[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 132 (Monday, September 30, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Page S7014]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DEFICIT-NEUTRAL DISASTER RELIEF ACT
Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. President, I believe the Deficit-Neutral
Disaster Relief Act Senator Bennet and I have drafted is at the desk.
It is my understanding both sides have cleared the bill, I would add,
after a lot of pushing from Senator Bennet and me and other Coloradans,
along with the Governor and Department of Transportation.
I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate
consideration of S. 1560, introduced earlier by Senators Bennet and
Udall of Colorado, that the bill be read three times and passed, and
the motions to reconsider be made and laid upon the table, with no
intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.
The bill (S. 1560) was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading,
was read the third time, and passed, as follows:
S. 1560
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Deficit Neutral Disaster
Relief Act''.
SEC. 2. EMERGENCY RELIEF PROJECTS.
(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of
law, the Secretary of Transportation may obligate not more
than $450,000,000 of the amounts made available to carry out
section 125 of title 23, United States Code, under chapter 9
of title X of division A of the Disaster Relief
Appropriations Act, 2013 (Public Law 113-2; 127 Stat. 34)
under the heading ``emergency relief program'' under the
heading ``federal-aid highways'' under the heading ``Federal
Highway Administration'' for emergency relief projects in the
State of Colorado arising from damage caused by flooding
events in that State in calendar year 2013.
(b) Emergency Designation for Congressional Enforcement.--
In the Senate, this Act is designated as an emergency
requirement pursuant to section 403(a) of S. Con. Res. 13
(111th Congress), the concurrent resolution on the budget for
fiscal year 2010.
(c) Emergency Designation for Statutory PAYGO.--This Act is
designated as an emergency requirement pursuant to section
4(g) of the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 (Public Law
111-139; 2 U.S.C. 933(g)).
Mr. UDALL of Colorado. Mr. President, I wish to thank my colleagues
and once again outline what this important act we passed will do. It is
critically important.
I was on the floor Friday, and the Presiding Officer was here on
Friday and was patient and listened to the case Senator Bennet and I
made at that time. This is critically important because it will allow
Colorado to begin rebuilding our battered roads and bridges and
highways without having to wait years for relief. We are close now to
getting this legislation to the President's desk, and I look forward to
working with my colleagues in the House, with Senator Bennet, to get
this bill signed into law as soon as possible.
Senator Bennet and I have been on the floor on a number of occasions
in recent days to highlight how devastated certain parts of our
beautiful State are as a result of these biblical floods we suffered a
few weeks ago. Many communities are just now beginning to comprehend
how serious the damage is and to see firsthand how many hundreds of
miles of highways, roads, bridges, and other parts of our
infrastructure are ruined or in some cases even washed away entirely.
I have had many occasions to see this damage firsthand in the last
few weeks, starting in my own neighborhood, which was evacuated, but
all over the northern front range. I was in Jamestown on Saturday.
Senator Bennet was there a few days earlier. It is one of the worst-hit
communities in Boulder Canyon. It is almost beyond description. The
homes are literally washed off their foundations, cars were embedded in
the ground, completely buried. Families were left in some cases with 2
to 3 feet of mud and silt, river cobbles literally inside their homes.
I was in one home in Jamestown standing on the mud and silt, and my
head was touching the ceiling because of the 3 feet of debris that was
inside that house. We have seen entire roads and highways completely
decimated. Without this help, it is a fact that communities will not be
able to rebuild.
By passing the Deficit-Neutral Disaster Relief Act, we have lifted
the statutory cap of $100 million to a limit of $450 million. The money
applies to highway relief, so it will be enough to help us rebuild
swiftly.
As I have done here before, I want to again make it clear that this
isn't new money. It doesn't increase budget authority or increase net
outlays. It simply allows us to access an already existing appropriated
fund of money.
Historically, this $100 million cap on relief has routinely been
recognized by Congress as an unwise impediment to helping States
recover and it has been raised for nearly every natural disaster in
recent years. Examples would be familiar to anybody listening. We
raised the cap on transportation disaster relief for Hurricanes Gustav,
Ike, Irene, Sandy, as well as during the Missouri River basin flooding
in 2011.
I am truly appreciative and truly grateful that all of our colleagues
have come together to recognize that the floods in Colorado are no
exception. We are all in this together when it comes to responding to
national disasters. I am glad that today we can say to Coloradans
Members of Congress from all across the United States of America have
stood with us in our recovery efforts, and we will stand with them in
their recovery efforts as we have in the past as we experience natural
disasters.
I thank the Senate for clearing this crucial legislation.
Mr. President, I yield the floor and look forward to the remarks of
my colleague Senator Bennet.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.
Mr. BENNET. Mr. President, I will be brief because I think Senator
Udall has covered it very well. But I also want to rise today on this
floor to thank all 100 of our colleges who were necessary for getting
this done and for getting it passed. We have to move it along to the
President's desk.
There are a lot of times when people at home wonder whether anybody
in this place is listening to them and whether we are doing something
other than playing politics with each other. This is a clear case where
people here have listened to the people in Colorado, who have
generously from time to time helped people in other States that were
confronting disasters. Now it is our turn to ask for help, and that
help has been granted.
I wish to thank Senator Udall for his leadership in particular, but
also all the Members in the Senate who made this possible.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
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