Peter Visclosky: “I appreciate the gentleman yielding, and I rise to oppose the taking of the $1.5 billion from the advanced technology…”

“I appreciate the gentleman yielding, and I rise to oppose the taking of the $1.5 billion from the advanced technology vehicle manufacturing account to offset a portion of the Army Corps disaster needs estimated to be $2.256 billion instead of declaring this matter an emergency. I do think as a matter of policy this institution and the Congress as a whole needs to have the intestinal fortitude to understand that we have natural disasters every year, and we need to set aside moneys to fund those and not to take money out of investment accounts that create jobs in the United States of America. We have two problems that we're discussing today. One is a natural problem. We have had tornadoes, we have had floods, we have had hurricanes, we had an earthquake, and we have had wildfires. So what is new? The fact is in every year save two since 1997, the Congress has recognized the need for emergency funds to respond to the impacts of natural disasters on our Nation's water resources infrastructure. Since 2001, the Congress has provided more than $24 billion in emergency funds to the Army Corps of Engineers for this very purpose. And according to the Corps of Engineers, we have spent $5.12 billion on an emergency basis in Afghanistan and Iraq on economic infrastructures. Now, some suggest all of this has to be offset because we have a fiscal crisis.…”