[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 109 (Tuesday, September 6, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9630-S9631]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 EXPRESSING THE CONDOLENCES OF THE NATION TO THE VICTIMS OF HURRICANE 
                                KATRINA

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, in a few minutes, we will be voting on a 
resolution expressing our deep and heartfelt sympathy for the victims 
of Hurricane Katrina. I know I speak for all when I say that the Senate 
and the American people stand by the good people of Alabama, Louisiana, 
and Mississippi who have suffered so deeply and who have lost so much. 
We are committed to helping them recover and rebuild. Last Thursday 
night, we passed $10.5 billion in aid, but this is just the 
downpayment. There is still much hard work ahead.
  One of our most important and pressing duties is to conduct a 
thorough investigation from top to bottom of the initial emergency 
response. There is no question that in many places the early emergency 
response was simply unacceptable. No one who saw the news and the 
mounting discomfort and despair at the Superdome and the convention 
center could say otherwise. We need to find out what went wrong and 
what went right, and we will. We need to find out what we need to do so 
we are never, ever caught unprepared again.
  As I mentioned this morning, I traveled to the gulf coast this 
weekend, not as a Senator but as a volunteer physician. A major problem 
I saw firsthand was a very basic one, one of communications. It is so 
ironic, and this is why it is so important that we provide the 
oversight, because Congress has appropriated funds for communications 
and for the interoperability of communications, but I didn't see any of 
that on the ground. People worked without functioning radios when I 
arrived, and literally within that large terminal and one of the large 
main rooms there, people could not communicate from one side of that 
room to the other. Doctors and nurses had to use runners to shuttle 
through the airport. It simply did not make sense. It does not make 
sense in America.
  Many other challenges I saw we will be addressing on the floor of the 
Senate in the appropriate oversight mechanism. Our full attention at 
this juncture needs to be directed to saving lives. The President has 
stated this again and again. Literally as we speak here today, there 
are people in those second and third floors of homes who have not yet 
been rescued. Every major city houses the poor and the elderly and the 
infirm, and every American city is a potential target of a disaster or 
an attack, either natural or otherwise. There can be no excuses for 
inaction.
  Senator Susan Collins and Senator Joe Lieberman, the chairman and 
ranking member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 
Committee, have announced their oversight hearings. Again, our 
attention needs to be on saving and sustaining those people who are 
suffering as we speak, but at the same time we have a mechanism that is 
underway to begin our very serious, very important responsibility of 
oversight as to what did not go well and what needs to go much better 
in the future.
  I do want to assure the American people that the Senate is hard at 
work. We have rolled up our sleeves. We began with the passage of the 
$10.5 billion the other night. It is very likely that in very short 
order, we will have a much larger supplemental come through, maybe 
within the next several days, on the Senate floor, and it will require 
yet another supplemental funding bill in the future. We are determined 
that New Orleans, where I was Saturday and Sunday; or Biloxi, where I 
was on Sunday; or Mobile, also on Sunday--really that entire coast--
will recover and that we will rebuild in a way that is bigger and 
better and stronger. That is the future to which we are committed.
  We have many hurdles to face in the meantime, and we will address 
those aggressively. We faced urban disasters in our history. As former 
Speaker Gingrich said in the last couple of days: A large chunk of 
Chicago was burned all the way to the ground, and it came back stronger 
than ever. He also mentioned San Francisco, leveled by an earthquake 
only to reemerge a

[[Page S9631]]

much more beautiful and more prosperous city. America has never shied 
from a challenge. We are a nation of people who have come to these 
shores to work hard and to dream big. It is in our national DNA. It is 
what makes us great.
  This weekend, I saw the incredible generosity and caring and 
compassion and outpouring among volunteers and military personnel and 
Guard personnel and medical and health professionals from all over the 
country--citizens helping one another, patients in adjacent gurneys 
helping one another, pouring out their hearts and their time and their 
resources. It was humbling and it was inspiring.
  I am confident that together we will meet the challenges that lie 
ahead and emerge more prosperous and more united than ever.
  Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second? There appears to 
be a sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 233) expressing the condolences of 
     the Nation to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, commending 
     the resiliency of the people of the States of Louisiana, 
     Mississippi, and Alabama, and committing to stand by them in 
     the relief and recovery efforts.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the resolution. 
The yeas and nays have been ordered. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. Inouye), the 
Senator from Louisiana (Ms. Landrieu), and the Senator from West 
Virginia (Mr. Rockefeller) are necessarily absent.
  I further announce that, if present and voting, the Senator from 
Hawaii (Mr. Inouye) would vote ``yea.''
  Mr. McCONNELL. The following Senators were necessarily absent: the 
Senator from Colorado (Mr. Allard), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. 
Specter), and the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Vitter).
  Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. 
Vitter) would have voted ``yea.''
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Chambliss). Is there any Senator in the 
Chamber wishing to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 94, nays 0, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 221 Leg.]

                                YEAS--94

     Akaka
     Alexander
     Allen
     Baucus
     Bayh
     Bennett
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Boxer
     Brownback
     Bunning
     Burns
     Burr
     Byrd
     Cantwell
     Carper
     Chafee
     Chambliss
     Clinton
     Coburn
     Cochran
     Coleman
     Collins
     Conrad
     Cornyn
     Corzine
     Craig
     Crapo
     Dayton
     DeMint
     DeWine
     Dodd
     Dole
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Durbin
     Ensign
     Enzi
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Frist
     Graham
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Harkin
     Hatch
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Jeffords
     Johnson
     Kennedy
     Kerry
     Kohl
     Kyl
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lincoln
     Lott
     Lugar
     Martinez
     McCain
     McConnell
     Mikulski
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Obama
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Roberts
     Salazar
     Santorum
     Sarbanes
     Schumer
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith
     Snowe
     Stabenow
     Stevens
     Sununu
     Talent
     Thomas
     Thune
     Voinovich
     Warner
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--6

     Allard
     Inouye
     Landrieu
     Rockefeller
     Specter
     Vitter
  The resolution (S. Res. 233) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                              S. Res. 233

       Whereas, on August 28, 2005, Hurricane Katrina reached 
     landfall devastating the Gulf Coast states;
       Whereas there has yet to be a full accounting for all our 
     citizens whose lives were tragically lost;
       Whereas the cost in human suffering is ongoing for hundreds 
     of thousands of people who have lost loved ones, homes, and 
     livelihoods;
       Whereas immediate humanitarian aid is still critically 
     needed in many of the devastated regions;
       Whereas the devastation on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, 
     Louisiana, and Alabama is catastrophic;
       Whereas the City of New Orleans is tragically flooded and 
     the surrounding communities of St. Bernard and Plaquemines 
     parishes are devastated;
       Whereas every city on the Mississippi Gulf Coast is 
     severely damaged or destroyed, including Waveland, Bay St. 
     Louis, Pass Christian, Long Beach, Gulfport, Biloxi, Ocean 
     Springs, Moss Point, and Pascagoula;
       Whereas the States of Florida, Texas, and Georgia also 
     sustained damage;
       Whereas Coast Guard search and rescue teams, police, 
     firefighters, the National Guard and many ordinary citizens 
     have risked their lives to save others;
       Whereas doctors, nurses, and medical personnel worked 
     expeditiously to ensure that hospitals, medical centers, and 
     triage units provided needed care;
       Whereas the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and 
     other volunteer organizations and charities are supplying 
     hurricane victims with food, water, and shelter;
       Whereas the State of Texas and numerous other states have 
     welcomed tens of thousands of victims from Louisiana and 
     provided them with aid and comfort;
       Whereas the Army Corps of Engineers has worked to reinforce 
     levees in Louisiana; and
       Whereas thousands of volunteers and government employees 
     from across the Nation have committed time and resources to 
     help with recovery efforts: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) expresses the condolences of the Nation to the victims 
     of Hurricane Katrina;
       (2) commends the resiliency and courage of the people of 
     the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama; and
       (3) commits to provide the necessary resources and to stand 
     by the people of the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, and 
     Alabama in the relief, recovery, and rebuilding efforts.

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