Right-Wing Amendment Forces Katrina Victims To Find A Job Before Receiving Aid [View All]

[deminks]

The House today is debating the Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing Recovery Act of 2007.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, introduced an amendment that would require victims of Hurricane Katrina to perform 20 hours/week of approved “work activities” to receive financial aid for housing.

The Institute for Southern Studies reports that Louisiana is “still largely an economic disaster area as a result of Katrina.” Many jobs have disappeared, and the first houses in the Lower Ninth Ward weren’t completed until late last month, amid a “sea of ruin.”

In an impassioned speech, Rep. David Scott (D-GA) addressed Hensarling on the House floor:

This amendment is cruel, it is cold, it is calculating, and it is pandering to the schizophrenic dichotomy that has plagued this nation since they first brought Africans on these shores from Africa. And that is the issue of race and poverty. Let me tell you something, gentleman. Where were you, where was your amendment when the Twin Towers were hit and the people in New york suffered that catastrophe? There was no cry before we gave them help. “They got to go get a job.” Everybody was there and poured in help, as they should, the American way. Where was your amendment down in Florida when the hurricanes hit down there? Nobody said, “Make ‘em work before we help them.”

Watch it:

Earlier this evening, the House defeated the amendment 266-162.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/03/20/katrina-amendment-race/