[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 75 (Wednesday, June 4, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H3281]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      RELIEF FOR DISASTER VICTIMS

  (Mr. BALDACCI asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BALDACCI. Mr. Speaker, in Maine we have had floods and disasters, 
and this Government has responded very appropriately and very 
expeditiously. At a time now where the Dakotas and Minnesotas have been 
in disaster and declared disasters, Congress has been struggling in 
order to get adequate relief to the people left homeless and the 
thousands of people left without answers.
  The very basic function of our Government is to be there for people 
in these very dark hours. I think it is totally irresponsible on the 
part of this Congress to have recessed while this job was not done. 
Paving roads on public lands, automatic continuing resolutions, and 
samplings of census and other extraneous material should not be added 
to this emergency appropriation.
  There are thousands of people who are left homeless. There are many 
thousands of individuals and businesses that are looking for answers. 
Our Government should be there at this time, and we should not clutter 
it with unnecessary, unrelated extraneous materials. What we need is a 
clean supplemental appropriation measure and we need to pass it as soon 
as possible.

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