Cory Booker: “I am grateful to be joining with a lot of my colleagues today to talk about the urgency and the importance of what has…”

“I am grateful to be joining with a lot of my colleagues today to talk about the urgency and the importance of what has happened in the aftermath of horrific hurricanes--Hurricane Harvey more than 2 months ago and Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria over a month ago. They have wreaked havoc on millions of lives. They have destroyed billions of dollars of property. They have created pain, suffering, and loss--loss of life everywhere from Texas, to Florida, to Puerto Rico, to the U.S. Virgin Islands. Right now, too many of our citizens are still living in not just unacceptable conditions for an American, but they are really living on the brink of homelessness--food and water insecurity, scarcity, and facing the ravages of poverty, where you have lost everything and you are in a dependent state, dependent upon relief aid, dependent upon your neighbors. Thousands of families have lost everything, and I believe they have yet to receive the kind of support they deserve from their government. Governments were formed in this country. This Nation was founded on this ideal of common defense. It is literally written into our founding documents, this idea that we are coming together for the protection and the strength of our communities. Right now, we are not doing enough, and that is not the American way. I have seen it.…”