[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 82 (Thursday, June 12, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H3724]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      EMERGENCY FLOOD RELIEF BILL

  (Mr. WISE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. WISE. Mr. Speaker, today the House can help a lot of fathers, 
today; we do not have to wait until Sunday, on Fathers Day, by passing 
the emergency flood relief bill. Today the House has a chance to do 
what should have been done many months ago, for fathers yes, mothers, 
children, a whole lot of other people, by passing a flood relief bill 
that helps West Virginia, Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, the Dakotas, the 
Midwest, California.
  The Senate has already agreed to take out the nonrelated matters, the 
things that do not have anything to do with flood relief. But yet the 
House has not yet gone along with that. But it can. Why are we arguing 
about how we shut the Government down or do not shut it down or the 
census, how we count in the year 2000?
  The fact is, if we do not pass this bill today, a lot of local 
governments may be shutting down and there may not be enough people to 
count in some of our flood-torn areas. If the House passes it today, 
West Virginians can begin rebuilding the river banks in Cabell and 
Putnam County. They can begin working on Herbert Hoover High School and 
the others that were damaged; farmers can begin getting that emergency 
assistance because they lost their fences and suffered other damage.
  If this bill does not pass today, Mr. Speaker, then Sunday a lot of 
fathers and their families can ask whether this leadership really 
cares.

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