logan sandy aff

7/27/2019 Logan Sandy Aff

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[Sandy Aff]Lynbrook Policy12 13

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Logan Sandy Aff


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Introduction

On October 29th, 2012, America witnessed the largest Atlantic hurricane onrecord, as well as the second-costliest Atlantic hurricane in history after Katrina.Hurricane Sandy, which started from the Western Caribbean Sea and moved up

to the east coast of the United States, has resulted over 50 billion dollars indamages and has called the world into a state of emergency. More specifically,Sandy greatly damaged the nations transportation infrastructure floodingsubways, eroding tunnels, closing airports, and shedding light on the dismalstate of the safety of public structures.

As a response, on December 29th, 2012, the Senate passed a $60 billion bill thatnot only allowed for the repair of current damages but also for provisions tomitigate damage from future storms. Unfortunately, Speaker of the House, JohnBoehner, cancelled the voting entirely in the House on ideological premises withregard to a specific portion that allowed for unlimited emergency spending

essentially killing the bill.

Facing extreme criticism from the media, Speaker Boehner quickly called theHouse to vote a $10 billion insurance bill that covered the insurance fees fordamaged properties in areas affected by Sandy.

However, it wasnt until the Tuesday night of this week that the House finallygottogether to pass a $51 billion Sandy Relief bill, with $17 billion specificallyallocated for Sandy relief efforts and a $33 billion amendment for generaldisaster relief.

Next week, the senate is scheduled to vote and pass this bill without muchconflict, given that they have previously passed a similar bill. If we stay with thestatus quo, this seemingly beneficial Sandy Relief bill will most likely go intoeffect within two weeks.

Here is where my partner Sunny and I propose an alternate course of action.Instead of letting this bill, which is filled with smaller, unrelated bills such as theimprovement of Alaskan fisheries for a cost of $150 million, we affirm this yearsresolution of increasing transportation infrastructure investment by advocatingthe following plan: the United States Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid shouldcancel the vote scheduled for next week and President Barack Obama should

issue an executive order to redirect all funding for unrelated bills from theSandy Disaster Relief Package to increase investment in hurricane damagemitigation techniques as part of a new Sandy Relief Bill. Throughout the round,we will clarify what our plan does in terms of solving for the stock issue of harmsLets now go to the stock issue of inherency.


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Inherency

Here, the affirmative team must prove that the plan wont happen in the statusquo. There are two reasons why our plan is inherent: first, the irrelevant billswont be cut in the status quo, which means there is no way for our plan to

happen without some change; second, our new Sandy Relief Bill is distinct fromthe one scheduled for vote next week, which can only mean that there is a barrierto our plan happening in the status quo.

Furthermore, 1 out of every 20 dollars spent for the Sandy Relief Bill will be onirrelevant projects. This means 3 billion dollars will be redirected to fundingmitigation projects under our plan.This evidence comes from Breitbart on January 16th, 2013 (http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/01/16/60-Billion-Sandy-Bill-Larded-With-Pork)Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-SC) sponsored an amendment that would have administered a 1.63% cut to discretionary programs to fund the $17 billionbaseline bill. "The time has come and gone in this nation where we can walk in here one day and spend nine or 17 or 60 billion dollars and not thinkabout who's paying for it," said Rep. Mulvaney. However, the measure was defeated 162-258. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) voted against the Mulvaneyamendment; Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) voted for it. Chairman of the House AppropriationsCommittee Hal Rogers (R-KY) blasted the effort to offset spending, saying it would involve devastating slash and burn cuts that would totally

discriminate, cutting the good and the bad. On top of the $17 billion bill, Representative. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ)offered another amendment that added $33.7 billion to the aid package. That measure passed 228-192, with 20Republicans from unaffected areas voting for it. As Human Events notes, the Frelinghuysen amendment wasloaded with superfluous spending, including $500 million for weather forecasting and to help create an oceanzoning planthe later one of Obamas pet projects. Also included are $10 million for FBI salaries $2 billion forroad construction across the country, as well as funding for the Head Start program, roof repairs at theSmithsonian, and $150 million for fisheries across the country. The third piece of the relief package involved a $9 billion billpassed earlier this month for the National Flood Insurance Program.But as with most legislative efforts, say critics, the devil is inthe details. Take, for example, the Frelinghuysen amendment. According to Patrick Louis Knudsen of theHeritage Foundation: One of the most stunning elements in the amendment is $16 billion for the CommunityDevelopment Block Grant, a slush fund that states and localities can hand out pretty much anywhere they

choose. The amendment contains several pages of language ostensibly aimed at restricting use of the funds, butalso says they can be applied to other eligible events in calendar years 2011, 2012, and 2013. Its just a guess,

but events in 2011 and 2013 are not likely the result of Hurricane Sandy. This is the kind of spending that helpsunravel coherent budgeting and contributes to chronic, trillion-dollar deficits.American Majority Action,

which emerged as an early leader in opposing efforts to pack pork into the Sandy relief package, says neitherthe $17 billion base bill nor the $33 billion Frelinghuysen amendment offset spending, and less than 20% of theaid they promise will be received in 2013. In an email to Breitbart News, American Majority Action Press Secretary Ron Meyer said bigspending Republicans have much to explain: Republicans run the House of Representatives, yet, somehow, the House passed a pork-ridden, unpaid-for

bill. More than 80 percent of this supposed emergency bill will be spent after 2013, and $1 of every $20 will bespent on pork projects. Of all bills, did we really need to load up Sandy aid with pork? How much lower canCongress get?America has come to expect this disgraceful behavior from Democrats, but now, under Speaker Boehner, get ready for more bills likethis one. Less than 20 percent of House Republicans supported this measure. Speaker Boehner and the liberal-leaning Republicans worked withDemocrats to pass it anyway. Expect this coalition of liberal-leaning Republicans and liberal Democrats to continue. They are now the voting majority.

Wednesday, Mike Flynn of Breitbart News said the 20 Republicans who voted for the pork-laden Frelinghuysen amendment may now face stiff primaryopposition. The Senate is expected to take action on the House bill next week.

Lets now go the stock issue of harms.


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Harms

Here, the affirmative team must prove that doing the plan is worthwhile becauseof the undesirable consequences

An article from the Atlantic reports about economic damage caused byHurricane Sandyhttp://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/10/sandys-damage-so-far-more-than-20-billion/264288/In New York City, perhaps the worst-case scenario is the flooding of the subway system....In the event that thesubway tunnels under the Harlem and East Rivers were out for more than a month, the economic cost could be$55 billion, [Klaus H. Jacob, a scientist at Columbia University's Earth Institute,] told the New York Times justthis September. That figure alone is equal to half the estimated property damage of Hurricane Katrina andmore than every other hurricane in U.S. history

Before we talk about Sandy, however, we want to talk about the science behindwhy Sandy occurred. Triggered by the effects of climate change, HurricaneSandy is the new normal for super hurricanes.

An article from Business Bloomberg reads, [November 1, 2012 Paul M. Berretthttp://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-01/its-global-warming-stupid#p3]

Yes,yes, its unsophisticated to blame any given storm on climate change. Men and women in white lab coatstell usand theyre rightthat many factors contribute to each severe weather episode. Climate deniers exploitscientific complexity to avoid any discussion at all. Clarity, however, is not beyond reach. Hurricane Sandy demands it: At least 40U.S. deaths. Economic losses expected to climb as high as $50 billion. Eight million homes without power. Hundreds of thousands of people evacuated.

More than 15,000 flights grounded. Factories, stores, and hospitals shut. Lower Manhattan dark, silent, and underwater.An unscientific surveyof the social networking literature on Sandy reveals an illuminating tweet (you read that correctly) fromJonathan Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota. On Oct. 29, Foleythumbed thusly: Would this kind of storm happen without climate change? Yes. Fueled by many factors. Isstorm stronger because of climate change? Yes. Eric Pooley, senior vice president of the EnvironmentalDefense Fund (and former deputy editor of Bloomberg Businessweek), offers a baseball analogy: We cant saythat steroids caused any one home run by Barry Bonds, but steroids sure helped him hit more and hit themfarther. Now we have weather on steroids. In an Oct. 30 blog post, Mark Fischetti of Scientific American tooka spin through Ph.D.-land and found more and more credentialed experts willing to shrug off the climatecaveats. The broadening consensus: Climate change amps up other basic factors that contribute to big storms.For example, the oceans have warmed, providing more energy for storms. And the Earths atmosphere has

warmed, so it retains more moisture, which is drawn into storms and is then dumped on us. Even those of uswho are science-phobic can get the gist of that. Sandy featured a scary extra twist implicating climate change.An Atlantic hurricane moving up the East Coast crashed into cold air dipping south from Canada. The collisionsupercharged the storms energy level and extended its geographical reach. Pushing that cold air south was anatmospheric pattern, known as a blocking high, above the Arctic Ocean. Climate scientists Charles Greene andBruce Monger of Cornell University, writing earlier this year in Oceanography, provided evidence that Arcticicemelts linked to global warming contribute to the very atmospheric pattern that sent the frigid burst downacross Canada and the eastern U.S. If all that doesnt impress, forget the scientists ostensibly devoted to

advancing knowledge and saving lives. Listen instead to corporate insurers committed to compiling statisticsfor profit. On Oct. 17 the giant German reinsurance company Munich Re issued a prescient report titled Severe

Weather in North America. Globally, the rate of extreme weather events is rising, and nowhere in the world isthe rising number of natural catastrophes more evident than in North America. From 1980 through 2011,

weather disasters caused losses totaling $1.06 trillion. Munich Re found a nearly quintupled number ofweather-related loss events in North America for the past three decades.By contrast, there was an increasefactor of 4 in Asia, 2.5 in Africa, 2 in Europe, and 1.5 in South America. Human-caused climate change is

believed to contribute to this trend, the report said, though it influences various perils in different ways.Global warming particularly affects formation of heat waves, droughts, intense precipitation events, and in thelong run most probably also tropical cyclone intensity, Munich Re said. This July was the hottest month
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-01/its-global-warming-stupid#p3http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-01/its-global-warming-stupid#p3


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recorded in the U.S. since record-keeping began in 1895, according to the National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration. The U.S. Drought Monitor reported that two-thirds of the continental U.S. suffered droughtconditions this summer. Granted, Munich Re wants to sell more reinsurance (backup policies purchased by other insurance companies), somaybe it has a selfish reason to stir anxiety. But it has no obvious motive for fingering global warming vs. other causes. If the first effects of climatechange are already perceptible, said Peter Hoppe, the companys chief of geo-risks research, all alerts and measures against it have become even morepressing.

Furthermore, physical damage to New York Subway alone costs $5 billionThis is from the National Public Radio on December 16th, 2012(http://www.npr.org/2012/12/06/166672858/post-sandy-fixes-to-nyc-subways-to-cost-billions)Most subway stations in New York City affected by Superstorm Sandy have opened by now, but the South Ferry station at the southern tip of Manhattanis still closed. And when you get inside, it's easy to see why. The platform is still coated with dirt more than a month after the storm. The tile walls arecovered in grime from the tracks all the way up to the ceiling 25 feet overhead. There's debris dangling from the exit signs; the escalators look like theymay never work again. Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials tried to barricade the entrance, which is just yards from the New York harbor,but the barricades didn't hold. On the night of the storm, seawater rushed in and submerged much of the station. "You basically have a Sheetrockceiling. This all came down," says Joseph Leader, the chief maintenance officer for the New York City subway system, as he guided several reportersthrough ankle-deep water in a dimly lit passageway. "The tile, the panels that stuff I would say can be cleaned. Everything else I think needs to begutted out and replaced." That includes all of the electrical wiring and all of the ductwork. Leader says the track itself can be saved, but anything thatruns on electricity can't. That includes a whole room full of switches, relays and other specialized electronic gear that was installed just four years ago.

Saltwater has corroded contacts for the relays. "You could try and clean this but you'd never get 100 percentwhere reliability would be good," Leader says. "So the only way to do this is really just to rip this out and startfrom scratch." That may be one reason subway officials say this station alone could cost $600 million to fix.

Leader's boss MTA Chairman Joe Lhota testified before a Senate subcommittee in Washington on Thursday about the extent of the damage."We're nowhere near normal operations. It's important to remember that hundreds of millions of gallons ofsaltwater completely inundated our system that's over 100 years old. We will be feeling the residual effects ofthis storm for months, if not years, to come," Lhota said. Lhota estimates it will cost $5 billion to get thesubway system back to where it was before Sandy. But New York Sen. Charles Schumer says that should beonly part of the goal. "You can't replace exactly what has been damaged. But even if you could, you wouldn't

want to. You want to make sure that the next storm that occurs, that we are much more flood-proof," Schumersays. Transportation officials provided few specifics on what that might mean except that it will require lots of additional federal money. That maybe hard to come by as Congress and the White House wrestle over deficit reduction plans. For now, Leader says riders who want to catch the subway atSouth Ferry will have to walk half a mile to the next stop. "For the most part, New York has been resilient in that sense of understanding that we took abig hit, and it's gonna be like this for a while," says Leader. Leader says it may six months to a year before the South Ferry station is open to riders.

Lets go to the last stockissue of solvency.
http://www.npr.org/2012/12/06/166672858/post-sandy-fixes-to-nyc-subways-to-cost-billionshttp://www.npr.org/2012/12/06/166672858/post-sandy-fixes-to-nyc-subways-to-cost-billions


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Solvency

Here, the affirmative team has the burden of proving that the plan is a feasiblepolicy option.

Our first argument is that numerous mitigation techniques already exist and areready for implementation, according to the NYS2100 reportThis is from the Fox News on January 8th, 2013(http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2013/01/08/apnewsbreak-sandy-report-details-ny-storm-needs-like-subway-gates-rapid-buses/)Floodgates for tunnels, subways and airports as well as a network of safe havens like old Civil Defense sheltersshould be among quick, simple preventive measures New York installs for future storms, according to the fullreport byan expert panel examining Superstorm Sandy's effects in New York. The 205-page report obtained byThe Associated Press also calls for two more tunnels out of Manhattan, a rapid bus system and another LongIsland Rail Road track and details how to better pay for it all by forging new partnerships with companies andseveral ways to improve insurance coverage for the state and residents. Some elements of the report were presented last weekbut the report wasn't released publicly. The full report was delivered to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is expected to include some recommendations in his

State of the State speech Wednesday.The report includes other recommendations that are already used in other statesand countries, many at little or no cost. It recommends partnerships with private businesses for severalprojects and combining already-budgeted or planned routine maintenance or capital projects with measures toprotect against disaster. "We tried to think about what was going to be most effective for emergencies, but what do you also want to have in justa normal, high-functioning 21st-century system?" said Judith Rodin, co-chairwoman of the NYS 2100 Commission, in an interview. Previous drafts ofthe report focused on barrier islands and man-made barriers as well as "plugs" for subways to close air vents. Though they are elements of the report,they are among many recommendations. "There is no single fix," Rodin said. Sandy is the most costly natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.The storm damaged or destroyed 305,000 housing units in New York and more than 265,000 businesses were disrupted there, officials have said. More

than 72,000 homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed in New Jersey."Building resilience is not a luxury," said Rodin, whois also president of the Rockfeller Foundation think tank on public policy and government. "Every state has aneconomic development strategy, but we can no longer think project by project," she said. The report further identifiesmeasures to protect against earthquakes and the danger of tsunami-like disasters that could hit New York City after an earthquake, as well as specific

protections needed for upstate areas hit hard in 2011 by tropical storms Irene and Lee. Cuomo spokesman Josh Vlasto declined to comment.Themeasures in the report include: Raising some rail lines and signals above projected flood levels.

Waterproofing subways and electronics sensitive to salt water. Greater attention to project the drinkingwater supply. The state's 30- and 40-year-old wastewater systems statewide were overwhelmed by storms thelast two years, the report stated. Burying key energy lines underground to reduce damage from downed

wires. A rapid bus transit network in dedicated lanes to reduce dependence on subways in lower Manhattanand allow exits to outer boroughs. Well-stocked and disaster-protected safe havens with generators inschools, hospitals and government buildings as well as big-box stores and shopping malls willing to besanctuaries in exchange for incentives and support. Greater coordination with New Jersey and Connecticutin girding against the next storms. Adding water pumps at airports with emergency generators that withother measures would have kept airports open during Sandy. The report notes airports are a critical piece inlong-term relief efforts. Hiring a New York chief to analyze risk and act upon in, replacing separate efforts byagencies. Allowing the growth of new grasses in wetland such as the Fire Island Wilderness breach. This

would be part of more natural and man-made barriers which could also increase public access to the shore and

reduce "urban heat island effects." Using porous materials for roads near the coast. Pooling criticalenergy apparatus in regions such as extra-high voltage transformers which can take months to manufactureand transport. Buying updated software to better predict flooding. Installing waterproof vertical, roll-down doors at the foot of subway stair entrances, closures for underground vents, inflatable plugs and bladdersfor ventilation shafts, and sealing electrical equipment from water. Installing barriers and gates to preventflooding of docks and ports. A state fuel depot. Coordination of skilled residents such as electricians torespond to disaster and training for all citizens to respond to disaster.
http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2013/01/08/apnewsbreak-sandy-report-details-ny-storm-needs-like-subway-gates-rapid-buses/http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2013/01/08/apnewsbreak-sandy-report-details-ny-storm-needs-like-subway-gates-rapid-buses/http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2013/01/08/apnewsbreak-sandy-report-details-ny-storm-needs-like-subway-gates-rapid-buses/http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2013/01/08/apnewsbreak-sandy-report-details-ny-storm-needs-like-subway-gates-rapid-buses/


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Our second argument the President can issue executive orders by bypassingcongress this is the most desirable policy option that avoids political bickeringThis comes from Thomasson in 2012 [Scott, president of NewBuild Strategies LLC, an energy andinfrastructure consulting firm, former policy director at a nonprofit think tank, has testified before Congressabout proposals for financing infrastructure, Encouraging U.S. Infrastructure Investment, Council onForeign Relations Policy Innovation Memorandum No. 17, April,

http://www.cfr.org/infrastructure/encouraging-us-infrastructure-investment/p27771]Despite the pressing infrastructure investment needs of the United States, federal infrastructure policy is

paralyzed by partisan wrangling over massive infrastructure billsthat fail to move through Congress.

Federal policymakers should think beyond these bills alone and focus on two politically viable

approaches 500s), tolling and user fees, and low-cost borrowing through innovative credit and bond programs. Second, Congress and President

BarackObama should improve federal financing programs and streamline regulatory approvals to move billionsof dollars for planned investments into construction. Both recommendations can be accomplished, either with modest

legislation that can bypass the partisan gridlock slowing bigger bills or through presidential action, without the need for

congressional approval.


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logan sandy aff

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