Mary Landrieu

I will continue to have as many hearings as it takes until we get this correct.

Hurricane Katrina is far from over.

I want to commend you for having this hearing today on the role of the CDBG program in disaster recovery.

I think that our family story is very similar to thousands and thousands and thousands.

But if my memory serves me correctly, only about 40 percent of all the residents in the city were homeowners.

Well, I think that is very important for people to really grasp the challenge here.

It has made a tremendous difference. So many people are facing foreclosure, cannot come back to our State, are in terrible duress because they have been short-changed.

This should be the money that has not been spent yet, this is the main thing it should go to is, really, well-revamped appeals.

Those funds need to continue to be targeted at those individuals.

It has been really terrific testimony that you have provided.

I hope, Senator Landrieu, that you will read my summary of pleas from applicants, asking for justice and fairness.

I do not have any doubt that Dr. Groves is up to the challenge and that he commands the respect both inside and outside the Census Bureau to fully restore confidence in the agency's competence and integrity.

I feel the need, though, to reiterate that although Census Day may officially last 1 day, its impact is felt over the course of a full decade.

The work Chancellor Rhee and Mayor Fenty have done to reform the school system is remarkable.

Despite some criticism in GAO's initial assessment, DCPS appears to be on the right path to improving public education for the District's children.

I believe in putting kids before special interest groups, and that is really what this is about.

We need to have choices. And if choices and experiments can show that one thing is working, maybe the public schools will see that one thing that is working and copy it.

Without an equal education for all there cannot be equality for all, the kind of equality that our founding documents promised.

In America it should not be a privilege for any of our children to get a first rate education.

If it is working well enough to be continued for those children currently in the program until they graduate from school, then it should also be continued for succeeding generations of new students.

If the Opportunity Scholarship Program is not working, it should be terminated for all children.

The problem is some of these communities, particularly in our State--Cameron Parish, South Cameron, that comes to mind, Grand Isle--are historic communities, they have been here for hundreds of years.

I think, rather significant increase in pre-disaster mitigation grants, that it is penny-wise and pound-foolish when we do not put money in on the front end to try to avoid the disasters and the expense of recovery.

I am particularly concerned that there is not enough new support being directed to inspections of southbound traffic to disrupt the flow of illicit guns and cash that the drug cartels use to wage war against each other and too frequently…

Well, I would just suggest in my 16 seconds remaining that there are models that we can find in other countries, Mr. Chairman--in Japan, which has storm surge issues, in the Netherlands, where 60 percent of their country lies below sea…