[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[House]
[Page 18666]
[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. Holt) for 2\1/2\ minutes.
  Mr. HOLT. Well, you've heard it. Our constituents' lives were 
devastated by the Sandy disaster. It has now been about 9 weeks since 
Hurricane Sandy brought the winds and the tidal surges. In central New 
Jersey and Connecticut, in New York, people are hurting. Towns have 
exhausted their emergency funds and exhausted their borrowing capacity. 
In other disasters, such as the disaster associated with Katrina or 
with wildfires or with any number of other natural disasters, this body 
has acted and aid has been provided quickly.
  And yet today, the Speaker is going to allow the 112th Congress to 
adjourn before passing the much-needed disaster relief package. The 
Senate acted on this bill. The aid package here was well constructed. 
It was ready. All we needed was a vote. And the delay is significant. 
It adds significantly to the hurt. It is not an exaggeration to say 
that lives are on the line. People are living wherever they can. They 
don't have the shelter. They don't have the businesses. They don't have 
their lives. And the Speaker just walks away. That compounds the 
disaster. The delay compounds the disaster.
  It has been said: Well, FEMA has some money already in their account 
that will last for many weeks. But we're not just talking about FEMA, 
we're talking about HUD. More than a billion dollars, actually billions 
of housing aid. The Army Corps of Engineers, the National Oceanic and 
Atmosphere Administration, the Department of Interior, the Agriculture 
Department for food and emergency watershed protection, the EPA for 
safe drinking water--all of this was in this well-constructed package.
  Now, it has often been said that the governing principle of the 
Republican leadership is ``you're on your own.'' That might actually be 
a conscientious principle if they really believe in their hearts that 
your Social Security should be privately invested or you should pay for 
a college without government help. But this, to say you're on your own 
after a disaster is inconsiderate. It breaks our trust. It violates an 
understanding, and it hurts people.

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