Have you liked what you’ve learned about how things have been going within the areas suffering from Katrina? Are you aware that FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) is a part of the Department of Homeland Security?

So many of us have friends or family directly affected or know people who do. So many of us here in Austin have been seeing and hearing of the organized (and disorganized) efforts to help our visitors who have fled from the storm’s devastation and how well they’ve been proceeding, what’s successful and what yet needs to be done.

Congressman Lamar Smith, now in his first term of representing portions of Austin (as the Republican member of Congress from the 21st House district), will be in town and conducting two town-hall meetings right here in Austin, this Saturday, September 10.

9:00 AM: Highland Park Elementary School cafeteria (4900 Fairview Drive, Austin) (map), near MoPac and 45th Street

11:00 AM: Kocurek Elementary School Cafeteria (9800 Curlew Drive, Austin) (map), South Austin near Brodie and Slaughter

Smith is a member of the Select Homeland Security Committee and also chairs the subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property of the House Judiciary Committee, which is charged with oversight of issues of digital rights management (DRM) and related hot topics. Austin may be on the fringes of his district, but Smith is at the center of of top-priority matters in D.C. and will be right here in Austin to hear what’s on people’s minds. Got opinions?