[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 153 (Thursday, September 21, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4642-S4643]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 2721

  Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I was Governor of Florida from 
January 2011 through January 2019, and we had a variety of disasters. 
We had four major hurricanes; we had wildfires; we had flooding--a 
variety of things.
  What you find out in that role as Governor is you find out the 
importance of the Federal Government. FEMA is very important to 
disaster relief.
  Disaster relief is partially borne by whomever is impacted, a family 
or a business. Partially, it is impacted by the city or county, 
partially by the State, and partially by the Federal Government.
  My experience with FEMA is they are hard-working individuals that 
work hard to try to be a good partner with our States.
  Last September, about 12 months ago, we had a horrible hurricane in 
our State, Hurricane Ian. We lost over 150 people. We had unbelievable 
damage. FEMA has been a partner in that hurricane relief.
  Just recently--about 3 weeks ago, 4 weeks ago--we had another 
hurricane, Idalia, and again FEMA came down and is a partner in that 
hurricane relief.
  I met with President Biden 3 weeks ago when he came down to tour the 
damage, and I talked to him about the importance of getting FEMA fully 
funded.
  There is a Federal Disaster Relief Fund that is part of FEMA that 
pays for things like debris pickup, helps individuals who have lost 
their homes, helps our small businesses--a variety of things like that.
  Right now, this thing is getting low on funds. I checked on September 
11. It is down to $2.5 billion. And they project, by the end of this 
month, it will be down to $550 million. What they also told me is that 
there is a community in every State in this country that is getting 
impacted by the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund.
  So I have been trying, for months, to get a vote on a bill which is 
pretty commonsense. No. 1, it will put funds into FEMA so they can 
provide help for all these communities in every State. No. 2, the next 
thing it does is helps our farmers.
  Our farmers in Florida have been waiting for almost 12 months for 
relief from the Department of Agriculture. Historically, what the 
Department of Agriculture did, especially when I was Governor, was they 
would provide a block grant to the State, to our farmers, so the money 
could get out to our farmers quicker.
  For whatever reason, Secretary Vilsack, the Secretary of Ag, has 
decided now that he has to have separate legislation from Congress that 
gives him specific authority that he can do a block grant.
  It has never happened before. But for whatever reason, he believes it 
has to happen now. That is in this bill.
  The Army of Corps of Engineers is a key partner in beach 
renourishment in any State that has been impacted. I know our Presiding 
Officer had wildfires, and I am sure their beaches have had some 
impact. So it would also help our Army Corps of Engineers, help with 
beach renourishment, and also help our military installations after a 
disaster.
  So mine is a commonsense bill. It impacts some community in every 
State in the country. So what I am asking for is a stand-alone vote on 
my bill. It is called the Federal Disaster Responsibility Act. I hope 
every Senator here will unanimously agree that we should do this.
  Mr. President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent 
that the Committee on Finance be discharged

[[Page S4643]]

from further consideration of S. 2721 and the Senate proceed to its 
immediate consideration; I further ask that the Scott-Rubio substitute 
amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as 
amended, be considered read a third time and the Senate vote on passing 
the bill, as amended, with a 60-vote affirmative threshold required for 
passage of the bill; finally, if passed, the motion to reconsider be 
considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Rhode Island.
  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, may I 
say that I appreciate that Senator Scott would like to accelerate 
disaster aid to his home State. But let me observe that disasters have 
taken place not only in Florida but in the Presiding Officer's home 
State of Hawaii, in Vermont, in New York, in Louisiana, and other 
States as well.
  And in response to that, what President Biden did was made a request 
to Congress in August to pass a comprehensive emergency supplemental 
that includes an increase in funding for FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund. 
It also includes $45 million for the Department of Ag and $15 million 
for the Department of Interior to support more than 20,000 firefighters 
who are out there braving this explosion in new wildfires that are 
taking place across our country.
  This is driven by climate change. Let's be clear about that. We have 
had 14 named storms so far in the 2023 hurricane season. If you look 
back at last year, weather-related damage in the United States topped 
165 billion. We have had testimony in my Budget Committee from OMB that 
climate change will cost the Federal budget $2 trillion per year.
  We cannot address this piecemeal, and we cannot address it only by 
providing disaster relief and not doing anything useful to head off 
these risks. Some of these are what economists call systemic risks. 
``Systemic'' doesn't sound like it is a very big word, but what it 
means is the risk cascades out of the area where the economic harm is 
taking place to trash the whole economy. Just the way the 2008 mortgage 
meltdown didn't just trash the banks that had the bad mortgages, it 
took down the whole U.S. economy--that is predicted for coastal 
property value crash; that is predicted for a wildfire uninsurability 
crash; that is predicted for a carbon bubble crash.
  And the insurance meltdown has already begun in Florida, in 
Louisiana, and in Texas. So the warning signs of another 2008-scale 
financial crisis are already flashing red. And behind those immediate 
warning signs looms the collapse of Earth's basic natural operating 
systems that science has predicted for decades and with real precision.
  We need to do a lot more than just clean up. We do need to clean up 
the disasters, but we also need to get the predisaster preparation 
resources in because we know this is coming, and we know it is getting 
worse. And we absolutely need to head off the root cause of all of 
this, which is fossil fuel emissions choking our atmosphere with 
greenhouse gases, heating up the Earth, and causing us to spin out from 
basic conditions of habitability of the Earth that have existed for 
tens of thousands of years.
  So what we should do is pass the continuing resolution with full 
funding for the President's supplemental request for FEMA's Disaster 
Relief Fund, for the Department of Agriculture firefighter money, for 
the Department of Interior firefighter money, and while we are at it, 
because President Zelenskyy was here today, I will also add that it is 
really important to continue to support Ukraine.
  For those reasons, I will object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The objection is heard.
  The Senator from Florida.
  Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I appreciate my colleague's 
concern about some of these other issues. I think we ought to have a 
discussion about those and see if we can get something done. But right 
now, the Disaster Relief Fund is going to be down to the $550 million 
by the end of this month. There is a community in every State--and this 
fund only covers where it fits within the parameters where FEMA says 
that the Federal Government is responsible for a portion of it. But 
this would help a community in every State in the country. So I hope, 
at some point, we can get this passed. There is a community in every 
State in this country that is getting impacted by this.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The senior Senator from Iowa.