John Kerry: “like the vast majority of my colleagues, I am anxious to speed the funds provided by this bill to the communities all…”

“like the vast majority of my colleagues, I am anxious to speed the funds provided by this bill to the communities all across our country that have been adversely affected by natural disasters. I am equally anxious to provide the funds necessary to maintain our crucial peacekeeping efforts in Bosnia. This spending is so important because it responds to emergencies-- unforeseen events that cause terrible damage to property and to life. Everyone in this chamber understands that the unpredictable nature of these unfortunate events makes budgeting or planning for disasters, by definition, very difficult. That is why the Senate's rules allow us to spend money on an emergency basis without finding offsetting budget cuts. And that is exactly what we in the Senate did when we passed this bill originally. Unfortunately, through no fault of the distinguished Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Mr. Stevens, or Ranking Member Byrd, this bill now includes over $2.3 billion of cuts in rental assistance for very low income families. I regret to say that Republican conferees from the other body demanded these cuts to move forward on this emergency bill. They chose, once again, to try to use Americans who have seen their lives torn apart by tornadoes or floods, who have lost homes and businesses, as a tool to attack the poor, to pursue their cruel ideological agenda.”