Mitch Landrieu: “I will speak just for a moment about each of these important measures. Before I do, I know today has been a long day…”

“I will speak just for a moment about each of these important measures. Before I do, I know today has been a long day, and it has been complicated by many procedural votes and a series of bills that we just passed out of here, many important bills. Of course, the Defense appropriations, Defense authorization bill, two of the major bills that Congress works on throughout the year, and it is important we get them through. On the Defense appropriations bill, as it was amended, there was a very important piece for the gulf coast, $29 billion direct relief package. I will speak just for a moment about that because it has bearing on what we are going to do in the future when we are faced with catastrophic events. Senator Vitter and I, my colleague from Louisiana, returned to the Congress over 4 months ago to try to describe to our colleagues the devastation that occurred with not one but two hurricanes and then multiple levee breaks which have devastated a major American city and a region, the southern part of Louisiana and Mississippi. I have said now on many occasions that FEMA, on its best day, is not adequate to address the emergency and enormous needs of the people who have been affected: their need for housing, their need for employment, their need for capital, their need for emotional security, their need for public infrastructure, their need for police, their need for firefighters, their need for health care, their need for education.…”