madam speaker , i yield myself such time as i may consume . 
madam speaker , this debate that we are beginning here is about a very clear choice that is before us . 
will we take the responsibility delegated to us as members of the people 's house by the framers of our constitution to ask the hard questions , admit our mistakes and improve our nation 's government for the benefit of all ? 
or will we rely on proxies to do our work for us because we have judged ourselves incapable of carrying out our constitutional duty to ensure that we are providing for the general welfare , which is what the preamble of the constitution clearly states we have a responsibility to do . 
i , for one , believe as james madison , the father of our constitution , did , that the constitution vests this responsibility with us . 
i am ready to accept the challenge as a member of the house of representatives . 
i believe that we have already started this work . 
last night , in the committee on rules , many of my democratic colleagues asked excellent questions . 
the gentlewoman from new york ( ms. slaughter ) xz4003780 , my friend from rochester , asked very thoughtful and important questions that need to be raised . 
i noted that the gentlewoman from sacramento , california ( ms. matsui ) xz4002562 similarly asked some very , very good questions that should be posed to those dealing with the preparation for and the aftermath of hurricane katrina . 
just yesterday the governor of my state , pete wilson , and i should say the former governor of my state , pete wilson , testified . 
i do know very well that we have a new governor . 
his name is arnold schwarzenegger , i should say for the record . 
but pete wilson testified before the senate committee on homeland security and governmental affairs . 
it was a hearing that they held on recovering from hurricane katrina , and he did this to share his experience and very valuable lessons that he learned from dealing with many , many very , very difficult challenges , disasters that we faced in california , earthquakes , fire , mudslides , the devastation that we faced . 
i will tell members that pete wilson handled every single one of those challenges in his 8 years as governor extraordinarily well , and we learned tremendously from the tragedies that we faced in those instances . 
as he said , obviously while nowhere near the scale of hurricane katrina , and we all know that hurricane katrina has been described as the worst natural disaster to ever hit our country , some of the things that were faced in california , there were terrible california floods in january of 1997 that resulted in eight deaths , the evacuation of 120 , 000 people , relocation of 55 , 000 people to 107 shelters , damage or destruction of 30 , 000 residences and 2 , 000 businesses , and total damage estimates at about $ 2 billion . 
that in 1997 . 
i talked earlier today , during the rule considering the establishment of this committee , about the northridge earthquake in 1994 , and it resulted in 51 deaths and injured over 9 , 000 people , left 22 , 000 people homeless . 
the interesting thing , as we look at these figures , is we all know that they pale in comparison to the tragedy of hurricane katrina . 
but , madam speaker , i will tell the members that these were learning experiences for us . 
one of the things that was most impressive to me and one of the things that we have already found here to be very beneficial was the fact that the private sector has stepped forward and is in many ways doing things the government can not do . 
and i think it is often joked about the fact that the private sector is there , ready to meet a need , a need that the government in no way could meet . 
we know that for an emergency response like that we faced , clearly the government had to step in . 
when i say government , i am talking about the local government , the state government , and the federal government as well . 
the federal government , obviously , is not the first . 
it is really the last step . 
we know that state and local governments have the responsibility to make those recommendations to the federal government and then bring them in . 
we also know that at virtually all these levels of government , we have heard the leadership , from president bush when it comes to the federal government , to governor blanco in louisiana , state that things were not handled as well as they could have been ; and both president bush and governor blanco , republican and democrat , have taken responsibility for dealing with this situation . 
i mentioned the fact that we learned things , and i mentioned the private sector . 
and one example that i like to point to , and i have got this right here , is in the 1994 northridge earthquake , we had the santa monica freeway collapse over la cienega boulevard . 
the santa monica freeway is the most traversed interstate in the country . 
a quarter of a million vehicles a day go on the santa monica freeway right over the la cienega off-ramp . 
and the earthquake took place in january of 1994 , and i happened to be by there , and one of the police officers let me go up , and i actually took a chunk of the santa monica freeway . 
this has been sitting in my living room out in california for a long period of time . 
most people think it is a piece of the berlin wall , but it is actually from the some projected that it would take as much as a year or 2 years to repair this freeway that had collapsed over la cienega boulevard . 
and governor wilson stepped up to the plate and did everything that he could to provide incentives to ensure that it got completed . 
he wrote a piece on this the day before yesterday in the wall street journal in which he referred to the fact that people said it would take a long period of time . 
they looked and established this contract with the myers company and they were told that they would have a $ 200 , 000 fine for every day beyond what they had contracted for if they did not complete it , but they got a $ 200 , 000 bonus , madam speaker , for every day that they got this completed earlier than had been projected . 
as i said , some predicted it would take a year or 2 years to complete this . 
madam speaker , in 66 days the santa monica freeway reopened , working 24 hours a day , 7 days a week . 
this is the kind of incentive that we need to put in place to ensure that they deal with this circumstance . 
and , ironically , interstate 10 is the exact same route that is going into new orleans that collapsed following hurricane katrina and the breaking of the levees . 
so i think that we have the ability to respond , to deal with this , and the united states congress is in a position to make sure that we look at encouraging the most creative ways to address this challenge , look in a bipartisan way at these problems . 
and we have set guidelines . 
we have got deadlines . 
but , obviously , if it is necessary , those can be moved if it is essential . 
but we have a desire to ensure that , as an institution , we come together as the elected representatives of the american people to do our job . 
and i am convinced that we are going to have the ability to do that , and we look forward to seeing members of both political parties join this very important effort , and i am convinced that they will be able to look at all levels of government and the private sector and get to the bottom of that . 
madam speaker , i reserve the balance of my time . 
