    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [August 12, 1993]
    [Pages 1365-1368]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Signing Flood Relief Legislation at a Tribute to Flood Heroes
    in St. Louis, Missouri
    August 12, 1993

        Thank you very much. Please be seated, and good morning, to our
    distinguished host, Governor Carnahan; and majority leader of the United
    States House, Dick Gephardt; Secretary Espy; Secretary Shalala; James
    Lee Witt; the distinguished other Members of Congress who are here,
    Congressmen Jim Talent, Alan Wheat, Jerry Costello, Ike Skelton, and
    Bill Emerson. To the distinguished Governor of Kansas, Joan Finney, my
    good friend, welcome, and to all of you from all the States who were
    affected by this terrible flood.
        We're going to begin today by awarding 19 outstanding Americans
    Presidential Certificates of Commendation. These recipients are everyday
    people, but what they did was most extraordinary. Hillary and Chelsea
    and I just had the opportunity to meet them all and to talk with them a
    little bit about their experiences during the flood. Because of their
    efforts, lives were saved and larger disasters were averted. In some
    cases, they provided the support that kept all the other volunteers
    going, and that's what made the difference.
        In their communities, they are mothers and fathers, business owners,
    police officers, and neighbors. But in this time of crisis, they risked
    their lives to save children and parents, to pull people from troubled
    waters or trapped vehicles, to feed the hungry, to provide water to
    people who literally could not have had safe living conditions
    otherwise. And most importantly, a lot of them are committed to staying
    involved in this for the long haul. It is so easy to forget that much of
    the work is still to be done.
        Today we salute them and others like them. And to be sure, there are
    hundreds, indeed thousands of others that we might have just as well
    recognized today who took on the raging rivers to stick up for their
    friends and neighbors and total strangers.
        Now I'd like to ask the FEMA Director, James Lee Witt, to come here
    and present the commendations to the individuals as they are introduced
    and to thank him and all the State FEMA directors and all the local
    emergency management people for the wonderful work that they have done
    also in dealing with this flood.
        Mr. Witt.

    [At this point, Director Witt presented the Presi-

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    dential Certificates of Commendation. Gov. Mel Carnahan and
    Representative Richard Gephardt then made brief remarks.]

        Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Please be seated. I want
    to thank my friend Congressman Gephardt for that generous introduction
    and Governor Carnahan for his fine remarks. I acknowledged Governor
    Finney here. I thank all the others from the other States who are here.
    We have the Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska, the heads of various
    States' National Guards and emergency management programs, representing
    all those who worked.
        I have been now to the Midwest four times since this flood began.
    The Secretary of Agriculture, who was up here with me, Mike Espy, has
    been here probably twice that many times, if not more. And I have
    charged him with being responsible for the long-term cleanup efforts, so
    I wanted him standing up here. So when you get frustrated with the
    Federal Government 30 days from now, call him--[laughter]--and harass
    him. He'll be good at it.
        I thank also the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Donna
    Shalala, who has come here with me today. Many members of my Cabinet
    have been here to the Midwest, and many of them have a role to play.
        We are here for two reasons. The first was to honor these fine
    people who have received their just recognition. The second is to sign
    the relief package which will permit the rebuilding to begin with a
    significant dose of support from the Federal Government.
        Throughout human history it has been the way of nature to visit us
    on occasion with disaster, without apparent cause, without explanation,
    often without mercy, always reminding us that we need to live our lives
    with a little more humility and always understanding that we are not in
    full control. How we face these misfortunes tells us a lot about
    ourselves and our friends. We know we cannot contain the fury of a
    river. But we can and we must allow our humanity to overflow as well, to
    help to reclaim the lives that are shattered. That is what I have seen
    happen here in the Midwest, from official responses and from individual
    responses.
        The other day I had a young girl from Wisconsin in the Oval Office.
    You may have seen her story written up. She's 13 years old, but she's
    only 4 feet tall. She weighs about 60 pounds. She was born with a rare
    bone disease which resulted in over two dozen bone-breakings in her body
    before she was born. Years ago she would never have been able to live
    any kind of life, but because of the medical miracles of the National
    Institutes of Health, which she has visited once every 3 months since
    she was an infant, she is able to function as a student. She is able to
    have a semblance of a normal life. She is a delightful young person. But
    she still can easily break major bones in her body. And yet, she
    implored her parents to let her leave Wisconsin--she lives in
    Milwaukee--and come to Iowa to help to fight the floods, knowing that
    she had an imminent risk just by carrying a can of water around.
        That is the sort of thing that I have seen happen. When people say
    to me, ``Well, FEMA really did a great job this time. The Federal
    Government was here all the way,'' I say, what else could we have done
    in the face of that kind of contribution by ordinary Americans?
        One of the reasons, frankly, that FEMA did such a good job, I think,
    is that the Director of FEMA has actually spent several years helping
    ordinary people fight disasters. He is a friend of mine. He was a county
    judge in a county where all the Clintons came from. But he was not a
    political appointment to FEMA, he was somebody who knew what it was like
    to see people there risking their lives, their businesses, their
    livelihoods, putting sandbags against a swollen river. We need more
    people like that in our National Government, people who are related at
    the grassroots level to the real concerns of people. And we're going to
    try to give you that.
        In this disaster, more than 45 lives were lost; 70,000 people had to
    be evacuated. But you all know it could have been a lot worse if it
    hadn't been for folks like you and the many tens of thousands who fought
    to make it as good as possible.
        In just a minute I will sign this disaster relief bill, $6.3 billion
    in Federal assistance to the victims of the flood here in the Midwest
    and other disasters. This is an extraordinary measure taken under
    extraordinary circumstances with real speed, moving through Congress
    with the help of suffering citizens from the Midwest and eloquent
    advocates for the Midwest. I would be remiss if I did not commend the
    legislators of both parties who put aside partisan differences and put
    the people of this area first in passing this bill: people who are not
    here,

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    like Senator Tom Harkin from Iowa and Senator Paul Wellstone of
    Minnesota; people who never seek the headlines, like Senator Jim Exon of
    Nebraska; people who are here represented, who quietly work for you day
    in and day out, again, without regard to party. We finally even found
    something that Senator Dole and I could agree on, in this bill.
    [Laughter]
        These funds will be used across a wide spectrum and delivered
    quickly. They'll help farmers who lost their crops. Secretary Espy will
    see to it that payments are made at the rate of 100 percent of approved
    1993 crop losses as defined by the 1990 farm bill. The funds will also
    be used to repair public facilities, bridges, highways, levees, and
    flood control networks; to provide for the health and social service
    needs of flood victims, and they will be significant. I hope we will
    have heroes who will be attending to those who will inevitably suffer
    from depression, from an undefinable and almost uncontainable sense of
    loss as they go back and see their life savings gone, the work of their
    lifetime washed away, even their family albums no longer available to
    them in times of sorrow. They'll be used to provide housing for the
    displaced; to help homeowners and businesses to clean up and rebuild; to
    help our dislocated workers to find new work, hopefully with even better
    skills.
        Two billion dollars will go to the Federal Emergency Management
    Agency, FEMA, for relief of the floods and other disasters and to
    provide for emergency cash relief for those who qualify for that. I'm
    proud to say that FEMA has enjoyed a new respect as a result of their
    efforts in this flood. I was especially heartened by the praise given
    FEMA by the Mayor of Quincy, Illinois, Chuck Scholz. His city's brave
    stand against the rising waters made all Americans proud. And they
    didn't win all their battles.
        All of the help in this relief package will come free of the bonds
    of redtape. Disasters provide enough grief without more coming from
    Washington, so we've worked as hard as we could to streamline the
    paperwork, to cut out unnecessary delays, to work on flexibility and
    fairness, to help in every way that we can.
        A good example of this flexibility and willingness to cut redtape is
    contained in another bill that I will also sign this morning, called
    Depository Institutions Relief Act. It doesn't mean a thing, does it?
    Washington language. But what the act will do is important. It will
    allow Federal regulators to waive certain legal requirements for
    financial institutions serving areas hard hit by flooding, by relaxing a
    few regulations in response to this emergency. We'll allow local banks
    to make local decisions on how best to speed up aid and credit to those
    who really need it.
        Just this week I signed into law the largest deficit reduction
    package in the history of America, almost $500 billion. There were a lot
    of things in that bill, which will become apparent over time, which
    really help ordinary Americans, including tax relief for people who work
    40 hours a week and have children in their homes and still are living
    below the poverty line. One part of that bill is especially important
    today. Under it, flood victims will have more time and flexibility in
    replacing their homes and personal property. At the same time, the IRS
    will ease tax collection requirements on those who now have to live on
    their insurance proceeds.
        You can be sure that we will continue to review the help needed by
    people in this region. We are in it for the long run. As I said,
    Secretary Espy is our designated leader on long-term Federal involvement
    in the rebuilding. And if there are further problems, we'll depend upon
    you, directly or through your elected representatives, to let us know.
        Will Rogers once said, ``We can't all be heroes because somebody has
    to sit on the curb and clap as everybody else goes by.'' [Laughter]
    Well, that may be true. And today we have applauded 19 heroes. But we
    have acknowledged also that they simply represent the best of what
    thousands of people demonstrated. I think that we can all be heroes if
    we learn something from this that we carry over into the rest of our
    lives.
        Think about Reverend Donna Harris and the people of Niota,
    Illinois--the spiritual nourishment and the groceries, meals, and fresh
    water that she provided in that tiny town of 200 for flood victims. Or
    Al Vogt in Glen Haven, Wisconsin, who risked his life to save a
    teenager, a boy being dragged by flood waters through the street when Al
    saw him and pulled him to safety. The town I grew up in had a flash
    flood once where waters 10 feet high rushed at 30 miles an hour down the
    main street of town. I saw people pull babies flying in that kind of
    water. It is a terrifying experience. He braved it. He could have been
    drowned; he could have been pulled away. Sheriff Ken White

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    helped to rescue two people, in two separate operations, from drowning.
    Once he had to tie himself to a truck so he could save a woman hanging
    onto a telephone pole.
        Hearing these people, I'm reminded of what President Kennedy said of
    his own heroism in World War II. He said, ``It was involuntary; they
    sank my boat.'' [Laughter] To be sure, for all these people heroism was
    involuntary. Maybe that's why the courage of daily life, in a way, is
    all the more to be admired, when there is no life-threatening danger,
    when we just are required to get up every day and to go about our
    business and to try to face our challenges and seize our opportunities.
    That, in a way, is the enduring heroism of the American people.
        It's the heroism that I believe will be embodied when the Congress
    comes back to town next month and passes the national service corps bill
    to give young people a chance to serve their communities and earn some
    credit toward a college education, the heroism embodied in people like
    the local VISTA volunteers here in St. Louis. I want to single out
    Delores Despiwa. She's here somewhere. Please stand, Delores. Stand up
    there. Her home's under water, and she's still working for other people.
    I want to recognize the Iowa Conservation Corps. There are some members
    here from the Iowa Conservation Corps. Would they stand? I think they're
    here. Yes. Thank you.
        That is the sort of sustained service that all of us need to think
    about providing to our country, and the attitude of cooperation, the
    determination to bridge the gaps that divide us, gaps of party and
    religion and philosophy, to struggle for common values. In the face of a
    500-year flood, that's what millions of you did here in the Middle West.
    And you gave us an enduring vision of your courage.
        The best way for the United States to reward that courage is not
    only for me to sign this flood relief bill and to work with you for the
    long haul but for all of us to try to learn something that we can take
    into our daily lives from the example you set in this emergency.
        A couple of nights ago, Hillary and I had the incredible honor of
    hosting at the White House all the commanders in chiefs of all of our
    military commands all over the world, all the four-star generals and
    admirals that--someone said it was a 76-star dinner, but I don't think
    it was because I'm not sure you can divide 76 by 4 and get an even
    number. [Laughter]
        But at the dinner, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
    Admiral David Jeremiah, who's become quite a good friend of mine, came
    up to me and said, ``You know, you can't roll up your sleeves if you're
    wringing your hands.'' An interesting statement, isn't it? When the
    floods were coming no one had time to wring their hands, so they just
    automatically rolled up their sleeves. When the floods go away, we have
    time to wring our hands, so a lot of us don't roll up our sleeves. Let
    us honor the heroes here today by firm resolve to go back about the
    business of our daily lives as Americans, rolling up our sleeves and not
    wringing our hands.
        Thank you very much.
        I would like now to ask the Members of the United States Congress
    who are here to come up on the stage and join me as I sign this bill.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:20 a.m. at the Henry VIII Hotel. H.R.
    2667, approved August 12, was assigned Public Law No. 103-75.