Original at Daily Kingfish, a progressive Louisiana blog
After missing a House Committee on Homeland Security oversight hearing on FEMA this week, Jindal, trying to deflect negative media attention for failing to attend an oversight hearing of a committee on which he sits that is directly related to the recovery of the state he represents, is now calling for an oversight hearing on formaldehyde levels on FEMA trailors. According to the Herald Tribune, Jindal is "astonished" by the concentration of formaldehyde fumes in these trailors. Was not the oversight hearing held this week by the House Committee on Homeland Security the time and the place to ask FEMA questions about their investigation on formaldehyde levels in FEMA trailors? Did not FEMA release their report on formaldehyde levels in their trailors earlier this month? And were we not aware of these problems for at least a year? Does Jindal assume we are stupid?
Although FEMA only recently dismissed claims by environmentalists that the formaldehyde fumes in FEMA trailors present certain health hazards, we in Louisiana have known about this problem since those trailors were made available to the citizens of our state. Here is USA Today article that discusses the problem dated 4 August 2006. Here is a TruthOut.org press release dated 18 May 2006. Here is an article from MSNBC, a major news organization, dated 25 July 2006. And here is a news report from WLOX TV13, Biloxi, Gulfport and Pascagoula, Mississippi, that reports one Bay St. Louis's couples concerns about formaldehyde levels dated 17 March 2006. Jindal, in other words, is one year late, and he is making this announcement in order to compensate for not attending an oversight hearing on FEMA where he could have and should have asked these questions.
Oversight, Mr. Jindal, is not a media event; it is a responsibility Congresspeople take very seriously. We understand your unwillingness to hold this administration and its bureaucracies accountable, and we find your voting record against this state's recovery hypocritical and offensive. But to politicize formaldehyde levels in FEMA trailors in order to deflect attention from the fact that you missed a hearing at which you should have been in attendence and at which you could have addressed these very important concerns? How low will you sink, Mr. Jindal? What will you say and do to get elected? And does your office do any research? Do you seriously believe that we will buy this latest "Chicken Little" "Bobby" stunt?
Jindal on formaldehyde? I have six words: too little, too late, too sanctimonious. And notice how this is a pattern. We need to elect someone who takes our problems seriously. We need to elect someone who addresses problems when they arise, not when they can be freighted with political currency.