[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 112 (Friday, July 25, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9939-S9941]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   URGENT SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS

  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I join with my colleague, Senator 
Stevens, and other colleagues from the West to protest what the House 
is about to do in the urgent supplemental bill.
  Mr. President and colleagues, and all Americans who are listening, 
you have to understand what is happening. The Senate passed an urgent 
supplemental bill to deal with shortfalls in funding where America is 
facing disasters.
  No. 1, our Federal Emergency Management account, which responds to 
disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters, 
and even a terrorist attack, is in danger of running out of funds 
within a matter of days. As of July, they were down to $89 million, and 
we acted swiftly to send a bill to the House that would include $1.6 
billion to replenish the account.
  Also, the West is enduring wildfires of unbelievable magnitude 
because of a combination of fire and drought. Again, as fellow 
Americans, we joined with our western Senators to put money in the 
Federal checkbook to deal with these wildfires.
  We also included funds to deal with the shortfall in the committee 
that is investigating what went wrong in the Columbia disaster.
  Guess what. We also added $100 million to deal with the shortfall in 
AmeriCorps that occurred because of bureaucratic mismanagement, so that 
volunteers would not be penalized and they could come into our school-
based programs.
  Well, guess what is happening now in the House. This very minute they 
are debating a rule that, No. 1, limits debate and prohibits 
amendments. If the rule passes, the House will take up a bill that will 
essentially strip-mine the urgent supplemental the Senate passed. The 
House only wants to pass almost half of what the President says he 
needs for FEMA, and take out all of the other programs.
  My message to the House is: Don't do it. Don't pass that rule. It is 
an embarrassment to you and to the people in desperate need. If you 
pass the rule, for gosh sakes, don't pass the bill.
  I cannot believe the House of Representatives will pass us a take-it-
or-leave-it supplemental that takes out help for FEMA, takes out help 
for wildfires, will not let the NASA commission go on, and essentially 
pokes AmeriCorps volunteers in the eye, when we are ready to harvest 
their idealism and put them to work in Teach America and other 
education programs.
  House of Representatives: Don't go out for a 5-week break without 
helping these desperate situations.
  What is an urgent supplemental? An urgent supplemental says when the 
Federal Government runs out of funds in key programs, because of 
unintended consequences, we, somewhere in the spring, pass legislation 
to deal with that. That is what we are supposed to be dealing with now. 
It is urgent, it is supplemental, and it is desperately needed.
  I express my disappointment that the House of Representatives has 
blocked emergency funding for disaster assistance for wildfire 
assistance, for AmeriCorps volunteers.
  We saw this coming. Who spotted it? Our very able chairman of the 
Homeland Security Subcommittee on Appropriations, Senator Cochran, and 
Senator Byrd saw this emergency disaster coming. In April of this year, 
Senator Cochran and Senator Byrd asked President Bush to help with 
emergency funding for FEMA disaster relief. They rightly calculated 
FEMA would be down to $89 million at the end of July, just when we are 
heading into high hurricane season, and there would be the possibility 
of other natural disasters. And God forbid we have to have the money if 
there is another attack on the United States of America.
  They asked for the money in April. Silence from the White House. 
Silence from the White House. Silence from OMB. Silence--where the 
clock was ticking, as the money dwindled down.
  The President did send Congress a request on July 7. He did say FEMA 
would run out of money. So the Senate acted very quickly with the 
President's request, led by Senator Stevens and Senator Byrd, the 
chairman and ranking member of the Appropriations

[[Page S9940]]

Committee. Expeditiously, within 48 hours of the President's request, 
the Appropriations Committee in the Senate acted. We approved money for 
disaster assistance. We approved $1.6 billion for disaster relief. We 
approved money to help with the Space Station Columbia. We approved 
money to help with the wildfires facing our Western States and possibly 
even Alaska itself, and much-needed help in mountain counties of West 
Virginia.
  We helped with AmeriCorps. We did it. And I was a proud sponsor of 
adding $100 million for AmeriCorps. There were Senators who had 
disputes on this, so we had a separate vote on AmeriCorps, kind of the 
American way. I thought: majority ruled. I would have been disappointed 
if the Senate had defeated my amendment, but we followed usual and 
customary procedures, and the Senate sustained the AmeriCorps funding 
by a vote of 71-21.
  Then we passed the urgent supplemental as part of the legislative 
branch appropriations 85 to 7. Again, majority ruled.
  The Senate quickly appointed conferees. Remember, the Senate moved 
very quickly. The President made a request on the 7th. We went to 
committee on the 9th; to the Senate floor on the 11th. Isn't that just 
terrific. We knew we had to move fast because it is an urgent 
supplemental. Then we went to conference. Well, guess what. There was 
no conference. The House has delayed, delayed, delayed, delayed. And so 
now at the very last minute they want to leave town for a recess. They 
want to leave 1 week before we are. Well, they don't have to go this 
week. There is nothing that says the House has to evacuate Washington. 
They could stay another couple of days.
  But all of last week, ever since we passed this bill on July 11--and 
it is now the July 25--for 14 days I have been waiting to go to 
conference to work on this supplemental. I was ready to go during the 
day. I was ready to go during the night. I was ready to go on weekends. 
I would have come here on my birthday. I was ready to stand up for 
America and to stand up for this supplemental assistance. But, no, now 
they are going to wait for the last minute, pull kind of a 
parliamentary shenanigan, take it or leave it.
  What are they sending over? What an embarrassment. They are sending 
over $984 million for FEMA assistance, and that is it.
  Not only are they taking out AmeriCorps, wildfire money, and NASA 
money to complete the investigation of what went wrong, they are 
reducing the FEMA account requested by the Senate by $700 million. We 
have never let FEMA fall to such a low level. I am sorry that the House 
is falling to such a low level as well.
  We don't need low levels at FEMA. We don't need low levels from the 
House of Representatives.
  I am concerned that the FEMA account is nearly bankrupt. It is 
unconscionable and irresponsible for we on the Atlantic and gulf coasts 
who are at the height of the hurricane season, and they know it.
  When it comes to looking at the whole issue of wildfires, they know 
what the West is facing. It is not a TV item. It is brave people 
willing to put themselves on the line. States are at a financial 
crisis, and now they are facing the fire crisis. As an east coast 
Senator, my heart goes out to those in the West.
  Then when we look at NASA--we went to the memorial. We said: A 
grateful nation will never forget. We are going to get to the bottom of 
this. We are going to fly again.
  I hope we do. Hats off and salutes to the commission being led by 
Admiral Gayman. It is thorough, it is rigorous, it is leaving no stone 
unturned. We are going to get great results. But they need the money to 
finish the commission. And where will they get the money? Go back to 
NASA, take it out of the shuttle? Take it out of space science? It is a 
slap in the face for the families of those astronauts we promised we 
would get to the bottom of this. We have a great commission with an 
outstanding leader, and we should put the money in the Federal 
checkbook.
  Then when we talk about AmeriCorps, 20,000 volunteers will lose their 
slots within a matter of days. Why? Because the mismanagement at 
headquarters overenrolled by 20,000 volunteers. We have discussed this. 
Why punish the volunteers and the community for headquarters? 
Headquarters is not going to lose their jobs, though I did call for new 
leadership, and the President has responded. Senator Bond is the one 
who has been a champion of fiscal reform. He has stood sentry over the 
issues related to AmeriCorps. The House was silent on it. And the 
uncovering of the debacle occurred in the Senate under Senator Bond's 
leadership with my assistance. The reform effort was led by Senator 
Bond for fiscal accountability and greater transparency, again with our 
assistance, on a bipartisan basis.

  When we put $100 million in the committee, there was a vote on the 
Senate floor to take it out. Seventy-one Senators voted to keep it in. 
We have been working in such a bipartisan way. I am so agitated about 
what is going on in the House. We have had bipartisan cooperation to 
deal with the urgent supplemental. We have had bipartisan support to 
deal with the issues. We have conducted ourselves in a way that I 
thought was civilized and constructive.
  I recall the evening where the junior Senator from Alabama rose and 
said he was going to oppose the $100 million. He had a markup on 
asbestos. We accommodated each other so the Senator could offer his 
debate; I could offer my rebuttal. The Senator wanted to return to the 
asbestos markup. We were crisp. We were cogent. We were civilized. We 
were collegial. We each had our day. Then the Senate, the next day, had 
a vote.
  How unlike the House. They can't even offer an amendment. Then they 
didn't even have the backbone to face us in conference.
  I don't know how they are going to go back and face their 
constituents with the fact that they have short-funded FEMA. They have 
taken out the wildfire money, which I cannot understand. Why punish the 
West that has been hit by drought, hit by wildfires, and hit by a 
budget crisis? I don't think Americans should do this to other 
Americans.
  I have spoken about the NASA commission. When it comes to the 
AmeriCorps volunteers, let me tell you what is going to happen if we 
don't do this. On August 1, Wendy Kopp, one of the true leaders of 
America, is going to tell several thousand volunteers ready to go into 
classrooms: The U.S. Congress didn't think you were important enough or 
valued enough to put in the grant funds for you to go into those 
classrooms, authorize the working in PAL programs, literacy programs, 
all of the education stuff that needs to start in September. We didn't 
think it was urgent enough. We wanted to have a temper tantrum over a 
bureaucratic snafu, so we are not going to punish the bureaucrats. We 
are going to punish the volunteers. We are going to punish the programs 
that help on education, and we are going to punish our children.
  I know one volunteer in education who came to Baltimore. And he went 
into a very tough school under Teach America. When he came in, the 
reading levels were 23 percent. When he walked out, after he had 
finished his AmeriCorps commitment, those kids were reading in the 71st 
percentile, a 50-percent improvement. That young man changed those 
kids' lives, but those kids changed that young man's life. He is now a 
regular teacher in the Baltimore City school system. This is what this 
is all about. This isn't rich kids singing ``Kumbaya.'' These are kids 
trying to earn a voucher to pay for the high cost of tuition, give 
practical experience to America. They help our communities, and then in 
turn the communities have a great impact on them. It is a modest public 
investment.
  There was a bureaucratic snafu. It has been corrected thanks to the 
leadership of Senator Bond, with the cooperation of this side of the 
aisle. Why should we punish 20,000 volunteers who are already to go in 
September and won't be able to go because of what the House is going to 
do this afternoon? Shame on you, House leadership, for not at least 
giving them the vote. Shame on you for not voting sooner and bringing 
this to conference.
  I am very disappointed. I thought in America the majority ruled. 
There is a very small minority that is blocking this urgent 
supplemental, blocking following the rules of procedure of the Senate. 
This isn't about rules. This is

[[Page S9941]]

about people. It is about people who could be hit by a hurricane, 
people who are already hit by a wildfire, volunteers who are ready to 
roll into our classrooms. ``Ready to roll,'' I use those words 
deliberately.
  A promise made should be a promise kept for the families who lost 
their loved ones in the Columbia disaster. I really object to their 
sending back a conference report without these items in it. When this 
is raised, if this comes back under this draconian circumstance, I will 
object to it being brought up. I think we ought to send back to the 
House the Senate bill, which we agreed upon with an overwhelming 
majority of 80 to 20.
  I thank the Chair for his very kind attention. I thank Senator 
Stevens very much for his leadership on this issue, and the leadership 
provided by Senator Byrd, and for the collegiality in which we 
participated in our debate. My heart goes out to the Western Senators 
who are about to be nailed by this, and to the AmeriCorps volunteers. I 
think we need to stand up for America, and we ought to stand up for 
this urgent supplemental.
  I yield the floor, but I will not yield my perspective on this 
supplemental.

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