On the recordMay 26, 2010
I appreciate the good will of my friend from Oregon. I would be happy to work with my friend. But at this stage, as the Senator understands, this is two pieces of legislation we got from the President--one dealing with emergencies. FEMA is out of money, totally out of money. This will replenish the money. And there will be opportunities for FEMA, when we do this, to have the ability to do some things such as helping the State of Oregon and other problems. As we all know, there is going to have to be some work done with the gulf. So I will be happy to work with my friend in any way I can, but I think at this stage this bill has been through a lot already. Not only do we have the emergencies dealing with the normal emergencies that come about as a result of floods, fires, and all this, we also have the troops who have to be taken care of. We must get this done. We are running out of money there. If the Senator wishes to modify the amendment, I, of course, have no objection there. I will work with the Senator to try to find some pathway to do this. A modification is fine. But I want to make sure the Senator understands that at this stage we will have to try to figure out something separate and apart from this consent request.
