[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18662]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         HURRICANE SANDY RELIEF

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Rivera). The Chair recognizes the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 2\1/2\ minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, as the 112th Congress ends with a 
whimper, not a bang, not so much finished as worn out, I was prepared 
to come to the floor this morning and talk about some of the unfinished 
business that we kicked down the road with a proposal last night: a 
serious deficit reduction, the debt ceiling, tax reform. One thing I 
didn't expect to be confronted with is what you have been hearing from 
my colleagues today, that we do not have the time to address the 
disaster relief for Hurricane Sandy, which everybody thought was a 
given.

                              {time}  1050

  This is the crew that came to town shouting ``read the bill,'' that 
they were going to have 72 hours' regular order to move in a fashion. 
They gave us 154 pages, 24,000 words nobody had read, but we at least 
thought we would be dealing today with this emergency assistance.
  I am stunned, frankly, that we find ourselves in this situation, but 
we have 24 hours left. How hard would it be to take up a bill that was 
already overwhelmingly passed by the Senate? How hard could it be, 
based on the bipartisan expression last night of support for a bill 
that almost everybody hated and had reservations about but would come 
together for something they thought was important for the country?
  Remember when rebuilding and renewing America was a bipartisan 
objective? Maybe we could take a little bit of that spirit of 
bipartisanship and cooperation last night and rise to the occasion in 
the next 24 hours to do something for the people who deserve our help 
and support. If not, then it ought to be the first order of business of 
the new Congress, and we ought not to go home this week until this 
matter is addressed.

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