[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 8 (Wednesday, January 23, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S207-S208]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SANDY DISASTER RELIEF

  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I rise to encourage the Senate to seek 
quick action on the Sandy relief package that has been long overdue. I 
know the majority leader is committed to bringing it to the floor as 
soon as we can get some type of agreement with the other side of the 
aisle, and I hope that agreement can come quickly because a recovery 
that is delayed--as this has already been significantly delayed--is a 
recovery that very likely can fail.
  We cannot afford for one of the biggest engines of the national 
economy, which is the Northeast, to fail in its recovery. This is not 
only for the sake of the Northeast but for the entire country.
  I appreciate the majority leader's steadfast commitment to provide 
that relief as quickly as possible here in the Senate, but time is a-
wasting. It is already Wednesday, and I am concerned we will lose 
another week before we, in fact, seek passage and then go to the 
President. From there, it would move on so the resources could begin to 
flow to communities across the Northeast that have languished since 
Sandy took its toll.
  There is no excuse for delay. We already had the delay in the House. 
They could have passed the package the Senate passed in a transparent 
process that had the Appropriations Committee--on both sides--scrubbing 
the bill. It was brought before the Senate in a fashion in which we 
like to see the Senate work. I believe there were 25-some-odd 
amendments that were considered, a full vetting of the legislation, and 
there was a strong bipartisan vote at the end of that process. It was 
then sent to the House, and unfortunately it languished and died at the 
end of the last Congress.
  Now the House has acted in a different fashion. So I am happy at this 
point to accept the House's version--even though I do believe the 
Senate version is superior in a variety of ways--so it can be sent to 
the President. Getting relief to the citizens in the Northeast is 
critically important.
  I look at the package the House has, and I say to myself that $50.7 
billion in resources, in addition to the flood insurance package that 
has already passed, will allow our residents and small businesses that 
have been waiting so long to recover and begin to rebuild. Finally, it 
will show them that they have a strong partner in the Federal 
Government and that someone is there for them, as we have been whenever 
and wherever disaster has struck

[[Page S208]]

our fellow Americans throughout this Nation.
  Obviously, I would have preferred the Senate bill, which was 
stronger, but we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We 
need to get assistance to the victims of Sandy as quickly as possible. 
This is a vehicle that gets us to that goal.
  While the House bill significantly reduces assistance in a couple of 
areas--including fishery disasters and community development funding, 
which I think in that respect may stump the recovery of an important 
industry along our coast and could potentially siphon off billions in 
CDBG funding that is badly needed right now in New York and New Jersey 
by amplifying what disasters are eligible for it--I am pleased to say 
we protected the overall amendment of the CDBG funding from the Senate 
bill, which is about $16 billion.
  While it is not everything we needed since it will now be spread even 
thinner across even more disasters, we can certainly help as many 
communities rebuild and recover as we can because time is of the 
essence. There is a fierce urgency right now. There are many business 
owners whom I have spoken to who said to me: Senator, I am at a 
critical juncture. I don't know whether I can reopen. If the government 
is not going to give me assistance, then I likely won't open because 
adding more debt, even in terms of a long-term, low-interest loan, is 
still debt. They say: I took out debt to start this business or: I took 
out debt to get through the great recession, but I don't really have 
the option to take out more debt without some direct assistance, such 
as a grant. A grant would give the help I need to jump-start my 
business so I can get those individuals I had employed reemployed once 
again and create an opportunity for our community.
  That decision right now for those businesses, which are life-and-
death decisions, is pending and hanging by the will of the Senate to 
act.
  I am also pleased that the package the House passed recognizes what I 
have been saying all along--that funding the Army Corps of Engineers' 
efforts is critical to rebuilding coastal communities, particularly New 
Jersey's weakened coastal defenses. We are at the lowest of our immune 
system as a coastal State, and we already see the biting cold. It is 
cold throughout the Capitol today, which shows how cold it is outside. 
Think about those residents who are fellow Americans and don't have a 
place to call home because they don't have the wherewithal to get their 
home back in a way in which they can once again be able to live there, 
raise their families there, and meet their challenges as a family in a 
warm nurturing environment. That does not exist for many of our fellow 
Americans because they don't have the wherewithal to decide whether 
they are going to get the type of assistance to help them rebuild their 
homes. All of that is pending.

  Part of that is the Army Corps of Engineers' ability to reengineer 
our beaches in a way that ultimately provides not only for the 
potential of tourism, which is a $37 billion industry in our State, but 
even more importantly for the protection of lives, property, and 
protection against repetitive losses. That is what is going to happen 
when we get this money to the Army Corps of Engineers so they can 
rebuild our coastal defenses. This package would give Jersey Shore 
residents and businesses the comfort of knowing they would be better 
protected in the future than they have been in the past.
  It also includes $13 billion in critical funding I sought to help to 
restore our transportation systems. For example, it would allow New 
Jersey Transit to repair extensive damage from the storm and allow the 
agency to build facilities on higher ground to prevent future flood 
damage, which is a commonsense option. When we think about fiscal 
responsibility, why would we rebuild only to the very same status that 
was allowed to be flooded in the first place and caused all of the 
damage the government would pay for? The passage of this potential 
package from the House would allow the port authority to finish 
repairing the PATH station and harden electrical equipment to prevent 
future damages.
  If we could get an agreement, the package that would come to the 
floor would include necessary policy reforms that I have supported that 
will streamline recovery efforts and improve FEMA's public assistance 
programs, which is critical to a successful recovery. These reforms 
would allow us to rebuild what is in place even stronger and better 
before there is another storm. Again, this is important in terms of the 
end results. It is important in terms of the fiscal responsibility to 
ensure we rebuild in such a way that we don't end up with repetitive 
damage, which would be more costly to the government.
  It would allow a third-party dispute resolution process for major 
projects. Some of the history we have, particularly with Katrina from 
Senator Landrieu's experience, is the reality of not having a dispute 
resolution process, which ultimately forestalled recoveries and 
critical projects to that State and in those communities. Also, 
coverage for childcare costs related to disaster recovery through FEMA 
individual assistance is a critical element.
  Without going through all of the provisions of the House bill, let me 
just say we need to pass this relief package. People are suffering. 
They are desperately waiting for certainty so they can start rebuilding 
their lives, their businesses and communities. They are trying to get 
back on their feet. They need this aid even if it is late and even if 
it is ultimately longer than other disasters have had to wait. As I 
pointed out in the past, I think it was 10 days or so when $50 billion 
flowed to Katrina victims. We are nearly 3 months since the worst 
disaster on the east coast in terms of a natural disaster that has 
taken place.
  The people of the Northeast, the people of my State of New Jersey and 
our neighbors in New York desperately need this funding, and it is time 
to help these fellow Americans. It is time to do it now. It is time to 
do it this week. It is going to take time for this recovery to take 
place. The longer we delay, the greater the chance of failure we, in 
fact, create. I think we want success, not failure. I think we want to 
understand, as an institution, as I have said many times, that this is 
the United States of America. That means we respond to the challenges 
and the disasters that take place in other parts of the country. We do 
it, hopefully, more expeditiously than this, and at the same time we 
stand by our fellow Americans so they can reclaim their lives, reclaim 
their commitments to their communities, reclaim the opportunity to 
reopen their businesses, to contribute to those communities, to our 
State, to this Nation, to our society.

  So I strongly urge our colleagues who have some reticence to agree to 
moving forward on a Sandy bill to come to common ground with us, to 
come to agreement to move this relief package. No American should have 
to languish months after a disaster to get help. That should not be the 
standard. The hallmark of our response should be an intelligent but 
expeditious response to the consequences of a disaster that any 
American faces. That is our tradition. It is a tradition we should 
maintain. It is a tradition that, unfortunately, in this particular 
instance has not been a reality. It is a tradition that I hope we can 
ultimately embrace once again this week in finally pushing through a 
Sandy package that can move to the President for signature and bring 
relief to our communities.
  With that, I yield the floor.

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