Kevin Brady: “I want to thank Chairman McCrery and Mr. Jefferson for their leadership on this bill. I am proud to be from Texas, a…”

“I want to thank Chairman McCrery and Mr. Jefferson for their leadership on this bill. I am proud to be from Texas, a State that when victims fled the wrath of Hurricane Katrina we had communities and churches and homes that opened their arms to take them in. Later, in Hurricane Rita, those same communities were devastated as well. And I just want to tell Chairman McCrery that the relief that we are providing today in this bill is critically important to the families of east and southeast Texas. We, like you, need this relief today. What this will do is help families cope financially, encourage companies to keep workers on their payrolls during these tough economic times, and help rebuild the important Texas timber industry which suffered devastating losses. In some communities today, almost half of the homes still do not have even the temporary blue tarp to keep the rain out. We need families to be able to dip into their savings without penalty, fully deduct all of the personal property losses. And for the working poor, we want to make sure that their child and earned income tax credits are not impacted by Hurricane Rita. This also permits unlimited cash donations by companies, which is very important to the communities, and provides up to $2,400 per worker for small businesses to keep employees on the payroll through the end of the year.…”