Speech #1090073543

This is a second blow to the people of New Orleans since most of them. as you saw on television. the city was 67 percent African American. 67 percent. So if you suspend any requirements that contractors have diversity in their hiring. then you are certainly not helping to guarantee that those people who lived there before. who suffered through the hurricane. who suffered through relocation. can come back and expect to get jobs. You are encouraging the contractors to ignore that. if it suits their purpose. and it will suit their purpose if they can get cheap labor from illegal immigrants. which is one of the problems that we are going to be confronted with as a result of not having any oversight on DavisBacon or on the affirmative action requirements. So we are not taking advantage of this catastrophe and making it an opportunity. It could be an opportunity to show how well the Federal Government operates to protect the interests of workers. how well we operate to bring back and guarantee that the people who have suffered through this are part of the rebuilding process.