Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. DelBene). Ms. DelBENE. Madam Speaker, almost 7 years ago, on March 22, 2014, Washington experienced one of its worst natural disasters ever. In a matter of seconds, a tragic landslide near Oso killed 43 people, destroyed over 40 homes, and severely damaged public infrastructure and private property. That day forever changed the people of Oso, Darrington, Arlington, the Stillaguamish Tribe, and the Sauk-Suiattle Tribe. But even in the aftermath of the landslide, it was incredibly inspiring to see a community come together to help each other through this tragedy. That is why I introduced this bill, the National Landslide Preparedness Act. In 2016, I introduced the first version of this bill and have been working tirelessly to get it signed into law. This will allow significant progress to be made in landslide science and will allow communities to be better prepared for when landslides do occur. As the Oso landslide demonstrated, simply sending aid after a tragic natural disaster is insufficient. We need to do more to fund programs and research efforts to prevent future natural disasters from becoming national tragedies. In recent years, we have seen dramatic increases in extreme weather events, and we need to do everything in our power to make sure that communities across the country are better prepared. Given the importance of this issue, I strongly urge my colleagues to support this bill.…”