On the recordJuly 20, 1993
Well, it will take several forms. First let me say that, as you know I think, I have made three trips to the Midwest since the flooding began and last Saturday met for about 2\1/2\ hours with the Governors of eight of the nine affected States, including Governor Thompson. We have asked, last night actually, for another substantial increase in flood relief aid. The package that we're asking for the Congress to adopt is now up to about $2.9 billion. And let me just run through some of the kinds of relief available. For individuals who have been thrown out of work and who don't have enough money to live on--and there are many hundreds of them that are flooded out that badly in the Midwest--FEMA takes disaster applications and can provide cash funds for living expenses as well as emergency unemployment, even for self-employed people and other contractors who are not eligible for unemployment normally. Secondly, for small businesses, they are available for small business disaster loans, and the SBA is working now with FEMA to handle a lot of those applications even over the phone. Of course, the agriculture programs are, I think, quite well-known by the farmers, and they understand them. There are some operational problems with those agriculture programs based on the way they were handled, I think, after Hurricane Andrew that we're trying to work out. And finally, there will be some direct aid to communities who have been hurt, who have lost public facilities and roads and bridges and things of that kind. The Federal programs cannot and are not designed to absolutely make whole every loss from every individual business or community. But they will make a big difference. And I think that the general consensus is that our administration has been more aggressive and more coordinated and more prompt in dealing with this than has been the experience in the past. And we're going to continue to try to do that. Defense Cuts
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