[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Pages 9237-9238]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  FEMA

  Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, I rise to bring to the Senate's and 
the Congress's attention a great challenge that we have before us 
relative to the budget of the Department of Homeland Security and, 
frankly, it is a challenge facing the entire budget of the United 
States. That challenge is to make sure we have enough funding in the 
disaster emergency account to cover the multitude of disasters that 
have taken place this year since January, as well as those we are still 
recovering from in the past.
  I will put up a chart to show, in dramatic fashion, that this is an 
unprecedented situation we are facing. Since January of this year, 36 
States have had disasters declared. This may be the largest number of 
States in the shortest period of time, at least in recent memory, and 
potentially in history. This is a challenge to the budget because, as 
you know, under our law the Federal Government is by law--it attempts 
to be every day--a reliable and trustworthy partner for cities, towns, 
and States that have been devastated by tornadoes, wildfires, 
hurricanes, et cetera.
  Most recently, our minds, our eyes, and our hearts have been focused 
on Missouri, with the terrible devastation to several of their cities--
most notably Joplin. But we remember a few weeks ago the tornadoes that 
ripped through the southern part of the United States--in Alabama 
particularly, in Georgia, and in some parts of Arkansas; and there was 
flooding in other parts of the country as well.
  This is what Mother Nature has brought to us. We cannot control that. 
But what we can control is how we respond to it. That is what I want to 
speak to today. I want to begin with a quote from David Maxwell from 
the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management. He said this in the 
Washington Post on April 30:

       Anything that we've asked for, they've gotten us.

  He was referring to FEMA.
  Gregg Flynn, a spokesman with the Mississippi Emergency Management 
Agency, said Fugate and FEMA ``are unbelievably proactive towards the 
states. They don't wait for things to happen. By the time the storm is 
out of the way, they want to know what we need.''
  This is very good testimony, because many of us, including the 
occupant of the chair, have worked hard to make a better, stronger, 
more proactive FEMA. In large measure, we have accomplished that, 
although there are still challenges for that agency. The biggest 
challenge right now is that unless the Senate, the House, and the 
President do something differently, we are not going to have the money 
we need to take care of these disasters.
  So for people on the ground, like David Maxwell in Arkansas, and 
Gregg Flynn in Mississippi, and whether it is Paul Rainwater, a CEO 
from my State who is still struggling in the aftermath of Katrina and 
Rita 6 years ago, we are going to literally run out of money in the 
disaster emergency relief fund in January of this year.
  Let me put up a chart to show the challenge that is before us. The 
President requested $1.8 billion, which is a reasonable request based 
on past averages of disasters, which we are prepared to budget in the 
base budget of Homeland Security. Unfortunately, the estimate of the 
low end of these disasters--again, there were 36 since January 1, and 
disasters happen in all 50 States--the estimate is that we need $3.8 
billion at the low end, and at the high end it is $6.6 billion. So 
between $3.5 billion and $6.5 billion is required. But we have budgeted 
only $1.8 billion in the base of Homeland Security.
  As chair of this committee, I can tell you that our committee cannot 
absorb in its base the entire weight and cost of these disasters. The 
Homeland Security budget has never in its history absorbed 100 percent. 
We do a rough and good-faith estimate of what it might be, but these 
are exceeding even our expectations of what the disasters would be. Of 
course, no one is in a position to be able to foretell the future. Our 
Secretary of Homeland Security brought a great deal of skill and 
expertise as a former Governor, an excellent manager, and all the 
prerequisite academic credentials, but she didn't show up on this job 
with a magic wand and a fortune teller's globe. She doesn't have those 
tools available to her to be able to see into the future every disaster 
and what kinds of disasters are going to happen to the country. All we 
can come forward with is a good-faith estimate, which we did, at $1.8 
billion.
  The reason I come here today is to say there is a gap that must be 
filled. I am strongly recommending that this Congress fund this off 
budget in an emergency line item, which is what we have done 95 percent 
of the time in the last 40 years. Since 1992, $110 billion of the $130 
billion appropriated to the DRF has been emergency spending. These 
events are unpredictable. You cannot plan for it. We must respond by 
law. If we don't, then projects all over this country will shut down.
  I remind everyone that they are projects that create jobs--not only 
do

[[Page 9238]]

they restore hope and rebuild communities, but the projects create 
jobs. To list a few of them, there are the repairs for two very 
important roads in Hawaii, which could potentially be stopped; sewer 
line repairs at a pump station replacement in Gary, IN; the townhall in 
the village of Gulfport, which hasn't been rebuilt since the storm, for 
6 years, which is under construction--that could be halted. That is a 
dozen or more jobs in that small town of Gulfport. Those are not big 
numbers nationally, but that is important to that city. There is an 
elementary safe room being built in Kansas now. That is a few jobs 
there, but it is important to the couple of hundred schoolchildren who 
were terrorized by tornadoes sweeping through that area. I can go on 
and on. In Missouri, the Polk County bridge collapsed, which is very 
inconvenient for people having to cross that every day. I am not 
personally familiar with it, but I can imagine the difficulty families 
are going through who were used to having access to the river.
  I can list hundreds of projects that literally stop in their tracks 
if we don't figure this out. My strong recommendation is that we do 
what we have always done, which is appropriate and fund real 
emergencies. It is not appropriate to do off budget things you should 
have budgeted for but failed to do it. That is not an emergency; that 
is bad planning.
  I think I am a pretty good chairman of this committee. I know 
Secretary Napolitano is an excellent Administrator of Homeland 
Security. There is nothing we can give her to make it humanly possible 
to predict disasters and the magnitude of their destruction. That is 
impossible. Again, we have to figure out a way to budget for this that 
is responsible and, I say, put a good-faith effort, or average in your 
budget, and then anything that occurs, do it in addition to that off 
budget, in an emergency.
  Another reasonable suggestion that has met with resistance--and I can 
understand why--would be to take a percentage decrease against all the 
budgets of the Federal Government and say we wanted to spend this money 
but we had these disasters and we absorb it governmentwide.
  I can promise you that the last and worst thing--and one that can 
happen because I will oppose it vigorously, and so will many others--is 
taking the entire amount of the DRF, the disaster relief fund, out of 
the Homeland Security budget, because then you put the country in a 
position where you are underfunding planning for the future, lowering 
your defenses against real terrorist attacks that could potentially 
happen to the country, because you are funding for disaster levels that 
we were unable to plan for--for obvious reasons.
  We cannot undermine the security of our Nation or weaken the entire 
Homeland Security Department budget because of an unusual natural 
occurrence over which we have no control and no foreknowledge of. There 
may be other solutions that I haven't thought of.
  Another would be very helpful if the President himself, knowing these 
numbers--they come from his own executive agencies, which are 
tabulating these numbers--were to send us an emergency supplemental. I 
have sent him several letters requesting that he send to the Congress 
an emergency supplemental to cover this gap. If he doesn't do that, 
Congress has the power to act, and I will be making a recommendation in 
the Appropriations Committee to fill this gap.
  What is not acceptable is to try to absorb this entire gap in the 
Homeland Security budget, which will leave our country in a very 
weakened position in terms of preparing for future disasters and 
potential terrorist attacks.
  Might I remind everyone that hurricane season just started on June 1. 
It is now June 15. We are 15 days into the hurricane season. We don't 
know what the season will bring.
  There may be other alternatives to closing this gap, but it is very, 
very important. I am going to start work on this vigorously with my 
ranking member, Senator Coats, to see what we can recommend, 
potentially jointly, I would hope.
  Again, I would like to put up this chart because this reflects just 
about every Senator's State, from Washington to Texas, to Nebraska, to 
North Carolina, to Florida, to Georgia, Arizona. Montana will be green 
shortly, and so will Vermont because there are disasters underway. So 
put your thinking caps on. We need to come up with a way to fund these 
disasters, and it is going to be a big challenge as we start our 
appropriations process.
  I am going to submit more technical information for the Record, but, 
again, we don't have magic wands and crystal balls in the Department of 
Homeland Security. We have a lot of tools there to protect our country 
and to build after disasters, but magic wands and crystal balls are not 
available. So we have to come up with a way to close this gap that 
makes sense. I trust that over the next couple of weeks and months we 
will be able to do that.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cardin). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois is recognized.
  Mr. DURBIN. I ask that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the Senator is recognized.

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