[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 79 (Monday, June 9, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5387-S5390]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            DISASTER RELIEF

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I come to the floor and I think that 
other Senators will certainly be on the floor today, tomorrow, and as 
long as it takes, to speak about the disaster in my State and in the 
Dakotas and other States as well. I really come to the floor today to 
speak about a disaster, really a disaster on top of a disaster, because 
the disaster supplemental, which the Congress completed action on 
Thursday has still not been sent to the White House. There has been a 
disaster in our States and peoples lives have been devastated and they 
are waiting for additional Federal assistance.
  Mr. President, there is the disaster that people are faced with in 
Minnesota and the Dakotas of having been

[[Page S5388]]

flooded out of their homes. I heard the Chaplain's prayer, that we 
resolve our impasse this week, and I thank him for his prayer. He is 
always very sincere and I hope all of us will listen to him because 
there has to be a way that we can get help to people who really are 
trying to rebuild their lives.
  I heard the mayor from Grand Forks, ND, this morning on one of the 
national network shows. She was saying that people are doing well at 
the community level because they really are helping each other out and 
trying to get back to their regular normal routines. But the one thing 
that is just continuing to really discourage and demoralize people is 
they still do not know whether or not there will be any additional 
Federal assistance. They are waiting week after week after week.
  Mr. President, I feel that the disaster, the other disaster, is the 
disaster here in the Congress. I spoke for a long time about this last 
week, and then said at the end of the week--and I am not really, by the 
way, looking forward to this--I said that I was prepared to come to the 
floor and speak for a long time again this week on the need for this 
emergency supplemental assistance. I do not know what the business of 
the Senate will be, but I am prepared to make sure that there is no 
business as usual in the Senate until we pass a clean supplemental that 
the President can sign. This has to be resolved.
  The particular disaster I want to speak to this afternoon, Mr. 
President, is the fact that some very controversial riders have been 
added to the supplemental. I think the people in Minnesota and the 
Dakotas are confused about this issue as well. They do not understand 
why some Members of the House and the Senate have insisted on adding 
these controversial riders. The purpose of this emergency disaster 
supplemental is to get much needed assistance out to these people who 
have been flooded out of their homes, not as a vehicle for unrelated 
issues like the continuing resolution and a provision relating to how 
the 2000 census will be done. By the way, the vast majority of people 
in Minnesota do not agree with that.
  So you have an effort to attach on what is called a continuing 
resolution, and then you have another amendment dealing with the way we 
take our census. Unrelated issues that the President said he would veto 
the bill over. By the way, when the President came out to visit North 
Dakota and South Dakota and Minnesota he said way back then when he 
looked at the devastation, ``I just hope that people will keep this a 
clean bill. Please get the help to people. Do not put on other 
measures.'' He always said he would veto it.
  Now, here is my question. Why hasn't the bill been sent to the White 
House yet? Here it is 12:10, today, Monday. To my knowledge, after this 
piece of legislation was to be sent to the President on Thursday of 
last week, it was not. First we have the House of Representatives going 
on vacation, Memorial Day recess, not even finishing the bill, not even 
finishing the bill. Then we finally got this passed on Thursday and now 
we find out that, now it is 12:10 Monday, they still have not sent the 
bill over to the President. This is unconscionable on top of 
unconscionable. They did not send the bill over to the President on 
Friday. They know he will veto it. What is the majority party doing? I 
would be quite prepared to debate anybody who wants to debate me on 
this.
  I do not agree, most of the people in Minnesota do not agree, with 
attaching unrelated issues to the supplemental. Keep the bill clean and 
get the help to people.
  Why hasn't the bill, that you know the President is going to veto, 
been sent to the President? You did not send it on Friday, you have not 
sent it on the weekend, and you have not even sent it come Monday. Some 
people can be incredibly generous with the suffering of others. Can 
anybody on the floor of the U.S. Senate who agrees with this decision 
not to even send the bill to the President--you know he will veto it, 
then it comes back here, then maybe we can have an agreement--can 
anybody justify that? Not for me, as a Senator from Minnesota, but for 
the people in East Grand Forks or Grand Forks or Warren or Ada, and a 
whole lot of other communities.
  Now, here is what I see, and this is just transparent:

       GOP sources alternately said they declined to send the 
     disaster relief bill to the White House last week because 
     either they wanted to give the President a chance to change 
     his mind--which they were hoping to do through a weekend 
     grassroots effort--or they were afraid Clinton would be able 
     to monopolize the Sunday talk shows with his explanation of 
     the expected veto.

  This is unbelievable. So here is what we have. Talk about talking out 
of two sides of your mouth. On the one hand people are saying, no, we 
do not want to send the bill to them because we really think that we 
will have a chance to change his mind. On the other hand, they say, no, 
we do not want to send a bill to him because we know he will veto it 
and we do not want him to be on Sunday shows talking about why he has 
vetoed it.
  Mr. President, can I suggest a third point to you, and that is, to 
people who are waiting for help, they do not understand these games. So 
I suggest to my colleagues on the majority side that it is time to send 
the bill to the President. You should not have delayed it on Friday. 
You should not be delaying it today. You know full well he will veto 
the bill. You are playing politics with people's lives. Get the bill 
back here, let us get to work and get the help to people. This has 
become really callous and really insensitive.
  Now here we have another explanation:

       House Majority leader Dick Armey, Texas, on Friday said 
     Congress would not send Clinton the bill until today, even 
     though the enrolling clerk had already finished work on it. 
     ``We think it's important that the President have a weekend 
     to think this thing through,'' he said.
       But Republicans also needed some time to think about what 
     their plan will be if the measure is vetoed.
       GOP leaders were in ``some turmoil'' over what their game 
     plan should be, as a GOP aide said.

  I put the emphasis on game. Stop playing games. I do not care whether 
it is Republicans or Democrats. I only care right now about the people 
in East Grand Forks, MN, and the people in the Dakotas and other 
communities in Minnesota. I do not care about these games. They know 
the President was going to veto it. This was just an effort to 
embarrass the President and it still has not been sent to him. You know 
what, colleagues? I do not know whether you have embarrassed the 
President or not, I do not think you have, but the point is you have 
embarrassed yourselves. You have embarrassed yourselves because 
everybody can see through this. If you want to provide disaster relief 
to people in an emergency supplemental, then we should understand it is 
an emergency supplemental bill. It is a disaster. People are waiting to 
rebuild their homes. People are waiting to rebuild their businesses. 
People are trying to find out whether or not they are going to be moved 
because they live in a floodplain or whether they will not be moved, 
and they cannot find out anything because of this unbelievable charade 
that is taking place here.

  I really do not understand it. I said last week that you have seen in 
the Dakotas and Minnesota a real sense of community. I see no sense of 
community here. I see no sense of community here. By the way, the vast 
majority of people would agree.
  I voted for the bill because I know how important it is to get help 
to people, but most people understand, and I can understand, what the 
President is doing. That as President, we have one President, he can 
say, look, give me a disaster relief bill, give me something that 
provides assistance to people. Do not mix up agendas. Do not impose 
your own agendas about how you want the census taken, do not impose 
your own agenda on whether you want money spent on education or not, do 
not impose your own agenda about public parks on a disaster relief bill 
for people.
  Now, if anybody wants to debate me, come on out. I am willing to stay 
here all afternoon. I would be willing to stay here all afternoon. If 
people don't come out, then I assume there is no debate for right now. 
I want to make it clear, Mr. President--very clear--and I would rather 
not do it and I am sure there will be help--but this week, until this 
disaster relief bill gets done, insofar as I am able to as the Senator 
from Minnesota, I will make sure that nothing else gets done here. To 
the extent that I can use every bit of knowledge

[[Page S5389]]

that I have and leverage as a Senator to fight for people in Minnesota.
  I am going to make sure that the Senate is a deliberative body. If my 
colleagues think this process is geared to grind slowly, I am going to 
make sure that it is practically at a halt.
  This is outrageous, I say to the Chair, and he can't comment, and he 
may be in complete agreement with me on the substance. But, frankly, he 
would do the same thing, I think, probably if it was his own State. I 
mean, enough is enough. We are not going to do business as usual until 
this disaster relief bill is passed and we get assistance to people. I 
cannot, for a moment, understand why--and I doubt whether anybody from 
the majority party is going to come out and debate me--even though I 
don't agree with adding on other provisions, what I really have trouble 
understanding is why did they not send it to the President Friday? Why 
is it 12:20 on Monday and this still hasn't been sent to the President? 
Maybe delay is fine here, this is all abstract; but these are people's 
lives. I bet you that you ask the American people whether or not they 
think there is any defense for not sending the bill to the President, 
which you know is going to be vetoed, so you can then get down to work 
and finally pass a bill to get help to people who have been flooded out 
of their homes, I bet you 99 percent of the people in the country would 
say they don't understand this at all. And they should not understand 
it because there is simply nothing to defend.
  Mr. President, the Washington Post had an editorial on Sunday that 
starts out, ``The President is right and Republicans are wrong about 
the disaster relief bill.'' I will amend that. Frankly, at this point 
in time I agree, but I want to make it crystal clear that it should not 
be a partisan issue. Let's just get the help to people, just get a 
disaster relief bill with provisions in the bill that have to do with 
providing disaster relief, and pass it. That is what we should do.
  The Post editorial goes on to say: ``Once again''--this is the 
language that is important--``in trying to use an appropriations bill 
as a forcing device, they have overreached. The amendments raise 
important issues that deserve to be debated on the merits and under the 
regular rules.'' And then the conclusion--``An emergency bill to 
provide flood relief in the upper Midwest, and to pay some of the cost 
of the Bosnia peacekeeping mission, and to plug a few unexpected holes 
in the budget, is the wrong place to thrash out these other issues.'' 
They were talking about right-of-way across Federal lands like this. 
They ought to back off.
  Here is an article written in the Pioneer Press by columnist Bill 
Salisbury. ``Political Ping-Pong is a Pathetic Game.'' That is quite a 
title. It starts out:

       The folks from Grand Forks and East Grand Forks were 
     perplexed. They came here Wednesday to make yet another plea 
     for Federal aid to help them recover from the spring flooding 
     that wrecked their town.
       The group of 11 city officials and business leaders got 
     patted on the head, assured that the national leaders feel 
     their pain, and once again were promised that the money will 
     soon be on its way.
       But if our Federal leaders had been completely honest with 
     the group, they would have said something like: ``You're 
     going to get your flood relief sooner or later, but first 
     we're going to play a little political ping-pong game, and 
     we're going to use you folks as the ball.''
  I don't think anybody could have said it better. That is what is 
going on here, a political ping-pong game using people in our 
communities, in the Dakotas and in Minnesota, as the ball. It is a 
political ping-pong game using people in our communities as the ball. 
Well, I have news for you, colleagues. If that is your plan, don't plan 
on conducting any other business on the floor of the U.S. Senate, 
because there are going to be some of us out here and we are going to 
really fight hard this week. This has just become outrageous.
  Now, Mr. President, I could focus on all of the conditions and the 
lives of people in our communities, and I will do that as we move 
forward this week because I want to reserve my voice and my strength 
for when the majority party is trying to conduct its business so I can 
come out here and make sure that doesn't happen. But let me, one more 
time at least, bring this to the attention of the people in Minnesota 
and in the Dakotas and elsewhere in the country.
  What is going on here? You have a disaster, and the disaster is right 
here in the Congress. The disaster right here is the leader--the 
disaster right here is the failure of the majority party to move this 
bill forward. I am sorry, I don't know any other way to say it. There 
are three issues. You have people in pain and they need help. They have 
been waiting week after week after week, and they are being used as the 
ball in a political ping-pong game.
  Second issue. You have people here who decided on an oh-so-clever 
strategy and that strategy was to say, OK, here is a disaster relief 
bill. Everybody is going to be for providing help to people. So now we 
have these other agendas. Why don't we take our other political agendas 
having to do with the Census Bureau and their work, and public parks 
and roads, having to do with fights over budget priorities, and why 
don't we just put these provisions in this bill? That is a disaster. 
But now we have another disaster. The disaster I am talking about today 
is the disaster of the majority party and after loading on these 
provisions and knowing the President is going to veto the bill on 
Friday, not sending the bill over, and with the bogus argument made 
about how ``we didn't want to because we thought maybe the President 
would change his mind,'' or ``actually, we didn't want to because, if 
we did, the President could get on the Sunday talk shows and make us 
look bad.''
  I don't really care whether those I work with look bad. I am worried 
about the people in my State. And now it is Monday and I have a 
question for the majority party: When are you going to send this bill 
to the President? What are you waiting for? How much more suffering 
does there have to be? How many more people do you want to demoralize? 
How much longer do you want people waiting? Where is your humanity? 
Send the bill over to the President, and then the President will veto 
the bill--he is going to veto the bill. Let's get to work and let's 
have some agreement. Let's have some compromise. Let's work things out, 
let's pass this bill, and let's pass this bill this week--tomorrow.
  But, Mr. President, we can't do anything until the majority party 
sends the bill over. I extend an invitation to any of my colleagues: 
Anytime you would like to come out on the U.S. Senate floor today and 
debate this question, please do, because it is a question that people 
in Minnesota and in the Dakotas have. If you would like to explain to 
the people in Minnesota and in the Dakotas on the floor of the U.S. 
Senate why you have not sent this bill to the President and why you are 
engaging in further delay, I would be very pleased for you to do so. I 
would be pleased. Actually, I think really you owe people that 
explanation. But I don't really think there is any argument that you 
can make.
  I will conclude this way this afternoon. I want my colleagues to know 
that I think it is indefensible and I don't blame you for not being out 
here because you can't defend it. I also want colleagues to know--those 
in support of this effort--that if we don't get to work on this and we 
don't pass this disaster relief bill, then I am prepared--and I am sure 
I will be joined by other colleagues as well because I heard Senator 
Daschle express a tremendous amount of indignation, along with both 
Senators from North Dakota, Mr. Conrad and Mr. Dorgan, and Senator 
Johnson from South Dakota, and we are prepared to fight very hard.

  So to my colleagues, whoever you are on the other side, whoever you 
are who made this decision not to even send this bill to the President, 
causing yet further delay and postponing the time when people will 
finally get help back in Minnesota, for some reason, I gather you think 
this is a clever strategy. I want you to know that people see through 
it and, in any case, I want you to know that until we get the work done 
here and we get the help to people, as a Senator from Minnesota, I am 
going to make sure that there will be no business as usual on the floor 
of the U.S. Senate. I may not always be able to get the floor, and it 
may not be all that easy, but I am quite convinced that this is what I 
should do, and I think other Senators will do the same thing. There 
comes a point in time when the only thing you can do, if you are trying 
to fight for people you represent, is come to the floor of the U.S.

[[Page S5390]]

Senate and use your leverage. It looks like this is one of those times.
  Mr. President, let me conclude on a more positive note. I hope that 
my colleagues in the majority party will send this bill to the 
President today. I hope that it will come back to us right away, and I 
``hope and pray,'' in the words of the Chaplain, that we will reach 
agreement and pass a disaster relief bill and that we will get help to 
people in Minnesota and in the Dakotas.
  Mr. President, these are good people, really good people. They have 
really been through a lot and they deserve our help. They don't deserve 
what we are doing to them right now.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, while it has been called to my 
attention that, in speaking quickly, I might have also called the 
leadership a disaster. That was not my intention.
  I will make sure that my remarks do not reflect that. I think it is a 
disaster here, what is going on. But I want to make it clear that 
nothing I said was intended in that way.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Thomas). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be 
recognized to speak as if in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. We are in morning business. The Senator may 
proceed.

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