[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18663-18664]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         HURRICANE SANDY RELIEF

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
Jersey (Mr. LoBiondo) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LoBIONDO. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to be here 
today. I did not think it was going to be necessary. But the Superstorm 
Sandy relief bill, I've heard a lot of people talking about it. This 
isn't about us as Members of Congress. This is about our constituents. 
Do you have any idea what it's like when someone else's life is ripped 
from their hands, lives are lost, all personal property is lost, 
businesses are lost, and the hope of the Federal Government coming in 
is what is keeping them alive and motivated, and now with no 
explanation, the rug is pulled out from all of us, but most of all our 
constituents?
  This is a disaster on top of a disaster. We, all of us, I think I 
speak for all of us, when Katrina hit, 10 days later, $60 billion, $100 
billion altogether. Now we have to hear from people in Florida, 
Louisiana, Texas, and Alabama, and, yes, some people from California 
and the Midwest when they have a disaster and we were there for them 
that the rules are going to change for us and it is now not an 
emergency and the Federal Government doesn't have a role in this?

                              {time}  1100

  It's absurd, absolutely absurd. We demand nothing less than we have 
given the rest of the country. An emergency and disaster means 
emergency and disaster, and that's what we had. Go back and look at the 
videos. Go back and see how people were devastated. The people of the 
Northeast had something we have never seen before, and we're expecting 
the Federal Government to play their role and be there. That's the 
minimum that's expected.
  We worked hard to put together a package in a bipartisan way. People 
are crying out for bipartisan action. We had this, Republicans and 
Democrats, shoulder to shoulder, working together, forming a package, 
giving a little bit here, giving a little bit there, working our other 
Members, building the votes, promising, anticipating that we would have 
today the finishing part of this.
  I'm convinced we had the votes. I'm convinced we would have moved 
this forward. And for us in New Jersey, every day that is lost is a 
bigger disaster. This isn't about people getting a sun tan. This is 
about jobs and the economy, a $40 billion tourism business that relies 
on the summer season. Who is going to come and vacation in a community 
that doesn't have a beach and whose town is devastated that normally 
comes there? The answer is nobody. So the bigger disaster is going to 
come in a couple of months from now, and the money into the pipeline is 
what we needed now. We needed it 5 minutes ago. We needed it 2 weeks 
ago. We don't need it a month from now. We need the Federal Government 
to step up so people's lives can be put back together.
  We're all hit hard enough with the recession. On top of that, now we 
have to deal with the anxiety and the failure of Congress to act, to 
provide what is

[[Page 18664]]

normally provided. Why all of the sudden are New Jersey, New York, 
Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, why are we the first States that have to 
answer to some new rules or some new formula that is going to come out 
about how we do these things? I don't ever remember a question with 
Katrina, that that $60 billion was too big a number. I remember that 
they were showing how people's lives were devastated. Why are our 
constituents any less important than the constituents of the past who 
had devastation? All of this is real, and we need to find a way to move 
forward.
  So, yes, there is anger and frustration. That is all rolled into 
this. We're going to stay united. We're going to work together. We're 
going to find a way to move this forward. But we need to make this 
absolutely crystal clear that this is not about people in Congress; 
this is about constituents whose lives were ruined. We need to do the 
right thing, and we need to do it now.

                          ____________________