María Elvira Salazar: “Congress has passed 23 other ad hoc disaster assistance bills since 1988. Since 1988, 23 ad hoc disaster assistance…”

“Congress has passed 23 other ad hoc disaster assistance bills since 1988. Since 1988, 23 ad hoc disaster assistance measures have been passed by the Congress. Now, if this is not an indicator of the need for the creation of a permanent mechanism to deal with these disasters in farm country, I do not know what better indicator we need. Twenty-three emergency disaster pieces of legislation have passed this Congress since 1988. I am supportive of that assistance, but we need to deal with this problem in an effective way and on a long-term basis. That is what we have done in the legislation. The members of the Agriculture Committee--and the Presiding Officer, as a member of that committee, has done a tremendous job in her freshman year as a Senator, contributing in a huge way to many of the titles we have included in the farm bill, including helping write significant portions of title IX, the energy part of the farm bill. I am very proud of her contribution. But what we have done in this bill with respect to permanent disaster assistance is to work with Senator Grassley and Senator Baucus and members of the Finance Committee, in a proactive way, to create a permanent trust fund for disaster assistance. The disaster trust fund will dedicate over $5 billion during the next 5 years to disaster relief. This will allow us to maintain discipline and high standards for determining when to pay out disaster funds, and it will allow producers to get help more quickly.”