Haley Stevens: “I regret to tell my friend from Texas--I have told him informally, but I will tell him formally now--we have a…”

“I regret to tell my friend from Texas--I have told him informally, but I will tell him formally now--we have a staggering disaster going on in Alaska right now. It is the total collapse of the fish runs in the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers that sustain a substantial number of our native villages. If this is not in this bill now, it might come in in conference, but it is going to come up sometime before this year is out. I just want to put the Senate on notice. I was talking here about the agriculture items that are in this bill now. But I do not feel bound not to represent my State later, in terms of trying to protect these people who live in rural Alaska. I talked today to James Lee Witt who is the Federal Emergency Management Agency Director. He told me the President had asked him to work with all existing agencies to try to find out what could be done under existing law and with existing funds to deal with a disaster that is taking place as we speak. We will not know, probably, until we come back in September, what will be required. But we do expect to have some substantial problems with this disaster within the coming 5 or 6 weeks.”