Political Quotes

“Madam President, first, I would like to talk a little about the upcoming FEMA bill. As I understand it, the House intends to send us a CR with FEMA funding only at the level of $3.65 billion, which is a level that is completely inadequate to meet FEMA's needs. They intend to put $1 billion in for 2011, which is more than is actually needed in 2011, but then they ask that it be paid for with $1.5 billion, which is not the way mathematics is supposed to work. The real problem is that the total amount of $3.65 billion is inadequate given the terrible tragedies we have had over the last several months and years. We are still rebuilding from Katrina, the Joplin tornado was devastating, and, of course, the storms that hit the Northeast, including my beloved State of New York, were just awful. Just in New York State alone, it is estimated that cleanup costs will be closer to $2 billion. So you can imagine that $3.65 billion is not even close to enough. The good news is what we intend to do here under the leadership of Majority Leader Reid, which is to take the CR they send us and add to it the very bill that passed last Thursday night, which adds approximately $7 billion to FEMA. That is the amount of money that is needed. It adds some money to the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and other places the Governors of the States have told us are needed.…”