John W. Olver: “Mr. Chairman, on January 13 of this year, a 7.6 Richter magnitude earthquake hit El Salvador. It was followed 1 month…”

“Mr. Chairman, on January 13 of this year, a 7.6 Richter magnitude earthquake hit El Salvador. It was followed 1 month later on February 13 by a quake that measured 6.6 on the Richter scale. The combined devastation included 1,200 people killed and more than $2 billion in damage. Approximately 175,000 homes lie anywhere between severe damage and utter rubble, leaving 15 percent of the population of the country without habitable homes; homeless. Now, the gentlewoman's amendment will add $250 million in disaster relief to the promised $100 million in the bill. This is really a very modest sum. The $100 million in the bill is a small sum; even with the 250 added, it would be a modest sum, particularly when we consider America's recent involvement in El Salvador. During the 1980s, there was an 11-year period when more than 75,000 people lost their lives in El Salvador's civil war and at least 20 percent of the population went into exile. Nearly three-quarters of a million of those exilees are in the United States, many of them citizens, and others very close to citizenship. So we have a large Salvadoran population in the United States.”