[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 111 (Thursday, September 8, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9805-S9813]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


          MAKING FURTHER EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
consider H.R. 3673, which the clerk will report by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 3673) making further emergency supplemental 
     appropriations to meet immediate needs arising from the 
     consequences of Hurricane Katrina, for the fiscal year ending 
     September 30, 2005, and for other purposes.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader is recognized.
  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I yield myself time as necessary for my 
statement.
  Mr. President, we do turn to the second supplemental--the second 
supplemental in a week and a half--to address the natural disaster we 
have watched unfold, and that has literally unfolded in several ways, 
which is continuing now with both continued recovery and people 
settling around this country.
  Yesterday, Speaker Hastert and I announced the formation of a 
bicameral and bipartisan committee to analyze and conduct a real top-
to-bottom investigation of the emergency preparation and response to 
Hurricane Katrina. The committee will be made up of senior Members. 
They will report their findings no later than February 15.
  The review will look at the emergency plans that were in place at the 
local, State, and Federal levels, and they will assess how the local, 
State, and Federal governments actually responded.
  It is clear that in some places the response was simply unacceptable 
at all levels of breakdown in systems. I saw it this weekend firsthand 
as a medical volunteer: too little command-and-control structure, too 
little communication. America deserves better. America deserves 
answers. The Senate must do all it can--and we are doing all we can 
right now--to provide immediate relief for the hundreds of thousands of 
people stranded and shattered by last week's events.

  We urgently need to pass a second disaster relief supplemental, and 
we will do that tonight, with no amendments, no delay. It is absolutely 
critical.
  Last Thursday's $10.5 billion emergency package has been drained--
totally drained. As of midnight tonight, all of the money will have 
been spent. And it is good. It shows a positive, rapid, quick response 
on behalf of our Federal Government. But it means we must act; thus 
this supplemental bill we will be voting on here in about 90 minutes.
  If we were to fail to act, every relief that is going on right this 
very moment, every search-and-rescue operation, all of the emergency 
food that is being delivered, and the shelter that is being provided, 
and the medical care that is being extended, will be without money when 
the sun rises tomorrow.
  The administration has requested $51.8 billion in this supplemental. 
That breaks down to $50 billion for FEMA, $1.4 billion for the Defense 
Department, and $400 million for the Army Corps of Engineers.
  We need to pass this bill and get it to the President for his 
signature tonight. Tens of thousands of volunteers, relief workers, law 
enforcement and military personnel are working right now, this very 
minute, to provide aid, rescue, and recovery.
  National guardsmen are going block by submerged block to carry out 
their rescues.
  The Army Corps of Engineers is hard at work pumping the floodwaters 
out of New Orleans. The water level, happily, has already gone down by 
40 percent. They estimate it will take another 2\1/2\ months to 
completely drain the city.
  Right now, 60,000 U.S. military forces are on the ground in Alabama, 
Louisiana, and Mississippi, aiding the recovery. They are providing 
extensive search and rescue, evacuation, and medical support.
  Twenty-seven Navy and Coast Guard ships are stationed off the gulf 
coast providing supplies and medical treatment.
  FEMA is working around the clock to find temporary homes for the 
thousands of displaced families. They are exhausting every option, 
including military bases, cruise ships, emergency trailers, vacant 
properties, and motels.
  All of these efforts are underway, and they must continue. The lives 
of hundreds of thousands of people are at stake.
  Meanwhile, there is still a lot of work to do, and we are working 
around the clock to do it here in the Senate.
  Today, we began consideration of the Commerce, Justice, Science 
appropriations bill, which includes critical support for recovery and 
rebuilding efforts. It provides funding for the disaster loan program 
administered by the Small Business Administration. It provides grants 
to State and local authorities, including law enforcement, for critical 
equipment such as satellite phones, which are especially critical right 
now where communication is spotty and, in places, where sometimes 
communication is even nonexistent.
  The Commerce bill also supports the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration, NOAA. NOAA is responsible, as we all know, for 
researching, forecasting, monitoring, and warning the public of 
hurricanes such as Hurricane Katrina.
  Clearly, we need to pass this bill. We also need to cut the redtape 
and bureaucracy that gets in the way of helping people, the redtape and 
bureaucracy we have heard again and again slowing the response at every 
level.
  In the coming days and weeks we will take up legislation that 
streamlines the system and gets help to the people who need it on time, 
efficiently and quickly.
  As we have seen over the past 12 days, America is a compassionate, 
generous Nation. People from all over have poured out their hearts, 
time, and resources to help their neighbors on the gulf coast. Private 
citizens and businesses have donated hundreds of millions of dollars. 
Relief organizations and faith-based organizations are on the front 
lines every day working valiantly to provide material and spiritual 
assistance.
  Here in the Senate, we cleared a resolution last night allowing 
noncash Katrina assistance to be solicited and donated among our Senate 
employees.
  Americans from all across this country and in all walks of life are 
offering hope and love and compassion. It is a testament to our 
Nation's strength and to our historic bond as citizens, as Americans.
  Hurricane Katrina now stands as the worst natural disaster in our 
Nation's history. It is a tragedy of epic proportions. But there is 
hope and there is determination.
  The gulf coast will recover and rebuild and emerge more modern and 
more prosperous than ever. It is going to be a massive effort. It will 
take all of our strength and all of our determination. But this is 
America, and in America no challenge is too great. We rebuilt Chicago. 
We rebuilt San Francisco. New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile, and the entire 
coast will rise again bigger, stronger, and better than ever.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
  The Senator from Mississippi.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, Senators are aware that the bill that has 
come over from the House carries additional appropriations for the 
Department of Homeland Security for disaster relief in the amount of 
$50 billion; and for the Department of Defense, $1.4 billion; and for 
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, $400 million.
  The House has adopted this measure, and now we are hopeful the Senate 
will act tonight so these funds will be made available immediately to 
the agencies that are carrying out the disaster relief efforts in the 
States affected by Hurricane Katrina.
  This is a destructive force of monumental proportions, the most 
widespread destruction in my State from any natural disaster in 
history. So the relief being provided now by the Federal Government 
agencies is very meaningful and deeply appreciated. So are the 
voluntary contributions that are being made by Americans who are 
freely, and in a heartfelt way, giving what they can to help those who 
are less fortunate.
  Senators are volunteering personal assistance. The Senator from 
Illinois, Barack Obama, is organizing a team of doctors to come to 
Mississippi to provide emergency medical care for those who are still 
in need of that care. Medicines are being brought with those physicians 
to be administered to those who

[[Page S9806]]

need them. That is one example. There are many others.
  Members of Congress are raising money on their own volition and then 
turning it over to the fund that has been started by Governor Haley 
Barbour in our State, to collect donations from people who want to help 
victims, to be used in humanitarian ways, to help people who are in a 
desperate situation, with no housing, no clothing, no food, many of 
whom are very poor.
  So it is heartwarming to witness this. I express personally my 
appreciation for all of those who have acted so generously on behalf of 
the victims of this hurricane.
  We have other Senators who have asked for time to speak on this 
measure tonight. I know the distinguished Senator from West Virginia 
has time reserved under the order and the understanding for proceeding 
on this bill. I am happy to yield the floor to him for any comments he 
would like to make at this time, if he chooses to speak.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, Hurricane Katrina dealt this country an 
unspeakable blow. Tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed. 
Families have lost everything. Entire cities have been washed away. 
And, most tragically, hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives have been 
lost. Our Gulf States are in crisis. People have been scattered to 
cities and homes across the country, as the Army Corps of Engineers 
continues to pump the water out of the flood zones. It will take weeks, 
if not months, for the waters to recede.
  The Congress has responded. Last week, the Congress approved $10.5 
billion in emergency supplemental funding. And now we are poised to 
provide another $51.8 billion. This funding is likely just a down 
payment.
  The bill that is before the Senate provides $50 billion for FEMA 
Disaster Relief. This funding will provide food, water, housing and 
cash assistance to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. It also will be 
used to reimburse the many Federal agencies that are in the region 
providing health care, rebuilding roads, providing security and 
removing debris. The bill also includes $1.4 billion for the Department 
of Defense for the deployment of military personnel to provide relief 
supplies, health care, and security, and for repairing facilities. 
Finally, the bill includes $400 million for the Corps of Engineers for 
emergency repairs to levees and pump stations, and for draining flooded 
areas. The White House expects that there will be a need for more 
funding in early October.
  Congress responded to the President's first supplemental request in 
one day because FEMA was about to run out of disaster relief funds. 
Congress approved the President's $10.5 billion request without 
amendment. Yesterday afternoon, we received the President's second 
supplemental request, for $51.8 billion, once again because FEMA is 
expected to need more money. Today, because of the urgency, we are 
approving his second request. I understand that the President intends 
to send a third request, which will be more comprehensive. Yet, the 
administration has not made any commitment to send that request to the 
Congress quickly. The White House should not, once again, send that 
request one day before FEMA runs out of money and expect the Congress 
to rubber stamp the request. I hope the majority leader will work with 
the White House to make sure that the request is sent quickly so that 
Congress can debate the matter. As Senator Reid, Senator Landrieu, and 
others have pointed out, there are many issues about the Federal 
response to Hurricane Katrina that should be examined.
  As we move forward, we must ask serious questions about the 
Government's failure to help the people of the Gulf States on a timely 
basis. We want answers--we all want answers--as to why it took so long 
for rescue teams to get on the ground. There is no excuse for the days 
of delay and the inexplicable lack of coordination in the response 
effort. The anger and frustration in our country are justified.
  Was the slow response because our resources were committed overseas? 
Were lives lost because the Government took its eyes away from the 
danger? Or because it failed to recognize a danger at all? That's one 
of the issues that most concerns me. We all watched the weather radar 
and saw this storm. Its footprint covered the entire Gulf of Mexico. We 
knew the storm was coming. We knew the danger was coming. Yet, the 
Government failed to respond. Lives were lost because the Government 
failed to do its job.
  What would have happened if this had been a terrorist attack that we 
did not see coming? What if a surprise attack breached the levees 
around Lake Pontchartrain? How slow would our response have been then, 
to a danger that the Government did not see coming?
  The Government clearly was not ready to evacuate large numbers of 
low-income, disabled and elderly people. Not all people in this country 
have jets, helicopters and fleets of SUVs to move them around. If there 
were a terrorist attack, would our Government, once again, leave behind 
the many people in this Nation who do not have the resources to be 
mobile?
  It's time that we put America first. It's time that we refocus our 
energies and our resources into protecting this Nation here at home. 
Reinforce our critical infrastructure. Train and coordinate response 
and rescue efforts. Close the gaps. Fix the problems.
  The Government's actions in the days following the tragedy were slow 
and misguided at best, and inept at worst. The Federal response effort 
was unacceptable, and the Government must do better. Let us pray that 
this funding will help to save lives and ease the suffering.
  I urge Senators to support this supplemental appropriations bill. 
Hurricane Katrina is a national disaster. It is a national tragedy. And 
it will take a national effort to help our fellow citizens rebuild 
their homes, their cities, and their lives.
  I thank my distinguished colleague, chairman of the Appropriations 
Committee, Mr. Cochran, for his contribution. May I say to him, I have 
personally been concerned about him, his people in Mississippi, his 
people and Senator Lott's people. I called him and told him that I 
wanted to be of assistance, if I could be, and that any appropriations 
bill that we might appropriate, might send from our committee would 
have my support. We did this promptly. We are going to continue to do 
what we can. I commiserate with him as to the tragedy which has 
befallen his State, his people, our country, our people.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Chambliss). The Senator from Mississippi.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I am deeply grateful to the distinguished 
Senator from West Virginia for his kind remarks and his cooperation and 
presentation of this bill and support of the first supplemental 
appropriations bill, as well as providing funding to try to help the 
disaster victims in my State and the other coastal States that were 
affected by this terrible tragedy.
  I have admired my friend from West Virginia from the moment I came to 
the Senate. I respect his dedication to the Senate and his 
conscientious efforts to effectively represent the State of West 
Virginia in the U.S. Senate. I have learned a lot from him, and I 
continue to do so as time goes on.
  One of the things that has not been as widely noted, I think, as 
should have been is the leadership provided in the gulf coast areas by 
the local elected leaders. The Governor of my State, Haley Barbour, has 
shown an enormous amount of skill, compassion, and determination to use 
all of the available resources of our State Government to aid the 
disaster victims, to get them to safety, to provide for them, to help 
in the debris removal, getting businesses started again and the schools 
going. It has been a challenge of enormous proportions.
  I was able to visit with him and his team that he had assembled at 
the Mississippi Emergency Management Offices on Riverside Drive in 
Jackson, MS, on my first visit to the State after the hurricane, and I 
was very impressed by the dedication, the willingness to work, the 
voluntarism that was apparent on that occasion and to see the results 
that are being produced by the local leaders in my State to ensure the 
recovery from this disaster. So they are to be commended. We are going 
to continue to support them from the Federal level to the fullest 
extent of our capability and understanding of the needs and how we can 
best do it.

[[Page S9807]]

  There are safeguards in this bill, Senators should know, to help 
protect against abuse. There are provisions in the bill requiring the 
Corps of Engineers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency to make 
weekly reports on the obligations of their funds. These can be 
monitored to ensure that they are consistent with the law and the needs 
of the people who have been affected by this disaster.
  The Department of Defense is required to report within 5 days of any 
transfers of funds in this relief effort.
  In the Federal Emergency Management Agency title, there is $50 
billion; $15 million is for the inspector general to conduct audits, as 
authorized by law, to ensure that the funds are being disbursed as 
authorized by law and in accordance with the understanding of the needs 
of the people who are affected by this disaster.
  We do not want waste. We do not want abuse of these programs. We want 
them to be administered with integrity and an adherence to the 
principles of law.
  I want Senators to understand we are not taking this money and 
pouring it out on the ground. We are trying to devise ways to see that 
it gets to the people who need it, who are entitled to it under the 
provisions of the disaster legislation that we passed in earlier 
disasters.
  Mr. President, I know other Senators have asked for recognition. I 
see my colleague on the floor, Senator Lott, who personally has 
suffered tremendous damage and loss of his home on the gulf coast, who 
has worked tirelessly--I have observed it--on the phones, traveling 
back and forth from the State, interacting with Members of the House to 
help shape this legislation so it provides meaningful relief not only 
for the victims in our State but throughout the gulf coast region.
  I commend him and salute him and want him to know we are standing 
with him and trying to provide all the support and assistance we know 
how to provide to help overcome the ravages of this hurricane.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I inquire of my distinguished colleague, the 
senior Senator from Mississippi, has he made other commitments at this 
time or would it be appropriate for me to make my remarks?
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, it is appropriate for the Senator from 
Mississippi to speak. It is appropriate to yield to other Senators, but 
they are not here at this time.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I wish to say what a pleasure it is to work 
with my partner, the senior Senator from Mississippi, Mr. Cochran. He 
is always a gentleman and very thorough and capable and competent in 
his leadership as a legislator and as chairman of the Appropriations 
Committee.
  I must say, I am quite pleased the chairman of the Appropriations 
Committee hails from my State. I thank him for his generosity 
personally and his comments and all he does to offer comfort on a 
personal basis.
  I thank him for leading in this particular effort and moving this 
supplemental forward. We are both here, but our hearts are in 
Mississippi now. We are here because we want to make sure these funds 
are available and that they will get to the people and we will not have 
the important agencies that are involved run out of money in a day or 
two, or three.

  I thank Senator Byrd for calling me last week to check on me. I 
called him back and talked with him yesterday. He was very kind and 
very generous. I want people to know we do check on each other and 
check on each other's wives. He has been very generous with that. I 
thank these two men for their leadership, and I thank the Senate for 
their personal concerns.
  A lot of Senators are not just offering concerns, they are offering 
help. They are sending truckloads of help. They are making personal 
contributions to charities. It is very heartwarming on both sides of 
the aisle.
  I was pleased to see the House take this matter up promptly and pass 
it overwhelmingly. Over 400 House Members voted for it; 11 voted nay. 
Now we have it, and we have an agreement with the leadership on the 
Democratic side that we would have a time limit and that we were not 
going to have a long amendment process because this money is needed.
  I want to emphasize to my colleague that we want to make sure this 
money gets to the right place, the right people, and in the right way. 
We will be very careful to make sure these contracts are done properly.
  I was speaking to the Governor of our State a few minutes ago. They 
are going to be monitoring this very carefully. We have the best 
quality of elected officials in my State we ever had, Democrat and 
Republican. I believe that. We have leaders up and down the line in the 
State offices, and we have young, dynamic mayors who had their towns 
wiped out. We have old experienced mayors who can pull all the 
communities together, and they are doing a wonderful job. Supervisors 
are doing a great job too.
  We will monitor this very closely. We are not asking for a handout, 
but we do need help. We need a ``handup.'' We want to get our people 
where they at least are safe and secure. Right now health concerns, for 
instance, are bothering me very greatly. My wife is digging through the 
rubble now. I said: Please don't get cut accidentally, and watch out 
for snakes. One of the many things that comes with hurricanes, people 
do not realize, is the snakes blow in, and when the water goes out, 
they stay. I am nervous with her digging around in our neighborhood 
looking for some of our things that are left.
  We are going to need help from HHS to make sure we have medical 
attention, personnel, equipment, chemicals, and drugs to help from the 
Mississippi gulf coast right into New Orleans. Of course, they will 
have a distinctly different problem in New Orleans.
  A massive effort is underway. I have had people say to me: $1 billion 
a day, how could that be? You ought to see what is going on and you 
ought to see the need.
  The Coast Guard has been fantastic. They have saved lives, and they 
are working today. The Corps of Engineers has been working to clear the 
channels. The Navy has ships in the area. The Iwo Jima is in New 
Orleans. The Bataan and the Truman are off the coast of Mississippi. 
The USNS Comfort is pulling into the area so we can house personnel, 
people who need help if the hospitals can't help them, and to give 
people a place to spend a night inside and get a good meal. This has 
never been done before, so there is a massive effort.
  Senator Cochran and I flew from Biloxi, MS, over to New Orleans, and 
then I came back on a helicopter last Friday. It was similar to being 
in a war zone. Honestly--fires burning, water rising, helicopters 
bringing in injured people. There were helicopters all over the place. 
I was very nervous, quite frankly.
  The point I am trying to make is, there is a huge effort underway, a 
big push of supplies, equipment, people who are working to save 
people's lives to this very day and to give us a chance to get back up 
so we can help people go back to work.
  It is the worst I have ever seen. For 37 years, I have dealt with 
hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, ice storms, everything but locusts, and 
I am expecting them to arrive very soon. But this beats all I have ever 
seen, and it is going to be so hard to deal with the magnitude of the 
debris, let alone the human tragedies with which we are going to be 
dealing.
  We need this help. We need this money. Some people are saying it is 
not going perfectly well. It never does. I have been through this every 
time. Every time we have trouble getting temporary housing into the 
area. We have trouble moving them from Georgia, pre-positioned in 
Mississippi, so we can get them to the people. We are having that 
problem now. The size and the magnitude of this disaster is so big that 
things are not going to happen fast enough, and there are going to be 
problems and slip-ups.
  I do not think we should take time to be damning mistakes made last 
week. I want to know what the problems are today, what is the solution, 
and what actions we are going to take. I am very proud of that.

  I want to also say, yesterday I put a list in the Congressional 
Record of private companies and organizations that have just gone 
beyond the call of duty--money, supplies. There are also hundreds of 
heroic acts, humanitarian acts where people went beyond the call

[[Page S9808]]

of duty to save lives to help other people--veterans who were rescued 
from the Gulfport VA Hospital, nurses who went without water themselves 
for 3 days to look after their patients.
  I am going to put in the Record a whole list of these stories of 
great human efforts to help other people, sacrifices that people made, 
people who loaded up vans and showed up. A woman minister from Illinois 
loaded up a van, hitched to a pickup truck, drove herself to 
Mississippi, went to a church parking lot without any prearrangement 
and started distributing supplies. That story will be told a hundred 
and thousands of times over.
  I want to make the point that this is a lot of money, I know it, and 
I am sorry we have to spend it the way we do. I prefer we not have this 
problem, but it is there, it is real. This is America. Americans have 
proven over and over again how charitable we are and how we will come 
to the rescue of people when they are in need and when they are hurt.
  Let me say, too, about my State, I am proud of my State. We have been 
working and pushing. We are getting the job done. We will come back 
bigger, better, stronger, and we will continue to be an important part 
of this great country and a part of our economy.
  Mr. President, I know I have used too much time of all other time 
that has to be yielded, but I thank my colleagues, one and all, for 
this opportunity to express my feelings. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, every single one of us in this body is 
going to support this supplemental appropriation for those who have 
suffered so much in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. We will do 
everything we can to help them. I know we will have another 
supplemental in the near future. I want to make sure that everyone 
realizes that there are now States that have taken the evacuees and 
done it with open hearts and open arms. We want to do everything to 
make them comfortable. That includes educating children. It includes 
medical care and Medicaid reimbursements that will be necessary.
  It is my hope that the next supplemental will include help for the 
school districts that are taking large numbers of these students and 
are not able to absorb all of those costs in a way that would assure 
that these children, as well as the children who are already in the 
school district, have the quality education we are all striving to 
have.
  As chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee of Appropriations, 
I have just seen pictures today of the facilities that have been 
damaged in Biloxi, MS, and in New Orleans. I know we are going to need 
supplemental appropriations to begin the process of planning how we 
will rebuild facilities to serve patients in these areas. I will 
certainly vote in support of this with total commitment. But I do hope 
that the next supplemental that goes through will have some of these 
issues that will help the people rather than just the three States that 
have the infrastructure as well as the people problems. Let us give the 
services that all of us want to give to them as well.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New York.
  Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, in a few days, on Sunday, we will mark 
the fourth anniversary of September 11. I remember very well the 
extraordinary support, the kindness, the solidarity, the friendship 
shown by our colleagues toward my State. The Federal response, the 
congressional actions, matched by the extraordinary generosity of the 
American people made what was the worst manmade disaster in our 
Nation's history somewhat bearable because we knew that despite what 
the terrorists had done, America stood with us.
  We are now confronting the worst natural disaster in our Nation's 
history. On behalf of the people of New York, I publicly express our 
solidarity, our support, and our friendship. I am very familiar with 
the gulf coast. I went to Biloxi, MS, and the Mississippi gulf coast as 
a teenager. I have had a lot of opportunities to travel through 
Mississippi when I lived all those wonderful years in Arkansas. We also 
spent a lot of time in Louisiana. We had friends in Baton Rouge and 
Lafayette and lots of friends in New Orleans and surrounding parishes. 
Of course, I have been in Mobile. I have been along the gulf coast of 
Alabama. So I can personally see in my mind's eye what Senators are 
speaking of.
  Senator Lott spoke about what happened to Mississippi, and Senator 
Cochran spoke about the devastation being greater than anything he had 
ever seen or experienced. Senator Landrieu and Senator Vitter try to 
describe what it is like for everything one knows and everything that 
is familiar to be gone.
  I imagine those days and nights of friendship and good times that I 
had the privilege of spending in such a wonderful part of our country. 
So I am very proud of how America is responding once again. The 
generosity of countless Americans--even people far beyond our shores 
want to contribute to try to help put lives and communities back 
together. It is entirely fitting that our Federal Government, that this 
Congress would be acting to pass in an expeditious manner this 
important supplemental so that the work of cleanup, recovery, even 
hopefully of rebuilding, can begin. I believe that when we vote, as we 
will, this evening, it will send a very tangible message that the 
Congress understands and that on behalf of the American people we will 
be with the people of the gulf coast until they, too, can recover and 
rebuild.
  Just as we did after 9/11, there are many questions we should be 
answering. When I was in Houston this past Monday with my husband, 
President and Mrs. Bush, and Senator Obama, hundreds of people 
surrounded us asking questions to which we do not yet know the answers. 
There is a lot of false information, misinformation about what 
happened, should have happened, did not happen. People are grabbing at 
whatever they hear, trying to make sense of a devastating experience 
that has totally transformed their lives and their futures.
  I respect the fact that our leaders in the Senate and the House have 
commenced hearings in the Governmental Affairs Committee and that there 
was an announcement yesterday about a bicameral effort to try to look 
into what did happen. But I would respectfully suggest that just as 
with 9/11, we need an independent commission that will look in depth 
and will bring to that inquiry independent expertise, people who are 
not elected officials, people who can look with a very cold and calm 
eye at the facts and the evidence so that we in the Congress, in the 
executive branch and State and local governments and, most importantly, 
the American public, can have some sense that we understand, so far as 
it is humanly possible, what was done and what could have been done.
  The reason for the independent commission is not only because I 
believe we need to replicate the 9/11 Commission to send a clear 
message that we are open to looking anywhere and everywhere to find the 
answers that the people are demanding but also because we do not have 
the luxury of having officials in the executive and congressional 
branch diverting their attention to this inquiry, beginning the process 
of compiling evidence, of interviewing witnesses, of holding hearings. 
We are now required to focus on the future on behalf of not only the 
people of the gulf coast but on behalf of our constituents as well. We 
are spending a lot of money and we will be spending a lot more to 
ensure that we treat fairly, equitably, and with accountability the 
needs people have right now and in the months and years ahead.
  Therefore, I would hope that we will come to a bipartisan agreement 
to establish such a commission, exactly as the 9/11 Commission 
functioned, with 10 members, the President appointing the chair, the 
other members being appointed by the Democratic and Republican leaders 
of the House and the Senate, that they will be people of independence 
and integrity, and that they will, in a sense, be the surrogates for 
all Americans as they try to make sense of how could this have 
happened.
  I chanced upon a television program the other night that was 
recounting responses from people around the world--places that know 
their fair share of disaster--who were asking: How could this happen in 
the United States of America? It did not make sense to them. They would 
not have been surprised if it had happened in some poor country,

[[Page S9809]]

some country without an elaborate bureaucracy intended to deal with 
disasters, but they were shocked. They were asking questions. Perhaps 
the most important reason for us to convene this commission and get it 
working immediately is because we need these answers to ensure that 
whatever happens in the future will be better handled.
  There are lessons for all levels of government, and there are 
probably lessons for those of us in the Congress. We have no idea what 
Mother Nature has in store for us. We are not even at the peak of 
hurricane season yet.
  I remember going to Homestead, FL, in 1992 to see the impact of 
Hurricane Andrew. It was late August, early September, and we were only 
on the A's. Hurricane Andrew was an A. We are already to K, and we have 
M and others forming out in the ocean and the gulf. We need these 
answers to protect ourselves. We need to clear away all of the 
confusion, the natural tendency of human beings to say: It was not me, 
it was somebody else; oh no, wait, it was somebody else indeed. We need 
to just calmly, dispassionately conduct this investigation as quickly 
as possible to get the answers we need.
  I do not think there is any doubt any longer that the Department of 
Homeland Security, for understandable reasons that I certainly, as a 
Senator from New York, understand and appreciate, turned much of its 
attention to the war against terrorism. People drilled, people met, 
people worried about a bioterrorist attack, a chemical attack, a 
radiological or, heaven forbid, a nuclear attack. But in the meantime, 
we have to worry about natural disasters, too, which we have just seen. 
There were thousands--millions--of people who had to be evacuated. 
People lost everything. Businesses are gone. It is certainly fair to 
say that it will have a devastating effect on the gulf coast, but it 
will ripple through the economy as well.
  So I would hope that I would find support in the days to come for the 
bill I have introduced, the Katrina Commission bill. I have also 
offered it as an amendment to Commerce-Justice-State, but that we could 
come to a nonpartisan agreement to do this piece of the people's 
business, to answer the questions and to make sure this never happens 
again.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time?
  If no one yields time, the time will be charged to all parties.
  The Senator from Mississippi.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, under the order, there was 30 minutes 
reserved for the distinguished Senator from Oklahoma. All of the time 
on our side on this bill has been used. His is the only time available 
on our side.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
  Who yields time?
  The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I believe under the agreement that I have 
been allocated 5 minutes; is that correct?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator is correct.
  Mr. KENNEDY. I thank the Chair.
  First, I wish to mention to our Senate colleagues that of the $51 
billion we are considering on the supplemental, there is no funding for 
education. Under the leadership of Senator Enzi, our committee has had 
2 days of hearings with leaders from Louisiana and from the gulf area 
about what is happening in the education system and the important need 
to give help and assistance to local communities, not only in those 
areas but also that have taken students across this country.
  I talked to the Secretary of Education this afternoon, and she 
indicated that she had submitted to the President a series of 
recommendations that she hopes we can act on in the next very few days, 
and I hope that will be the case. Otherwise, I think we are missing an 
extremely important opportunity to try to provide help and assistance 
in an area of enormous importance to families. There are--85,000 
students in the public schools in New Orleans who have lost their 
education, 35,000 or 40,000 in private schools, and the list goes on.
  The second point is I heard that the President had now waived the 
Davis-Bacon provisions in terms of construction. I am not going to 
spend a great deal of time on the Davis-Bacon provisions, but I believe 
it is a great mistake. What we have seen time in and time out when we 
have debated this issue, this is about quality and the deliverance on 
time to meet construction requirements.
  I am deeply disappointed that President Bush has decided to suspend 
wage protections in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Many people harmed 
by Hurricane Katrina were already struggling to make ends meet, and the 
jobs and businesses they relied on have disappeared. Experts have said 
that as many as 1 million workers may become unemployed as a result of 
the hurricane, with the unemployment rate reaching 25 percent or higher 
in the gulf region. Many affected workers will be unemployed for 9 
months or longer.
  One of the major opportunities for work will be in the recovery and 
rebuilding of the area. We need to be sure that these new jobs pay 
decent wages. This is all that Davis-Bacon does: it simply ensures that 
workers on Federal Government projects earn a typical wage. The whole 
purpose of this law is to ensure that Federal funds do not undermine 
local labor markets by driving down wages.
  Workers who take these jobs will already face special hazards. We 
heard just yesterday that according to this administration, the 
floodwaters in New Orleans contain e.coli that is ten-times higher than 
acceptable safety limits. We cannot allow Federal funds to undercut 
these workers' condition even further by lowering wage rates. But the 
President apparently believes that workers in Louisiana, Mississippi, 
and Alabama don't even deserve to earn a decent wage for a day's work.
  Opponents of Davis-Bacon would have you believe that its wages are 
exorbitant. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, in areas 
affected by Katrina, some typical wages include:

       $9.16 per hour for sheet metal workers in Pearl River 
     County, MS;
       $10 per hour for laborers in Livingston Parish, LA;
       $8.54 hour for truckdrivers in Mobile County, AL

  Haven't these workers and their families suffered enough? We are 
providing tens of billions of dollars in relief, and we should be sure 
that it goes toward decent wages for workers as they work to rebuild 
the vital infrastructure that is so desperately needed. We have had 
those protections so we have had quality. One of the things the 
American people are very concerned about is shabby work. That is 
certainly true about the people whose family houses are going to be 
rebuilt and buildings going to be restored. They deserve the best. One 
of the best ways is to make sure we are going to have the skilled 
personnel to be able to do it. I regret the President's decision.

  On a final point, we find now that we have appropriated some $10.5 
billion previously and now $51.5 billion this evening. Those funds will 
go through existing institutions, through FEMA, through Homeland 
Security. It ought to be understood by the American people that those 
agencies have extremely important functions to provide for our country. 
Homeland Security has to look after the challenges for all of our 
Nation. They have to protect from the dangers of terrorism in our ports 
in Seattle, WA, and Boston, MA, and Los Angeles. They have other 
challenges across this nation. They cannot spend the time, the effort, 
the energy, the focus just on rebuilding the gulf area.
  FEMA has 35 different challenges this year that they are going to 
have to address. They cannot be expected to devote their time, effort, 
and energy just on the gulf development.
  I think the best way to do that is to follow a past tradition, a 
tradition that goes back to the time of President Coolidge. When we had 
flooding of the Mississippi in the 1920s, what did he do? He selected 
Herbert Hoover to coordinate all of the efforts, to be above the 
discord, so to speak; to coordinate efforts to make sure we were going 
to have focus and attention and we were going to bring all the parties 
to the table; to make sure we were going to do this while ensuring the 
grants, the development, and the investments that were going to be made 
were going to meet the highest criteria of integrity and would be done 
in the most comprehensive and complete way.
  This is not only from a construction point of view, an environmental 
point of view, but also for the restoration of

[[Page S9810]]

the lives of the people in those areas and to ensure, as we are going 
to rebuild those areas, we are going to make this available to the 
people in that area so they are going to be part of the reconstruction 
of their lives.
  This is going to be enormously important. There are going to be 
training programs available to them, so they will feel part of this 
whole reconstruction, which is a key thing to the American family.
  We are one country. We have one destiny. To make sure we are going to 
have one country and one destiny and one future, we have to make sure 
we have the opportunity to have a commission of integrity, made up of 
the very best of our society, one that ensures the integrity of those 
investments and makes sure those people whose lives are so affected, 
who are uprooted, are going to get the very best. I hope that would be 
an area where we could come together, Republican and Democrat alike, 
and eventually gain support. I know our leader has talked about it, as 
has Senator Landrieu. I have had the opportunity to talk to other 
Senators about it. Hopefully, we can develop that opportunity to ensure 
the kind of reconstruction that all Americans want to see.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time? The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I was led to believe that I had 5 minutes. 
I don't know if time is controlled?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has 4 minutes 50 seconds.
  Mr. DURBIN. Close enough.
  Mr. President, we estimate the cost of Hurricane Katrina could reach 
$150 billion. Some Senators speculate even more. We are passing a 
second supplemental appropriations bill which I assume will pass 
unanimously: $51.8 billion on top of $10.5 billion last week and no end 
in sight. This is an enormous responsibility, a responsibility that 
challenges us in terms of our Nation's budget priorities.
  Hurricane Katrina has redrawn the map of the gulf coast. It has also 
redrawn the budget in Washington. When we reached an agreement earlier 
this year on a budget, it was a much different environment. We did not 
anticipate the staggering expenses of Hurricane Katrina. Some did not 
anticipate the continuing costs of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, 
which should never be forgotten. We included in that budget resolution 
a proposal for $70 billion in tax cuts, the first time in the history 
of the United States of America we suggested we would make tax cuts in 
the midst of a war. Usually, a President calls on the Nation to 
sacrifice during a war, to understand that we each have to give a 
little to help our troops overseas. This administration suggested the 
opposite. For the most well off in America, we proposed cutting their 
taxes in the midst of a war and in the face of the largest deficits in 
the history of the United States of America.
  That was before hurricane Katrina. The world has changed. The deficit 
for this year has been estimated to be $331 billion. Can we add $70 
billion to that in tax cuts for the wealthiest people in America? Even 
worse, the estimated cumulative deficit over the next 10 years has been 
estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to be $2.1 trillion. This 
is before Katrina--before the tax cuts. Can we afford to add $70 
billion in tax cuts, primarily for the wealthiest people in America, to 
that astounding historic deficit? We cannot. I think most right-
thinking people on both sides of the aisle now realize that.
  Let's be clear. The wrong way to attempt to shrink this deficit would 
be to cut $35 billion in domestic spending, including $10 billion in 
cuts in Medicaid, the health insurance program for those who are 
homeless now because of Katrina and the most disadvantaged in America.
  At a time when Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and other Gulf States 
are struggling to help these people in need, and other States such as 
my own State of Illinois and so many others are reaching out to help 
them; at a time when public health challenges are reaching epidemic 
proportions; at a time when States are struggling on their own to meet 
their budget responsibility, we cannot cut $10 billion in Medicaid 
payments to the States.
  Thousands of people who did not evacuate New Orleans before the storm 
couldn't leave the city simply because they couldn't afford to leave. 
As my colleague, Senator Obama, said so often, they couldn't fill up 
the SUV with $100 of gas, put in the bottled water and head out with a 
credit card to a hotel in some other State to wait it out. That was 
impossible.
  They faced the reality of poverty and the reality of disaster. We 
have to face the reality of our budget. Our budget tells us that we 
cannot cut in Homeland Security, we cannot cut in FEMA, we certainly 
can't cut the safety net that so many Americans rely on.
  The Homeland Security Department needs more resources than ever, 
particularly for FEMA, and to restore the confidence in America that 
this agency is truly prepared for the next disaster, whatever it 
happens to be--whether it is a natural disaster, God forbid, or a 
terrorist disaster. Our confidence has been shaken in the Department of 
Homeland Security. We believed that we were safe, and in a few hours we 
learned, with the disaster on the Gulf Coast, that in many ways we are 
not.
  We couldn't keep the flood waters out of New Orleans once that 
hurricane had turned. But can we tell America that we are prepared to 
keep the next flood, the next hurricane, the next disaster from 
creating what is a shameful situation now facing us across America?
  This storm should compel us to reexamine our priorities. A budget 
document represents a set of moral choices not just fiscal choices. For 
the past 5 years, we have chosen wealthy persons over working 
Americans, pharmaceutical companies over seniors, oil companies over 
the environment, and defense contractors over veterans. It is time to 
change those priorities.
  I will vote for this money. I believe all Senators will probably vote 
for this money to help our victims. But let us be honest about the 
realities, the budget challenges we face. Let us understand that a tax 
holiday for the wealthiest people in America is not appropriate--not 
this week, not next week, and not any time this year, as we face the 
reality of a war in Iraq, which continues to claim lives every single 
day, and this catastrophe of Katrina, which is going to test our moral 
fiber.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Who yields time? The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I thank the leadership for giving me an 
opportunity to talk this evening and to express some views. We heard a 
very good talk about the budget. The points I was going to make have to 
do with the disasters we face. It is ``disasters''--it is not one, it 
is two. One is slowly creeping upon us, and the other is right in front 
of us.
  The tragedy that we see on the gulf coast is something to which we 
have to attend, something for which we have to supply the funds. It is 
important that we offer aid, that we come to the aid of those people. 
One of the most disheartening things I have seen in the last week-and-
a-half has been finger pointing by politicians at all levels of our 
country that benefits no one, accomplishes nothing except to prove to 
the American people partisanship tends to trump any issue. It is 
disheartening that we as a body would fall into that, when such great 
responsibilities are in front of us.
  I said ``disasters'' because the other disaster we are not looking at 
is the Federal budget that the Senator from Illinois discussed. I take 
a very different view. I am disappointed in our President for not 
bringing forward with this bill recommended spending cuts that would 
easily be achieved in the discretionary budget of this country to pay 
for the disaster assistance. We heard Senator Lott talk about the 
sacrifices of the people, both those who are involved and those who 
have contributed to help in this tragedy. It is no sacrifice on the 
part of Congress to steal $51.2 billion from our grandchildren to 
supply the need now without doing the hard work that Americans would 
expect of us to make sure our priorities are right. It is a time for 
leadership in this country.
  Our budget deficit, after we pass this bill, will be $670 billion 
this year. That is the real deficit. That comes to over $2,000 per man, 
woman, and child in this country this year alone. So we have two 
disasters. One is that we have chosen political expediency over the

[[Page S9811]]

future of our country. The heritage that our country leaves us and has 
been given to us is one of sacrifice to preserve the opportunities for 
the next generation.
  We are going to do what is right for the people on the gulf coast, I 
have no doubt. But we are not doing what is right for the generations 
that are beyond us, for our children and our grandchildren. It takes 
courage to stand up and say we can do better. We have heard that. But 
we have not ever talked about how we can do better. We have talked 
about how agencies can do better. The way we do better is by finally 
starting to make the hard choices on priorities for our country.
  The President, in his budget proposal this year, recommend 99 
programs to be eliminated that did not meet an assessment rating 
program that was developed by OMB. That program was many times agreed 
to by many people in this body. That was $19.6 billion. There is not 
the courage coming from the executive branch to offer those, to say we 
are not going to spend another $19.6 billion of our grandchildren's 
money. Yet we are going to do the easy thing. We should pay for this. 
We should pass this bill, but we should not pass it on the backs of our 
children and our grandchildren.
  I have a message for Americans out there. We have seen so many great 
efforts at contribution. Oklahoma has 3,800 people from Louisiana now, 
and we are going to love them and care for them and do everything we 
can to help those individuals in our State. But everybody else in this 
country can make a sacrifice, too. There is no charity without 
sacrifice. If it doesn't cost you anything, it is not worth much.
  What we have to do is look at every level of the Government, every 
operation of the Government, and say: Where can we do better? I have 
talked to hundreds and hundreds of Federal employees who know where the 
waste is in their departments and in their agencies. Now is the time to 
come forward. The doctors in this country, you can save Medicare a ton. 
The hospitals in this country, you can save Medicare a ton. This year 
alone, trim your bills, cut back 4 or 5 percent. Do what is hard for 
you but gives benefit to the future. We need to set a standard that we 
are going to do what is right, both in this generation and in the 
generations that follow us.
  We have an oath to uphold the Constitution, but we have a higher 
oath, and that higher oath is to keep the obligations that our 
forefathers put forward to create the best, brightest, the country 
providing the most opportunity of any in the world.
  We will borrow internationally this year $1.4 trillion. How many 
years do you think the international financial community will continue 
to allow us to borrow that money without some cost coming home?
  I believe we should have made the effort to pay for part of this 
supplemental spending.
  I believe it is easy for us not to make that effort. I think it is 
very hard if we choose to make the effort. I believe if we do not step 
up to the responsibilities given to us by not attempting to make us 
better, by not attempting to make us more efficient, by not attempting 
to root out the waste--examples: Last year, 2004, the Federal 
Government overpaid $41.5 billion for things it bought or handed out. 
That would almost pay for this bill, if we would eliminate that. We can 
eliminate it. We choose not to do the oversight that is necessary to 
find the problems to make us more efficient, to accomplish the very 
goals to create the opportunity in the future for the next generation.
  I will vote for this bill. But I am noticing our Members that we 
should do better; we should do what is expected of us; we should make 
the hard choices people expect us to make rather than to go to an 
unending piggy bank of debt and defer those choices to our 
grandchildren.
  What does that mean? It means our grandchildren are going to have a 
far lower standard of living as we try to continue to load this debt on 
them. That is not opportunity. That is not a heritage I want to be 
involved with. I want to follow the heritage of our forefathers and the 
great generation of World War II where sacrifice was made.
  I believe it is incumbent upon us to do better. I challenge every 
Member of this body to start doing the oversight, to find the areas 
where we can be better, where we can spend less money now--not because 
it may not be a great project--where we don't spend $26.5 billion in 
earmarks on a highway bill, the New York Times today listed ways we 
could help pay by eliminating earmarks and pork.
  I find it ironic that I am agreeing with editorials in the New York 
Times. But they are right. The American people should demand of us now 
to make the very hard choices of ordering our priorities. Not doing 
that is below what every individual Member of this body is about.
  I challenge Members as we look forward to the next supplemental which 
we consider if there is an area in the Federal Government that isn't 
working well where we could save money. The assumption on other side of 
that is the Federal Government is 100-percent efficient. If there is 
not any place where we can find money to trim to pay for that, that 
means the Federal Government is working perfectly. There is not a 
person in this country who believes that.
  I know this talk about finding the money falls on deaf ears to many 
Members of this body. I am not partisan in any way except I am partisan 
for the future of our country. We cannot continue to live beyond our 
means.
  The individuals out there who sent $20 to the American Red Cross 
didn't go freely to get $20 to buy the next ice cream cone or go to the 
next Starbucks. They gave up something to give that money. We need to 
be doing the same, and hardship is required. We need to stand up--
Democrats, Republicans, individuals--and lead on the issue of 
efficiency and accuracy and the ordering of priorities; it is most 
important.
  Is it important right now to spend $200 million on a bridge to 50 
people in Alaska? Is that important? Should we be doing that when we 
could spend $200 million helping people in New Orleans or Mississippi? 
There isn't going to be anybody except 50 people and two Senators and 
one Congressman who thinks that is a good priority. We ought to be 
adjusting what we have done to pay for this.
  The other final point I would make, it was suggested to the 
administration and it was rejected, but we need a controller for this 
money under the Office of the President to make sure it is spent 
properly. If we have the legislation that is already authorizing that, 
it is available, it should be put forward. I am going to offer that 
legislation next week to make sure it is spent right. The President has 
authorized in good will an inspector general increase to look at it, 
but they won't be controlling the money. What they do is see how it is 
spent after the fact. We need somebody in charge of spending before it 
is spent to make sure it is a priority before it goes down there, as we 
should be doing here.
  I thank the body for the time and the effort. I believe it is 
incumbent on us to secure the future of this country. We can be 
critical of FEMA, but if we are not critical of our own positions in 
how we have spent our children's and our grandchildren's future, we 
have no right to be critical of any other agency of this Federal 
Government.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays on passage of 
the bill.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There is a sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be dispensed with.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I extend my appreciation to President Bush 
for making this request that is now before the Senate. It contains 
important money for the victims of Katrina, and I will support it. 
However, before we vote, my colleagues should know that this bill is 
seriously flawed in several ways.
  First, all the money for the relief effort--most of the money in the 
bill--goes to FEMA. After what we have witnessed these past 10 days, is 
there anyone in America who feels we should

[[Page S9812]]

continue to rely exclusively on FEMA to head the Federal Government's 
response? I think not.
  Second, the President's request fails to make the substantive changes 
in law necessary to address many of the critical needs of our 
survivors--notably health care, housing, education, and financial 
relief. Victims need this assistance, and they need it now. But this 
legislation before the Senate tonight makes no such changes. It only 
spends more money.
  Again, let me be clear. Despite these flaws, my Democratic colleagues 
and I will support this supplemental. We simply must do everything we 
can for the victims of Katrina.
  That said, I would like to remind the Senate we cannot rest with the 
passage of this supplemental. There is much more work we need to do, 
and there are dozens of steps the Senate should take quickly to get the 
victims the relief they need.
  Along with Senator Landrieu and many of my colleagues today, I 
introduced legislation called the Katrina Emergency Relief Act that 
makes the changes in law we need to give survivors the relief they need 
right now.
  For example, health care. The survivors of Katrina need health 
coverage. Some of them were already uninsured. Others may have had 
insurance but they have been relocated miles from home and lost their 
insurance when they lost their jobs.
  Here is how the Senate could help. We can ease enrollment into 
Medicaid so that survivors get Medicaid benefits without regard to 
assets and income. These people do not have the necessary documents to 
prove their residency or their needs. But we can make all that 
irrelevant by easing enrollment. We can also assure States that the 
Federal Government will pick up the tab for any health services they 
provide survivors.
  Regarding housing, FEMA has estimated that up to 1 million people may 
be left homeless by Katrina and require housing assistance. Many will 
lack the standard paperwork to apply for Government assistance and will 
face steep rents as affordable housing is already limited for many. Yet 
FEMA is ill-equipped to handle the housing needs of Katrina's victims, 
many of whom are scattered around the country and will need housing for 
an extended period.
  Regarding this housing, here is how the Senate can help. We could 
very easily direct legislatively the Department of Housing and Urban 
Development to provide housing vouchers that survivors can use anywhere 
to get out of shelters and into a home. We have all seen the images of 
families sleeping in the convention center or in the Astrodome, at the 
Superdome or at our armory here in Washington, DC or in universities in 
Nevada or in States all across this country. The Senator from Arkansas 
has indicated that 60,000 people who are victims of the gulf disaster 
are now in Arkansas. We must help them get off the cots and into real 
homes.

  About education, the Katrina disaster struck as school was set to 
begin. Thousands of kids have lost their classrooms. They have lost 
their teachers. They have nowhere to go. No student should miss a 
single day. Here is how the Senate could help. Again, it is pretty 
simple. We can give school districts $2,500 for each displaced student 
they enroll. It will help offset their costs, and it will encourage 
some of them to open their doors. We have a lot of school districts 
that are suffering financially. We can help school districts get other 
resources. For example, they need to deal with bigger classes--help 
with teachers, textbooks, material, and counselors who are badly 
needed.
  What about financial assistance? Senator Lieberman has legislation, 
which is his part of our package, that shows not only have hundreds of 
thousands of Americans lost their homes but they have lost their jobs 
and their livelihood for now and any time in the near future. It will 
take time for Americans to get back on their feet. And here is how the 
Senate can help. We can temporarily forgive victims of their financial 
obligations for the Federal Government--things such as student loans 
and Small Business loans. We can help people so they don't lose their 
homes because they lost their jobs to Katrina and can't make the 
payments. We can extend unemployment insurance for these victims who 
have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. The joblessness 
rate is expected to increase to 25 percent or higher in the region, and 
we need to make sure unemployment benefits are available.
  We can make it easier for victims to use their own savings to get 
back on their feet. Some may have Individual Retirement Accounts which 
they could draw from at this time, and we can make it easy for them to 
access money by suspending taxes on such withdrawals.
  All of these are steps we could have taken today. A number of these 
amendments have been presented on the Commerce, State, Justice bill. 
But there are points of order raised against it because the rules of 
the Senate are such that you can't have legislation on an 
appropriations bill.
  We had hoped the Senate would act on these items promptly, and that 
is why we introduced four amendments this afternoon to the Commerce, 
Justice, Science appropriations bill that I have described in some 
detail. But rather than voting on our efforts, as I have said, the 
majority plans to raise procedural objections. It is unfortunate. 
Victims of Katrina don't care about the Senate procedures. They just 
know they need health care, housing, and school for their children--not 
more Federal redtape.
  My colleagues and I will continue to fight for these items in the 
days ahead. People who have lost their jobs and everything they have 
ever worked for don't care if they get Democratic relief or Republican 
relief. They want relief, and they want it now.
  In the days ahead, victims of Katrina and the American people will 
want something in addition to short-term relief. I think it is 
important that we begin to address this. Survivors and the American 
people will want at least two things--a long-term plan to rebuild the 
gulf coast and answers about why the Government failed them.
  To rebuild the gulf coast, we need to think about a Marshall plan.
  I have something I have worked on for a number of years that was 
moving along very strongly prior to September 11, the American Marshall 
Plan. Remember, for every $1 billion we spend on developing our 
infrastructure, we create 47,500 jobs. We need a Marshall Plan to 
reconstruct the gulf region, a plan on par with the one we used to 
rebuild Europe after World War II. This is a region rich in culture and 
steeped in our history. It must be rebuilt, and we need a grand plan to 
rebuild it.
  While we rebuild the gulf coast, we make sure we do not do it on the 
backs of American workers. I have been told the President has decided 
to suspend Davis-Bacon, a bill on the books for 60-plus years. It works 
because it creates an even playing field for workers. I will object if 
the President decides to do this. This is a time to work together and 
restore lives, not to play partisan politics.
  We also need to find out why the Federal Government failed the people 
of the gulf coast when they needed their Government the most. Following 
September 11, preparedness for national emergencies was supposed to be 
a priority for this Government. Americans were made to believe the 
Government was doing everything it could to prepare for terrorist 
attacks, natural disasters, and other natural crises. Katrina makes it 
clear that we aren't ready.
  When we faced a similar situation after September 11, Democrats and 
Republicans came together and established an independent blue ribbon 
commission. We now want to do this. We must do this. It will happen. It 
is only a question of when it will happen.
  I have been told the majority in the Senate and in the House wants a 
different approach. They unveiled, very loosely, a proposal to 
investigate the events of last week. They call it a bicameral 
committee. Please. We have down at 16th and Pennsylvania Avenue an 
announcement by the President that he is going to be the leader of the 
investigation. We certainly do not need the same thing in the Senate. 
We have committees of jurisdiction that can do the work, and we must 
have, as Senator Clinton has proposed, this bipartisan commission. It 
is very important. I support this commission. The victims deserve an 
answer independent of politics--the kind of answers only an independent 
commission can deliver.

[[Page S9813]]

  I appreciate the patience of my colleagues.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. FRIST. Very briefly, Mr. President, this supplemental will be the 
last vote of the evening and for the week. We will be here tomorrow to 
continue business on Commerce-Justice-Science. Amendments can be 
offered either tonight or tomorrow. There will be no rollcall votes 
tomorrow. We will be voting on Monday. Instead of 5:30, it will be a 
little later than that. We will announce that specific time on Monday.
  We will finish Commerce-Justice-Science early next week. Senators 
should not wait to offer amendments. Either offer them tonight or 
tomorrow. We will wrap this bill up in the very early part of next 
week.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Allen). The bill having been read the 
third time, the question is, Shall the bill pass?
  The yeas and nays have been ordered. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. The following Senators were necessarily absent: the 
Senator from Alaska (Mr. Stevens) and the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. 
Vitter).
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Hawaii (Mr. Inouye) is 
necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 97, nays 0, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 223 Leg.]

                                YEAS--97

     Akaka
     Alexander
     Allard
     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
     Landrieu
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Lincoln
     Lott
     Lugar
     Martinez
     McCain
     McConnell
     Mikulski
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nelson (FL)
     Nelson (NE)
     Obama
     Pryor
     Reed
     Reid
     Roberts
     Rockefeller
     Salazar
     Santorum
     Sarbanes
     Schumer
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stabenow
     Sununu
     Talent
     Thomas
     Thune
     Voinovich
     Warner
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--3

     Inouye
     Stevens
     Vitter
  The bill (H.R. 3673) was passed.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which 
the bill was passed.
  Mr. DURBIN. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator from 
West Virginia for his cooperation in the development and presentation 
of this bill to the Senate. I also especially thank the Congressman 
from California, Jerry Lewis, chairman of the House Appropriations 
Committee, and his colleagues on that committee, both Democrat and 
Republican, who helped get that bill passed today in the House of 
Representatives. We appreciate the prompt action on the President's 
request. We thank all Senators for their cooperation in agreeing to the 
expedited procedure for consideration of the bill today and passing the 
bill. This will get needed relief to the disaster victims in coastal 
States of Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, the Gulf Coast, and others 
who have been injured and victimized by this disaster. We thank the 
leadership for scheduling the bill and for supporting our efforts to 
get the bill done today.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.

                          ____________________