September
2005
Congressman Sensenbrenner Turns His Back on Katrina Gulf Coast Survivors 5th CD Constituents Give Him an Earfull
A half-dozen constituents of Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner, in the 5th Congressional District from Milwaukee County, Waukesha County and Ozaukee County, visited Congressman Sensenbrenner’s office at 120 Bishops Way, Room 154 in Brookfield, WI 53005-6294 to personally deliver a message to him.
With cameras from Fox 6 and WISN 12 rolling, we walked in to Congressman Sensenbrenner’s office to tell him how appalled we were that he would choose this time to claim to be fiscally responsible. He didn’t do it during the Bush tax cuts, and he didn’t do it when he voted for Bush’s Energy Bill with its over 6,000 cases of â€pork†projects, but he did stand against providing immediate and significant help to hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast Survivors who’ve already suffered because of the Federal Government’s incompetence. While Congressman Sensenbrenner was not present at the time, we did deliver our statement to his aide, and provided him with a written copy as well.
This was our statement to him:
In the light of the poor Federal response in assisting the Gulf Coast Survivors, which has clearly delayed medical assistance and vitally needed food and water, causing additional unnecessary deaths, Congress stepped in to legislate assistance where Bush, Homeland Security and FEMA utterly failed.
The Katrina Relief Bill passed in the Senate 97-0, and in the House 410-11. You, Congressman Sensenbrenner were one of the 11 who voted against the bill.
You have been cited as claiming that the reason for your opposition was because there wasn’t enough oversight of the money being spent. While that, on the surface, may be a concern, considering FEMA has been so incompetent in its handling of this National Emergency so far, and is being given the responsibility for the distribution of these funds, isn’t it the responsibility of Congress to oversee the distribution of these funds? Why is it that you would block this aid to the survivors, and turn your back on them at this critical time when this funding is so desperately needed? This is unconscionable.
We are constituents of the 5th Congressional District, which you are supposed to represent, and we are appalled and ashamed that you would vote in our name, to hold back such critical funding to Americans, who are survivors of a government failure, in their time of need, when hundreds are dying and many more may very well end up with chronic diseases or death because of the widespread exposure to biological toxins on American soil. This is a National Disgrace of a Federal Responsibility, and Americans shouldn’t have to hold out a tin-cup and beg to Congressional Representatives that are supposed to represent them.
While the cameras taped the exchange, neither Channel 6 (FOX), nor WISN Channel 12 ran the footage during their 6:00 evening news.
If you believe that Congressman Sensenbrenner should be more representative of his constituents in making sure that PEOPLE come ahead of “Pork†projects, please take this around to anyone in your community and get them to sign it and send it on to Congressman Sensenbrenner. Please send us a copy so that we can keep track of who you are, where you are and how many of you don’t care for Sensenbrenner’s priorities.
Les Nakamoto
Les Nakamoto, Sensenbrenner Watch
RSS feed
Link
You completely missed the point of his vote, or do you not care?
He voted no because there were no controls in regards to the spending. Do you want to trust LA officials to spend that kind of money? I don’t.
The Congressman’s vote was courageous.
Hi,
I’m the producer for MKEonline.com. MKEonline.com is running a Blog of the Week poll on MKEonline.com, and you’re in the running this week. For more information (as well as voting) go to http://www.mkeonline.com/people/blogcontest.asp. Good luck! And let me know if you have any questions by e-mailing me at webmaster@mkeonline.com.
- Beth Lawton, MKEonline
Fred,
You obviously missed the substance of Congressman Sensenbrenner’s vote.
If you look at his history of voting for or against legislation, you will find that while he claims to be interested in saving taxpayer’s money, he has a habit of making sure that there is plenty of pork going to his own personal pet programs, or the programs of the Bush Administration which have NO controls in regards to spending.
Look at his vote for the Medicare Prescription Drug Act. The vast majority of the money is going to Prescription Drug companies and the Healthcare Industry, companies which he owns stock in and gets large political donations from, not to the people who actually need the financial assistance to help pay for their health costs. These are companies that are already showing record profits and charging Americans more for medications than what they are willing to sell for less to Canadians. Where were the controls in regards to spending there?
Look at his vote for the funding of the War in Iraq, he supports the War and the money going to it, even though there are NO controls in spending there. Over half of the money (almost $5 Billion per month), has not been accounted for since the beginning of the war, and there has been no call for it by Congressman Sensenbrenner.
In fact, one of the few times that Sensenbrenner voted against funding for the war was when he voted against paying our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq combat pay. Obviously there is still a war going on, anyone watching the news would recognize that, yet Congressman Sensenbrenner claimed that he didn’t feel that paying $1500 per month to American soldiers under fire in combat conditions, deserved to be paid combat pay. His “logic” for this decision was that he had to choose between providing funding for flak jackets for the troops or combat pay. He wasn’t going to support both, just one or the other. At the same time, however, 10% of the personnel in Iraq are actually mercenaries with companies tied to the Bush Administration, like Haliburton, Kellog Brown and Root and Blackwater among many others. These people are being paid $500 to $1000 PER DAY, and are replacing American military personnel. They are doing a WORSE job than our military does, but are being paid 10 to 15 times what our military are being paid. Where were the financial controls there? Where was Congressman Sensenbrenner when the subject came up? When did he ask for financial controls on money spent going to the companies that supported the Bush campaign?
And what about the money going to Halliburton and Kellog, Brown and Root and other companies that are supposedly rebuilding Iraq or feeding our troops (while feeding our troops rotten meat)? Why is it that bridges or buildings that Iraqis can build for $80,000 are being built by those companies for MILLIONS of dollars, and then subcontracted down through several levels so that the top contractors pocket the big bucks, but the subcontractors at the bottom are left with pennies on the dollar to finish the job?
What about his vote for the Energy Bill, that funnels Billions of dollars to the oil companies that have had record profits during the Bush Administration? Where is the logic or the financial controls there?
And what about the money that was supposedly going directly to the Iraq Government for rebuilding efforts, which don’t have financial controls on them, and which have been given some prominance in the news lately because of evidence of corruption, because the money is not going toward the projects they are supposed to go toward? Are you telling me that Congressman Sensenbrenner didn’t make sure that there were financial controls on that money because he trusts the Iraq Government with OUR TAXPAYER MONEY, more than he trusts our own state and local governments?
Congressman Sensenbrenner’s votes for Billions of dollars of pork for the fat cats isn’t his only failing. When the Amber Alert bill was being pushed by public child safety advocates to make a standard policy of alerting law enforcement and the public about abducted children so that they could be quickly found and safely returned to their parents, because most children that are abducted and killed are killed within 72 hours, Sensenbrenner delayed allowing that bill to go to the full House for a vote for almost a year and a half. His explaination for that, was that he wanted to attach his own pet verbage onto the bill, which he knew would be guaranteed quick passage, so that he could “impose harsher penalties on repeat offenders”.
While that sounds good, it doesn’t prevent those repeat offenders from abducting or killing children in the first place. Even since the belated passage of the Amber Alert bill, there have been numerous cases of abductions and murders. That amendment didn’t save those kids.
Sensenbrenner Chaired the committee that held up the Amber Alert for his own amendment which could have been submitted separately on its own merit. He alone could have put his ego on hold and allowed that bill to go to a vote for quick passage, so that children abducted and murdered during his delay could have been saved. He chose not to. The Center for Missing and Exploited Children and other groups that loosely track statistics on the number of children abducted and murdered each year, estimate that about 150 children are abducted and murdered ANNUALLY.
Ask the parents of the children that were abducted and murdered during the almost year and a half of Sensenbrenner’s delays, whether or not it was worth delaying the vote on the Amber Alert Bill in order for Sensenbrenner to be able to have credit for an amendment tacked onto that bill which didn’t save their children’s lives. There was nothing courageous about his position then either, just self-serving.
No, there is nothing courageous about Congressman Sensenbrenner’s vote. It was self-serving for him to deny money to Americans in need so that there is more money to be spent on HIS pet pork projects. It only shows that he is not interested in providing to AMERICANS in their time of need, only to Corporations that funnel money to his and the Bush Administration’s pockets.