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




                         HURRICANE SANDY RELIEF

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Mr. 
Andrews (New Jersey) for 2\1/2\ minutes.
  Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, we're here this morning for the fellow 
citizens who didn't put up a Christmas tree or light a menorah or 
celebrate their holiday at home this year because they have no home. 
We're here for the boardwalk merchants who are not going to be starting 
their businesses up again this Memorial Day along the boardwalk because 
there's no business, and there's no boardwalk. We're here because a lot 
of people's lives are devastated.
  It's important to understand what we are and are not asking for. We 
are not asking that every Member of this Chamber follow our lead and 
vote ``yes'' in favor of the bill the Senate has already passed. We are 
simply asking that every Member of this Chamber have the opportunity to 
vote on that bill.

                              {time}  1110

  President Kennedy said governing is choosing. We are prepared to 
choose an investment in the recovery of our neighbors and our country. 
We respect those who would make a different choice, but we cannot abide 
by those who would say they would make the choice of doing nothing at 
all, letting the clock run out on this Congress, which means that we'd 
have to start all over again. The people I talked about for whom we are 
here this morning, they need to start all over again. They need to get 
back to their homes, back to their businesses, back to their lives; and 
as we delay, we delay that possibility for them.
  Every Member has the right to exercise his or her own conscience on 
any piece of legislation. No Member has the right to deprive the rest 
of us of the same opportunity for our constituents. We should meet 
today. We should vote today. We should move forward today.

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