[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 104 (Tuesday, September 7, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8839-S8840]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS FOR DISASTER RELIEF ACT, 2004

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that 
notwithstanding the adjournment of the Senate, that the Senate may 
receive from the House the supplemental appropriations bill, the text 
of which is at the desk; that the Senate then proceed to its immediate 
consideration; the bill be read the third time, and passed, and the 
motion to reconsider be laid upon the table.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Reserving the right to object, Mr. President, I applaud 
the effort made by the majority leader and all Members of Congress to 
respond as quickly and as comprehensively as we can to the 
extraordinary disaster we have now witnessed in Florida. Our hearts and 
prayers go to all of those people who have experienced this remarkable 
set of circumstances.
  There are other areas of the country which have not had the same 
degree of direct adverse weather but have suffered adversely the 
effects in many parts of the country with regard to drought, in 
particular, in certain areas. The two Senators from North Dakota, 
Senators Dorgan and Conrad, in particular, have been very vocal about 
the extraordinary impact it has had. South Dakota has also been very 
adversely affected. We have had terrible drought. We have not been able 
to address it satisfactorily. There are some people now who are 
actually having to sell their farms and ranches because they are unable 
to cope any longer with the drought circumstances.
  I ask that we might modify the consent to provide for a single 
amendment which would provide disaster assistance primarily to 
agricultural producers in Florida and throughout the country in an 
effort to address those needs, as well.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the majority leader so modify?
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, and then I 
think the Senator from Mississippi may want to comment, as we discussed 
earlier today, the $2 billion supplemental is coming from the House 
later tonight, almost certainly later tonight or in the morning. The 
purpose of passing the bill as it comes from the House, which this will 
in effect do, will allow the President to sign it very quickly because, 
as we know, tomorrow FEMA is actually in deficiency and does not have 
the money. The purpose is for us to get this bill passed through the 
House, the Senate, and signed by the President tomorrow. Such 
modification would mean we would not be able to do that.

  As we discussed earlier, there are going to be other opportunities. 
As I mentioned directly to the Senator from Florida, we do not know 
what the total cost will be, even for Florida; and there very likely 
will be another supplemental, at which time consideration of other 
Senators' interests could be expressed.

[[Page S8840]]

  I will turn to the Senator from Mississippi who will be managing the 
bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Mississippi.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, further reserving the right to object, 
the leader is absolutely correct when he suggests there may very well 
be another supplemental request submitted. This request that is being 
presented to the Senate tonight is in response to a direct request from 
the President for $2 billion to replenish a fund that has run out of 
money, or will be exhausted in the morning.
  The House is acting tonight to approve the request of the President 
for the additional $2 billion. The Senate should act tonight also, 
without getting into discussions of additional funding for other 
disasters or other needs around the country, because this situation is 
an ongoing disaster in Florida. Without these funds being made 
available tonight, in response to the President's request, they will 
not be able to continue the debris removal, providing shelter and food 
for those disaster victims who need those benefits. The disaster relief 
fund will be exhausted.
  So my hope is we can consider additional requests, such as the one 
being suggested by the distinguished leader from South Dakota. We will 
carefully consider any other requests, but tonight is not the time to 
get into the business of picking out which other amendments or 
additions should be included in this dire emergency request we are 
being called upon to make to the Senate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Democratic leader.
  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, I will quickly respond. It is certainly 
not my intention to object to this request. I think both Senators have 
spoken very accurately about the need to expeditiously consider this 
supplemental funding request. I will say, however, that the ongoing 
disasters--especially in the Dakotas but around the country--in areas 
affecting agriculture will have to be addressed. We cannot ignore it 
indefinitely. We can certainly understand the need for urgent action 
tonight on this particular request, but I do hope we can come back at a 
later date, in the not-too-distant future, to address in a more 
comprehensive way other disasters as well.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I object to the proposed modification.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the original request?
  The Senator from Minnesota.
  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, may I ask 
the majority leader, what are the factors that decide whether a 
particular disaster merits this kind of expedited action and which ones 
do not? I certainly want to agree with what the Democratic leader just 
said because my State, which is adjacent to his, has suffered for the 
last 4 years now from various disasters. After the first 2 years, we 
were finally able to get the administration to relent and allow for one 
of those 2 years to be covered for farmers, many of whom lost their 
entire crop in our State.

  Last year, we had another round of natural disasters, and there was 
no disaster relief provided or authorized by the Congress or agreed to 
by the administration. Now, this year, my State has just experienced a 
frost that has cost $190 million in damages, and it is likely to mount.
  Again, when the majority leader--I respect his candor--says that 
further requests or supplementals may be forthcoming, that is not much 
consolation to my farmers and constituents; whereas, now in the State 
of Florida--and I share the Democratic leader's sympathies for that 
State because there are many Minnesota residents who are affected who 
have part-time residencies in the State of Florida--but on behalf of 
those who live all the time in Minnesota, they are not going to be as 
sympathetic when their needs continue to be ignored and right away 
Florida gets this kind of expedited assistance.
  I wonder, again, what are the criteria and are they going to apply to 
any State other than Florida?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I will make a very brief response because I 
talked about it a couple times on the floor today. FEMA is out of 
money--FEMA is out of money--beginning in about 12 hours. So without 
trying to go through each request by each Senator, certain criteria can 
be applied. FEMA will be out of money tomorrow. We are talking about 
FEMA generally. That is why this $2 billion is being expedited tonight 
at the request of the President of the United States. I understand 
there can be many individual requests, but the criteria are the agency 
in charge of emergency management broadly will be out of money 
tomorrow.
  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, I do respect the majority leader.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Mr. DAYTON. Thank you, Mr. President.
  The farmers in my State are out of money. There are farmers in my 
State who were out of money last year who have been forced into 
bankruptcy. How do they make the necessary appeal to the President to 
get on his list? Is it required that the Governor of the State be the 
brother of the President? How is this going to be handled? Because 
based on the most recent hurricane, Frances--again, I am sympathetic to 
those affected, which includes Minnesotans, but we are going to have 
another request. Can we have an assurance there will be an opportunity 
at that time, as the Democratic leader is trying to obtain, so we can 
offer amendments to have the Senate consider other requests for 
disaster aid? Is that something on which we could get a concurrence?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I will sort of restate what to the 
Democratic leader we tried to say. There will be opportunities to 
consider individual States. Right now we have an emergency for the 
agency which responds to all of our emergencies--FEMA.
  We have a deadline. The President made this specific request last 
night. There will be opportunities to talk about particular Senators' 
interests in representing their constituents as to what are legitimate 
concerns. But I do plead, for the sake of people around the country, 
including in Florida, as we speak, that we do not, in essence, defund 
our Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, when we have this 
opportunity to take a bill that is coming from the House, going to the 
Senate floor, requested by the President of the United States, so 
people can have shelter and can have food and emergency services 
because the deficiency is that tomorrow they will be out of money.

  Mr. President, let me just one more time propound the unanimous 
consent request.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Minnesota.
  Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, I reserve the right to object to say that 
I will not object in this case but with the understanding that the next 
time, as the majority leader said, there will be opportunities. If 
there is another supplemental request, I will insist on the opportunity 
to at least have these other requests considered. I will not object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  (The text of the bill (H.R. 5005) is printed in today's Record under 
``Message from the House during Adjournment.'')

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