[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 168 (Thursday, December 27, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8425-S8427]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT--Resumed

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate will proceed to the consideration 
of H.R. 1, which the clerk will now report by title.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 1) making appropriations for the Department of 
     Defense and the other departments and agencies of the 
     Government for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2011, and 
     for other purposes.

  Pending:

       Reid amendment No. 3395, in the nature of a substitute.


                Amendment No. 3391 to Amendment No. 3395

  (Purpose: In the nature of a substitute.)
  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 3391.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       The Senator from Indiana [Mr. Coats] proposes an amendment 
     numbered 3391.

  (The amendment is printed in the Record of December 17, 2012, under 
``Text of Amendments.'')
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.
  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, I am cognizant of the fact that we will 
have a series of votes beginning in just 15 minutes, and so even though 
the unanimous consent request on this amendment is for 30 minutes 
equally divided, I am going to try to judiciously use this time between 
myself and Senator Alexander to explain why we are offering this 
amendment, and hopefully our colleagues will be persuaded to support us 
when we vote on this probably tomorrow.
  We are all, of course, sensitive to the pain and damage inflicted by 
Mother Nature in the Northeast. In fact, some of the Northeast is 
getting some more of that pain with a storm up there today.
  No State or region in our country should be left to fend for itself 
after a storm as devastating as Hurricane Sandy. It is important to 
understand that many things have overwhelmed the ability of the States 
and local communities to deal with some of the effects of this, and 
that is why the Sandy emergency supplemental is before us attached to 
H.R. 1 and why we will be voting on that, I assume, tomorrow.
  There are two versions before us; one is the Senate Democrats' 
emergency supplemental proposal. That totals $60.4 billion. It includes 
nearly $13 billion in mitigation funding. That goes for the next storm, 
not this storm. There is $3.46 billion for Army Corps of Engineers, 
$500 million of which is projects from previous disasters; $3 billion 
to repair or replace Federal assets that do not fall into the category 
of emergency need. There is $56 million for tsunami cleanup on the west 
coast, which, of course, does not relate to Sandy. There is a lot of 
new authorizing language for reform of disaster relief programs, which 
I would support through the regular process. But without having gone 
through the authorizing committee, I don't think that is a good idea.
  Our proposed alternative provides $23.8 billion in funding for the 
next 3 months. We are not saying this is the be-all and end-all of what 
Congress will ultimately fund to meet the needs of those who have been 
impacted by Sandy. We are simply saying that before rushing to a 
number, which has not been fully scrubbed, fully looked at, plans 
haven't been fully developed yet--and that is understandable--we think 
it most important we provide emergency funding for those in immediate 
need over the next 3 months.
  We have carefully worked with FEMA Director Fugate and we have worked 
with Secretary Donovan at HUD. We have worked through the 
Appropriations Committee to identify those specific needs that get to 
the emergency situations under which this bill is titled. It provides 
funding for States to allow them to begin to rebuild but also leaves us 
time to review what additional funds might be needed.
  So rather than throwing out a big number and simply saying let us see 
what comes in under that number, let us look at the most immediate 
needs that have to be funded now and provide a sufficient amount of 
funds in order to do that. In fact, the amount we are providing would 
extend, in terms of outlays, far beyond March 27, but we want those 
mayors and we want those Governors to be able to begin the planning 
process of looking how they would go forward. We also want, in respect 
to our careful need, to carefully look at how we extend taxpayer 
dollars.
  We want to allow this 3-month period of time for which the relevant 
committees in the Senate and the House of Representatives can look at 
these plans, can document the request, can examine the priorities that 
might be needed and then put a sensible plan in place that hopefully 
will be an efficient and effective use of taxpayer dollars. Therefore, 
we have struck from the Democratic proposal all moneys that would go to 
mitigation funding, not saying mitigation funding isn't necessary but 
simply saying it doesn't meet the emergency need this first 3-month 
proposal addresses. This will give States time to begin to rebuild but 
also allow us time to review what additional funds are needed for that 
rebuilding.
  We don't allow authorizing language because we don't believe in 
authorizing something on an emergency appropriations bill that ought to 
go through the

[[Page S8426]]

authorizing committee. We focus specifically on Sandy-related needs. 
There are a number of other needs, as I have just addressed, that are 
perhaps legitimate, that ought to come through the regular process.
  With that, let me turn to my colleague from Tennessee who has been 
working with me. I would say our Appropriations Committee, our 
Republican staff, has gone through this very carefully and tried to 
identify how we can get money for the essential needs to those people, 
to those communities that need them now. We want to be responsible in 
terms of spending taxpayer dollars by having a period of time in which 
we can look at the plans for the future and see what additional funds 
might be needed.
  With that, I yield for the Senator from Tennessee.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I am here to join the Senator from 
Indiana, and I think I can presumptively speak for everybody in this 
body. We want to help the people in New York, New Jersey, and other 
Northeastern States that were hurt by Sandy. We have had some pretty 
tough disasters in Tennessee as well. We had a 1,000-year flood 2 years 
ago--not a 100-year flood but a 1,000-year flood. We knew the Federal 
Government wasn't going to make us whole. We had billions of dollars of 
damage, 52 counties hurt, but we knew the Federal Government could help 
and it did help and it helped swiftly and that is what we want to do in 
this case.
  With all the talk about the money we are about to appropriate, I 
think it is important to remind those who live in New York, New Jersey, 
and Connecticut what is already being done with money we have already 
appropriated. For example, there are 4,402 FEMA personnel working in 
those States. There are 514,343 citizens of those States who have 
already filed individual assistance applications. This is when your 
home is gone and you need money for rent or you need money to rebuild. 
Those applications are in.
  Already $1.13 billion has been paid. There are 24 disaster recovery 
centers in New York, 24 in New Jersey and 1 in Connecticut. $150 
million in disaster loans have already been approved by the Small 
Business Administration, and more than 360,000 applications have been 
sent out.
  The important fact to know is that help for victims of Hurricane 
Sandy doesn't depend on what we are about to do tonight. We already 
have money in the bank. We already have FEMA people on the ground. 
There is already help available. In my experience in our Tennessee 
disasters, that help comes in a matter of days, in most cases.
  So what are we about to do? As Senator Coats said--and I wish to 
congratulate him for making a very sensible approach toward this--what 
we are about to say is this is $24 billion more for the accounts that 
are already helping people in the areas hurt by Sandy.
  For example, there is over $5 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund. 
That is just to make sure there is enough money to fund those half 
million requests that are already in. There is $9.7 billion for flood 
insurance. If you have flood insurance, the Federal Government will be 
able to pay your claim. There is $3.4 billion to repair roads and 
bridges. There is $2 billion for community development block grants. We 
found in Tennessee that is especially flexible money, which is very 
helpful. That is $2 billion between now and March. There is also $500 
million for the Small Business Administration.
  So what is not included in the proposal we are offering. It doesn't 
include items that are not related to Hurricane Sandy. This is supposed 
to be about Hurricane Sandy. It doesn't make changes to the Stafford 
Act. What that means is we don't go in, in this emergency 
appropriations bill for the next 3 months, and make wholesale changes 
in the law, make things permanent that are temporary, and streamline 
regulations. They all may be good things to do, but we have a process 
for making legislative changes.
  We don't include $13 billion for unspecified future projects. They 
may be good projects, but if they are, we have a process to consider 
those projects. The distinguished Senator from California and I are the 
ranking members of one of the subcommittees that does some of that. We 
expect to do that next year. So we are filling the accounts that are 
already being used to help many people.
  Finally, if I may say something about process--which I think would be 
more interesting to the Senators than to the people of New York and New 
Jersey--but it is important to know this bill came to the floor in 
record time. No one objected to its coming to the floor.
  It was virtually unanimous, before we even started voting on 
amendments, that we agreed to invoke cloture and to have a final vote 
of 51 votes so the bill in some form will pass. In return for that, 
those of us on the minority side, so far as I know, got the amendments 
we wanted.
  I simply want to say to my colleagues that it is still far from a 
perfect process in our effort to continue to improve the way the Senate 
works. The bill should have gone to committee to begin with. It did 
not. It could have been amended there. When it came to the floor on 
Monday, and we said come right on, no one objected to that, we should 
have started voting. We could have voted for 3 days on this bill: 
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, instead of running around trying to see 
who had amendments. Let us just put them up and vote on them. Then we 
should have had the cloture vote which, as I said, was done with, I 
think, only one dissenting objection.
  So the process has been better but not as good as it should be for 
the Senate. But Senator Coats' substitute is the right proposal. It is 
24 billion more dollars now for the accounts that are already being 
used to help victims of Sandy.
  The last thing I would say is this. When there is an emergency, 
Congress has always acted. We don't always do everything in the first 
week or second or third week because we already have money in the bank 
for those needs. But in Katrina, for example, there were nine different 
supplemental appropriations bills over time. The next wave of 
appropriations requests can come to us, and we will go to work on them 
in a few weeks. We can get to work in the committee right away, for 
example, and Senator Feinstein and I could work on it a few weeks after 
that. Then the majority leader will bring the bills to the floor--which 
he did not last year--and we can vote on them and have the second round 
of funding.
  So I thank the Senator from Indiana, Mr. Coats, for his hard work on 
this. We want the people of New York and New Jersey to know we want to 
help them, we are helping them, and will continue to be interested in 
the things that need to be done. It will not make them whole, but it 
will help them get on their feet, just as we have in Tennessee and just 
as we have in other States across the country after large disasters.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.
  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, may I inquire as to how much time is still 
available before the call up of the vote on the FISA legislation?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana has approximately 2 
minutes remaining.
  Mr. COATS. Mr. President, I would like to use those 2 minutes, if I 
could, to sum up.
  I thank the Senator from Tennessee for his support throughout this 
whole process. He has been instrumental in helping us work through this 
to find what we believe is a reasonable way to move forward and provide 
that immediate emergency help that is so badly needed up in the 
Northeast.
  Let me just give one example of how we came to these numbers. We do 
provide, through the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development 
appropriations, $32 million for repairs of Amtrak's infrastructure, 
dewatering of tunnels, electrical systems, overhead wires. These are 
immediate needs, and we want to provide funding for them.
  There is funding for highway emergency relief directly related to 
Sandy. We fund for that. We fund for public transportation 
infrastructure, immediate needs between now and March. Again, we are 
not saying there might not be need for more funding after this, but we 
will at least have had the opportunity to vet that and look to ensure 
that the money is correctly spent. What we didn't do under that 
appropriations was $30 million of damages

[[Page S8427]]

that come under the FAA existing budget, the funding for highway 
projects not related to Sandy that are in the Democratic bill and 
mitigation projects unrelated to Sandy.
  Again, we are not against mitigation, but we are saying let us focus 
on Sandy. Let us get the emergency help to those who need it now. Let 
us get it there in an ample amount of time and money for them. Then let 
us take up, through the regular process and we carefully examine how we 
spend the taxpayers' money, providing those needed funds for the real 
emergency but not using this as a bill to lard up with all kinds of 
excessive spending that isn't needed for this particular emergency.
  With that, I yield back the remainder of my time.

                          ____________________