A response from Sen. Martinez (FL) to my letter. (rather long)

[Obamanaut]

During the last two weeks I’ve written to my congress people three times and once to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions www.help.senate.gov with comments and suggestions re Hurricane Katrina (non) response after reading a post here on DU. Ms usnret88 read the last one and said that I seemed agitated. Here is the response I received today from Senator Martinez (FL) It does not address some of my suggestions - fire Chertoff and Brown, the Senator’s own press release saying “who could have predicted…”, fema fraud, and several others. Imagine that!

Dear Mr. :

Thank you for contacting me regarding the immense devastation left by Hurricane Katrina. I appreciate hearing from you and share your concerns.

As you know, during the 2004 Hurricane Season, the residents of Florida were tested by a string of deadly hurricanes that ravaged our state. However, Hurricane Katrina has left a natural and human disaster the likes of which our nation has never seen. While the initial response at all levels -- local, state, and federal -- was flawed, the government has mobilized and is now responding to this crisis in a more forceful manner.

The federal government initially directed more than 15,000 National Guardsmen from Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana to these disaster areas. This number is expected to rise to more than 46,000 Guardsman at the height of relief assistance. The United States Coast Guard has rescued more than 46,800 people from rooftops, flooded neighborhoods, and hospitals in the New Orleans area since rescue operations began August 29, 2005. Many of the 4,000 Coast Guard personnel were in place prior to Hurricane Katrina making landfall. The Department of Defense has deployed approximately 22,000 military personnel along with four United States Navy ships and the hospital ship “Comfort” with more en route to the Gulf Coast daily. They have also provided 16.7 million Meals, Ready to Eat (MREs) to the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. In addition the Army Corps of Engineers has used over eight hundred 25,000-pound sandbags to repair broken levees around New Orleans and the draining of the city of New Orleans is well underway.

Further, over 125 tons of relief supplies have been delivered to the Gulf Coast, along with 53 million liters of water. The American Red Cross shelters have opened in twenty states and the District of Columbia with a total population of over 141,500 people. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has deployed fifty-seven National Disaster Medical Systems Teams including Disaster Medical Assistance Teams, Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams, and Mental Health Units, along with 28 urban search and rescue teams in an effort to empty New Orleans, prevent the spread of infectious disease, save lives, and provide assistance.

According to most recent government estimates, more than 49,800 lives have been saved, 699,200 people have registered for FEMA assistance, and hundreds of thousands of hurricane victims have been evacuated.

As you may know, the United States Congress convened a special session to pass an Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act to Meet Needs Arising from the Consequences of Hurricane Katrina (H.R. 3645). This legislation provides $10 billion to the Department of Homeland Security for disaster relief for the areas affected by Katrina and $500 million to the Department of Defense for emergency hurricane expenses, to support costs of evacuation, emergency repairs, and deployment of personnel. President George W. Bush signed this legislation into law (P.L. 109-61) on September 2, 2005. A Second Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act to Meet Immediate Needs Arising from the Consequences of Hurricane Katrina was passed by Congress and signed into law (P.L. 109-62) by President Bush on September 8, 2005. This bill provides an additional $50 billion to the Department of Homeland Security, and $1.6 billion to the Department of Defense.

There is still a lot of work to be done in the Gulf Coast region and I am committed to working with my Senate colleagues to not only provide short term assistance, but also to establish a long term recovery plan for the residents affected by Hurricane Katrina. You may be interested to know that I introduced the Disaster Recovery Act (S. 939) on April 28, 2005. This legislation requires FEMA to pay 50 percent of eligible public assistance monies no later than 60 days after an eligible claim is filed. It also ensures that FEMA will reimburse disaster areas for the clearing and removal of debris from all emergency access roads and makes debris removal from private lands eligible for assistance. S. 939 was referred to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, where it awaits further consideration.

In addition, on July 13, 2005, I sponsored a bill (S. 1386) to that would allow assistance provided to flood victims to be excluded from consideration as income when determining whether a person is eligible for any income-assistance or resource-tested program that is funded by the federal government. This legislation will protect the poor of our nation from being means tested out of a federally run program based on a one time disaster mitigation payment. S. 1386 has been referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, of which I am a member.

You can be sure that I will work diligently to have these bills reported out of committee and placed on the calendar for consideration by the full Senate. My thoughts and prayers go out to our neighbors to the West in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Hurricane Katrina has caused unimaginable devastation to these Gulf Coast states and will continue to impact the lives of their residents and the nation for years to come. Please know I intend to work with my Senate colleagues to ensure that the necessary funds are directed efficiently to the areas affected by this hurricane and that Congress will work with President Bush and his administration to fix the cumbersome bureaucracy that was initially slow to respond to this tragedy.

This is a time for our nation to come together and support these Gulf Coast communities who have been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. If you are interested in volunteering your time or resources, you can find a list of non-profit organizations who are accepting donations and volunteers on my website at http://martinez.senate.gov.

Again, thank you for sharing with me your thoughts on Hurricane Katrina and her aftermath.

Sincerely,

Mel Martinez
United States Senator

[marbuc]

1. It doesn't address your points because it is

a form letter. Everyone writing about Katrina probably got this one.