[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 10361-10366]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  MILITARY CONSTRUCTION AND VETERANS AFFAIRS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2008

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the 
Senate will resume consideration of the House message, which the clerk 
will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       Resolved, That the House agree to the amendment of the 
     Senate to the bill (H.R. 2642) entitled ``An Act making 
     appropriations for military construction, the Department of 
     Veterans Affairs, and related agencies for the fiscal year 
     ending September 30, 2008, and for other purposes,'' with 
     House amendments to Senate amendment.


[[Page 10362]]


  Pending:

       Reid motion to concur in the House amendment No. 2 to the 
     Senate amendment to the bill with amendment No. 4803, in the 
     nature of a substitute.
       Reid amendment No. 4804 (to amendment No. 4803), in the 
     nature of a substitute.

  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, the Senate is now considering the 
supplemental bill, and on our side, the Senator from Maryland, Ms. 
Mikulski, will be our first speaker.
  I yield her 10 minutes.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Maryland.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. Good morning, Mr. President.
  Today I take the floor as the chairperson of the Subcommittee on 
Commerce, Justice, and Science of the Appropriations Committee.
  We bring to the Senate for its consideration an element within the 
domestic spending that I urge my colleagues to support. It provides 
critical funding to protect America from threats abroad and those 
threats here at home and to invest in America's future. There are those 
that meet compelling human needs right here in the United States of 
America. They also deal with the incompetency of the Bush 
administration to truly estimate the cost of the war.
  Today I am asking for support because in protecting America this 
subcommittee adds funds to the FBI. We add $313 million for the 
Department of Justice, for both the FBI and DEA and the work they need 
to do in Afghanistan and in Iraq.
  Once again, we have underestimated greatly the cost of this war. But 
we are not going to neglect our duty. This subcommittee provides $23 
million to the Drug Enforcement Agency to fight narcoterrorism in 
Afghanistan, to fight the poppy trade that funds terrorism. Athough the 
cost was underestimated, we are going to make sure we are going to do 
our duty to put those DEA agents next to the Afghan leadership to fight 
this narcoterrorism.
  Then, at the same time, we are going to have FBI agents in the war 
zone gathering intelligence on terrorists, dealing with IEDs and some 
of the forensic issues there, and we have provided money for them to be 
able to do this. Once again, they underestimated what it would take 
because there is very important work the FBI needs to do so our 
military is freed up in fighting the war. We fight the war against 
those who are trying to kill us with IEDs.
  But while we are doing that, and we are trying to keep Afghanistan 
and Iraq safe, we added to this bill money for people here at home. 
What we did was we added $50 million to the U.S. Marshals' funds to 
catch fugitive sex offenders who threaten the safety of our children 
and our communities--$50 million more, which was authorized under the 
Adam Walsh legislation, the bill to be able to fund the Marshals 
Service to go after those sexual offenders for we know who they are, we 
know what they have done, and we know they are loose in our society. It 
is the Marshals Service that has both the authority and the know-how to 
do that. If we want to make the streets safe abroad, I certainly want 
to protect the children of the United States of America against these 
sexual predators.
  Then, we also added, at the request of over 55 Senators, on a 
bipartisan basis, $490 million for Byrne formula grants for State and 
local police. We know there is a spike in violent crime all over the 
United States of America. The best way to fight violent crime is to 
make sure our local law enforcement has the tools they need to do their 
job. Therefore, we want the streets of Boston and Baltimore and 
Tuscaloosa to be as safe as we are fighting to make the streets safe in 
Afghanistan.
  We are also working to deal with disaster recovery. In some States 
there are fishery disasters, such as in the gulf region, in New 
England, and the Pacific Northwest with its salmon constraints. We have 
added money to deal with the fisheries disaster. We also added a 
particular item for Byrne grants for the gulf region to address and 
deal with violent crime.
  We are trying to deal with the fact that our own American citizens 
are facing disasters that so adversely affect either public safety or 
their very livelihoods.
  Then, last but not at all least, we clean up the administration's 
mess. The census is on the verge of a boondoggle. There has been a 
technical meltdown in their ability to do the census. The so-called 
handheld devices that were going to be used to do the census in a new 
and data-driven way have not worked out. Who knows? The Secretary of 
Commerce is investigating it. But I am telling you now, it is going to 
cost $2 billion to fix it--$2 billion as in ``Barb,'' not $2 million as 
in ``Mikulski.'' So we are going to clean up the mess of the 
administration. In this supplemental, we put a downpayment of $210 
million so we meet our constitutional responsibility to do this. I 
regret that the incompetency--the failure to stand sentry on taking the 
census, when they had 10 years to get ready for it, is indeed 
frustrating.
  Then we come to another issue on prisons. Because of the inadequate 
budget request from the President, we are facing a violent undercurrent 
in prisons and terrible understaffing. We add the money, though the 
administration would not request it through its OMB. But all of the 
people who work at Justice who deal with this say this is a dire 
emergency, not to protect the prison but to protect the prison workers 
from dealing with this.
  Then, also, what we did add was money for science, particularly for 
the space program, because when Columbia went down, they took the money 
for return-to-flight from other agencies. This returns it so we can 
keep our NASA on track.
  That is what the CJS Subcommittee did, and I think we have done a 
good job. We tried to act to meet the needs in fighting the global war 
against terrorism. We dealt with the incompetency of underestimating 
the cost to these agencies because of the war. We are dealing with the 
incompetencies of either poor budget requests or the census boondoggle.
  I think we have done a good job. I am asking my colleagues to support 
this legislation because if you want to protect our streets--if we need 
to help our people with their own disasters, and meet our 
constitutional responsibilities--you want to vote for my part from my 
subcommittee.
  The other part that is in this bill, which will come at a later time, 
is that for which in the full Appropriations markup I offered an 
amendment to extend current law on something called H-2B. That is a 
seasonal guest worker program that has helped coastal States with being 
able to hire people, as well as the hospitality industry.
  My amendment was a very simple amendment. All it did was extend 
current law that expired September 30. There was no new law. We broke 
no new ground. We created no new legislative framework. We created no 
new rights or privileges. It did three things. It lifted--it 
essentially gave a waiver on the cap of 66,000 people who currently 
come in.
  What does all this mean in plain English? It means we were doing 
three things: first, protecting American borders; second, protecting 
American jobs; and third, rewarding the people who go by the rules. We 
protected American borders because we had a system that worked. People 
came, they worked, they went back home. Second, it protected American 
jobs because it was seasonal employment in industries that, in my 
State, particularly in the seafood industry, keeps businesses going 
that have been around for over 100 years. Then it rewarded the good 
guys, those people who are American employers who want to go by the 
rules--did not want to hire illegal aliens. But now we are going to 
poke them in the eye. It also rewarded the Latinos who came from 
Mexico--and I met with the madras down in my own State who often come 
from the same villages every year and return home.
  Well, my amendment extended law. I know that my colleague--there will 
be a colleague who will raise the point of order today, and my 
amendment will go down because it is not germane. I just wish to say 
this: It might not be germane, but it is relevant. Maybe it is

[[Page 10363]]

not technically germane, but it is relevant because we are doing 
legislation to deal with the supplemental on compelling needs that our 
people face. That is why I want to get the sexual predators off the 
street.
  I asked for 3 additional minutes. I am about to lose thousands of 
jobs because of this point of order.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. I ask unanimous consent for 3 more minutes.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I am not going to speak long.
  The handwriting is on the wall, but the handwriting essentially says 
this: If you go by the rules, you are going to lose out.
  The Senator has the right to offer his point of order, but I am just 
telling my colleagues this: We are losing this battle on the seasonal 
guest worker program, not because of law but because of ideology, both 
from the extreme right and because of the left. So when my amendment 
falls, it is not about Barbara Mikulski's amendment falling. When that 
amendment falls, we will hear thousands of jobs falling where we 
actually had an immigration program that worked and rewarded people who 
went by the rules. That is it.
  So that is the way it is going to be today. I look forward to the 
votes. I wish to congratulate the Senator for the way she has organized 
this bill and Senator Byrd for the great job he did.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, but I am pretty worked up today.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Washington is 
recognized.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I wish to thank the Senator from Maryland 
for her passion on behalf of all Americans but particularly those whom 
she represents in Maryland. She has done an amazing job, and I commend 
her for that. I hope all of our colleagues listened to her words about 
what is in this bill because it is extremely important.
  This first amendment we will be voting on today--we are going to have 
some pretty important decisions when we vote shortly because the bill 
we are debating does more than provide billions of dollars to fund our 
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. What this amendment does is provide 
money for emergencies right here at home in America, including funding 
to respond to natural disasters and our weakened economy.
  Now, as we debate this bill, we are facing a choice: Will we support 
the domestic funding to help keep our communities strong at home or are 
we going to simply ignore their needs as we send billions of dollars to 
Iraq and Afghanistan alone?
  President Bush has made his position pretty clear. He said that the 
only emergencies worth funding in this bill are the wars in Iraq and 
Afghanistan. He said he is going to veto any legislation that includes 
one penny over his request of $183.8 billion for the wars.
  But people across this country are hurting. Workers are facing 
unemployment. Our veterans are having to fight their own Government for 
the services they earned, and communities from Maine to New Hampshire 
to my home State of Washington are struggling to recover from 
devastating storms.
  The domestic funding in this amendment would keep jobs here at home, 
repair badly damaged roads, care for our veterans, and help our rural 
communities. I think the President's veto threat shows exactly how out 
of touch he is with the needs of our American people.
  As chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, 
Housing and Urban Development, one of the provisions in this bill that 
I am most concerned about is highway and bridge reconstruction. Now, it 
is not that President Bush isn't concerned about highway construction. 
This administration actually requested millions of dollars in emergency 
funding for highway construction in this bill. The problem is, I tell 
my colleagues, that President Bush's concern is for highways in Iraq 
and Afghanistan. In fact, those are the only requests for roads and 
bridge repairs by the President in this supplemental.
  Meanwhile, the Federal Highway Administration is currently sitting on 
a backlog of applications totaling over half a billion dollars for 
roads and bridges that have been destroyed by natural disasters right 
here at home in America. They are still struggling in Louisiana to 
rebuild roads that were damaged during Hurricane Katrina and the heavy 
rains of 2006. Texas needs help to rebuild after Hurricane Rita and 
floods over the last 2 years. Large sections of roads in Maine and New 
Hampshire were destroyed in floods last spring. In Oregon and in my 
home State of Washington, we are still fighting to recover from 
devastating floods that were caused by storms of last December.
  Let me give my colleagues an idea of what I am talking about. This 
photo shows us roadwork that is being done in Afghanistan. Now, in this 
supplemental appropriations bill, the President requested more than 
$725 million for construction, repair, and restoration of roads and 
bridges in Iraq and Afghanistan. The money the President is requesting 
includes over $300 million for the Commander's Emergency Response 
Program for road projects in Iraq and Afghanistan; $50 million for 
Afghanistan's Bamiyan-Dowshi Road, as well as another $275 million for 
other roads in Afghanistan. He is also asking for another $100 million 
in military construction projects for road projects in Bagram, 
Afghanistan, and elsewhere. My concern is that the President wants to 
fund these roads overseas, and yet he is ignoring that 21 States right 
here are waiting--waiting--for emergency help with roads and bridges 
that are eligible for Federal aid--roads in Louisiana, Maine, 
Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, and Washington.
  Let's be clear. We are not talking just about fixing potholes.
  I ask unanimous consent to have a table which displays all of the 
States that are waiting for emergency relief printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                             EMERGENCY RELIEF PROGRAM FUND REQUESTS, APRIL 30, 2008
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                      Formal          Pending      Subtotal  by
                 State                            Event              requests        requests          State
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alabama...............................  AL05-3, August 29, 2005        2,300,000  ..............       2,300,000
                                         Hurricane Katrina
                                         (add'l request).
Alaska................................  AK06-1, November 2005            175,769  ..............         175,769
                                         Winter Storms (add'l
                                         request).
California............................  CA05-1, 2004-2005 Winter     117,700,000  ..............  ..............
                                         Storms (add'l request).
                                        CA08-1, October 3, 2007   ..............      20,000,000  ..............
                                         La Jolla Slide City of
                                         San Diego.
                                        CA08-2 October 12, 2007       17,600,000  ..............  ..............
                                         1-5 Tunnel Fire.
                                        CA08-3, October 2007          28,700,000  ..............  ..............
                                         Wildfires.
                                        CA08-4, Martins Ferry     ..............      10,000,000     194,000,000
                                         Bridge Disaster.
Kansas................................  KS07-1, May 4, 2007            1,539,553  ..............  ..............
                                         Tornado and Flooding.
                                        KS07-2 June 21, 2007           4,430,769  ..............       5,970,322
                                         Storms and Flooding.
Louisiana.............................  LA05-1, August 29, 2005       28,998,103      43,469,548  ..............
                                         Hurricane Katrina
                                         Indirect Costs.
                                        LA07-1, October 16-            2,956,978  ..............      75,424,629
                                         November 2, 2006 Heavy
                                         Rains and Flooding.
Maine.................................  ME07-1, April 15, 2007           185,000  ..............         185,000
                                         Rains and Flooding
                                         (add'l request).
Minnesota.............................  MN07-2, August 2007            7,461,465  ..............       7,461,465
                                         Flooding.
Missouri..............................  M007-1, May 2007          ..............       1,783,500  ..............
                                         Flooding.
                                        M008-1, November 27,           1,249,308  ..............  ..............
                                         2007 Jefferson Street
                                         Bridge Fire.
                                        M008-2 March 2008 Storms  ..............       5,000,000       8,032,808
                                         and Flooding.
New Hampshire.........................  NH07-1, April 2007             3,929,229  ..............       3,929,229
                                         Flooding.
New Jersey............................  NJ07-1, April 14, 2007    ..............      11,000,000      11,000,000
                                         Northeaster.
New York..............................  NY06-1, June 2006             1 ,437,989  ..............  ..............
                                         Flooding (add'l
                                         request).

[[Page 10364]]

 
                                        NY06-2, October 12, 2006         530,040  ..............  ..............
                                         Snowstorm.
                                        NY06-3, November 16 2006         323,773  ..............  ..............
                                         Heavy Rains and
                                         Flooding (add'l
                                         request).
                                        NY07-1, April 14, 2007         4,890,577  ..............  ..............
                                         Northeaster.
                                        NY07-2 June 19, 2007           9,108,477  ..............      16,290,856
                                         Flash Flooding.
North Carolina........................  NC06-2, November 22,           2,379,372  ..............       2,379,372
                                         2006 Storm.
Oklahoma..............................  OK07-2 May 4-11, 2007          2,352,482  ..............  ..............
                                         Flooding.
                                        OK07-3, May 24-June 10,        4,446,404  ..............  ..............
                                         2007 Flooding.
                                        OK07-4, July 10, 2007 SH       5,690,000  ..............  ..............
                                         82 Landslide.
                                        OK07-5 August 18, 2007         6,188,889  ..............  ..............
                                         Tropical Storm Erin.
                                        OK08-1, December 8, 2007      10,425,000  ..............  ..............
                                         Ice Storm.
                                        OK08-2 April 9, 2008           4,400,000  ..............      33,502,775
                                         Storms.
Oregon................................  OR08-1, December 2007     ..............      10,000,000      10,000,000
                                         Rainfall and Flooding.
Rhode Island..........................  RI07-1, April 2007               431,600  ..............         431,600
                                         Rainfall and Flooding
                                         (add'l request).
South Dakota..........................  SD07-1, May 5, 2007              592,638  ..............         592,638
                                         Flooding.
Texas.................................  TX05-1, September 23,          3,460,240  ..............  ..............
                                         2005 Hurricane Rita
                                         (add'l request).
                                        TX06-1, July 31, 2006 EI      15,831,845      16,864,081  ..............
                                         Paso Flooding.
                                        TX07-1, May-June 2007     ..............      16,830,983      52,987,149
                                         Flooding.
Vermont...............................  VT07-1, July 9-11 2007         1,774,533  ..............       1,774,533
                                         Severe Storms.
Washington............................  WA07-1, November 2006         11,080,000  ..............  ..............
                                         Flooding (add'l
                                         request).
                                        WA08-1, December 2007         44,800,000  ..............      55,880,000
                                         Rainfall and Flooding.
West Virginia.........................  WV07-1, April 2007 Heavy       1,494,611  ..............       1,494,611
                                         Rains and Flooding.
Wisconsin.............................  W107-1, August 18, 2007        4,802,452  ..............       4,802,452
                                         Rainfall.
FLH Manag. Agencies...................  various events..........      11,494,066       2,800,000      14,294,066
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
    Total.............................  ........................     365,161,162     137,748,112     502,909,274
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
Excess funds from Northridge            ........................  ..............  ..............      51,782,891
 Earthquake (PL 103-211).
                                                                 -----------------------------------------------
    Net Unfunded Backlog..............  ........................  ..............  ..............     451,126,383
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, in several of those 21 States that are 
waiting for funds, officially declared natural disasters wiped-out 
roads and bridges, completely creating obvious safety hazards but also 
cutting off some of our rural communities and disrupting families and 
commerce. Here is a picture that gives us an idea of the scope of the 
problem we face in my home State alone. Sections of roads such as this 
one in Gifford-Pinchot National Forest were completely destroyed in 
recent floods.
  If the Federal Government doesn't provide help, these States are 
going to have to either wait to fix these roads or pay for these 
emergency repairs by diverting money from their annual highway funds 
and delaying or cancelling critically needed projects. At a time when 
we know our economy is slipping and gas prices are at an alltime high, 
our States can't afford to do this. A State such as Oklahoma would have 
to spend almost 7 percent of its entire annual highway program to help 
repair roads that were destroyed during recently declared disasters.
  Mr. President, 2007 was an unusually hard year for Oklahoma. The 
problems that were caused by storms last year were compounded by more 
storms this past April. As a result, the backlog of highway repairs now 
waiting for the Federal aid emergency relief program totals $33.5 
million. That money is contained in the amendment we will be voting on 
this morning.
  So, as I said, my home State of Washington was hit by devastating 
floods last December. Communities from southwest Washington in Whatcom 
County on the Canadian border are struggling to recover, and they 
desperately need and deserve help from our Federal Government.
  The bottom line is that while I understand the problems that 
inadequate roads pose to our military and the people in Iraq and 
Afghanistan, we also have urgent needs right here at home for the same 
kinds of repairs, and we have a responsibility to address those 
emergencies. The longer we wait, the longer the list of roads waiting 
for repairs becomes. And those damaged roads hold up our commerce, they 
keep people from getting to work, and they keep goods from getting to 
market. That is going to continue to hurt our already strained economy.
  Just yesterday, Governor Gregoire in my home State declared an 
emergency when a highway in Spokane was completely washed out in heavy 
rains and snowmelts. Our Transportation Department says those repairs 
will cost $1 million, and it is going to take several days to reopen a 
single lane of that traffic.
  When our citizens pay their taxes, they except their money will go to 
keep the roads and bridges in their own communities safe and reliable. 
I think President Bush is profoundly out of touch if he believes our 
taxpayers would rather spend their money on new roads overseas than on 
damaged roads in their own communities.
  So I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle pay close 
attention to what is in this emergency relief amendment and that they 
vote to take care of their own constituents at home while we continue 
to fund these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  Thank you, Mr. President, and I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Mississippi is 
recognized.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, earlier this week I spoke about the need 
to act expeditiously to consider the supplemental appropriations bill 
to fund ongoing operations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the global war on 
terrorism. I don't know that I could add any more persuasive reasons 
why we must approve the President's request for supplemental 
appropriations.
  In a hearing earlier this week before our Appropriations 
subcommittee, Secretary of Defense Gates testified that the military 
personnel account that pays our soldiers and the operations and 
maintenance accounts which fund readiness, training, and the salaries 
of civilian employees across the Defense Department will run dry over 
the next few weeks. Secretary Gates can forestall this depletion of 
funds for a short period of time, but if he does so, it will disrupt 
ongoing programs that are critical to our operations in theater and to 
our national defense generally.
  Delay in providing funds for our troops has already disrupted 
operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Admiral Mullin, the Chairman of the 
Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the Appropriations Defense 
Subcommittee also about a recent visit he had with soldiers on the 
front lines. Those soldiers told Admiral Mullin that they were unable 
to allocate additional funds from the Commander's Emergency Response 
Program because essentially all the money had been allocated for the 
quarter. We are two-thirds of the way through the fiscal year, and yet 
Congress has provided less than one-third of the funds requested for 
this emergency response program.
  Secretary Gates characterizes this initiative as:

       The single most effective program to enable commanders to 
     address local populations' needs and get potential insurgents 
     in Iraq and Afghanistan off the streets and into jobs.

  I will not repeat my statement from earlier this week on the urgent 
need to move this process forward, but it is clear that when Congress 
finally began to act, it did so using convoluted procedures designed to 
shut out individual Members in the Senate and in the

[[Page 10365]]

other body. Yet, this morning, it remains highly uncertain whether an 
adequate and signable supplemental funding bill will be sent to the 
President before Memorial Day. There are rumors--conversations--about a 
short-term, 1-month supplemental being drafted by the majority.
  Mr. President, that is really not what we need. It is one thing to 
extend the aviation bill or the farm bill or other programs for short 
periods of time while Congress completes its work on long-term 
legislation, but to begin stringing out our military and our diplomatic 
corps on a month-by-month basis during a period of military conflict is 
a dereliction of our duties.
  I worry that the Congress is becoming an impediment to the efficiency 
and the capability of our Government, and to our Department of Defense 
in particular. We are not acting to protect the security of our troops 
who are putting themselves in harm's way and embarking on dangerous 
missions or providing for others whom we are trying to train to prepare 
to take over the responsibilities for national security. We need to get 
together now.
  The time for dragging our feet is long past. We need to find a common 
ground so that we can provide our men and women in the field with the 
necessary resources and the support that is necessary to conduct 
successfully the mission assigned to them by our United States 
Government. We need to do this without any further delay. I urge my 
colleagues to do it now.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Cantwell). The Senator from Washington is 
recognized.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I yield 5 minutes to the Senator from 
Louisiana.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, I rise to speak in support of the 
supplemental bill that was put together by many Members, actually, on 
both sides of the aisle, who believe that, yes, we should expedite 
funding for our troops in the field, but also there are emergencies 
right here at home, as eloquently described earlier this morning in the 
remarks of the Senator from Maryland and the Senator from Washington 
State.
  I would like to add some words to their arguments. First of all, I 
realize there is an emergency and a war and conflict going on in Iraq 
and international incidents around the world that deserve the attention 
and support of this body. But there are also emergencies right here at 
home and imminent and ongoing threats.
  This chart basically says it all. It is a frightening chart to me, a 
depressing chart, but it is reality. The reality is, since 1955 through 
2005, this is the track of hurricanes that have hit the United States. 
Some of these are category 1, some are category 2, but dozens of them 
are categories 4 and 5. This track is Hurricane Katrina in yellow and 
Hurricane Rita in blue, which devastated large parts of Louisiana and 
Mississippi, even going into Alabama and Texas--flooding thousands of 
homes and killing 2,000 people plus along the gulf coast. The 
predictions are that these kinds of storms are going to get more 
frequent and worse.
  There is nothing we can do to prevent hurricanes. This is Mother 
Nature. We have just seen it explode in China and in Burma. It is 
frightening to a civilized society. We get in strong buildings like 
this and think that nothing can hurt us; surely no water could reach us 
or wind destroy us. Then Mother Nature appears in a very violent way 
sometimes and reminds us how vulnerable we all are.
  In the United States, we just don't cry about these things and wring 
our hands. We do something. We, the States, local and Federal 
Governments appropriate funding to build the right kind of levees and 
dams, and we provide the right paradigm or framework for insurance 
because that is the way we protect ourselves. Hopefully, we have 
infrastructure that will not fail when the pressure comes; and then 
insurance, if it does come, to help people who have lost so much get 
back on their feet. That is all we can do. It would be good if we would 
do that.
  But if we vote against this bill today, we are not taking the 
necessary steps to get that done. Again, this is a depressing chart to 
me. I don't like to see it, but I put this up in my office to remind 
myself that this is not just about Katrina and Rita, which we will be 
marking the anniversary of on August 29--3 years--and then September 
24, 3 years for Rita, two of the most destructive storms to hit the 
United States. I remind myself that New York is in danger, New Jersey 
is in danger, and South Carolina and North Carolina are in danger. And 
Florida, in 2005, had the worst storm season of the century, according 
to the Senator from Florida.
  Briefly, referring to this chart, this is the area that went 
underwater in New Orleans, this region--New Orleans and Jefferson and 
St. Bernard. Some say: Why don't you all just relocate? That would be a 
very expensive proposition, and impossible, for any number of reasons. 
One, about 1 million people live in the metropolitan area; two, the 
mouth of the Mississippi River is something that the people of 
Mississippi and Louisiana most certainly think is an important asset to 
the country--so important that Thomas Jefferson, when he was President, 
leveraged the entire Federal Treasury to purchase it. We put all of our 
defenses along the river to defend it. You cannot close this river. The 
people who work on the river and contribute to the assets of the 
country cannot go live in Arkansas or north Texas or north Mississippi. 
They need to live close to the coast for all of the important energy 
that comes.
  The city is no longer underwater. The water is long gone, but the 
tears are still there and the pain is still there and the frightening 
part is still there because the start of the hurricane season is just 
right around the corner, June 1. We have reports in the paper today 
that there is some leakage in the same canal that breached and 
destroyed over 10,000 homes--or more, actually--in the Lakeview area, 
which is a solid middle-class area.
  This is a picture from the Times-Picayune today. In this bill, there 
is about $7 billion for levees, to finish the construction of levees 
that broke--Federal levees that should have held and didn't. We are in 
a mad dash to get these levees and this infrastructure rebuilt 
strongly, correctly, and safely so people can begin to rebuild this 
city higher, yes, and stronger, yes. But no one living in the middle of 
a city or urban area should have to go to bed at night and wonder when 
they wake up if they will be in 8 feet of water or 12 feet.
  This is the 17th Street Canal, and you have seen this many times in 
pictures. That is what is in this bill. I urge my colleagues to vote 
yes on the supplemental.
  I ask unanimous consent for 2 more minutes.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I can only yield 30 more seconds. Other 
Senators wish to speak.
  Ms. LANDRIEU. We have hurricane levees in this bill. We also have 
housing vouchers. The risks have increased substantially in the region. 
After the storm, we lost 250,000 dwellings in Louisiana and thousands 
in Mississippi. We have a homeless population that has doubled. There 
are housing vouchers in the bill for the homeless, for the very low 
income, and for the disabled. After storms like these, that population 
is gravely threatened.
  I will come back later and finish my remarks. This is important to 
the people of the gulf coast. I thank the Senator for the time allowed 
this morning. I urge my colleagues, in supporting the war funding in 
Iraq, please let's remember the emergency still going on at home.
  Mr. COCHRAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
remaining Republican time be allocated as follows: Senator Graham for 
up to 20 minutes to engage in a colloquy with Senators Burr, Kyl, and 
Cornyn; Senator Vitter for 5 minutes; Senator Brownback for 5 minutes; 
and that the remainder of the time, if anything, be allocated by 
Senator McConnell, or his designee.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

[[Page 10366]]



                          ____________________