Political Quotes

“I want to address the FEMA amendment because the Senator from Arizona has raised some excellent points, and I believe they are very important points this body ought to address. In fact, the Senator's amendment stems from one of a series of reports I requested of the inspector general last year in an effort to reduce Federal disaster relief costs and improve FEMA operations. The IG has found a weak financial management system at FEMA as well as a number of questionable practices in terms of disaster expenditures. The most recent IG report found some very startling and troubling examples of what could be characterized as an abuse of taxpayer funds. We have already seen the pictures of a golf course where fees as high as $120 per person were charged yet has received $872,000 in public assistance grants following flood damage. Let me make it clear, because this area is very complicated, that the disaster relief that we are talking about is available only to publicly owned facilities. If they are privately owned, there are SBA loans that are available. But the FEMA disaster assistance goes generally with the cost share 25 percent local or State cost share with the Federal Government providing the other 75 percent. We talked about marinas and golf courses, but we could talk about equestrian trails, archery ranges, and other facilities benefiting a very small segment of the population where they receive millions of dollars for tree and shrub replacement.”