[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 37 (Thursday, February 28, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1576-S1577]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Disaster Relief

  Mr. President, I will be very brief. Two things happen at this time 
of day every day in the Senate and only two. The first is that the last 
person having their say finally gets up and says it, which means that 
you all have to listen to me for a minute. When the last person speaks, 
they don't tell you anything new. They tell you what everybody else 
said in a different way. You get to hear a small speech about that.
  The other thing that happens is that Sheldon Whitehouse comes to the 
floor and talks about global warming. That happens every day. Sheldon 
hasn't been down here. I don't know if he is sick. I don't know where 
he is. I am going to replace Sheldon for a minute.
  Every day goes by, and we ought to talk about climate change and 
things like that. I am going to talk about disaster relief, which ties 
right into climate change. I am not a global warming guy, except to say 
I think it is going on. It has been going on since the planet was 
created. It will be going on long since we are gone. How tough it is 
depends on our dealing with it--how we sequester carbon, how we manage 
carbon, and how we have businesses and industries find new ways to fuel 
their industries and fuel their mechanisms, and things like that.
  Tell Sheldon when you see him that I came down to talk about how we 
do need to address these things. It is all of our responsibility. We 
can address it in a positive way, just like we did in the Montreal 
Protocol, where 25 years ago we got rid of fluorocarbons that were 
drilling a hole in the atmosphere and causing us to have terrible 
cancer of the skin.
  Tell Sheldon I have listened to him. I heard some of his great 
speeches. Mine is not nearly as close to how good his are. I wanted to 
make sure a day didn't go by without our saying what Sheldon says.
  I want to talk about the disaster bill that Senator Leahy, only a few 
minutes ago on the floor, talked about, and I want to talk about the 
urgent job we need to do in the Senate.
  We had terrible disasters in the South and Southeast 3 years ago. We 
had hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes. Billions of dollars were lost in 
South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and other 
locations. We failed to meet the disaster demands that we have to help 
those farmers and ag producers and business and industries to get back 
on their feet.
  We now have a dire crisis. We have an emergency in the Southeast. It 
is time we got the disaster bill that we have been trying to pass for a 
year passed. We had it as a rider twice. We had it as a rider on the 
bill that was going to end the shutdown. At the last minute, it got 
negotiated out of the picture, not because it was a bad bill but 
because nobody would leave it in there and it did free up some money.
  We have until March 15 to get it done. If we don't, there are going 
to be farmers in most of the Southeast who are going out of business. 
Industries that this Nation depends on will be terrible. You will pay 
way too much for your food. I don't know about you, but if you don't 
have nutrition to go with the energy you need, you don't have anything.
  I am here to plead with every Democrat and every Republican that when 
we get the bill to the floor--and it will be some time before March 
15--to support the disaster relief bill for the Southeastern United 
States and for Puerto Rico. The Democrats wanted so badly to add Puerto 
Rico to it, and the President signed off on that part. So we don't have 
a problem with the executive branch. I ask you to support all of the 
other provisions in it to see that those who were so badly damaged get 
their relief.
  Let me tell you what that relief is. I am not talking about a 
handout. As an example, I am talking about the pecan industry that is 
housed in my State of Georgia. It is a tremendous industry in Asia. It 
is a tremendous export in the United States, with a tremendous balance 
of payments which contribute to our country. Well, 70 percent was wiped 
out. It takes 15 to 20 years to replace a pecan orchard. They have to 
start growth from a seedling to be a full, maturing tree to produce the 
crops to get to the marketplace.
  Some of our crops are annual crops. A lot of them are long-term 
longevity crops. It is very important that we get them back on their 
feet. We will reclaim our place in the marketplace, but if we don't, 
somebody will take it away from us. Maybe it is Egypt, maybe it is 
India, or maybe it is somebody else.
  I am down here to say that climate does change and we can do 
something about it by addressing carbon. And the economy changes. We 
can do something about it by helping industries.
  When disasters come, if they are not responded to quickly and 
resolutely, they end up causing big losses to everybody in business, in 
productivity, and in our industries.
  I want to ask everybody on the floor to please join me--hopefully, 
before the 15th or at least by the 14th of March--

[[Page S1577]]

to support the disaster bill that passed. Senator Shelby, Senator 
Leahy, myself, Senator Perdue, and Senator Rubio, and many others 
worked very hard on this to bring it together to get the pieces that 
were missing in place.
  I want to thank, particularly, Senator Shelby and Senator Leahy for 
the time they and their staff have given us in the last couple of weeks 
to try to recover from the vote 2 weeks ago, when we lost what we 
thought was a solution to this problem.
  Mr. President, I appreciate the time on the floor.
  I yield to the distinguished Senator from Delaware.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. COONS. Mr. President, I want to recognize the wisdom and insight 
from my friend and colleague from the great State of Georgia. We have 
unmet disaster needs in this country. I look forward to working with 
him to achieve the relief of the disaster impacts on the Southeastern 
United States and other States.