[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 17840]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                SCHEDULE

  Mr. REID. Madam President, following leader remarks, the Senate will 
be in a period of morning business for 1 hour; the Republicans will 
control the first half, the majority the second half.
  Following morning business, we will resume consideration of the 
supplemental appropriations bill. I mentioned last night we are going 
to have to move forward on this bill. I have been told the Republicans 
want to have a substitute, and we look forward to whatever that might 
be. We can set up a series of votes to satisfy those people who want to 
change this bill in some manner.
  I would note that in the Northeast--other States but principally New 
York and New Jersey--there are about 700,000 people who have lost their 
homes. Tens of thousands of those homes have been destroyed, and other 
people are still living in very difficult situations.
  When we had the devastation in the Gulf, we got the aid to those 
States very quickly. The population of those States--Louisiana, 
Mississippi, Alabama--is very sparse compared to New York and New 
Jersey. We have to make a decision on this very important legislation 
before we leave this week, and we are going to do that. I hope everyone 
would cooperate, but we have to do this. It is very unfair to the 
millions of people who are suffering as a result of this devastation.
  We have had some devastating wildfires in the West. They are terribly 
damaging to the environment and on occasion there is lost life and 
often there are property losses. But relatively speaking, compared to 
the millions of people involved in this storm, we have to get our 
priorities right. It is unfair to those people who are suffering. It is 
not only individual people, but it is also businesses. I hope we can 
finalize this matter in the next day or two.

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