Barbara Mikulski: “This urgent supplemental does not meet the compelling human needs of the United States of America. The supplemental the…”

“This urgent supplemental does not meet the compelling human needs of the United States of America. The supplemental the Senate is about to pass will replenish the urgent need that FEMA has at only 50 percent of what the Federal Emergency Management Agency needs to be ready for the hurricane season. They need about $1.6 billion, and there is about $900 million included. The supplemental also will not include money for wildfires ravaging the West. It will not include the funds to complete the NASA investigation of what went wrong on Columbia, so NASA will have to forage for funds within their agency. It will not include additional money for AmeriCorps. I have been waiting and willing to compromise to get the emergency funding for AmeriCorps. I was willing to compromise to save the school-based programs that start in September. I knew I could not save the AmeriCorps ship because of the penny-pinching attitude of the House towards AmeriCorps. I want to be clear that although the House left town with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude and we had to swallow it, the needs of our community will not go away.”