Ben Sasse: “Hurricane Harvey is a horrible tragedy. It has ruthlessly taken lives. It has taken diplomas and baby albums. It has…”

“Hurricane Harvey is a horrible tragedy. It has ruthlessly taken lives. It has taken diplomas and baby albums. It has taken homes and gardens and playgrounds. It has also given us many new pictures of volunteerism, heroism, and neighborliness, and God bless those many helping hands. It has also revealed the willingness, the advanced planning, and the hard work of many government employees in the State and local governments, in the National Guard, in FEMA, and beyond. So what are we doing here today in this body? And what should we be doing? What is the specific duty of the U.S. Congress at this moment? We should provide emergency funding relief. We should provide emergency funding for FEMA and for related agencies. They are doing important work, and they need it. The amount agreed upon by the administration and the House of Representatives on Tuesday--just 48 hours ago--was $7.8 billion. It passed noncontroversially. The vote was 419 to 3. They did the right thing. So let's approve it. Let's do the exact same thing. Let's let FEMA spend that $7 billion. It is important money. There is a genuine emergency. There is real need. I am a small government guy, but there is a clear and urgent governmental role in this moment, so we should do it. But what we should not do are unrelated things that we will pretend are hurricane relief.…”