[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 112 (Friday, July 25, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9930-S9931]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I have been informed that the House this 
evening will pass a bill for $989 million dealing with disaster relief. 
As my colleagues know, we received a supplemental request from the 
President for $1,550,000,000 for the Department of Homeland Security 
for disaster response. It is estimated that the disaster fund probably 
has already run out of money during this month of July. When the money 
runs out, when there are storms, tornados, whatever they have to deal 
with, they borrow from other accounts, which means as we get towards 
the end of this fiscal year those other accounts must come to an end. 
We have tried to meet the President's request by sending the 
supplemental as part of the legislative appropriations bill.
  The House has refused to conference with us on that bill. Now they 
are going to send us a bill that is totally inadequate. If they leave 
this city without giving us a supplemental for fires, it is going to 
leave the West burning, and it is going to bring to a halt other 
functions of the Federal Government which must continue through this 
period until September 30. I cannot believe that they would do this.
  The supplemental the President sent to us provided $50 million for 
NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, to cover 
unanticipated costs of the recovery and investigation of the Space 
Shuttle Columbia accident. I am informed that as far as NASA is 
concerned, the actual costs of the Columbia accident investigation 
board is about $150 million so far. That means NASA has to take that 
money out of their current accounts and the remainder of the year they, 
too, will be strapped and will not be doing the scientific 
investigations, not be doing the prevention that is necessary in order 
to get ready for another NASA shuttle flight.
  We received the supplemental on July 8. We acted almost as quickly as 
possible. It is true, we put on that bill the money to save the program 
for education of young people, AmeriCorps. AmeriCorps is another 
subject, and I will get into that in a minute. But because we put 
AmeriCorps on that bill, the House refused to act.
  We have offered a series of suggestions.
  It is impossible to believe this message I received this morning. We 
are going to get a bill that has less than $1 billion in it, when the 
President asked for $1.550 billion for FEMA and he asked for NASA at 
the same time. He had money in there for firefighting. The President 
had $253 million for Forest Service and fire suppression. We added $36 
million for the Bureau of Land Management.
  This is a terrible fire season. I am informed Glacier Park is ready 
to be evacuated. We have to have some disaster money. When I checked on 
July 21, the disaster relief fund had $89 million in it. We are 
currently estimating an obligation rate of about $5.7 million a day on 
the fires that existed on July 21. There is a whole new series of fires 
just this week. I cannot believe this.
  In addition, there is an obligation to rise to $6.3 million as the 
disaster activity in Texas ramps up due to Hurricane Claudette.
  I hope others will also join to call on the House to give a bill that 
will meet the needs, particularly the needs of the West. These fires 
are primarily in the West. The need for FEMA is national. The 
firefighting conditions right now in the West could not be worse. There 
is enormous heat in the West, including my State of Alaska. Even with 
enactment of the supplemental, which we sent to the House, I am told 
the Forest Service projects will have a deficit of $167 million by 
September. That is, with all the money we provided for FEMA and for 
firefighting, the Forest Service alone will have a deficit of $167 
million based on projections of July 14th. We have increased fires, 
particularly in the Park Service area. It is the park that is burning 
out there now. I cannot believe we cannot have a conference on the 
supplemental before the House leaves.
  AmeriCorps is a problem, too. The Government, by mistake, enrolled 
70,000 young people to enter school in September. The moneys that had 
been previously divided only covered 50,000 young people. The person 
who made that mistake is no longer with the Government. But the young 
people are out there now with their certificates. They are entitled to 
enter school, but the money will not be there. It is the worst 
situation I have faced as chairman of the Appropriations Committee. We 
have to have some action by the House before they leave tonight. If 
they leave tonight without giving us the money we need to meet these 
disaster needs, I think we are going to have a terrible September.
  By the way, the House is going home tonight. They could have stayed 
another week and we could conference the bills. The bills have been 
sent to conference. When we come back in September we have to meet with 
the House in conference and at the same time try to pass the bills we 
could have passed and should have passed had they sent us the bills in 
time. They will send us a whole series of bills they are now passing as 
they leave town. The Appropriations Committee must conference those 
bills in September and at the same time we must pass the ones they have 
just passed.
  We cannot be two places at one time. The scheduling of appropriations 
this

[[Page S9931]]

year is abominable. Someone mentioned the word ``tirade'' yesterday. 
This is a tirade, and it is time for a tirade. It is time to be strong 
in talking to our colleagues in the House. We must have that bill today 
that covers the disasters the President recognized back in July. They 
are worse now than when he sent the bill to us.
  I hope others who have the knowledge will talk about the 
firefighting. In Alaska, we have fire conditions we have never faced 
before. One of the real problems is we have been unable to cut into the 
areas of the Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service owned by 
the Federal Government that have beetle kill.
  I read just last night, two young fishermen were out and they had an 
accident. They tried to set a fire to attract the attention of small 
planes flying in their area. The fire got out of control and burned 
40,000 acres before we could even get to it. I don't know how many 
acres that will burn. But that is the condition that exists in the West 
today. They built a signal fire and that signal fire is totally out of 
control now.
  We have to have funds to meet this condition this year. It is not 
satisfactory to say they can borrow money from other accounts. When 
they borrow money from other accounts, they shut down those activities 
that primarily exist in the West in July, August, and early September.
  I call on the House: Do something; react. The President asked on July 
8th. Give us the bill we need to meet the disasters that are occurring 
right now.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in 
morning business for 10 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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