Kendrick Meek: “reclaiming my time, we have central time in the affected area, eastern time. I know that the President is going to be on…”

“reclaiming my time, we have central time in the affected area, eastern time. I know that the President is going to be on 8 o'clock central, but he is going to be on at 9 o'clock eastern. But, obviously, he will be coming on very shortly. But I think it is important that it is not the words he is going to share with the American people tonight. It is the action. We have to look at the action or the lack thereof that has been taken thus far. Flying down, reviewing the devastation, talking to families, we have to go far beyond that. We have to make sure that Members of this Congress feel what we feel here on this floor tonight, having an opportunity to touch these individuals. And I just want to say, Mr. Speaker, this is a picture of, I may say, very fortunate individuals. This is a FEMA trailer down in Hancock County, Mississippi. I am standing there talking to one of the FEMA part-time workers. And there is a row of people actually behind us. There are maybe 10 phones in this trailer. But these individuals waited about 2 hours, and that is the short line, to get the assistance. They say that it should be 48 hours, 72 hours when it goes into their bank account. Many of these individuals, some of them returned back because they applied 3 days earlier and they still did not receive the assistance. But I think it is important for us to realize, Mr. Speaker, that he mentioned the poll about putting an independent commission together.…”