Lawson for Congress

Our twenty-year incumbent Rep. David Price is Chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security. In this role, he has overseen an unprecedented transfer of power and wealth to the military-industrial complex through Homeland Security’s massive bureaucracy.

Evidence of Homeland Security’s reach is evidenced by today’s FEMA press release outlining our federal government’s activities in preparation for hurricane Gustav:

Snapshot of Federal Activities:

Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

* FEMA’s pre-positioned supplies available for distribution in Gulf Coast states include:
o More than 2.4 million liters of water (137 truckloads).
o More than 4 million meals (203 truckloads).
o 478 emergency generators.
o 141 truckloads of tarps.
o 267 truckloads of blankets and cots.

Transportation Security Administration (TSA)

* TSA has deployed 45 Transit Teams and 150 Transit Security Officers to facilitate the evacuation of critical transit need individuals.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) - continued
Customs and Border Protection (CBP)

* CBP is providing 20 Law Enforcement Officers to help protect Search & Rescue efforts.
* CBP has deployed 100 law enforcement personnel to help with evacuation and contra-flow traffic issues.
* CBP will provide reconnaissance and imagery to improve situational awareness.

U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)

* DOT, through the Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, is working with states, airports, airlines and bus companies to facilitate evacuations.
* DOT is managing planned contra-flow traffic on major highways to allow for expanded evacuation efforts and is tracking fuel availability along evacuation routes.

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

* HHS has deployed nine Disaster Medical Assistance Teams, 11 Health Strike Teams, two Incident Command Teams and nine Federal Medical Stations, each with a 250-bed capacity, to the region.
* HHS has more than 1,000 public health support staff in the region assigned to support medical evacuations and to address health care needs.

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

* VA has evacuated at-risk patients from VA hospitals in the most exposed facilities.
* VA is providing emergency managers to federal and state operations centers and has 190 medical staff on-hand to staff additional Federal Medical Stations as needed.

U.S. Department of Defense, Northern Command (NORTHCOM)

* Activated four Defense Coordinating Officers to provide assessment and coordination.
* Designated three military installations as FEMA National Logistics Staging Areas to support forward distribution of supplies and equipment to affected areas (Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama; Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi; and Naval Air Station Meridian, Mississippi).

U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)

* USCG Cutter DECISIVE will be underway from Pascagoula, MS on Saturday, 30 August, to provide a Command and Control platform in the Gulf of Mexico if needed.
* Coast Guard Sector Lower Mississippi River placed one Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) on standby and Sector Ohio Valley placed 3 additional DARTs on standby. DARTS have boats and personnel capable of conducting rescue in shallow water and urban environments.
* The Coast Guard currently has 19 Search and Rescue (SAR) helicopters and 10 SAR fixed wing aircraft available at Mobile, New Orleans, Corpus Christi, and Houston.
* The Coast Guard will begin conducting pre-storm over flights of estimated land fall locations based on NOAA weather models to identify potential issues/threats this weekend.

National Guard Bureau (NGB)

* National Guard members in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida are standing by with people and equipment. Personnel in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi have been activated to assist with evacuation and shelter operations.
* More than 65,000 National Guard personnel are currently available in the Gulf Coast region.
* Arkansas has entered into an Memorandum of Understanding with Louisiana to house up to 4,000 evacuees at Fort Chaffee, Ark., if Hurricane Gustav forces a mass evacuation

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)

* USACE is managing levee protection and flood fighting activities and has deployed equipment and personnel to support these efforts.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

* USDA provided information about how to keep food safe during power outages to the media in the Gulf Coast region.
* Consumers with food safety questions can “Ask Karen,” the FSIS virtual representative available 24 hours a day at AskKaren.gov. The toll-free Meat and Poultry Hotline 1-888-674-6854 is available in English and Spanish and can be reached from l0 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Eastern Time) Monday through Friday. Recorded food safety messages are available 24 hours a day.

U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)

* SBA has staff in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama and Mississippi to coordinate activities with federal and state partners.
* Reservists have been activated to staff SBA’s Disaster Customer Service Center (25 customer service reps), the Field Inspection Team (111 on stand-by), and the Processing and Disbursement center (59 loan offices; 10 attorneys).
* SBA’s field offices are using marketing materials to get the word out about preparedness to residents and business owners in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

The American Red Cross (ARC)

* ARC has headquarters operational in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas.
* Pre-positioned 19 emergency response vehicles and has 196 additional vehicles on standby nationwide.
* Placed Disaster Field Supply Centers on standby and deployed shelter and kitchen trailers to Alabama, Mississippi and Texas.
* Working to identify additional shelter locations in adjacent states to support evacuation efforts.

Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC)

* EMAC is coordinating requests from other, non-impacted states for support from Louisiana and Texas. Pennsylvania, Delaware and Ohio are among the states providing support for medical evacuations.

FEMA coordinates the federal government’s role in preparing for, preventing, mitigating the effects of, responding to, and recovering from all domestic disasters, whether natural or man-made, including acts of terror. For more information on FEMA activities visit www.fema.gov and for more information on personal preparedness see www.Ready.gov.

While this coordination among agencies is admirable, the press release raises a number of questions. Have our states and local communities become entirely dependent on this federal apparatus for emergency response? Considering this year’s repeal of 2006’s Insurrection Act modifications, why does the Department of Defense’s Northern Command (NORTHCOM) play a coordinating role in natural disasters?

Natural disasters have become reliable excuses for consolidating of federal power, instead of encouraging greater local control and self-sufficiency. Why has this occurred? Follow the money — in 1961, departing President Dwight Eisenhower warned us about the rise of the military-industrial complex. Forty years later, this same military-industrial complex was unable to account for $2.3 trillion in expenditures:

Who is responsible for spending all this money? Congress — and our own Rep. David Price.

Rep. Price funds the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Homeland Security funds Rep. Price. According to OpenSecrets.org, Rep. Price’s third largest PAC donor is the defense industry, including:

Boeing Co $3,000
EADS North America $2,000
Honeywell International $5,000
Lockheed Martin $6,000
United Technologies $1,000
DRS Technologies $5,000
General Dynamics $6,000
Harris Corp $5,000
L-3 Communications $5,000
Raytheon Co $7,000
SAIC Inc $1,000
Alion Science & Technology $1,000
Northrop Grumman $3,000
SRA International $1,000

On an individual basis, defense industry donors are the largest group, with $30,000 from Defense Electronics and $17,000 from Defense Aerospace.

As your Congressman, I will provide principled representation that answers to you, not corporate interests. I will advance a Constitutional federal government that encourages “hometown security,” instead of enriching government contractors through Homeland Security.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 31st, 2008 at 10:03 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.