Burgess Owens: “the attempt to help New York recover speedily moves beyond boundaries, State boundaries or city boundaries. When the…”

“the attempt to help New York recover speedily moves beyond boundaries, State boundaries or city boundaries. When the terrorists struck on September 11, they struck at the heart of the Nation, the nerve center of the Nation, the communications nerve center, the financial nerve center, the morale nerve center. The domino effect throughout the Nation is obvious. So we are not talking about New York. We are talking about speedy recovery for the whole Nation. In all due respect to the Mayor and the Governor of the State, I think the institutional history of this body is far wiser. In the past decade we have handled several emergencies. The California earthquake was the example we ought to follow. This body quickly committed $6 billion and later an additional $2 billion. California's whole economy was in the tank at the time, but the effort to repair and recover from the earthquake made the whole economy recover. That kind of rapid commitment and rapid implementation expenditure is what we need here now. Speed is very important. Every dollar's value is increased. If we speed the commitment of it and expenditure of it to recover in New York, we recover in the entire Nation.”