[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Page 17883]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           NATIONAL DISASTERS

  Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, tonight we are wrapping up affairs here 
on the floor, and what is going on right now is that the main 
substitute amendment that had a whole series of other amendments 
attached to it that has been the result of the work over the last 
couple of days has been withdrawn, so we are back to square one in 
terms of addressing a series of national disasters around the country.
  Tomorrow, with the new amendment, we will start off the day with a 
new basic amendment and a new chance to have amendments to the 
replacement. I explain this simply to say that a number of Senators who 
had amendments over the last couple of days will come back tomorrow and 
will ask to have their amendments be considered. I will be one of them, 
and I wanted to explain why.
  In my home State of Oregon, we had the worst forest fires in a 
century this summer, and the devastation to ranchers and farmers was 
enormous. There was the loss of forage on their own land, the loss of 
forage on BLM land, certainly the loss of livestock, and the loss of 
miles of fencing in these fires. Basically, whole ranching enterprises 
were destroyed.
  The largest of these fires was larger than the Presiding Officer's 
State, the State of Rhode Island. That is an enormous fire. That was 
just one of the many fires we had sweeping our State, and this was not 
just something that happened in Oregon. This happened in many States 
this summer because it goes along with something else, which is we had 
the worst drought in many parts of the country. So we have farmers and 
ranchers across this Nation devastated this past summer by drought, 
devastated by fires which were larger because of drought conditions.
  Normally we would have had disaster programs to assist with these 
disasters. These disaster programs were authorized in the farm bill. In 
this Chamber we had a bipartisan coming together. We passed the farm 
bill, and we sent it over to the House. There it has sat, month after 
month after month, while our farmers and our ranchers all across this 
Nation faced these disasters with no assistance, no assistance in a 
situation in which they should be able to expect assistance. It is the 
tradition of our Nation that when there are extraordinary disasters, we 
rally together, respond and rebuild those communities, whether they be 
urban disasters or whether they be rural disasters. But because the 
farm bill has not been passed, not gotten to the President, these 
disaster programs have not been reauthorized, and our farmers and 
ranchers watch us and wait. They say where is our government, our 
partner, when disaster occurs?
  They know the tax dollars they pay go into the central government and 
have many times been allocated to others around this Nation facing 
disasters of all kinds--earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, droughts. But 
these individuals, now that Mother Nature has struck them, stand 
waiting.
  We have an opportunity tomorrow to right this wrong. We have a bill 
that is about the enormous terrible disaster that affected our 
Northeastern States in the form of Hurricane Sandy.
  We should be absolutely expedient in taking care of communities so 
dramatically affected. But at the same time, isn't it right that we 
take care of the other communities around this country that have faced 
disasters this last year that are waiting on us?
  I invite my colleagues to come to the floor and explain to me if they 
feel it is not right to take care of the other disasters we have had 
this last year. I would like to be able to go to the ranchers and 
farmers in my State and explain to them the arguments that others might 
bring about why their disaster, the destruction of their livelihood 
that the great hand of Mother Nature struck, why we shouldn't address 
and assist them when we are assisting others so dramatically affected 
around this Nation. Quite frankly, I have no answer. I have no answer. 
I can't think of an answer.
  Will any of my 99 colleagues come to me and explain why we shouldn't 
pass this amendment tomorrow, the amendment that I will propose? I will 
tell you that a number of us came together to propose this amendment. 
Senator Stabenow, Senator McCaskill, Senator Baucus, Senator Wyden, 
Senator Tim Johnson, Senator Franken, Senator Tom Udall, representing 
all kinds of parts of our Nation, who understand the impact that 
drought has had, understand the impact the fires have had. They have 
come together from different parts of the Nation to say we are in this 
together. Let's not leave stranded our ranchers and farmers when we 
gather to debate tomorrow. Let's let this amendment be brought forward, 
and let's get it passed as part of this very appropriate response to 
this very terrible disaster called Hurricane Sandy.

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