Day 9, Way 9For today, in honor of the Katrina survivors'
march on Washington, we bring you a political action item: call your Congressional representatives and ask them to support H.R. 4197!
What is H.R. 4197, you ask? Good question. I discovered this morning that you can find out all about it through a search engine called Thomas at the
Library of Congress, which allows you to search for the text of any piece of pending legislation. You just go there, enter the title or bill number, and voila:
H.R. 4197: The Hurricane Katrina Recovery, Reclamation, Restoration, Reconstruction and Reunion Act of 2005!
It's going to take you longer than you have to read the whole thing, so let me give you the pertinent bits: this resolution would create a victims' recovery fund, force the EPA to deal with environmental hazards created by Katrina and to notify residents of the dangers involved in moving back to their homes, create federal grants for the rebuilding of hospitals and clinics and for services targeted at eliminating the "disparities" in health care between the rich and the poor, provide disaster relief Medicaid, and so on. It would also amend the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Emergency Response and Recovery Act to increase and extend some of the benefits, including unemployment coverage.
The part that's inspiring the march today is the section dealing with "Housing and Community Rebuilding." As far as I can tell (and I am not a lawyer), it would appropriate a shitload of money for housing and community development initiatives, including $3.5 billion (billion? That's what $3,500,000,000 is, right?) for emergency rental vouchers for people who still don't have permanent housing. It would also prohibit FEMA or the government from using this money to house people in substandard dwellings and create a mortgage protection fund so people don't lose their homes because they've been thrown out of work by the hurricane.
Anyway. If you want to join the march and you live in the D.C. area, there's still time.
Here are the details:March begins at 1:30 p.m. (West Front of the Capitol)
Participants should begin gathering at 1:00 p.m.
Closest Metro Station – Capitol South (orange/blue lines)
Marchers will walk from the West Front of the Capitol to Lafayette Square Park/White House
Rally/Demonstration/Vigil 3:00 p.m. – 12:00 midnightand if you're too far away, you can still call your House reps and tell them to support the resolution. You can look them up at
www.house.gov.
Enjoy,
The Plaid Adder
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