think they might take issue with the fact that the person in charge of that is slightly less than qualified. His previous experience before that was to be the editor of a popular Wall Street newsletter, the Forbes-Gottlieb Medical Technology Investor, in which he offered such tips as ``three biotech stocks to buy now.'' This is the deputy commissioner of the FDA in charge of medical and scientific affairs. If it was just the FDA, if we were going to stop there and it did not go further than that, I might be able to write it off. But then let us go travel over to another agency. We have another agency, the Office of Management and Budget, in which an ex-lobbyist with minimal purchasing experience was overseeing $300 billion in spending, until his arrest last week. The person who was in charge of procurement for the Office of Management and Budget was responsible for $300 billion in spending until he got arrested. So you can see where we go. You peel back layer after layer after layer. So we are not casting aspersions randomly here. We are not just being partisan. There is a culture of corruption that is pervasive, and, my god, we have an opportunity in the next 13 months to take our message to the American people and help tell them that we are going to come and restore their confidence; that we have got competence and we have got integrity and we know how to make sure we can expand access to health care. Our priorities are straight. We know that the Federal Government can do something about gas prices, and not just have the President stand behind a podium and say, ``You know, if you don't have to drive, please don't.'' That is their conservation policy. So before I go further than I should, I am going to turn it over to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan).

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 1, rule I, I demand a vote on agreeing to the Speaker's approval of the Journal.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I, like many Americans, am watching and praying that Hurricane Rita does not cause the same level of death and destruction as past Category 4 and 5 hurricanes like Andrew and Katrina. Watching the death and destruction wrought by Katrina was truly heart-wrenching. What was even more unnerving was watching as many desperate victims stranded on their rooftops and surrounded by rising flood waters wrote makeshift signs begging for help. All they wanted was to be rescued and to have access to food and water. Those images have been stamped into the hearts and minds of Americans and people all over the world, and we must remind the administration that we will never forget. How pretentious of our government to assume that everyone in the gulf coast region had the means to pick up at a moment's notice and hop in their cars and get on the highway towards safety. We must be aware of the ramifications of poverty in America and recognize that it is a real condition that many Americans face each and every day. We cannot turn a blind aye to those trapped in a dismal socio- economic predicament that this administration's tax cuts for the wealthy and cuts in social programs have only exacerbated. Obviously, an investigation into the slow response by FEMA is warranted, an accurate, unbiased, independent investigation, not one that will be led by the President's own domestic security advisor or a partisan committee that was formed here in this Congress. Does that make you feel confident that the inquiry into this administration's performance in response to Katrina will be fair and accurate? Only a fool would allow the very people who botched the rescue efforts to be the ones to go back and determine what went wrong, what went right, and what lessons we have learned from this tragedy. People have died because of the inaction by their government. That much we certainly know is true. Now we must move forward with an investigation that is independent and one with subpoena power so that we can avoid the mistakes of Katrina. People have died, and we need to find out why. I know that if we do an investigation in name only, then people will die again, and they will continue to lack confidence in their government's ability to help them in their time of need. People will die in Florida. People will die in Texas. People will die in States throughout the hurricane region if we do not learn from the lessons of Katrina and ensure that our failures are not repeated. I also want to remind people that people in Florida were victims of Hurricane Katrina as well. Hurricane Katrina's first victim was Florida as it struck Broward and Miami-Dade counties as a Category 1 storm on August 25, leaving hundreds of damaged or destroyed homes and nearly 11,000 individuals seeking assistance. These are the people that FEMA has decided do not need help. This woman here is standing in water up to her knees. Her cars are damaged. They are late model cars, not fancy ones; and they are the result of Hurricane Katrina hitting Florida. This is representative of what FEMA has denied individual assistance and denied help to. FEMA's response to this woman and to the woman standing among the remains of her house is that ``you are on your own.'' What was FEMA's response to all the families in Florida's requests for help? It is the same as it was to the people in New Orleans who died the first days that Katrina struck here: ``you are on your own.'' Last night we learned that Florida's appeal to FEMA to help our victims of Katrina in Florida was denied once again. My question for FEMA is, hurricanes do not know State boundaries, so why does FEMA? Florida has been hit by six hurricanes over the past year and a half. Six. It is a constant plague that the residents of Florida deal with every single year, and the denial of aid to those in need is irresponsible and unconscionable. I introduced legislation this month that calls on FEMA to provide the much-needed assets to the residents of Florida who are victims of Katrina. And I plead with my colleagues in Congress, do not turn your backs on the first victims of Katrina. Help those in need regardless of State line.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, you know, it certainly does not have to be that way. It certainly was not that way when the shoe was on the other foot, because some people listening might feel, well, you know, this is just the way Congress does it. Congress is a partisan body, it is a political body; and you know when one side is in charge, they run the show. They run these investigations, and that is just the way it is. Well, in this situation, you have got a Republican Congress investigating a Republican administration. And let us go back to the Reagan years when you had the Iran-Contra scandal. Then you had a committee set up within the Congress, which was a Democratic Congress investigating a Republican administration, so obviously there was some inherently built-in accountability in that situation. And when it came to the way that committee was appointed and developed, even internally within the Congress there was mutual agreement on both sides of the aisle that it was done in a bipartisan fashion. And I will quote then-Representative Dick Cheney from Wyoming who is now our Vice President. He said, because he was one of the key sponsors of the committee of the legislation that created the Iran- Contra Committee, he said at that time, ``I must say the majority has been exceedingly fair in the proceedings. The leadership of both parties has worked in a truly bipartisan fashion to create this committee,'' referring to the Iraq-Contra Committee. Well, it is really unfortunate that when the shoe is on the other foot and they have the opportunity to do the right thing and work in a bipartisan fashion, that they are choosing not to. And it is certainly within their discretion. It is within their choice, and they are just wiping their hands and refusing to do it. I know the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) is pulling over our 30- something board, and we want to let people know how they can get in touch with us, and we want and we urge their feedback. We want to hear from people.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I want to piggyback on what he is saying here because not only do the American people want an independent review so that their confidence can be restored. They want their representatives in Congress to be statespeople. They want us to step up and put partisanship aside. My colleagues are veterans of this process, and I have been here 9, almost 10 months now, and the thing that has been the most startling to me is how partisan it is here. It does not need to be this way. I know. I have spoken to some Members even today, some Members who are leaders on the Republican side who I know if we came around the table and sat down and hashed out how we could best approach the review of what happened with Katrina and the response and our lack of preparedness, I know we could work it out. But the leadership here does not allow that to happen. It is all about winning. It is all about ``our way or the highway.'' And Americans are sick of ``our way or the highway'' politics. They just want us to get it done and do the right thing. And I just do not understand why it has to be about winning, it has to be about we are going to protect our backsides, we are going to make sure that the truth really does not come out. God forbid if we actually admit that we made a mistake. That is just irresponsible. And to me the most devastating thing, besides the loss of life and the children, the little babies that we see being held by people who are not their mothers, because their parents are gone and no one knows where they are, the thing that is most devastating to me is knowing that there are millions of people in this country who do not believe in us anymore, who do not believe in this process. Look at the polling numbers on Congress and how Americans feel about the job we are doing. Our constituents might like us as individuals, and that is only some of us; but as a body, as an institution, we have lost their faith. And we have lost their faith because all we do is throw up our elbows and duke it out and fight to the finish. They want us to do our jobs and do right by them, and that means putting aside winning, and making sure that we can come together as Americans, like we did after 9/11, like I saw Congress do after 9/11 when we were all linking arms and working together. Maybe Katrina, because it only happened to one region of the country, was not a unifying enough event. But if there is ever a time. We just had Rita hit Florida. It is bearing down as a category 5 on Texas now. I mean, clearly no one is immune from this in this country, and it is time that we exercise some leadership. And I think we should ask our leadership, especially the leadership running this Congress, to say to themselves, it is not all about me. That is what the American people want us to do. I just wonder whether they have the courage and the nerve to do it. It certainly does not seem that way.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. They do not make mistakes.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) speaks the truth. There is no question about it. Now we are hearing on CNN, and we have to hear it on CNN, unfortunately, that the Republican leadership plans to go forward with their partisan committee to investigate Hurricane Katrina. Rightfully so, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) has refused to appoint Democratic Members, and everyone I have spoken to in our Democratic Caucus, if asked to serve by the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert), we will stand our ground and insist on there being an independent commission. The example we have been using here on this floor is would the American public be comfortable if Enron executives examined and investigated what went wrong in their corporation and their corporate scandals? How about Tyco? You would never accept those kinds of internal reviews as being accountable, objective, or independent. If Congress is going to truly inspire the confidence again of the American people, which is what we so desperately need to do when it comes to our emergency preparedness procedures, it is to not engage in partisan infighting and backside-covering, because that is what they are doing here with insisting on having a partisan internal congressional committee instead of an independent, objective 9/11-style commission. It is confidence that we need to restore because it is the issue of security that Americans most want to feel comfortable that their government is taking care of. That was supposedly why the President was reelected last year. One of the reasons many people cited was because they felt he would keep them safer, this administration would be more likely, supposedly, to keep them safer. I bet a lot of those people are scratching their heads wondering why they cast that vote and where is the action to back up the words that the administration campaigned on all of last year.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Too much to talk about.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, the way I want to conclude for us, or my portion of the conclusion, is to reiterate that at the end of the day we have plans. If we were in charge, we would be moving to ensure that we got health care to the people who are victims of Katrina. We would be making sure that we helped get them some economic security. We would make sure that there was some accountability in the process of the doling out of contracts for the clean-up and the construction. We would be making sure that education was of primary and paramount concern. We would be initiating an agenda to assist people and restore confidence in the emergency preparedness and disaster response procedures in America. Because Katrina was not the first hurricane that bore down on our country; and as we have Rita churning in the gulf as a Category 5, we know she is not going to be the last. And, you know, I think we should conclude by praying for the people who are going to be experiencing Rita in the next few days and sending them our best wishes and urging them to heed the warnings that your emergency managers are going to be sending out to you. So I look forward to joining you again as we do each week, and now, you know, in double session, because we have so much to talk about and let people know what is going on here in the Congress.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, in the last few minutes, and if the gentleman from Florida wants to go over this, I would be happy to yield to him. We have on our side of the aisle a series of proposals, an action plan that Leader Pelosi has put forward related to housing and economic security and health care that we are going to be talking about over the next several months, because it is not all about complaining. It is not all about we do not like what they are doing. We have a series of proposals that we want to see happen to ensure that people can move their lives forward. We have to make sure that these people have health care. We have to make sure that they have roofs over their heads. We have to make sure that they have access to jobs and job training. We have to make sure their kids have a place to go to school and that the communities where these kids go to school can actually make sure they have room for them, like our community. The people coming down to south Florida, we are exploding in our public schools. We could barely take on another kid who is moving to south Florida voluntarily. So we have plans, and we are going to make sure that those plans are outlined and that we pursue them and that the American people understand that we are going to be there for them when they need us.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, let us make the meat on that bone turkey, and let us talk turkey now, because beyond the partisan commission and beyond what we are saying, which is that there should be an independent commission so that we can truly get to the bottom of this, let us go a step further, because there are other things going on in Congress related to the reaction to Katrina. We know that for the next several years we will have what will be a massive public works effort to rebuild the Gulf States, which we will be behind wholeheartedly, because there but for the grace of God go we, and we would want our colleagues to do the same and be supportive if it happened in our State. Our colleagues were very supportive of Floridians when we faced Andrew down and the follow-up to Andrew. But there are going to be some serious needs that will need to be met. How is the Republican leadership talking about responding to those needs? Well, let us go through it. First, they are talking about keeping the tax cuts in place: Let us not touch the tax cuts, because wealthy people, they need them. It is really important. So those are off the table, those are off limits. On top of that, they are saying, you know, we got some concern occasionally about the deficit, so the right-wingers on the other side of the aisle are saying that, you know, the cost of rebuilding the Gulf States is going to be prohibitive, and we want to preserve wealthy people's tax cuts while we are rebuilding the Gulf Coast States, so we need to look to some more spending cuts. And where are they talking about those spending cuts being from? Well, they are starting off with delaying the prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients, for senior citizens who can barely make ends meet, for senior citizens who have to choose between medicine and meals, for people who literally live, bottom line, day to day. Then, they are also talking about cutting transportation projects, thousands and thousands of transportation projects, billions of dollars. Now, who did Katrina hurt the most? The poor people, the people who are poverty stricken, 100,000 of them at least, who could not get out of New Orleans and who had to go to the Superdome to be able to find refuge. So how, when we are trying to find them jobs, are we going to get them to those jobs if we cut transportation projects, if we do not have mass transit assistance? That is how poor people get to work. Where is the heart? Where is the trust? There is no heart in this leadership, no caring, no feeling. It is all about them. It is, you know, we got ours and the people that support us, we gave them theirs, and we are going to make sure they keep it, and everybody else be damned. That is what these people are all about. When it comes down to it, over the next 14 months, as we go through a discussion with the American people about the choices that they will have, it is going to be about trust. Who do you trust to take care of you? Who do you trust to be there for you in your time of need, to protect you when you are in potential danger, and to be there for you when it is time to clean up and help you move your life forward?

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. It would be funny if it were not so sad.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Madam Speaker, I too rise to reflect on the life and contributions of Simon Wiesenthal who passed away 2 days ago at the age of 96. Simon Wiesenthal is known by many to be the ``conscience of the Holocaust,'' for after the atrocities ended, he spent his entire life researching and locating former Nazis to bring them to justice. Throughout the course of the Holocaust, Simon Wiesenthal and his wife lost a total of 89 family members. American soldiers liberated him from the Mauthausen concentration camp in 1945. He was barely alive, weighing less than 100 pounds. As a prisoner in 12 concentration camps, Simon Wiesenthal memorized the names of his perpetrators and later he embarked on his mission to bring them to justice. He created the Jewish Documentation Center to assemble evidence for trial. His most famous cases included the capture of Adolf Eichmann, the man who supervised the implementation of the ``Final Solution.'' Wiesenthal also helped locate the Gestapo officer who arrested Anne Frank. In total, he helped trace some 1,100 Nazis. In a conversation with a former concentration camp inmate, Wiesenthal explained, when we come to the other world and meet the millions of Jews who died in the camps and they ask us, What have you done, there will be many answers. But I will say, we did not forget you. Now it is our turn to say to Mr. Wiesenthal, we will not forget you. We will honor his life and his work by continuing to bring perpetrators to justice and continuing to fight intolerance and anti-Semitism wherever it exists.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Sorry.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. We do not ask them.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. I am sorry, we are all just champing at the bit tonight, but including in a region where the plight of over 100,000 people after the hurricane was the result of their poverty. So now we are going to go in, and the second proposal for spending cuts as opposed to rolling back the tax cuts is to repeal or eliminate or delay massive transportation funding, particularly in communities where mass transit is necessary and the only way poor people can get to work is using mass transit. So they are victims of a natural disaster; and now, a few months later, we will make them victims of a congressional disaster.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. That is right.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, it is, once again. This is a regular weekly event for us, and it is an important thing we do. And I really enjoy spending the time with you on the floor and with our colleague from Ohio just trying to talk to folks in our generation. So often when I talk to friends of mine and neighbors and colleagues in the 30-something range, they sort of tell me, they scratch their heads and wonder, you know, most of the stuff you all talk about in Congress has no impact on my life. They really think, because what they are doing is they wake up in the morning. They get their kids ready for school. They get themselves ready for work. They get in their car in their garage. They drive out of their garage. They go to work. They pick up their kids, they come home and park the car in the garage again and start it all over the next day. And when you are living that kind of life, trying to balance work and family, trying to in many cases live paycheck to paycheck, it is very difficult to listen to the debate on this floor and understand how the things we do affect their lives. But if there is anything that we could do to show our generation how government impacts their lives and can significantly alter their lives or through inaction how it can alter their lives, it is the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Because we have so many glaring examples of what went wrong, of what should have happened and did not, and how hundreds of thousands of people's lives have now been turned upside down. And normally, I think people that are in our generation look at, and quite honestly, older and younger than our generation look at the victims of Hurricane Katrina or of any tragedy which is a natural human thing to do and say to themselves, you know, that is not me. That is them. That would never happen to me. I do not live in a community where that could happen. But the gross underpreparation and disregard for the potential for a Katrina to happen, I mean, substitute any potential disaster in my region of the country and there but for the grace of God. We have got to take the next step and help not just our generation but all Americans understand what should happen for these Katrina victims now. They need housing. They do not need a lot of talk. Of course, they need sympathy and empathy. They need emotional assistance, but they need housing. They need roofs over their head. They need economic security. They need to know how it is they are going to get a job again, where are they going to get a job again. How are they going to get their home loans resolved? I was reading an extensive article today how you have banks that were in those gulf coast States that the bank was blown out, the properties that they lent money on are gone, the people are gone. So what happens to the transaction? How do they get the money back? What is Congress going to do to try to help put all that back together and sew it all back together? Then there is health care. We have to make sure that these people can go to the doctor and get well. Some of them were not well to start with. Some of them were the picture of health and no longer are. Finally, we have got to make sure that these kids, these thousands and thousands of displaced kids, get back to school somewhere and that the communities that they are going to end up going to school in, we are from south Florida. An influx of children the size of which came out of the gulf coast States is not a depth that our community could absorb. We are already in an overcrowded situation in our public schools, and so are many communities. So we need to make sure that the leadership in this Congress understands that those are the kinds of tangible things that we need to talk about and stop moving forward with an investigation that is basically turning inward on itself. We need the independent commission. Objective observers, experts, people who can be trusted because it is trust that we need to restore so that when this, God forbid, happens again, and, unfortunately, we know nature will cause yet another problem like this to occur, that we have the accountability in place to know it will not happen. And a partisan committee set up by the Congress with a majority of one party serving on it, whether it is our party or the Republican Party, is not the appropriate way to handle this.

Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. It would be like if Enron executives or Tyco executives suggested that they would do the investigation on what went wrong with their two companies themselves, the corporate executives.