[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 194 (Friday, December 16, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S8727]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      OFFSETTING DISASTER FUNDING

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, Vermont and other the other States still 
reeling in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene have a huge stake in the 
misguided offset resolution sent to us by the House of Representatives. 
In fact, all Americans have a stake in this.
  On the heels of unprecedented flooding this spring, the State of 
Vermont bore the full brunt of Irene in August. Our small State is 
stretched to the limit right now. Our people need the helping hand of 
Federal disaster recovery programs just as Vermonters, decade after 
decade, have always supported this safety net when other States have 
needed it.
  These programs were already running on fumes before Irene and now the 
need is even greater in this tough year in which 48 States have had 
Federal disasters declared within their borders.
  The Senate promptly started the effort to replenish the depleted 
disaster funds with a strong and responsible stand-alone bill in 
September. Our legislation is within the bounds of the budget agreement 
reached this summer, and after overcoming a partisan filibuster, we got 
that bill through the Senate in a bipartisan vote.
  Now all these months later the House of Representatives sends us a 
smaller disaster aid bill along with a resolution that calls for the 
new disaster spending to be offset. In other words, undo the bipartisan 
budget agreement that we all agreed to back in August; change the long 
practice of Americans promptly helping fellow Americans in a disaster's 
aftermath; and pit disaster victims against those trying to get a loan 
to start their small business, those needing student loans, those 
needing nutrition and housing assistance, those developing alternative 
energy sources, or those performing cutting-edge research against 
disease.
  The House resolution calling for disaster funding to be offset with 
across-the-board cuts is a weak and cynical response, and it should be 
rejected.
  It is disappointing and incomprehensible that some in Congress 
continue to insist that assistance can only come at the cost of other 
programs relied upon by the American people. Some of these same voices 
had no problem with spending hundreds of billions of borrowed dollars 
on wars waged overseas, on rebuilding communities in Iraq and 
Afghanistan, and on giving tax breaks to the wealthiest among us. But 
now they insist on a different standard, different rules, for emergency 
recovery efforts desperately needed by Americans here at home. That is 
just wrong.
  We need to come together as a country, as we always have in the past, 
to pass an emergency disaster bill that is adequate to the devastation 
faced by Vermonters and millions of other Americans. We are bound 
together as one nation, the United States. Americans help each other in 
time of need.
  I know there are bipartisan majorities for passing a straightforward 
disaster relief package as we have for every other disaster in the 
past, but political point-scoring and my-way-or-no-way factionalism 
stand in the way. That is unconscionable.
  Vermonters and countless others who are trying to get back on their 
feet after Irene and other calamities across our Nation do not have the 
luxury of time to waste on the temper tantrums of ideological factions 
in Congress. It is winter now; a harsh season in our part of the 
country. Some parts of Vermont already have seen over a foot of snow 
and more is on the way.
  Statesmanship should never be out of season least of all, when our 
fellow Americans' livelihoods are at stake.
  In the spirit of the holiday season, I continue to hope that reason 
and goodwill will prevail in the Senate on this ridiculous call to 
offset disaster relief, and on so many other issues before us that are 
critical to the American people.

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