The Serrano Report, Vol. X, #6

Press Release

Serrano Quizzes Justices on Sequester, Puerto Rico

On Thursday, during a hearing with Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer about the Supreme Court's budget request and about other issues affecting the federal judiciary as a whole, Congressman Serrano asked the justices about the sequester, and expressed concern about its impact on our nation's system of justice.

"Our judicial system is the envy of countries around the world because of its fairness, its efficiency, and its accessibility," said Serrano. "I hope that those notable features of our system are not undermined at the Supreme Court or elsewhere by the sequester. I am particularly worried about our Federal Defender program, where the sequester will undermine the ability of our federal public defenders to do their utmost to help their clients and will impede our constitutionally mandated duty to provide indigent criminal defendants with legal counsel. I will do my utmost to prevent this from happening, but the only way to do that is to provide our federal judiciary with sufficient funding."

Serrano also asked his annual question for the Justices: whether an individual born in Puerto Rico could serve as President. Although the justices cannot give advisory opinions, they did indicate that there didn't seem to be a problem with an individual born in Puerto Rico running for President.

The hearing was held as part of the annual budget hearings held by the Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee, which oversees the Supreme Court's budget, and of which Serrano is the Ranking Democrat.

Serrano, EPA Agree on Importance of Green Infrastructure

At a hearing Wednesday on water infrastructure financing, Congressman Serrano questioned the Environmental Protection Agency on its plans for Hurricane Sandy restoration. The Deputy Assistant Administrator at the Office of Water, Mike Shapiro, laid out the variety of ways that the EPA is contributing to the rebuilding effort and how they are ensuring the reconstruction does not just rebuild the same vulnerable infrastructure again.

"The waterways and shorelines of the tri-state region were severely impacted by Hurricane Sandy. Rebuilding efforts are just getting underway, and it's important that we do it in the smartest and most cost effective way possible," said Congressman Serrano. "I was pleased to hear from the EPA that they see the restoration and rebuilding from Hurricane Sandy as an opportunity to use green infrastructure projects not just to filter and cleanse runoff but also to protect and secure communities against future storms."

Mr. Shapiro responded to Congressman Serrano's questioning by saying that while FEMA has primary responsibility for guiding and paying for rebuilding infrastructure to its previous levels, the EPA has been granted funding and authority to help in the enhancing the infrastructure and making it more safe and resilient. He said the EPA is hoping to work with the states, with HUD and with FEMA to use this restoration as a model for future disaster rebuilding where new levels of protection and resiliency are included. He further added that the majority of the water and storm protection improvements would benefit from increased green infrastructure, such as wetlands restoration, green roofs, and other natural storm and wastewater protection strategies.

"I am very gratified to hear that we are finally beginning to move our disaster recovery infrastructure projects in a greener and therefore more resilient and sustainable direction," said Congressman Serrano. "We've known that improving the environment--especially in the waterways and runoff areas--is an investment that has many benefits, but historically it's been difficult to move federal agencies and funding in this direction. I believe that Deputy Assistant Administrator Shapiro is entirely correct in saying that if we increase green infrastructure as part of our Hurricane Sandy water infrastructure rebuilding, we are making a very wise upgrade to our disaster preparedness and investing in protection against the next storm."

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