Mitch Landrieu: “I will respond. I thank the Senator for his interest in helping out in this extraordinary circumstance with 370,000…”

“I will respond. I thank the Senator for his interest in helping out in this extraordinary circumstance with 370,000 children displaced. I wanted the Senator to know, of course, I have been in and out of the city many times. I spoke to one of my relatives and asked, how is the neighborhood looking? She said: Mary, it is so strange. There are no children anywhere in the city of any age. You don't see any children. As Senator Kennedy said, the reason is because we have no school system. Three-hundred and seventy thousand children have moved to other public and private systems, grateful to anyone who would take them in. I thank our colleagues for coming together in this bipartisan way-- Senator Enzi, Senator Kennedy, Senator Alexander, Senator Dodd--to put together an amendment that is not a voucher program, not a traditional ``help public schools only.'' It truly is a bipartisan compromise to try to help in an extraordinary situation. I hope tomorrow, when we have this vote, we will get a positive vote. I thank the Senators for allowing us to offer the coastal amendment. We have a lot of support for this. Again, it will add to the money we already have. We will need more over time, but every little bit at this point helps to give people hope that they can come back to this region, live safely and securely with floods and rainstorms, hurricanes, and other disasters. I yield back the remainder of my time.”