[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 80 (Tuesday, June 10, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H3649]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          REPUBLICANS PLAY POLITICS WITH DISASTER RELIEF BILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Rothman] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, what would my colleagues think of someone 
who stood by watching while a neighbor's house was burning down? What 
if that person refused to call the fire department for help unless he 
or she got something in return? We would not think much of that person.

                              {time}  2130

  Yet that is exactly what the Republican majority in Congress is doing 
with the flood victims in North Dakota as well as the victims in 35 
other States.
  The President of the United States and many of us in Congress have 
been trying to pass a $5.5 billion disaster relief bill for these 
families. But the Republican majority, much like they did with the 
government shutdown last year, is putting extremist ideology and 
partisan political maneuvering ahead of the relief for these needy 
people. Instead of giving these families the needed relief that they so 
very much deserve, they are holding the disaster relief bill hostage by 
trying to attach highly partisan legislative riders that have nothing 
to do with disaster relief. They know that these highly partisan 
extremist Republican riders would never pass the Congress if voted on 
separately. So what did they do? In very cynical judgment, the 
Republican leadership decided to tack these partisan riders onto a 
disaster relief bill, saying in their own political calculus, well, 
maybe we will embarrass the President of the United States into vetoing 
this, or maybe he will be so embarrassed he will not veto it and then 
we will get these partisan goodies for us, the Republican party.
  They underestimated President Clinton who said loudly and clearly 
that he would not be put in the position of having the Republican 
majority hold these victims hostage and let them get away with it. The 
Republican majority would have to put forth a clean disaster relief 
bill. Otherwise, he would not sign it. If they want a debate on these 
other partisan issues, fine, let us debate them in the Congress. If 
they are right, we will pass them. If they deserve support, we will 
support them.
  Last week, the Republican Senate majority leader is reported to have 
said that he would happily provide more trailers for these disaster 
victims to stay in while they, the Republicans, try to wear down the 
President to get their legislative goodies. If such reports are true 
and those remarks were in fact uttered, they are morally reprehensible. 
Such a position is unfair to these needy American families. Thousands 
of American citizens are homeless. They just lost all of their worldly 
possessions and are sleeping in shelters. They await Federal disaster 
relief funds to finance the rebuilding of their homes and their cities 
and helping each other in times of need. Is that not the essence of 
what it means to be an American, being part of the American community?
  If the Republicans really believe that their highly partisan 
political riders are worthy of support, they should remove them from 
the disaster relief bill and have the Congress take them up separately 
once the disaster bill, the clean disaster relief bill, has been passed 
by the House tomorrow. Then we will take up whatever riders they want.
  I urge my colleagues and my friends on the other side of the aisle to 
tell their leadership, the leadership of the Republican party, to stop 
playing politics with the lives of these thousands and thousands of 
disaster victims. Put forth a clean disaster relief bill. We will pass 
it in Congress. Our President will sign it. And let us help these 
people. Then we will take up your political stuff.

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