mr. chairman , i thank the gentleman for his continuing courtesy and leadership on this issue . 
i am going to try one more time on this thing . 
the bill as it is now constructed allocates 3.5 percent of net profit for the first 2 years from the various enterprises into a fund which gives as a priority katrina victims , rita victims and natural disaster victims , in that order . 
i can tell you if i were to go to the city of baker , in my district today , walk down groom road to the fema trailer park and say to them , i am going to buy you a bus to haul you to go vote 2 years from now , or i am going to put money into building you a home , guess which one they would pick . 
people want out of the fema trailers , they want out of their circumstance ; and almost every cent of this money , we will guarantee , i promise , to be utilized almost exclusively for katrina and rita . 
it is estimated as a result of the katrina disaster , 100 , 000 homes are impaired or destroyed : 100 , 000 . 
the guesstimate of what it might take to pay off mortgages , to clean the mess up , and to build homes back is easily $ 30 billion . 
that is katrina . 
then we talk about rita and then welcome back and plug wilma in as a natural disaster , $ 500 million in the scope of this debate , concerning ourselves with creating a resource for additional political activism does not make sense . 
now , let us talk about the administration of the program : who is going to run it , what is the program . 
i know how you check on a house . 
you go see if it is there . 
then you can figure out if somebody is in it and who are they . 
you can look at their income tax return ; and , yes , they are entitled to be here pursuant to the provisions of the program . 
how do you regulate a bus acquisition program used for hauling people to the polls ? 
who is going to do that ? 
what are the rules ? 
how about this ? 
how about you leave katrina/rita victims alone , come back with regulations that create a system , something that makes sense . 
here is how you do it . 
here is how you comply . 
then you get the money . 
no , we want to take the money first and figure it out later . 
that is what gets this place in trouble . 
now , if we really want to work together and reclaim our bipartisan territory , let us take it one step at a time . 
let us figure out what the problem is , figure out a remedy , let us promulgate it , make it subject to hearings , pass it through the congress , and plug some money in later . 
now , i know that may be too logical , but i really want to leave that as a thought before you vote against the manager 's amendment . 
this is a well-crafted proposal with extremely limited resources aimed at an enormous problem that otherwise will not get resolved in a very cost-effective manner , and we will outstrip the resources of this proposal for 5 years , much less the 2 years for which the money has been officially dedicated for this purpose . 
keep in mind , if you are building houses and hauling voters and registering and engaged in political advocacy as of the date of passage of this bill , you can still do it . 
you just do not get to back your truck up to the u.s. treasury and download a bunch of this money . 
that is all . 
it is an easy choice , and i suggest to the house that it is a reasonable position for us to take and a responsible position . 
it is not an attack on the basic civil rights of this country . 
