[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 16400-16402]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            MORNING BUSINESS

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will be 
in a period of morning business until 4:30 p.m., with Senators 
permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each.

[[Page 16401]]

  The Senator from Missouri.


                          Passage of H.R. 2112

  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, I wish to take a moment to thank Senator 
Kohl. The comments the majority leader made about him were certainly 
proven right in all of our relationships. I thank him for his guidance 
and encouragement throughout this process. We have had open 
communication and worked together to address the amendments brought 
forward by our colleagues. While we didn't agree on every single thing 
in the bill, we certainly agreed to be agreeable about that and see if 
we couldn't produce a work product people have a right to expect of the 
Senate. So the passage of these three bills is significant.
  I certainly wish to thank Senator Kohl's staff--Galen Fountain, 
Jessica Frederick, Dianne Nellor, and Bob Ross--for their 
contributions, and I thank my staff: Stacy McBride, Mary Koskinen, 
Brian Diffel, Zach Kinne, and Christina Weger.
  Because this has been a process that has involved two other 
subcommittees, I wish to express my thanks to my colleagues for their 
hard work and cooperation on the other parts of this bill: Senators 
Mikulski and Hutchison and their staffs on the Commerce, Justice, 
Science Subcommittee and Senators Murray and Collins and their staffs 
on the Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development.
  The floor staff has worked hard over the course of the last several 
days. Often, that work goes unnoticed. But managing this bill has not 
been easy. It was a little different from many of the appropriations 
bills that have been brought to the Senate floor, and certainly the 
floor staff has been of tremendous help to me and to the committee 
staff.
  This has been a long process. A dozen amendments that affect the 
agriculture division of this bill have been accepted over the course of 
the debate. I am glad we have had an open debate and hope we can 
swiftly move to conference with the House and send this work product on 
to the President so that we can get these appropriations processes 
started as close to the regular time as we possibly can, based on the 
moment in which we find ourselves, and look forward to working with the 
Appropriations Committee as we bring other bills to the floor.
  Again, I close my remarks on this bill by expressing my personal 
appreciation to Senator Kohl and his willingness to work with a new 
Member of the Senate in putting this product together and bringing this 
bill to the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Presiding 
Officer, and I also compliment both Senators who just spoke, Senator 
Kohl and Senator Blunt, for their excellent work.
  Like everybody here, I have followed these votes and the negotiations 
and did vote, and I am encouraged by the progress made on the 
Transportation-HUD appropriations bill which the Senate has now 
approved. It funds our Nation's ongoing transportation investments. It 
also includes crucial emergency disaster funding for Vermont and the 
other States struggling to recover from Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene 
and other natural disasters.
  This bill is part of the response needed from Congress by thousands 
of Vermonters and millions of other Americans. It is vital not only for 
the economy of Vermont and other States whose roads and bridges were 
decimated by the storm, but for the Nation's economy. I commend the 
chair, Senator Murray, and the ranking member, Senator Collins, for 
their hard work and dedication toward ensuring appropriate funding for 
disaster relief, particularly in Irene's aftermath.
  I have said many times on the Senate floor that Hurricane Irene was 
devastating to our small State of Vermont. I was born in Vermont, as 
were my parents, and I have never seen destruction of this magnitude. 
The only thing that even compares are stories of floods in Vermont that 
my grandparents used to tell me about when they were younger.
  The flash floods caused by the storm destroyed homes and farms, 
businesses, bridges, and roads. Roads and structures that have stood 
for over a century were wiped out in a matter of minutes. I 
helicoptered over Vermont with Governor Shumlin and General Dubie, the 
head of our Vermont National Guard, the day after our storm, and none 
of us could believe the things we were seeing. With the repair costs 
estimated to be over $100 million, our little State has been stretched 
to the limit.
  As the rain stopped, Vermont moved immediately and we had crews 
working to repair the damage. We didn't wait for anybody else; we just 
started moving--neighbors helping neighbors, our State and local 
governments, our National Guard, Red Cross, working together. However, 
we do need the traditional helping hand of Federal disaster recovery 
loans and grants to help those whose lives were upturned by Irene. 
Federal disaster recovery aid has always been available to other States 
after disasters such as this. We need it now in Vermont. This bill is 
an essential part of the work that Congress should be doing in response 
to major events such as Irene, pulling together as a Nation to heal 
these wounds.
  The Senate, as the Presiding Officer will recall, reconvened after 
Labor Day. Those of us on the Appropriations Committee worked on this 
bill and other disaster relief legislation, which have been top 
priorities for Vermont and for many other States. Many other committees 
were involved in this important work. The Vermont delegation worked 
together on this bill and other Senators came together to help make 
progress week by week. One by one, we have overcome a series of 
legislative obstacles and have been able to turn the lights from red to 
green.
  Our legislative process this year has been unduly cumbersome and 
unresponsive; different than I have ever seen in the years I have spent 
here in the Senate. However, the progress we have achieved here in the 
Senate is a testament to the determination of many in this body who 
have been willing to set aside ideological imperatives and partisan 
differences to work together as Republicans and Democrats to accomplish 
the work that the American people and our constituents expect from 
their government.
  Now, in Vermont and the other New England States, winter is not just 
on the horizon, it is on our doorstep. In our State last weekend, we 
had more than 1 foot of snow in some parts. I mention this because if 
you are going to repair roads and bridges, time is a significant 
factor, and time is slipping away.
  We all know that roads and bridges are the circulatory system for 
commerce in the daily lives of living, breathing communities and their 
citizens--where people have to go to work, school or be together with 
their families. With many of the Federal aid disaster programs 
underfunded, I am especially pleased that this bill contains the $1.9 
billion that I and others worked to include to replenish the Federal 
Highway Disaster Relief Fund. This fund will help rebuild Vermont's 
vital roadways. These roadways are critical to rebuild our economy, 
distribute aid, and bring people to hospitals and to schools. It is of 
the utmost importance that this Federal aid reaches Vermont sooner 
rather than later, as our winters can be extremely harsh. I look at 
Washington, DC, which will close down with 3 inches of snow. We call 
that a dusting in our State. Many times we have a foot of snow 
overnight. Schools will still be open, commerce still goes on, but we 
can't rebuild roads with a foot of snow on them. We have to be working 
to rebuild now and we have to be prepared to work immediately when the 
snow stops.
  I have talked with Senator Sanders, Congressman Welch, and Governor 
Shumlin, who has spent every single day working on this. My wife 
Marcelle and I have driven around the State. We have talked to 
community leaders, to those who have worked on disaster relief, and 
others. It is very clear, given the mammoth, unprecedented destruction 
of this storm, certain waivers are

[[Page 16402]]

needed to allow States to access funds for repair work they need 
without going through all kinds of burdens for repairs.
  I mention these waivers because if we are going to ensure that 
Vermont and other States can promptly design and begin emergency and 
permanent repairs, we have to do it now. We put the waivers into this 
bill, and I hope the other body will understand we need them preserved. 
This bill, an investment in America's crumbling and damaged roads and 
bridges, is a crucial step. It will help restore the economic vitality 
of our country.
  I am also pleased the legislation includes emergency community 
development block grant funding. Right now, HUD has no funding 
available. They cannot address the housing needs of Vermonters affected 
both by Hurricane Irene and the flooding of this past spring. These 
disaster recovery programs are woefully underfunded.
  I cannot think of the number of hours that I and other members of the 
Appropriations Committee have worked on this, the evenings, the phone 
calls, the weekends, touching base, but it is all worth it. If this 
bill will now be accepted by the other body, we can go forward and we 
can start doing the rebuilding we need.
  Vermont is a very special place, not just because it is my home but 
because of the spirit of its people. This is a State that has always 
supported help for other States and Americans all over the country 
facing similar disasters. We need that help now, and this bill is a 
major step forward for that help. I thank everybody involved with it. 
Now all we have to do is get it through the other body, get it on the 
President's desk, and continue the recovery work we are doing both in 
Vermont and other States damaged by Irene.
  As we talk about the money, I will not resist the temptation to 
repeat what a Vermonter told me. I have said it before on the Senate 
floor. We spend unlimited sums to rebuild buildings and roads and 
bridges in Iraq and Afghanistan and somebody else comes along and blows 
them up. We build them in America for Americans by Americans and we 
Americans will keep them safe.
  I yield the floor.

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