Thad Cochran: “I commend the majority leader, with the concurrence and support of the minority leader, for calling the Senate into…”

“I commend the majority leader, with the concurrence and support of the minority leader, for calling the Senate into session tonight under these emergency conditions, to approve as if passed by the House, and when passed by the House and it is received here in the Senate, an emergency supplemental appropriations bill to fund disaster relief efforts. These efforts are ongoing. We have all had an opportunity to see on television sets and to hear and read newspaper accounts of the work that has been going on the last several days. I had the opportunity to travel to my State of Mississippi yesterday and spent the day touring the ravaged areas along the Mississippi Gulf Coast and then traveled to Jackson, the Capitol of the State, where I was able to meet with Governor Haley Barbour and his disaster assistance team that he had assembled and was supervising in their efforts to make all of the resources of our State government available to disaster victims and to help them in the effort to recover from this terrible hurricane. I have never seen any storm inflict such great damage as I saw yesterday. I was on the Gulf Coast immediately following Hurricane Camille in 1969. I was a practicing lawyer at the time.…”