C. W. Bill Young: “when natural disasters occur around the world, or especially in the United States, we respond. But of all of these…”

“when natural disasters occur around the world, or especially in the United States, we respond. But of all of these natural disasters that we have experienced, seldom has an entire State been affected. But thanks to tropical storm Bonnie, Hurricane Charley, and Hurricane Frances, every section of Florida has been affected. President Bush, Governor Bush, Mike Brown, the Director of FEMA, and our State and local emergency responders have done an outstanding job, and the people of Florida have done an outstanding job in beginning to put their lives back together. But today FEMA, who handles our disaster funding, is running out of money, and by midnight tonight their funds will be exhausted. I have introduced a supplemental bill, as requested by the President, and, hopefully, we can pass it here in the House this afternoon, and the Senate will be able to take it up later this evening. It is important because FEMA is out of money. It is important to make sure that everybody knows that this is not going to be the total cost. This is just emergency funding to keep the cash flowing to those disaster areas in my State of Florida.”