Tom Harkin: “I take this time first to thank all the Senators who voted for S. 454, expressing the sense of the Senate that disaster…”

“I take this time first to thank all the Senators who voted for S. 454, expressing the sense of the Senate that disaster assistance ought to be emergency spending and not taken as an offset out of any other program, especially the farm bill. The vote was overwhelming, 71 to 14. Once again, as we have in the past, the Senate has spoken very loudly and clearly that when a disaster strikes, wherever it is, this is an emergency. It ought to be taken out of the whole pot of Government money rather than invading a program and taking money out it as an offset. Again, I have the deepest sympathy for all the people who got hit by the hurricane in Florida and other States. They ought to be compensated. That is a true emergency. It is a disaster. But we have had disasters in other parts of the country. We have had floods, tornados, droughts, all kind of things. Just because it is not a big hurricane does not mean it is not just as devastating. It is. It makes no sense why we should have to then offset, take money out of existing farm programs, to pay for agricultural disaster assistance. But that is the position of President Bush and of the House leadership. We do not require offsets to respond to the hurricane disaster, and we should not do it for any other disaster. Seventy-one Senators again spoke and said emergencies are emergencies. Disasters require emergency spending.”