[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Pages 19646-19647]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      HELPING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I wish to say, while he is still on the 
Senate floor, what an outstanding job the Senator from New Hampshire, 
Mr. Gregg, has done in this area of homeland security and border 
security. I doubt there is any other Member of the Congress, House or 
Senate, who has done more to actually produce results.
  There is very little we could be doing in the Congress, now and in 
the foreseeable future, more important than security for our homeland. 
It is an integral part of the War on Terror. It is a part of why we 
have not had another major attack since 9/11.
  Once again, the Senator from New Hampshire has shown real leadership. 
He has produced a bill we have to have this year, to provide the 
appropriations for this important Department and the agencies within it 
and to put funding in it for border security. This is a major 
achievement. No matter what else we get accomplished this week, this 
will probably be, overall, the most important. I thank him for it.
  I have been very involved in the reform of FEMA because I have seen 
how FEMA did not always have the authority and didn't have the power, 
if you will, didn't have the people or the money to do the job after 
Hurricane Katrina. This reform will help make FEMA stronger, and I 
believe it will be a benefit to the Department of Homeland Security.
  There are a lot of those saying we should be accomplishing more. I am 
hoping before this week is out we will pass a major border security 
bill. I am hoping we will pass the Outer Continental Shelf energy 
package. I believe we will get Defense authorization and Defense 
appropriations and hopefully several other good bills.
  I have never seen a Senate more paralyzed than I have seen over the 
past few months. There is no doubt in my mind that a conscious decision 
was made by the Democratic leadership January a year ago to slow-roll, 
obstruct, delay everything. Every time you take a week or two on a bill 
that should be done in a day or two, that is that many days you cannot 
use to do other things which need to be accomplished. But I think, 
rather than trying to have a list with a whole lot of things on it--
little things, in many instances--it is more important to keep a focus 
on the big issues.
  What have we done to really help the American people?
  Quite often some people say, please don't pass more laws. Leave me 
alone; allow the private sector, allow the markets, allow us to do our 
job, and let the States and localities do their jobs.
  I think we overemphasis sheer numbers. But I think it is important 
that we look at the list of what this Senate has passed this year. When 
you add to that the other things which we hope we will complete this 
week--the most effective week of a session is always right before the 
end of the year. I remember one night when we passed something like 67 
bills after almost everybody had gone home. The Democratic and 
Republican leadership had a blast. We passed a lot of good legislation.
  Look at what we have already done. The Patriot Act. Under the title 
of Homeland Security, we have taken major actions and they have made a 
difference in securing our country and have been a critical part of the 
War on Terrorism. The Patriot Act, border security, and we have funded 
the war on terror.
  On taxes and in the budget area, once again Senator Judd Gregg did a 
great job as chairman of the Budget Committee. We cut entitlements 
somewhat. We cut taxes by $70 billion. Other than Homeland Security and 
Defense, we have basically held the line on appropriations. A lot of 
the credit goes to my colleague from Mississippi, Senator Cochran.
  We passed a comprehensive energy policy bill last week. It is having 
a positive effect. It takes time for legislation in that area to have 
an effect.
  We passed the Pell grants in the area of math and science 
competitiveness in education.
  We passed lawsuit abuse reform.
  In the area of health for the benefit of Americans, health 
information technology, it sounds as though it wouldn't make that much 
difference, but it is going to control costs and make information more 
available to the patients so they can make the right decisions for 
their health needs.
  We have tremendous fights over judges. We have confirmed two Supreme 
Court judges--outstanding judges. We have confirmed 14 circuit court 
judges and 34 district court judges. Hopefully, we will confirm more 
this week. But there again, the Democrats chose to filibuster on 
judges--in my opinion, clearly unconstitutional. In fact, the majority 
leader now on almost every bill has to file cloture. Why? Because 
otherwise you can't get to the substance of a bill.
  When you spend 30 hours on a motion to proceed to a bill which has 
major consequences for border security, then you know there is 
something wrong with the institution. Instead of us finding ways to 
work together, we find ways to expound and put out more hot air instead 
of taking action.
  We have done some other things in protecting families, and also 
moving toward sound government.
  We passed the Voting Rights Act.
  I am here today for some reasons and for efforts that are not listed 
on this board. One year ago, I was standing on this floor pleading with 
my colleagues to help us in dealing with the aftermath of the biggest 
natural disaster to ever hit this country. We tend to forget about it. 
But most of last fall we spent on passing in a bipartisan, bicameral 
way Katrina relief legislation. We passed major appropriations. I am 
not talking about a few millions. I am talking about well over $100 
billion.
  When we came back from the August recess, instead of going to some of 
the things that were scheduled--such as repeal of the death tax--we 
went immediately to Katrina legislation. But in providing 
appropriations, in providing tax incentives for businesses and 
industries to rebuild, to stay in the area, or

[[Page 19647]]

come to the area to help us recover, we did that.
  Medicaid changes--we allowed the States of Louisiana and Mississippi 
to cope with the great increase in the number of people who needed 
Medicaid assistance; assistance through that bill to help many of our 
hospitals that were primary care hospitals. They treated everybody who 
showed up. It ran into hundreds of millions of dollars.
  And right across the board, we have Stafford Act changes in the law, 
help for our schools and colleges. All of our schools in Mississippi 
were back and open by November 7. In many instances, they were in 
pretty dilapidated facilities, without air conditioning, or temporary 
buildings. But every one of them opened by November 7, partially 
because Congress made a commitment to help them with the costs of what 
they had lost, to deal with the gap between what their insurance 
provided and what they were going to need to recover.
  I am here to thank the Congress for helping us.
  Have we had continued problems? Yes. Have we been disappointed in 
FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security and the Corps of 
Engineers? Yes, even though a lot of good people have done good work.
  I have to admit that at the State level and the local level, we have 
had problems sometimes in making decisions dealing with elevation 
requirements, dealing with national flood insurance, and actually even 
distributing the money.
  When you are trying to distribute $3 billion to 17,000 people, you do 
not throw it out the window. You have to have a process to make sure 
these people actually lost their homes, or had damaged homes, and that 
they are going to deal fairly with their mortgage holders, that they 
would have a way to get their homes back in place. That process is 
still underway. It has been a very difficult one.
  So you can be critical of what happened after Katrina, but there are 
a few places where a lot of credit should be given and it has not been 
adequately done.
  The Congress did the job after Hurricane Katrina. Every committee 
chairman and ranking member came to our aid. The Mississippians, the 
Louisianians, the Texans, the Alabamians told you what our problems 
were. We poured our hearts out, and the Senate did its job.
  Senator Cochran, my colleague from Mississippi, deserves enormous 
credit for the very calm, cool, and determined way he handled that 
legislation.
  I am here to say thank you. When you make this list of Senate 
accomplishments, you must add to this list the things we did after 
Hurricane Katrina. The system worked. Congress did its part. For that I 
will be eternally grateful.
  By the way, we ate up the major part of 3 months trying to make sure 
we were doing it right, appropriately, to help the people who needed it 
and to make sure it was done in an honest way.
  Sure, I complained we didn't do more. I complain about the way we do 
things. I don't like the totally partisan political seasons we get 
into. We all do it and I do it. But I think that while we are doing 
that, we ought to take a little credit for what we did do and what we 
did right.
  I wanted to make that point this morning.
  Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The minority controls 30 minutes

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