[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18668-18669]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         HURRICANE SANDY RELIEF

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Himes) for 1 minute.
  Mr. HIMES. I remember two things of that horrible night that Sandy 
hit my community in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Of course, I 
remember the devastation and the damage that we have so detailed this 
morning in this Chamber. But I remember something else: the response of 
the people who stood up and said, I will help. The firefighters of Old 
Greenwich, the Red Cross in Bridgeport, the churches that opened to 
serve soup and to keep people warm, schools that were opened to address 
the fact that people didn't have homes.
  Mr. Speaker, let me tell you about Lieutenant Russ Neary of the 
Easton Fire Department, who left his wife and two daughters behind that 
night to go serve the people of Easton. I attended his funeral several 
days later because

[[Page 18669]]

he was killed that night doing what is best about all of us, which is 
that we stand up and we say we will help in times of crisis.
  Every charitable instinct, every dignified thing, everything that is 
noble about what those people did that night is denied by the decision 
of the Republican leadership to not bring up Sandy today and to leave 
desperate and vulnerable people hanging.
  Mr. Speaker, reverse your decision now, and let's do the right thing 
by our people.

                          ____________________