[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18656-18657]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         HURRICANE SANDY RELIEF

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Maryland (Mr. Hoyer) for 3 minutes.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, it was to my profound disappointment that I 
learned last night that the House would adjourn the 112th Congress 
without providing assistance to the victims of Superstorm Sandy.
  I am joined today, Mr. Speaker, by many of my colleagues from the 
jurisdictions whose people received the most damaging blow. Though my 
district did not sustain the extreme damage that those in New York, New 
Jersey and Connecticut did, the President declared several Maryland 
counties eligible for Federal assistance from this storm, but it was 
minor, and my citizens are not in dire circumstances; but the citizens 
of some from whom we will hear today are in that condition.
  Those counties joined hundreds in the 1,000-mile diameter of this 
storm--the largest geographically in the history of the Atlantic 
hurricanes. Now, at best, the Speaker has said that Sandy's victims 
will need to wait until the next Congress to receive assistance--Wait, 
they say, to millions who are in pain and in distress. We should not be 
waiting. We should be voting this very morning, which I tell you, Mr. 
Speaker, I expect to happen from my discussions with the majority 
leader.
  As I said last night, I went with Congressman Greg Meeks to Breezy 
Point and the Rockaways in New York, and what I saw there in Sandy's 
aftermath defied description and demanded action. To those who say that 
FEMA has not yet disbursed all the funds it has to assist families and 
businesses, I would tell them that they deeply underestimate the damage 
in these areas and the wide range of assistance required to alleviate 
the pain and suffering. At Jacob Riis Park, I saw the mountains of 
debris that the Corps of Engineers had begun to remove from 
neighborhoods. That debris represents people's lives, homes, and 
businesses.
  With this legislation, we would have provided up to $1.6 billion to 
the Corps to continue removing debris so that families could begin 
rebuilding. Would we have had to borrow that money? Yes. Just as if the 
furnace went out and the temperature were at zero, you would 
immediately replace the furnace to keep the families safe and borrow 
the money to do so; and, yes, we would have had to repay it, and we 
would.
  This bill would have allocated $6 million in emergency aid for food 
banks to make sure that people in the richest country on the face of 
the Earth have some sustenance for them and their children. I saw an 
area of Breezy Point where more than 100 homes were devastated by fire 
when an electric transformer malfunctioned. The many firefighters who 
lived in that neighborhood could not get additional help from 
surrounding boroughs due to the severe flooding. They battled mightily 
and they saved many lives, but there is little left--indeed, none--of 
their homes.
  I saw local businesses, Mr. Speaker, which had been there for years, 
completely destroyed, waiting for the $620 million in SBA assistance 
this bill would have provided. We talked a lot about not imposing 
burdens on small business by additional taxes. These small businesses 
are out of business without our help. We walk away today from nearly $4 
billion in assistance to help reconstruct Rockaway Beach and other 
places, which is critical to the area's economic recovery and important 
to prevent further storm damage.
  Finally, there is also the toll on transit and infrastructure, 
including inundated subway and traffic tunnels that were referred to 
last night. This bill would have provided up to $10.9 billion for 
transit and $2.2 billion for highways to help make sure that the area 
is not just cleared of water but repaired. If small businesses are 
going to be able to operate, it will be because consumers and customers 
can get to them and get to the schools and get to the hospitals and get 
to their families.
  Waiting to act until later this month when Members were here and 
ready to vote last night is not the right choice. No Member of this 
House could travel to the Northeast, see the damage, and tell anyone in 
those areas to wait--wait for us to act, wait for us to help, wait for 
us to come to your aid. We cannot and we should not wait. We must not 
walk away.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge the Speaker of this House to reconsider and to 
act immediately. Now is the time to act.
  Mr. RUNYAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in disbelief that a Hurricane 
Sandy disaster relief bill has failed to come to the floor in the 
current Congress.
  It has been over two months since Super Storm Sandy devastated my 
home state of New Jersey, and Congress has failed to act. After 
Hurricane Katrina Congress acted and passed a supplemental spending 
bill within 10 days.
  My district was ground zero for Sandy and suffered horrific damage.
  I can personally attest to the devastation as I toured many of the 
coastal towns in the days after the storm, and I can honestly say that 
some areas look like they had just been bombed.
  Governor Christie, after careful examination, estimates the damage to 
New Jersey alone to be $36.9 billion.
  I fully support the Governor's request. New Jersey will need every 
last dime in order to rebuild successfully.
  My constituents and I are extremely disappointed that in our time of 
need this Congress has failed to act.
  Mrs. McCARTHY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my 
absolute shock that the House Republican leadership has adjourned the 
112th Congress without addressing the needs of the victims of 
Superstorm Sandy.
  Like most Members whose constituents were affected by Sandy, we 
expected, and were all but assured, that there would be consideration 
of a supplemental appropriations bill before this House adjourned. It 
is utterly unacceptable to leave millions of Americans across the most 
densely populated part of the nation, including my Long Island 
district, on the hook for the unexpected costs of a natural disaster.
  The House Republican leadership had plenty of time to act--let's 
review the timeline. In

[[Page 18657]]

November, Governors from affected states acted to give preliminary 
assessments of the damage caused to their cities and towns. In early 
December, the President submitted to Speaker Boehner a detailed 
supplemental package. By the end of December, the Senate passed a 
bipartisan supplemental providing sixty billion dollars in federal 
resources to Sandy victims. And yesterday, House Republican leadership 
chose to give Members an extra day of vacation rather than take up the 
Senate-passed bill or, at the very least, even attempt to address the 
needs of millions because of this natural disaster. All the House 
leadership did was tell storm victims to wait until the next Congress. 
Excuse me for being cynical, but I don't have much faith that this 
House leadership can keep its word and deliver for the people in a 
timely manner. Midnight hour deals on fiscal cliffs, pending 
dysfunction with the debt ceiling situation in two months--I just don't 
believe it.
  Ladies and gentlemen, this represents an unprecedented action in the 
Congress. Never before has the United States Congress turned its back 
on its citizens after a natural disaster. Members of this Congress 
whose constituents were affected by Sandy have time and time again 
supported supplemental appropriations bills for other areas of the 
country affected by natural disaster. We were there with funding after 
Katrina, and we were there after the floods in the Midwest. Nowwe need 
to be there for millions in the Northeast. How come when it is our 
constituents' unfortunate circumstance to be in need of similar funding 
we are told to wait?
  It's shameful.
  I am pleased that both my Republican and Democratic colleagues have 
expressed their shock and disappointment in House leadership for not 
allowing a vote on a Sandy aid package. I will not rest until I can 
deliver this funding to my constituents on Long Island and to the 
millions who live throughout the Northeast. The Senate passed a good 
bill, a bipartisan bill, a bill that includes much needed mitigation 
funding as well. Nine weeks is already far too long for folks to wait 
to be helped by our federal government after a disaster of this 
magnitude. FEMA alone cannot provide all the necessary funding until 
this House acts. The Small Business Administration, the Army Corps of 
Engineers, other vital federal agencies and our state and local 
governments NEED the additional resources to help stem the hurt Sandy 
caused.
  I am ashamed of the actions of this House Republican leadership and I 
remain committed to getting Long Islanders and those across the 
Northeast the federal assistance they deserve.

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