Haley Stevens: “first, I thank the President pro tempore for his kindness in his comments about me in this Chamber today. As I sat in…”

“first, I thank the President pro tempore for his kindness in his comments about me in this Chamber today. As I sat in the chair, I was thinking about the fact that 37 years ago, approximately, at about 5:30 in the evening, I got on a plane to fly to Fairbanks, AK, along with my great friend, Lowell Thomas, Jr. Eight minutes after we took off, the largest earthquake to hit the North American continent in recorded times occurred. Somewhere around midnight, Lowell Thomas and I had chartered a plane and rounded up some physicians and nurses, and we flew back into Anchorage, landing at Elmendorf Field near our hometown of Anchorage. And I had to walk from that airfield over to my home in South Addition. Flying in, we saw the Anchorage International Airport, and it looked as if it had been bombed. I walked home through fissures that were still moving, some of them 20 and 30 feet deep. That was the largest natural disaster we have had in the United States. We have just witnessed the largest national disaster we have ever had. All of us have had varied feelings this past week, but mine have been really concentrating on what we could do to help--those of us on the committee that the distinguished President pro tempore chairs, and I used to chair--along with our colleagues in the House. I am delighted we have reacted in a way that shows we are prepared to finance the recovery from these disastrous attacks.”