Kendrick Meek: “I am going to finish, and then I am going to go back over it again. In 2004, for the first time in 37 years, the first…”

“I am going to finish, and then I am going to go back over it again. In 2004, for the first time in 37 years, the first time in 37 years, the Corps of Engineers halted all work. They stopped all work on the New Orleans levee system. Not because they felt like it. It was because they did not have any money. I am on the Committee on Homeland Security and we knew, and I know the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) has information that they went through a whole exercise about what if this happens. They knew it could happen. So when someone lines up in front of a camera and starts talking, I do not care who they are. I was emancipated many years ago; so I do not care what some may feel about what I say here tonight. The bottom line is if it is the President or the village council person or whoever it might have been as it relates to holding back funds from the levee system, saying this was a natural disaster, what could we do, we could have governed in a way that we should govern on behalf of individuals in the South that pay taxes just like anyone else. And the bottom line is if it was not for Katrina, Mr. Speaker, we would have been voting here on the estate tax for a huge tax break, to even make the reality even more evident that the Corps of Engineers never would have had started work on the levee system next year or the year after that or the year after that because we have no money. {time} 2230”