Mitch Landrieu: “I thank the Senator. He and the Senator from New Hampshire have done a fine job leading us through this budget. It is a…”

“I thank the Senator. He and the Senator from New Hampshire have done a fine job leading us through this budget. It is a tough instrument, of course, to negotiate. Senator Vitter and I are pleased to come to the floor to speak about three particular amendments that will be offered later in the day. One that will be discussed in more detail is a small business amendment. He and I serve together on the Small Business Committee. It has become apparent to us there are many issues regarding the slowness in which the applications our small businesses are putting in but not getting their due checks based on the current law fast enough to get them reestablished. So we will be offering an amendment on a small business issue which I will be cosponsoring with him later. These two issues we are speaking about this morning on levees are an authorization for an additional $10 billion through the committee Senator Vitter serves on to try to get the authorization levels up. Mr. President, as you know, because you just visited our great State, any number of levy projects throughout all of south Louisiana, from southwest to southeast, from the metropolitan area of New Orleans to the metropolitan area of Thibodaux, Houma, Lake Charles, and rural areas of Cameron and Vermilion Parish, all are short of the levy systems they need to protect themselves and are short of money to our coastal restoration efforts that serve as the first barrier against storms such as Rita and Katrina.…”