Christensen on Leadership Tour to New Orleans

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Delegate to Congress Donna M. Christensen is in New Orleans today with the leadership of the 110th Congress to include House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip James Clyburn as part of 20 member congressional delegation which is touring Gulf Coast cities and towns devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The delegation, which is touring the Gulf Coast by bus is exploring the status of the recovery, for which the 110th Congress has provided millions in funding. The group is meeting with local officials and discussing the issues of housing, health care, infrastructure, education and the perils of insurance coverage. The visit includes meetings at Xavier University, Unity of Greater New Orleans at Baronne Street, the LSU Community Health Clinic in New Orleans East, levee construction at the Harvey Canal and a return to the home of a New Orleans family that the leadership visited last summer. Congresswoman Christensen is part of the delegation particularly to view the status of the health infrastructure in the recovery process.

As chair of the Congressional Black Caucus’s Health Braintrust, she also participated in a Health Forum in Houston, Texas last Friday on Solutions to the Failures in the Healthcare System, and in the Tri-Caucus Health Summit that examined strategies to reduce health disparities in communities of color. Congresswoman Christensen participated in a forum on reducing health disparities among Native Americans in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Saturday sponsored by the Medical University of South Carolina, which focused on environmental protection, health, justice and development in Native American territory.

On Tuesday morning, she will join the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emerging Threats, Cybersecurity and Science and Technology, of which she is a member in Providence, Rhode Island at a hearing on “Emerging Biological Threats and Public Health Preparedness. Congresswoman Christensen will speak before the Southern AIDS Coalition on Tuesday evening in Birmingham, Alabama on Tuesday evening before returning to Washington, DC on Wednesday for Resources and Homeland Security meetings and deliberations on the House Floor for the rest of the week. "Although the weekend was packed, and exhausting in one sense, I am energized by having been able to witness first-hand the positive impact of the work we have been doing in health for people of color and the poor and in Katrina-devastated New Orleans,” the Congresswoman said. “I am particularly inspired by both the Native Americans and the people of New Orleans," she said. “We should all take a page from their courageous, resilient spirits, and their faith in the face of overwhelming challenges,” she said.