Political Quotes

“I thank very much the gentlelady from the District of Columbia for her clarification; and I, frankly, thank you for having the wisdom in months and years back to have these corrections and these improvements in FEMA, and I know they welcome it. I am a senior member of the Homeland Security Committee and served as the ranking member on Transportation Security, but know firsthand, as the committee that shares jurisdiction over FEMA, firsthand, in living color, the catastrophe and tragedy of Hurricane Katrina; both in my visits and almost living in New Orleans, as many of our Members did, and then in welcoming over a quarter of a million-plus of New Orleanians into Houston, Texas, being there inside the Astrodome, and seeing eons and eons and layers of beds of people who are Americans and who were Americans who, one could not call them broken, those survivors, if you will, from Hurricane Katrina were not broken. They were people who had worked and had homes and paid taxes. And so today, Madam Speaker, those who are survivors of Hurricane Sandy are not broken. They are not the cornerstone of the fault of bureaucracy or misuse. They are, in fact, survivors. They are Americans who need our help. And I'd like to add to this discussion, certainly. I join and want to comment on one or two of the changes here. In particular, the individual assistance factors, I think, will be very helpful to expedite the declaration process for individuals.…”