Sheila Jackson Lee: “This morning, a resident of the State of Florida was interviewed, and he said that with Ian, his whole house was gone.…”

“This morning, a resident of the State of Florida was interviewed, and he said that with Ian, his whole house was gone. Everything in his house was gone. The people of South Carolina are facing Ian now. The people of the areas of Alaska and the people in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico have all faced an enormous surge and impact of hurricanes--lives lost, people still being rescued. That is why the leadership of this Congress and the Members will join together, I hope in a unified manner, to recognize what our job is. Our job is to be the umbrella on a rainy day. In this, those who will suffer in the coldness of the winter, I am reminded of the freeze in Texas. Of course, we had no electricity, but thank God for $1 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Some people are saying how grateful they are. Helping FEMA to be able to be on the ground, $2 billion for helping people recover their housing and infrastructure. They are obliterated in Florida, 1 million people without lights. Of course, we know about Jackson, Mississippi, and Flint, Michigan, $20 million for water and wastewater and other crises that we have had. I want this Congress to stand up for not shutting the government down but taking its rightful responsibility and dealing with the crises of America. We have done it with the Inflation Reduction Act. We want to take people over politics. We want to make sure that we have jobs, good healthcare, low cost. We want to do something.…”