[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14160-14162]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I rise today to speak in favor of the 
emergency supplemental appropriations bill on which we will be voting 
at about 1:30 this afternoon. It is high time we pass this bill. The 
President asked for emergency appropriations to fund the Department of 
Defense and the war on terrorism about 4 months ago. It is critical. It 
contains $14 billion to fund the war on terrorism. With the cost of 
antiterrorist operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere exceeding $2 
billion per month, these funds are certainly needed.
  Because Congress has taken so long to produce this bill, the Pentagon 
has already reached into $3 billion worth of funds budgeted for ongoing 
activities in the fourth quarter of the current fiscal year.
  Last week, the Pentagon's comptroller warned of dire consequences if 
Congress did not provide the funds soon. He said the Department would 
have to suspend ship deployments and aircraft training operations for 
units that are not forward deployed, with the result that many units 
would no longer be able to respond to any crisis that might emerge.
  Many spare parts and supplies no longer could be ordered, and both 
ship maintenance and maintenance on critical aircraft, such as the EA-
6B jammers and the F/A-18 fighter/attack aircraft, would come to a 
halt. Scheduled moves for military personnel would be disrupted, 
jeopardizing school years for children and job opportunities for 
spouses. As many as 35,000 civilians could be furloughed from the 
Department of defense.
  Passage of this bill will guarantee our military does not run out of 
funds before the fiscal year 2003 Defense appropriations bill is sent 
to the President's desk, hopefully by October 1 of this year.

[[Page 14161]]

  This bill also helps Texans who have been devastated by two disasters 
at the same time--a severe lack of water in the Rio Grande River Valley 
in south Texas and heavy flooding in central Texas.
  This emergency legislation will help south Texas farmers by providing 
$10 million to make up for some of the losses they incurred during the 
last crop year due to lack of water. Families are suffering because 
their livelihood depends on water and Mexico has failed to deliver, 
under the United States-Mexico water treaty of 1994, the water that is 
owed. This treaty obligates Mexico to allow 350,000 acre feet of water 
to flow to the Rio Grande river annually while obliging the United 
States to allow 1.5 million acre feet of water to flow to Mexico from 
the Colorado River.
  Since 1992, Mexico has incurred a debt of 1.5 million acre feet of 
this water to the United States, while the United States has 
continually complied with our water obligations under the treaty. 
Because Mexico has failed to deliver its treaty obligated water, south 
Texas has lost over 5,000 jobs each year and suffered $230 million per 
year in lost business activity. The economic loss to the region since 
1992 is estimated to be $1 billion. This situation has become critical 
due to the continuing drought conditions in both south Texas and 
Mexico.
  The bill also provides $100 million in assistance for emergency use--
$50 million for fires, $50 million for floods--to hundreds of thousands 
of Americans who courageously fought to survive the wrath of scorching 
wildfires and unyielding flash floods that swept across New Mexico, 
Colorado, Arizona, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Texas, and many other areas 
of our Nation. These natural disasters rip through our towns, threaten 
our families, wreck our homes and businesses, destroy our heirlooms, 
and leave us stripped of resources to begin putting the pieces back 
together.
  On the Fourth of July, when most of the Nation was celebrating 
America's birthday, central Texans were evacuated from their homes by 
the thousands. Texas rivers were on the rise and were cresting at 
record levels, more than 20 feet above flood stage in most locations. 
By the time most of America's firework had burned out, the Medina River 
crested at a ferocious 44 feet above flood stage south of San Antonio. 
The storm left Texas with four people injured, four missing, and 
mourning the tragic deaths of nine.
  I thank the Texas Department of Emergency Management and the Federal 
Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, for their rapid response and rescue 
efforts for thousands of people who evacuated their homes, some of whom 
had only a few precious minutes to muster their families and secure 
their most valuable possessions.
  Imagine having to choose between saving your family photo album, your 
great-grandfather's journal, or your family Bible.
  I particularly want to thank Joe Albaugh, the Director of the Federal 
Emergency Management Agency, who toured with some of us in the 
congressional delegation to see the floods firsthand so he could come 
back and make sure he had made all of the efforts that could be made, 
all that were possible to give help to the people of south central 
Texas.
  The flood waters have dropped in Texas and people are now diligently 
working to clean and repair their homes and businesses. The total 
damages are still being assessed, and it is estimated they will reach 
another billion dollars. So I urge my colleagues to agree to this 
supplemental appropriations conference report to help them begin to put 
their lives back together in south central Texas.
  In addition, I want to mention Amtrak because this bill does restore 
a commitment to Amtrak, and $4.4 billion in vital highway funding to 
the States that would have been lost due to a decrease in gasoline tax 
revenue. Amtrak, in particular, deserves our continued attention. Our 
national passenger rail system is teetering on the edge of the abyss. 
The bill merely pulls it back a few inches. We must find a way for 
Amtrak to achieve long-term financial security through a dedicated 
funding source similar to the way we fund highways and aviation 
transportation. Otherwise, we will face these emergencies every year, 
and service will continue to deteriorate.
  At the same time, Amtrak's new leadership must eliminate this 
regional bias which has infected the railroad since its inception. 
Amtrak must stop sending all of its resources to the Northeast 
corridor, which is probably the only place in America with reliable 
rail service. Even so, the Northeast corridor is losing money every bit 
as fast as the rest of the system.
  I have inserted language into the Amtrak authorization, of which I am 
a cosponsor, that would force the railroad to spend its money 
proportionately throughout the system. That way, passengers in Texas, 
Washington State, and Mississippi can enjoy the kind of service that 
Northeast commuters have had for decades.
  I think we can have a national rail system for our country. I think 
it is important that we do so. We have the outline of such a railroad 
system today in Amtrak, but we have not funded it at a level where we 
could have and expect stable service.
  So I hope we will not only give Amtrak its lifeline today--which I 
believe that we will--but let's look at ways we can stabilize Amtrak so 
all the places that now get service can get reliable service, ontime 
service. Every time Amtrak threatens to pull the long-haul lines--which 
they did earlier this year--we lose thousands of reservations from 
people not knowing if they are going to be able to use their tickets, 
if they are going to go somewhere and not be able to get back, so it 
hurts the system even more. That is why we need to have stability so 
people can count on the service for which they are paying. We owe them 
that.
  We cannot possibly judge Amtrak unless we give them reliable service 
that would give us fair criteria. But to think we are going to do it on 
an operationally self-sufficient basis is ludicrous. We are not. No 
country in the world does. We are going to have to give it a stable 
revenue base and then hold the officers and board accountable for 
knowing how to run a railroad. I think it is time we do all these 
things and keep the commitment to having rail service in our country.
  Rail service is every bit as important an alternative as highways, as 
buses on the highways, as airports and aviation. We need all kinds of 
transportation in our country. In some places, freight is most easily 
and efficiently transferred from State to State across our country via 
rail. In some places, people cannot get to an airport. They do not live 
in a place that even has bus service. So they need another alternative 
that will allow them to travel across our country. This is part of 
national security. It is part of a stable economy. I think we need to 
just make a commitment and do it right. We have not been doing it 
right. We have been putting Band-Aids on Amtrak ever since we revived 
it years ago. Now is the time to do it right.
  I think this supplemental appropriations bill is a good one. It meets 
the needs of our military and our homeland defense, which certainly 
have been in a crisis situation for the last few months as we have 
debated this bill. It also addresses the emergencies in our country, 
from fires raging across the western part of the United States to 
floods in my home State of Texas. And it does help us revive Amtrak, 
hopefully to give the leadership of Amtrak--new leadership, I might 
add--the ability to get this job on track and hopefully to do it right.
  Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to support this bill and I yield 
the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Utah.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, what is the state of the proceedings at 
this point?
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The minority controls the next 
14\1/2\ minutes.

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