Making Appropriations for Science, the Departments of State, Justice, and Commerce, and Related Agencies for Fiscal Year 2006-- Continued
MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR SCIENCE, THE DEPARTMENTS OF STATE, JUSTICE, AND COMMERCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006--Continued -- (Senate - September 08, 2005)
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Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, I am pleased to join the leadership of Senator Reid and Senator Landrieu who have announced a package of proposals to be of assistance to the Hurricane Katrina victims so that the millions of people affected by the devastation along the gulf coast can begin to rebuild their lives.
The amendment which I have sent to the desk is only part of that broader proposal and deals with the housing situation which now confronts the victims of this tragic storm. Before going into the details of the proposal, I want to extend my deepest sympathies to those in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi who have lost loved ones or who are still searching for family members, neighbors, and friends. They need to know that the thoughts and prayers of the country are with them during these very difficult and trying times. We know that hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their houses, their jobs, their belongings, indeed, their communities.
An effort is now underway in the Congress to come to their assistance. We know the road to recovery will not be easy and it will not be short, but we need to undertake these efforts immediately.
It was earlier estimated this week by FEMA officials and told to the President that 500,000 to a million people were rendered homeless by Hurricane Katrina and the deadly floods that followed the hurricane. In fact, yesterday's New York Times reported that as many as a million people are without housing. While the first job was to evacuate people, to get them food and water and to address their medical needs, in other words, to in effect save the lives of those who have been so heavily impacted, I think it is fair to say that the next job confronting us would be to find adequate housing for the survivors of Katrina.
The Americans displaced by the hurricane are scattered throughout the country now. I want to underscore the comments made by some of my colleagues earlier about the opening up of the arms of Americans across the country to take people in in this time of emergency and the great need. Families coming out of the gulf coast are in effect living wherever they can find a roof over their heads, with relatives, with friends, with caring strangers who have volunteered to take them in, in shelters--for example, Houston opened up the Astrodome--on cruise ships or in tents. It is fair to say if one stops and thinks about this for a moment it is, at best, a temporary housing situation.
The hundreds of thousands of displaced families need to have access to stable housing so they can send their kids to school, start pulling their lives back together again, which is, of course, a pressing challenge, seek employment and chart out a future for themselves.
This amendment, recognizing the overwhelming need for stable housing, proposes an emergency housing voucher program of $3.5 billion, which would provide temporary rental assistance to more than 350,000 displaced families. It eliminates--I should say more accurately suspends for a limited period of time--many of the requirements and the restrictions that ordinarily apply to the housing voucher program. For example, any person or family displaced as a result of Hurricane Katrina would be eligible to receive this much needed assistance; they could get a temporary housing voucher. This is without regard to their income situation. It recognizes the storm hit rich and poor alike and this is an effort to give them some immediate, short-term help so they can move out of the situation in which they find themselves.
The temporary rental vouchers would quickly and efficiently move families into stable housing across the country in the communities to which they have relocated. So it would give them an opportunity, with the voucher that would come to them, to find housing for themselves and their families. They could move out of the shelters. They could move out of temporary facilities. They could cease to live with relatives, friends or, indeed, strangers.
The rental assistance will be flexible and it will be easy to use. It will have payments sufficient so they can find suitable housing. The funds provided could be used anywhere in the country by those who have been impacted by the hurricane whose situation was created by the hurricane to pay for rent, security deposits, relocation expenses and moving expenses back to the affected areas at the appropriate time. So, if and when the time comes, they could return to their homes if that was the choice.
The assistance would be available for an initial period of 6 months. It is limited. A further 6 months is available, an extension, unless the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development finds that the assistance is no longer needed. But the maximum extent of these temporary housing vouchers would be 1 year. It would be 6 months, with a possibility of an extension.
The emergency program would be administered by HUD, which could operate the vouchers directly or provide the vouchers to local housing agencies, State and local governments or other entities, so long as the vouchers get out quickly to those in need.
We have a complicated problem here because the public housing authorities, of course, are locally based. The ones in areas where the people have been displaced are, in effect, out of business. There is no housing there by definition, since people have had to evacuate and leave. These people have now been moved to different parts of the country. We need to be able to get these vouchers to them and get them to them quickly.
We know people want to return to their neighborhoods, but it will probably be months before that is at all possible. Ordinarily, FEMA provides trailers and other housing after a disaster. That is how ordinarily it works. But the magnitude and scope of this disaster is unprecedented. FEMA has never had to deal with something of this magnitude, and it was the judgment, in putting this amendment together, that HUD had an expertise with respect to these rental vouchers. The emergency is a new dimension for HUD, but we thought that they have trained staff and could take over this responsibility and move it forward quickly.
I might note that the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Secretary Jackson, earlier in his career, has had very extensive experience directing public housing authorities--in Washington, DC; St. Louis, MO, and in Dallas, TX. So he has had a lot of experience actually on the ground with respect to housing. We think he could marshal the Department and its staff to respond in this situation.
This only begins to deal with the problem. I do not begin to assert that this represents a total or comprehensive solution to the housing challenge. But it enables us to get underway. Any family displaced by the hurricane would be eligible to receive a temporary voucher to pay for renting safe and decent housing, pay for rent, security, utility deposits, relocation expenses, and then eventually, we hope, moving expenses back to their permanent homes. These vouchers could be used anywhere across the country. It would not require a certification of income initially in order to get the voucher, and the families would be relieved of paying the rent, their portion of the rent which is required under the regular voucher program, until family members return to work. Once they return to work, the tenants would have to pay rental payments, as they do in the regular housing voucher program.
We are trying to cover all the bases here. We are trying to be very sensitive to the problem. We are trying to look at the problem through the eyes of those who have been struck by the hurricane, in terms of how they see it.
These people are now there. All kinds of makeshift
housing is being found for them. But that, even on a temporary basis, does not represent an appropriate response. So we want to move them a little further down the path toward having a more normal living situation. We ease up a little bit about the amount of rent they can pay. We allow it to go a bit above the median instead of having to be below the median because we know finding rental units will be a difficult job.
As I said, this gives authorities to HUD they do not now have to directly administer the program so they can reach out to these former residents of the gulf coast who are now scattered out across the country. They can work with the housing agencies, State and local governments, and other entities. As I noted, it has a limited time provision. So it would enable us to, in effect, provide all of these people who have had to leave their homes an opportunity to put some stability into their lives. So they could then go on and deal with the other problems that are confronting them--the problems of getting their kids back in school, the problems of employment, the problems of meeting all of the other pressures that have come before us. But we have moved these people out. Some are being held in shelters. Others are being dispersed. But what is the next step for them? We think this represents the next step.
It is a targeted approach. The authorities it gives are temporary. The limitations and restrictions it eases and removes are done on a temporary basis, so it is not permanent in its eventual impact. But it does provide, for the next 6 to 12 months, a degree of stability and a degree of permanence which I think is very important in enabling the people who have been struck by this tragedy to help put their lives back together again. I very much hope, when the appropriate time comes, my colleagues will support this proposal.
I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
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