Hilda L. Solis: “I rise to applaud the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Bishop) for offering this amendment which establishes a Minority…”

“I rise to applaud the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Bishop) for offering this amendment which establishes a Minority Emergency Preparedness Demonstration Program at FEMA. In my home State of California, we have experienced more than our fair share of natural disasters, earthquakes, floods, fires and what have you, over the past decade. We are still recovering from the pain and devastation created by the Northridge Earthquake back in 1994. Minority communities like the one I represent need more information to help them prepare for these sorts of disasters. After Northridge, many people were left homeless. FEMA did an outstanding job of helping our community, but I think a Minority Emergency Preparedness Program could do even more, if this were funded through FEMA. People in minority communities are often more heavily impacted by these types of disasters. People often live in poorly designed housing and have limited access to emergency preparedness materials that are printed in their own language. It makes sense to have information available to them in their own language. This would provide assistance to Latinos, Asian Americans, and African Americans. Mr. Chairman, I ask my colleagues to support this amendment.”