Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Chairman, I yield myself such time as may consume.
Madam Chairman, I rise to present legislation providing emergency supplemental funding for Hurricane Sandy relief and recovery. The base bill totals $17 billion in crucial funding to meet immediate needs for the victims, businesses, and communities devastated by Hurricane Sandy.
Since this terrible storm hit, we've come to realize that recovery is going to take months and years, not days and weeks. This legislation puts the region on the path to recovery by providing the aid needed for immediate relief. We are also analyzing the justifications for further financial aid for long-term relief that would come in a later supplemental or a regular appropriations bill.
A significant portion of the funding in this bill will go to the most direct source of relief and recovery funding available to the victims of the storm, the FEMA disaster relief fund, which will provide individual and community assistance throughout the affected region. The bill also will support critical housing and infrastructure needs, ensure repairs to damaged veterans medical facilities, and help keep the economy moving by funding necessary transit repairs, small business loans, and recovery aid for businesses of all sizes.
My committee thoroughly examined the emergency request, listened to the needs of the people in the region, and assessed the most pressing needs to determine the funding levels made in this bill. We crafted this legislation responsibly, giving the administration's request and the Senate-passed bill a hard scrub to eliminate unnecessary spending. We have removed objectionable provisions added by the Senate and have adjusted funding levels to make the best use of taxpayer dollars. As we know, we face precarious fiscal times, and it is essential that Congress make responsible decisions to ensure efficient and effective spending.
Taking cues from previous efforts, we have included important oversight measures to prevent abuse and ensure that Federal agencies are using these funds effectively and appropriately.
This is not the first major natural disaster nor unfortunately will it be the last. One of the great attributes of the American people has been our ability and willingness to come together time and time again to help victims of catastrophes recover. We've seen the havoc that Sandy has wrought on the residents of our Northeast region, and it is once again our duty to help our people get back on their feet.
I urge our colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Chairman, I urge adoption of the Rogers amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mrs. LUMMIS. Madam Chairman, without question, the victims of Sandy deserve relief. They deserve it, and we should give it to them in a way that we can afford. If we can't do a 1.6 percent reduction in spending, how are we going to deal with a $16 trillion debt?
My own State of Wyoming is cutting spending 6 1/2 percent across the board right now to balance the budget because revenues didn't materialize that have materialized in the past. And it's very doable. We in this House cut our own budgets 11.4 percent in the period of 2 years. This House has not missed a beat. Not a single Member was hurt by that. A 1.6 percent reduction in Federal spending to pay for these victims' benefits that deserve this money is the right thing to do.
I rise in support of the Mulvaney amendment.
Mr. MULVANEY. Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Chairman, I claim the time in opposition.
The CHAIR. The gentleman is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Chair, I yield myself 3 minutes.
Our people in the Northeast are facing a struggle of historic proportions. Many have seen their homes, their livelihoods, and their communities decimated beyond belief. It is the Federal responsibility--and in fact our responsibility as human beings--to help those victims in this unexpected catastrophe.
In doing so, we must expend some Federal dollars. I don't take spending this money lightly. Our country faces a deficit crisis, as the gentleman from South Carolina has said, a deficit crisis of huge proportions, with an economy that's fighting to recover; and any expenditure must be weighed against all other needs facing our Nation.
Now, I don't take a back seat to anyone when it comes to cutting spending. Since I've chaired this committee the last 2 years, we've cut $100 billion off of discretionary spending, 2 years in a row, going on a third. That's not happened since World War II. So I know whereof I speak.
In this case, Madam Chair, the needs are very desperately clear. We must provide this emergency funding, as we are allowed by law, without the devastating slash-and-burn cuts elsewhere that this amendment would cause. The amendment before us would slash nearly $20 billion from discretionary spending this year alone, totally indiscriminate, unspecific, cutting the good and the bad, completely abdicating the responsibility of Congress to determine where spending should or should not occur.
To put this in perspective, this amendment contains a cut to regular discretionary spending that is about the size of the entire agriculture discretionary budget for the year. It is about the equivalent of eliminating all discretionary funding for the Department of Transportation or the full annual budgets of the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Patrol combined.
As written, this amendment is an across-the-board cut that holds no program safe from harm. Defense spending, which is already facing potentially devastating sequestration cuts, is cut by another $10 billion. It would cut war funding by $1.6 billion, directly affecting our troops who are putting their lives on the line in Afghanistan and other areas of conflict.
This amendment also cuts funding for our veterans by $200 million, potentially endangering the quality of their care and making a statement that Congress is willing to go back on commitments to our vets. And the list of other unwise cuts and side effects go on.
Finally, this amendment goes against the precedent of previous emergency supplementals, which did not contain these extreme offsets.
The CHAIR. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I yield myself an additional 30 seconds.
I believe we can and should attempt to budget for disasters, as we did under the BCA. There are times when a disaster simply goes beyond our ability to offset. Hurricane Sandy is one of those times.
I urge a defeat of the amendment.
I now yield 1 minute to the gen tle lady from New York (Mrs. Lowey).
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source