Hurricane Cleanup

HURRICANE CLEANUP

Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I thank the leaders for the tremendous job they have done in handling this legislation. Anyone who can pass legislation in such a contentious atmosphere has to be Merlin, the Magician. My hat is off to the Senator from Maine and the Senator from Connecticut.

Two other very timely topics, timely in the sense of an emergency, after having been hit by four hurricanes in Florida, with the tremendous debris that is left over, part of the moneys we have passed here for FEMA is for debris cleanup of which FEMA then reimburses the local governments that go out and, either with their own crews or by contracting out, arrange for the removal of debris. This is not only clearly getting one's life back in order but it is also a health question, a safety question.

I was going through some of this debris on Sunday at a mobile home park for senior citizens called Palm Bay Estates in my home county of Broward. All of the aluminum, particularly on carports, was whipped up and twisted by the wind and now is in piles, with razor-sharp edges. So it is a safety as well as a health question. The debris accumulates in canals, in waters, in estuaries, particularly if it is of an organic nature. Then it starts to become a health hazard as well. We simply need to have it picked up.

But that is not the question. FEMA is taking the position that they are not going to reimburse the local government unless it is picked up from a public right-of-way. Yet FEMA has the authority, if it involves the health and safety of the people, to allow the repayment for the pickup from private rights-of-way.

Why is that important in Florida? Because we have huge senior citizen complexes with thousands of senior citizens. But they are not public rights-of-way, they are private rights-of-way. That debris has to be picked up for health and safety reasons. Yet who is going to pay for it? FEMA has the authority to do that. Since the local governments are not going to be able to bear the cost of all that pickup, especially after four hurricanes, the only other alternative is to assess the residents of that area for the pickup.

Senior citizens on fixed income cannot afford that. FEMA has it under its authority, but FEMA is not doing it. We want to give them a little encouragement.

I have spoken to the chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee. That bill is now in conference with the House. I have suggested some language that will give FEMA some help to recognize that this is in the public interest, particularly in the State of Florida, after four hurricanes, and that they should be so directed. I am hopeful the conferees will accept that language.