[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 119 (Wednesday, July 12, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2350-S2351]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Vermont Floods

  Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, I would like to address the Senate.
  Today was an inspiring day but also a sad day. Vermont, in the past 
few days, has suffered a severe flood from a storm that in some places 
dropped 9 inches of rain. It tumbled down off the mountains into our 
streams, flooded those streams and rivers, and overflowed into our 
villages and some of our major cities.
  To my right, we are looking at a depiction of downtown Montpelier, 
the capital of Vermont. Here, we are seeing damage in what is called 
the Northeast Kingdom to infrastructure. There are scenes like this 
everywhere.
  Senator Sanders, Congresswoman Balint, and the entire Vermont 
delegation with me toured Vermont with the Governor of Vermont, Phil 
Scott, and with our FEMA Administrator, Deanne Criswell. It was an 
inspiring day because we saw firsthand the extraordinary response of 
our government.
  President Biden immediately declared a state of emergency that 
unleashed the ability of FEMA to provide resources. We saw our Governor 
and our first responders in Vermont, our National Guard, our medical 
personnel--our first responders who did so much to rescue people and 
animals.
  We saw Vermont volunteers who were along the Main Street of Mont-
pelier when Senator Sanders and Congresswoman Balint and I were there 
coming out of their homes to help folks whose businesses had been 
devastated.
  We saw the press, the Vermont press, reporting constantly and giving 
detailed information about every location in Vermont that was 
underwater, giving an update in a report about how things were coming 
and where people could help.
  By the way, it is just a testament to the vital importance of local 
journalism. We are grateful as well for the hard work that our news 
organizations and the reporters did, oftentimes putting themselves in 
some significant peril. That was very inspiring.
  What is sad is that the damage of these storms and this particular 
storm is just overwhelming. Meeting homeowners in Barre who--one man we 
spoke to had lived in his home, a very modest home but very beautifully 
taken care of, where he raised his child and where he tended his 
garden. He had 4 feet of water in his basement, and that was the good 
news because the water had been up to his first floor. He was 
desperately trying to get the water out to try to get the place in a 
position where it was not going to have mold in his lifelong home, 
which means so much to him and will be repaired.
  We saw a woman who lived in a mobile home. All of us know that when 
these weather catastrophes occur, it is oftentimes the people with the 
least who suffer the most. She came out of her mobile home and walked 
across a steep, mud-drenched field in Barre, VT, toward us and the 
Governor with a little pail that represented toys of her children, and 
she really had no place to go. Her mom had suffered flood damage as 
well, and they were huddling together with her partner and her kids.
  What is so hard is--it is easy to understand the challenge that 
father had and that mother had, and we were there, and it is hopeful 
for them that we show up, that our Federal FEMA Administrator was there 
with her team, but what we know is that tomorrow, when the Sun is 
shining hopefully, because more rain could be forecast, her life has to 
go on, but it is without the foundation that she built and that father 
I mentioned built over 30 years.
  So that is the hard part. It is really, really hard for folks who 
have established stability in their lives to see that business that 
they had committed themselves to and worked so hard to establish or 
that home they cared for and tended--that home where they provided 
security to their families. The mystery to them is what is going to 
happen.
  It is why it is so important for us--and I am asking my colleagues 
for their support--that we do the minimum. The minimum is to at least 
get those Federal resources from FEMA back to Vermont, which is in a 
state of emergency and where so many Vermonters have suffered a very 
significant loss. They are willing to face it. People do that. They 
know they have got to clean that house up, but they have got to have 
some help. It is the help they get from their neighbors, but it also 
has to be the help they get from the government. It has to back folks 
up when, through no fault of their own, there is a catastrophic weather 
event and it does so much damage to the lives and livelihoods of so 
many.
  Senator Sanders and Congresswoman Balint and I certainly were very 
proud of the Vermont response,

[[Page S2351]]

from the Governor to the Administrators, to our press that is on the 
case, but we have got a job here.
  I am going to be asking my colleagues for us to do that which only 
the Federal Government can do, and that is to provide those financial 
resources to help folks when there has been a weather emergency where 
they live.
  If there is any base-level function of government to try to bring us 
together as a community, as a United States of America, it is to stand 
up and help folks, whether it is in Vermont or it is in Louisiana or it 
is in deep Texas. Wherever it is, when there is an event through no 
fault of their own where the weather is doing so much damage, I think 
each of us reveres the opportunity we can have to help our colleague 
and the folks whom our colleague represents. Vermont needs help now, 
and Senator Sanders and I will be seeking to obtain that help on behalf 
of Vermonters.
  I want to wind down here a little bit by describing a photograph of a 
sight I saw, and I took a photograph that we don't have here.
  Along the river in Barre, where the mud had come down and the silt 
had settled way outside of the banks of the river, there were three 
beautiful bicycles that were in a tangled mess and half-buried. What it 
represented clearly were the bikes of three young kids, of boys and 
girls who looked forward at the end of the day, on a beautiful Vermont 
summer day, to riding those bikes and having some fun. They don't know 
where those bikes are. They are buried, they are twisted, they are out 
of their reach, and it is having an effect on their lives.
  I know Vermonters are going to respond, and I hope our Federal 
Government responds. We have got to get bikes for those kids.
  One of the things we have to do is to make some contributions to 
funds that Vermonters made before when we suffered Tropical Storm 
Irene--when we were trying to get families the help they needed--to be 
able to have those kids back out on those bicycles in the beautiful 
Vermont summer that can, after this storm, resume.
  What I hope we do here--and I am going to be, as I mentioned, joined 
fully by Senator Sanders, who led today's delegation--is seek the 
assistance of our colleagues so that this government can be a friend at 
the time of need for the Vermonters who in times of others' needs have 
always been there.
  I want to thank many of my colleagues who have approached me, Senator 
Kennedy foremost among them, who has had a lot of experience with 
natural disasters in Louisiana. There has been one colleague after 
another saying: Peter, if there is anything we can do, we want to help. 
So I take everyone at their word.
  I want to end where I began, and that is with my expression of 
gratitude to the response from Vermonters, from President Biden, from 
Administrator Criswell, and from my colleagues as well.
  Vermont is strong, and we will get through this. But make no 
mistake--it is asking so much of a family who has lost a home. It is 
asking so much of kids whose summer expectations are that they are 
going to be able to ride on those Vermont country roads and enjoy being 
out with their friends and no longer have the bikes. It is asking a lot 
of families who are wondering what is going to happen now after mom's 
business has closed. It is going to ask a lot of Vermonters who are 
trying to figure out how in the world, even with help here, they are 
going to navigate the paperwork that is necessary in order to get that 
assistance.
  What we are going to do here, in addition to seeking the assistance 
that is required, is that Senator Sanders, Congresswoman Balint, and I 
are coordinating our casework response because there are a lot of 
concrete challenges that folks face. We want them to absolutely call 
us, and we are going to work it out between the three of us to make 
sure that we can help the most Vermonters as quickly as possible get 
access to things that will be helpful to them to rebuild their futures. 
We will be strong. We will recover.
  I just want to end by acknowledging the sadness I feel for so many 
families who and businesses that have been so hammered by this storm. 
This storm, by the way, was dropping so much rain as a result of the 
change in our climate that this point is undeniable. The warmer 
temperatures over the ocean create much more moisture in the air, and 
what was going to be a ``normal'' rainstorm becomes a deluge as 3 
inches turn into 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 inches.
  We do owe it to the future to act with alacrity, effectiveness, and 
determination and address the climate factors that are going into 
creating these mega storms.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  Will the Senator withhold his suggestion of a quorum?
  Mr. WELCH. Yes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.