On the recordJanuary 20, 2010
I thank the gentlewoman from Florida for yielding. When this situation occurred in Haiti, when the earthquake came through and devastated the land, the buildings, and the lives of the people, there were over 30,000 Americans in Haiti at the time. Many of these Americans were there as volunteers to help this struggling nation. They were from churches throughout the United States. They were young people, civic organizations already there helping this struggling nation. One group particularly, from my hometown of Houston, a group of Rotarians, had just gotten there to work in two places. They were going to work in the hospitals, to make the hospitals better and more convenient and more efficient, and they were also there to dig water wells for the Haitian people. And all of these people that were there from America, most of them, were volunteers. It has been said that government can never replace a volunteer, and that is true. Americans are the most giving people on Earth, and they were helping Haiti. And I suspect Americans will go and help Haiti again, to volunteer, all of these civic religious organizations. And that is a good thing, because that is what we do in America. We help other people. We help our own people, and we help foreign nations and their people as well, because America in the time of crisis responds.
