On Tuesday, July 3, Speaker pro Tempore Sally Lieber will present Assembly Joint Resolution 22 (AJR 22) in support of the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project, a national effort to develop federal legislation to create 100,000 WPA-like jobs to rebuild the region using Gulf Coast residents.  Tomorrow’s hearing will be the first step in putting California on the record demanding renewed attention to the post-Katrina rebuilding of the Gulf Coast region.

“Too many families, the aged and the disabled, remain displaced with inadequate housing, shelter, health care, employment and education almost two years after Katrina devastated the region,” said Assemblywoman Lieber .  “The post-Katrina recovery effort remains an abject lesson of the failure of local, state and federal government agencies to properly plan, coordinate and implement timely, compassionate emergency and reconstruction responses.”

AJR 22 calls upon each U.S. Senator and Representative from California and the President to support the passage of federal legislation based on the Gulf Coast Civic Works Project.

Amber McZeal, a Hurricane Katrina survivor living in the Bay Area, commented, “As of this moment not one unified, concrete plan has been presented to resolve the issue of the over 250,000 people still displaced from the Gulf Coast…the impact of the separation from our community has been devastating for all of us.”