[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[Senate]
[Pages 22585-22586]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       RELIEF FOR THE GULF COAST

  Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, there has been a lot of activity on the 
floor over the last 24 hours. It has been focused on how best to help 
the people along the gulf coast who have been devastated by twin 
natural disasters, Katrina and Rita. There has been an ongoing debate 
that took up the night here in trying to determine how best to provide 
the funding that the cities and parishes in Louisiana and in 
Mississippi and Alabama and Texas need in order to begin to deal with 
their pressing, urgent needs.
  I rise because I well remember the feelings that I had on this floor 
in the aftermath of the attacks we suffered on September 11, 2001. It 
was an uncertain and tragic time in our country. We were attacked and 
we lost nearly 3,000 people. Eighteen acres were destroyed in the heart 
of the financial capital of the world. Hundreds of thousands of people 
lost their jobs. Businesses were shuttered, and there was great doubt 
as to how we were going to obtain the resources to begin the recovery 
process.
  I am grateful that in New York's hour of need, we had strong support 
in this Chamber. I am looking at my dear friend, the senior Senator 
from West Virginia, who came to our aid immediately. In fact, he said 
he would be the third Senator from New York.
  Mr. BYRD. Yes.
  Mrs. CLINTON. I have never forgotten that. I am so grateful because 
he helped to shepherd through the Congress the money that New York 
needed immediately to meet its needs.
  I am someone who believes that in a time of natural or manmade 
disaster, Americans rally around each other. We take care of each 
other. We provided funds from all over the country to help New York 
rebuild, just as we did after the Northridge earthquake in California, 
just as we did after hurricanes in Florida, just as we did after forest 
fires in the West, just as we did after the great floods in the Middle 
West.
  There has never been a disaster of the dimension of what we are 
facing along the gulf coast. I believe I have a small bit of 
understanding and empathy because of what we went through in New York 
for what my colleagues, Senator Vitter and Senator Landrieu, are 
facing. But what is becoming clear to me is that there is an effort 
underway to make the recovery along the gulf coast much more difficult 
than it needs to be.
  I have been stunned at some of the demands that I hear coming from 
some of those in the Congress about what is expected from the people 
along the gulf coast and what kinds of funds can be made available to 
them. Like many people, I have been touched, moved, and impressed by 
the passion and eloquence of my friend and colleague, the senior 
Senator from Louisiana, Ms. Landrieu. She has valiantly fought for the 
people who placed their trust in her to come to this Capitol and 
represent them in good times and bad. We are in a bad time. The people 
in Louisiana and along the gulf coast need champions. But no matter how 
eloquent a single Senator is or two Senators might be from a single 
State, they need support on both sides of the aisle and on both ends of 
the Capitol.
  We are about to be presented with legislation that for the life of me 
I cannot understand. This legislation in law discriminates against the 
gulf coast. It says, for the first time ever, we will put conditions on 
the Federal money that goes through FEMA to the people and businesses 
of the gulf coast.
  Mr. BYRD. Shame. Shame.
  Mrs. CLINTON. We will require that the money be repaid. As Senator 
Landrieu has said in this Chamber: It is a little bit of a catch-22, 
isn't it? You say to hard-pressed sheriffs offices in parishes, to 
municipal governments in towns and in New Orleans and along the gulf 
coast, you say to them: You must repay this money. So before you borrow 
it to keep your police and your fire departments up and going, before 
you borrow it to have your public utility departments begin to do the 
work they need to to get the reimbursement they require, you must have 
a plan in place to repay it.
  Mr. BYRD. Shame.
  Mrs. CLINTON. I am bewildered. I don't understand why we are turning 
the people of the gulf coast into second-class citizens.
  After 9/11, in addition to the normal disaster relief funds provided 
in the wake of that tragedy, the Federal Government designated $20 
billion to assist the New York City area. This was the first time FEMA 
received authority of this type to reimburse the city and the State for 
associated costs that could not otherwise have received money under the 
Stafford Act. This was an unusual action taken at an unusual time. We 
had the strong support of then-chairman of the Environment and Public 
Works Committee, Senator Jeffords, because 9/11 happened in that window 
when the Democrats were in the majority in the Senate. Chairman 
Jeffords stood with us to make sure we got what we needed without 
discriminating against New York City, without telling New Yorkers: You 
are just going to have to figure out how you are going to repay it, 
when you are not even sure there is another attack coming or what is 
going to be occurring in the future.
  Mr. President, we are again facing an unusual time. Hurricane 
Katrina, and then, of course, Hurricane Rita, devastated New Orleans 
and the surrounding areas. The people of this region deserve our full 
support. Instead of providing that support and helping these 
communities meet their needs, the proposal before us actually restricts 
their access to funds by preventing them from using principal 
forgiveness authorities that are part of current law.
  I know this has been presented apparently by the leadership in the 
House as a take-it-or-leave-it deal. I know what a difficult position 
that puts our two Senators from Louisiana in because they are basically 
being told you can leave here with $750 million with discriminatory 
conditions on it that make your people second-class citizens compared 
to everybody else, or you can leave with nothing. Well, that is a 
Hobson's choice if there ever was one.
  Mr. BYRD. Right.
  Mrs. CLINTON. Bring nothing home or bring something that is not going 
to help your hospitals, is not available to many communities because 
they are not going to be able to borrow it in the first place because 
they cannot repay it.
  Mr. BYRD. Shame.
  Mrs. CLINTON. I came from a meeting where a number of business 
executives along the gulf coast are desperately trying to figure out 
what they are going to do. Entergy in New Orleans has just taken 
bankruptcy. They said if they have to put the costs they are accruing 
into the rate base--which they have to do under these circumstances--
rates are going to rise 200 percent.
  What are people with no jobs and no businesses--and we will not even 
give them an unemployment compensation extension, we will not pass the 
Medicaid emergency application process which we used in New York--going 
to do? We had a one-page Medicaid eligibility program that got people 
back into a position where they could get their health needs met. We 
are not doing any of that for people along the gulf.
  Mr. BYRD. Right.

[[Page 22586]]


  Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I have the deepest sympathy for my 
colleagues from Louisiana. They are between a rock and a hard place.
  Mr. BYRD. Right.
  Mrs. CLINTON. Go home with nothing or go home with a bad deal.
  Mr. BYRD. Shame.
  Mrs. CLINTON. And a deal that has never been inflicted on any other 
city, State, or region in our country.
  Mr. BYRD. What a shame.
  Mrs. CLINTON. Finally, Mr. President, this is all being done in the 
name of the deficit. I know, I read the papers. We have a lot of people 
who have discovered the deficit up here.
  Mr. BYRD. Cut the funds for Iraq.
  Mrs. CLINTON. There are a lot of other alternatives than imposing 
discriminatory conditions on the American people--the American people 
along the gulf coast.
  Mr. BYRD. Shame.
  Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, together we can do better than this. A 
strong America begins at home.
  Mr. BYRD. Right.
  Mrs. CLINTON. And we should owe our highest allegiance to the people 
who are in this country. And before we extend 100 billion more dollars 
in tax cuts, and before we continue to run up this deficit by funding 
the war and all of the other associated expenses, let's get some 
responsibility back here and let's treat the people of the gulf coast 
with the respect and dignity they deserve.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. BYRD. Hear hear.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. Hear hear.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.

                          ____________________