[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 124 (Thursday, July 15, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S4922]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                           EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the nomination.
  The bill clerk read the nomination of Tiffany P. Cunningham, of 
Illinois, to be United States Circuit Judge for the Federal Circuit.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Louisiana.


                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 2359

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I rise today on my own behalf and on 
behalf of my colleague Senator Bill Cassidy.
  I know this has been true for States besides Louisiana, but for the 
last 18 months, from a weather perspective, Louisiana has been a 
fantastic impression of hell. We have had three hurricanes. We have 
had, depending upon how you define them, probably 10 different heavy 
rain events. And when I say ``heavy rain events,'' I mean, that doesn't 
sound very serious. I can assure you, it was. When you get 6, 8, 10, 12 
inches of rain in a short period of time, you are going to flood. I 
don't care if you are living on Pikes Peak. You are going to flood. The 
water has to go somewhere. And, of course, we were part of the bad, 
debilitating freeze, as well, that also hit Texas very hard.
  My people are very resilient, and they are tough, but they are tired.
  Most Americans, when they think of a natural disaster, at least in 
connection with Louisiana, think of Hurricane Katrina, and, certainly, 
it was a bad one. I was there. We never would have recovered without 
the help of the American people, and I will never be able to thank the 
American people enough for putting forth their hard-earned tax dollars 
to help us recover.
  These new hurricanes and rain events and freezes impacted probably 
close to one-third, maybe 40 percent of my people. The worst part of 
it, but not the only part that was hit hard, was Southwest Louisiana. 
At last count, about 100,000 homes were damaged, flooded, or blown 
over.
  They are still running the numbers. The damages are in the billions 
and billions and billions and billions of dollars, and my people need 
help.
  The purpose of my bill today is to offer us help for them. My bill 
today and Senator Cassidy's bill today--as I said, I am here on behalf 
of Senator Cassidy, as well--would authorize $1.1 billion to help my 
people recover.
  Now, I want to emphasize, some people, when they think of flooding 
and hurricanes, think of wealthy people with second homes, with 
multimillion-dollar dwellings on the beach. That is not what I am 
talking about. I am not putting down anybody who has a nice, expensive 
beach house, but that is not what we are talking about in Louisiana.
  The people who were hit by these weather events, through no fault of 
their own, are just good, honest middle Americans who get up every day 
and go to work and obey the law. They pay their taxes. They try to do 
the right thing by their kids. Their biggest investment is their home, 
and many completely lost their home. Many of them had flood insurance, 
and many of them had homeowner's insurance--and both. But it just 
didn't cover their losses completely. So we are talking about middle 
America here, and I want to make that clear.
  Now, Mr. President, I am sure you are thinking, because I know you 
well and you are a smart man: OK, if we are spending $1.1 billion here, 
where are we going to get it?
  Well, I come to you today with a problem, but I also come to you 
today with a solution.
  I don't want to digress too much, but, as you know, we are trying to 
build out 5G in America, and 5G operates through radio waves through 
the air called spectrum. And the FCC is in charge of those radio waves. 
A couple of years ago, the FCC--and those radio waves, by the way, 
belong to the American people. The FCC licenses them out to companies 
to use in wireless communications. A few years ago, the FCC was about 
to give away what is called the C-band spectrum, these particular radio 
waves that would allow for 5G to become reality in America. And a 
number of us objected. We said: You know, you don't own these radio 
waves. The American people own these radio waves. Why are you giving 
them away?
  And after some lively discussions, we finally turned the FCC around, 
and they decided to auction those radio waves to the highest bidder. 
They brought in $80 billion--$80 billion--and I am very proud of that. 
That money is sitting in an account in the Department of the Treasury.
  Senator Cassidy's bill and my bill would authorize the use of $1.1 
billion of that $80 billion in cash to be used through community 
development block grants to help my people recover.
  I can assure you that I wouldn't be here today asking for this if my 
people didn't desperately need it. They are hanging on. They are 
hanging on with every ounce of strength they have, but they are human. 
And, as I said, they are tough, but they are tired.
  For that reason, on behalf of Senator Cassidy and myself, as if in 
legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to 
the immediate consideration of S. 2359, which is at the desk. I further 
ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and that 
the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. PAUL. Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky.
  Mr. PAUL. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, we have now 
crossed $28 trillion in debt. We borrow more than $2 million every 
minute. The deficit last year was over $3 trillion. The deficit this 
year will be over $3 trillion. There is a $1 trillion wish list out 
there for everybody. Everybody wants something.
  Somebody says: Oh, there is money in the Treasury. Guess what. There 
is not. There is a big hole, a big black hole in the Treasury, 28 
trillion dollars' worth.
  So we do have this one asset, and when we sell it, we should do it to 
pay down the deficit. We shouldn't do it to expand government further.
  So I object to this because we are $28 trillion in debt. We don't 
have any money, and we should be fiscally conservative as we profess to 
be.
  I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
  The Senator from Nevada.