Political Quotes

“I come to the floor today to speak on an issue that is of great importance to my home State of Louisiana: disaster recovery. As you know, along the Gulf Coast, we keep an eye trained on the Gulf of Mexico during hurricane season. This is following the devastating one-two punch of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita of 2005; Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008; and more recently the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Our communities and businesses are still recovering from these disasters--some from a disaster that devastated the Gulf Coast over 6 years ago. For this reason, as Chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship disaster preparedness is one of my top priorities. While the Gulf Coast is prone to hurricanes, other parts of the country are no strangers to disaster as we have seen recently. For example, we just saw an earthquake strike Washington, DC, and Hurricane Irene work its way up the East Coast. In general though, the Midwest also has annual tornadoes, California experiences earthquakes and wildfires, and the Northeast sees crippling snowstorms. So no part of our country is spared from disasters-- disasters which can and will strike at any moment. With this in mind, we must ensure that the Federal Government is better prepared and assist those businesses impacted by natural disasters.…”