Mitch Landrieu: “I rise to support the chairman's mark on this very important issue relative to the rebuilding of the gulf coast.…”

“I rise to support the chairman's mark on this very important issue relative to the rebuilding of the gulf coast. Chairman Cochran has taken great responsibility to shape a supplemental bill that asks for what is absolutely crucial to the development of the gulf coast. I know that a few of our colleagues may take issue with one or more things that are in this bill. But overall, it is a genuine attempt to try to give direct and targeted help to the standing up of this very important area of the United States that has been hit, as we said, not by one hurricane but two hurricanes, two of the worst that have ever hit the continental United States since 1837, since hurricanes have been recorded, and by the extraordinary flooding that took place in a large metropolitan area, not just Orleans Parish, but Plaquemines Parish and St. Bernard Parish, the heart of America's energy coast and the heart of the economic region about which we are speaking. Inside this region that has been devastated there are over 16,000 people employed in shipbuilding. We are proud of those shipyards at Ingalls, Gulfport, and Avondale. Fortunately, the Avondale shipyard, which is in New Orleans, did not sustain tremendous flooding because it was on the west bank of the city and, of course, the east bank is the part that flooded. We are very fortunate in that regard. There was still a tremendous amount of damage at Avondale. As my friends from Mississippi said, their shipyard was just hammered.…”