Right-Wing Amendment Forces Katrina Victims To Find A Job Before Receiving Aid

[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/

[muntrv]

1. Another asshole named Jeb? How appropriate!

[Why Syzygy]

2. k&r

some have no shame. Thank you House for doing SOMETHING right.

[Bluzmann57]

3. Hey here's an idea.

Maybe these people could actually get jobs helping to rebuild the Gulf Coast area instead of bringing out of town scab labor. Nah, that just makes too much sense.

[KamaAina]

4. "Where was your amendment in Southwest La. when Rita hit?"

Same state, same hurricane season... oh right, different race. :grr:

Moral: Never trust a guy with an obvious rug:

oh man…
that jeb guy needs to find a new rug maker…
that’s just awful… i hate phony…

Comment by katy — March 20, 2007 @ 7:55 pm

[OHdem10]

5. Please just try to think about this--

this is not meant to inflame or upset anyone.

This is a sad but true fact. As long as Poverty is
blended with Race.---the people of La will get no
where, much less anyone else.

There is a sad truth --As long as poverty or
poor people are black, nothing is going to happen
in this country. This is an ugly truth--it holds
north of the Mason Dixon Line as well as south of it.

Both parties share responsibility.

Did no one notice that durig Katrina the cameras
never covered any white poor people. LA is one
of the poorest states in the union. Many white
people are poor.

Yes Racism exists. It is more class than race but
in a Katrina type event ---you can figure it out.

[ComerPerro]

6. I am sure there will be plenty of very low pay jobs in the service industry around there soon

[flashlighter]

7. I can't believe people would be offended about this.

No one owes you a living...IS there a reason why these people..can't get jobs???

[uppityperson]

8. Many jobs have disappeared.

Hard to find paying work when it isn't there. Hard to find a healthy place to stay when they are in high demand. How do you work while you rebuild or even muck out your house to have a place to stay that won't sicken you, and take care of your kids? Where do you work when jobs that pay are few? Perhaps funding jobs so people would have money so they could rebuild and afford to live, to work in businesses that could afford to pay them might help.

[Cha]

10. Having survived in a cat 5 hurricane

on Kauai in '92 I can tell you there were hardly any jobs for quite a while. Money was most welcome from Fema in order to buy food and clothes.

[flashlighter]

12. "Perhaps funding jobs so people would have money so they could rebuild and afford to live"

Great idea!! But they should have to do SOMETHING!

Can't someone organize that massive amount of stuff that needs to be done and pay the massive amount of people who don't have a job to do it?

[uppityperson]

20. Someone should organize and pay. Who?

Our government? Are they the ones who are supposed to help those that cannot provide this sort of stuff for themselves? Indeed and yes. Should they? Again yes. Are they? Call and write your congress people asking for them to get off their butts, investigate what the hell hasn't happened and help make it happen. Organize. Pay people to do it. Preferably pay those who are doing it for themselves rather than contractors who will then hire illegal immigrants and pay them crap wages while

[prolesunited]

9. Ummm...

Maybe with much of the infrastructure in ruins, there are not enough jobs to be had and perhaps they aren't qualified for the ones that exist. In pockets of poverty, many do not even have a high school diploma. Who's hiring them? What about single parents? Who will be watching the kids? Is public transportation up to par for those who don't have cars?

And, what about this being the first time required of disaster aid recipients? Or will this be required from now own.

[flashlighter]

11. Ok, but after 16 months....what have they been doing?

I think maybe the gov. should be hiring these people for reconstruction- you don't need a HS diploma to swing a hammer- but I am 100% opposed to paying people not to work. It's a terrible system and leads to dependence and despair.

[prolesunited]

14. Sitting on their butts sponging off

hard-working taxpayers like you, of course. I hear many of them are driving Cadillacs and buying steaks with food stamps.

Is there a government reconstruction program in place? Last I heard, they privatized most of the clean up and rebuilding efforts. And guess who they're hirng? Illegal immigants, NOT locals.

So, the elderly should swing hammers? What about the kids? What would you like the mom with five kids to do?

[Rage for Order]

15. The mom with 5 kids should do what she was doing pre-katrina

What was the mom with 5 kids doing before the hurricane? She should go back to being a nurse, a teacher, an accountant, an engineer, a waitress, a cook, or whatever job she was doing prior to the storm. Sure, the Gulf Coast region has seen an influx of illegal immigrants looking for jobs, but that wouldn't be happening if there were no jobs to be had. The fact that the clean up and rebuilding have been privatized does not mean that people are no longer needed to do the work. This bill proposes that those receiving aid do 20 hours a week of approved "work activities". That's 3 hours a day; 4 hours a day if you don't choose to do "work activities" on the weekend. That seems reasonable. It has been 18 months since Katrina. At some point it is time to move forward in one's life. That doesn't mean that the victims should no longer receive aid, but they can contribute to the rebuilding effort, even if it is only a few hours a day.

[uppityperson]

19. Will she have transportation supplied?

Will her job be local enough to be able to get home to take care of the kids after school? Will daycare be provided? You do realize that there are only a small percentage of hospitals/clinics open for nursing jobs. Schools are still not up and going. Who is hiring accountants or engineers? How many people are competing for that waitress or cook job?

Do you seriously believe that people living in Katrina-land are doing nothing to contribute to rebuilding? That they are not contributing to rebuilding, even a few hours a day, already? Have you ever mucked a house? How about cleared debris from a road? How about scrubbed mud from your porch so your 5 kids have a place to sit while you wear a tyvec suit and mask and clear the toxic mold out of your house?

There is a whole hell of a lot of infrastructure that needs rebuilding and people need to have help while they do it. Pay them for rebuilding is a great idea.

[Rage for Order]

23. Did they have transportation supplied prior to katrina?

You're trying to make people sound helpless, as though they can't do anything for themselves. How did that person get to work before katrina? Are you saying there are no jobs at all in New Orleans for someone who wants to work?

I do thinkk that many people in the New Orleans area are doing nothing to contribute to the rebuilding effort. Have you driven through Lakeview, New Orleans East, or the Lower 9th Ward lately? Why are so few homes showing any signs of even the beginning of a clean up and restoration effort? Have I mucked a house? You bet. My in-laws lost everything in Katrina. My father-in-law worked as an electrician 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, and when he got home from working all day he spent all of his spare time rehabbing his house. They moved back in about 12 months after katrina.

I agree, paying people for rebuilding is a great idea. I don't see anything unreasonable about asking someone to put in 20 hours of labor per week as a condition for receiving aid. If I was living in a FEMA trailer, gutting my house, cleaning it up, and getting it habitable again would be my number one priority.

[uppityperson]

25. For many there was much more transportation before.

Bus service is not up and running as it was before. Neither are schools, hospitals, clinics, autoshops, grocery stores, etc etc etc. Perhaps that woman with 5 kids made her living watching other kids at her house. Now her house is ruined and the neighbors are not back.

Why are so few homes showing any signs of even the beginning of a cleanup and restoration effort? If you are there, you have seen what it is like, if you understand the effects of the disaster on people already living financially on the edge, I can only assume you are asking rhetorically.

Of course there are some people who will not help, same as there are some who claim they are Katrina victims and get relief without deserving it. But I think the vast majority would like nothing more than be able to rehab their home and move back home. I think the gvt should, needs to, is responsible for helping them do so and saying they must work 20 hours /week would be ok IF the program were run properly, people were paid decently and the work was something like cleaning up their homes, neighborhood, etc. My fear is that it would be manipulated into saying they must work 20 hours/wk at a shit job somewhere away from where they live, taking up too much of their time and energies, acting as a blockage to actually restoring their community.

Have you seen the publication "Big,Easy Money. Disaster profiteering on the American Gulf Coast"? www.corpwatch.org

My condolences to your in-laws on the destruction of their home, and congratulations on having the time, finances, and energy to be able to reconstruct their home so quickly. Good job to them.

[dysfunctional press]

17. there's a lot more to reconstruction than just swinging hammers...

pushing brooms, painting, driving, office work, etc...there's plenty of things for people who can't figure out how a hammer works. btw- what was the mom with 5 kids doing pre-katrina?

[appleannie1]

21. they have already giving all the contracts

to their highest political contributors, like the Halliburtons of this world. They are NOT hiring locals. So where do you propose that these people get a job reconstructing the area? Don't blame them, blame the cronyism of this administration. The 'if I can't make a buck, it is not worth doing' group.

[KamaAina]

13. About public transportation: In a word, No.

New Orleans' RTA never was exactly the NYC subway, and now it's a shadow of even its pre-K self. Most bus routes shut down around 6 PM, like it was New Haven or something, and some are running on headways (the time between buses) of more than an hour.

http://www.norta.com/routes.php

Meanwhile, many businesses are relocating to areas north of Lake Pontchartrain, specifically St. Tammany Parish. You guessed it: nothing. "You can't get there from here!"

And this is in the one place in the region that had half-decent transit. I shudder to think what the situation is over in MS.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

16. On paper I look quite privileged. White, private school degrees.

You think that everybody who wants a job can get one? What planet are you living on?
Heard about that crappy economy? Or do you believe the news?

Actually I am unable to get a job. White, highly educated, three degrees including a doctorate, decades of relevant experience, outstanding skills -- I can type 115 words a minute, excellent English, spelling, etc., in a field that can't be outsourced (law), but I CANNOT get a job to save my life.


I've relabeled my situation. Now I'm calling it "early retirement". The middle class is destroyed, and that's what I used to be. It's far, far worse for the people in NOLA. No economy but service jobs that are low paying, economy destroyed, no federal help.

[Rage for Order]

18. What part of TX do you live in?

"Actually I am unable to get a job. White, highly educated, three degrees including a doctorate, decades of relevant experience, outstanding skills -- I can type 115 words a minute, excellent English, spelling, etc., in a field that can't be outsourced (law), but I CANNOT get a job to save my life."

I searched "legal" in monster in Dallas and it returned 228 listings

http://jobsearch.monster.com/Search.aspx?q=&fn=7&lid=615&re=130&cy=us&JSNONREG=1

Fort Worth has another 17...that's 245 listings in "legal" in the DFW area of Texas alone. I'm not trying to make light of your situation, but to say that there are no jobs available for someone with your qualifications does not seem accurate.

[area51]

22. I can tell you haven't searched for a job in a long time.

You can apply to a lot of jobs, but rarely get interviews. Also, there's a lot of age discrimination, along with the shortage of jobs in this country. The unemployment rate is a lot higher than the bullshit 4.5% the nazi party keeps claiming. Hope you find out soon just how difficult it is to get a job.

[Rage for Order]

24. You would be wrong

I started a new job on 12/4/06. Yes, I applied for several jobs but only got a few interviews. However, that's no different than any other time in the last 20 years that I've searched for a job. I only got called for interviews on maybe 10%-20% of the jobs I applied for.

Very classy of you to wish unemployment on me by "hop(ing) that I find out soon just how difficult it is to get a job." I can be more childish than you, though: I hope you suffer a seriously disabling injury that keeps you from being able to work again, thereby forcing you to live on social security disability for the rest of your life. There, wasn't that constructive? <sarcasm>