To establish a congressional commission to examine the Federal, State, and local response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Region of the United States especially in the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and other areas impacted in the aftermath and make immediate corrective measures to improve such responses in the future.

MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR SCIENCE, THE DEPARTMENTS OF STATE, JUSTICE,
AND COMMERCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the hour of 3 p.m.
having arrived, the Senate will resume consideration of H.R. 2862,
which the clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:

A bill (H.R. 2862) making appropriations for Science, the
Departments of State, Justice, and Commerce, and related
agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2006, and
for other purposes.

Pending:

Lincoln amendment No. 1652, to provide for temporary
Medicaid disaster relief for survivors of Hurricane Katrina.
Dayton amendment No. 1654, to increase funding for Justice
Assistance Grants.

[[Page S9899]]

Biden amendment No. 1661, to provide emergency funding for
victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Sarbanes amendment No. 1662, to assist the victims of
Hurricane Katrina with finding new housing.
Dorgan amendment No. 1665, to prohibit weakening any law
that provides safeguards from unfair foreign trade practices.
Sununu amendment No. 1669, to increase funding for the
State Criminal Alien Assistance Program, the Southwest Border
Prosecutors Initiative, and transitional housing for women
subjected to domestic violence.
Lieberman amendment No. 1678, to provide financial relief
for individuals and entities affected by Hurricane Katrina.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Mississippi.
Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I am pleased the Senate is now able to
return to the consideration of H.R. 2862, the Commerce-Justice-Science
appropriations bill.
This is the third day of consideration of this important bill.
Subcommittee Chairman Shelby and the distinguished Senator from
Maryland, Ms. Mikulski, have made good progress in the handling of this
bill. The bill reported by the committee will assure the funding of
many programs and activities of the Federal Government that are under
the jurisdiction of this subcommittee.
The allocation we made to this subcommittee enabled us to restore
funding for State and local law enforcement grants, as well as have
increased funding for programs of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. Because this bill is now at the upper limit of the
subcommittee's allocation, any amendments adopted to the bill will
require reductions below the level of funding in other programs.
Now is the time for Senators to come to the floor to discuss the bill
or offer amendments. It is my understanding from the leader that any
amendments requiring a rollcall vote will be voted on tomorrow. It is
my hope we can complete action on this bill tomorrow. The end of the
fiscal year is near. We have the responsibility to send this bill to
conference as soon as we can.
To remind Senators of the importance of completing action on this
bill, this committee is one of those committees that was newly created
after the reorganization of the Appropriations Committee that was begun
in the House of Representatives. We created this committee to manage
the funding for the Departments of Commerce, Justice, the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and a number of
independent agencies and commissions, including the Office of the U.S.
Trade Representative, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Small
Business Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Federal
Communications Commission.
So all of the activities and programs and work of those agencies and
departments are contained in this subcommittee's bill. It touches a
wide range of interests and concerns, and it is very important for us
to complete this bill as soon as we can so these agencies and
departments can make their plans for activities that will be funded in
this bill at the beginning of the next fiscal year. That next fiscal
year starts October 1.
In September of every year, a lot of pressure is put on the
appropriations process. In order for us to discharge our responsibility
with the administration, sharing with the administration decisions
about the emphasis that ought to be placed on programs and activities,
we have an obligation to do our work and to do it in a timely fashion.
That is why I come to the floor today with a sense of some urgency. I
hope to communicate that to all of our colleagues in the Senate.
The House has completed action on most of its bills, and they are
awaiting conference with the Senate to work out any differences or
disagreements that we may have with the House on the appropriate levels
of funding or the categories of interest in terms of their priorities
over others in the Federal Government.
This is a day when any votes that are going to occur will occur late
in the day. I understand we have a vote in the Senate at 6:30 this
evening. So I hope Senators will undertake to come and present us with
any suggestions they may have about changes in this bill or any
disagreements in the policy reflected in the appropriations process in
this bill so we can debate them and discuss them and make changes, if
that is the will of the Senate, and then have an opportunity to
negotiate those changes on behalf of the Senate with our colleagues
from the other body.
Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending
amendment be laid aside.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Amendment No. 1671

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I call up amendment No. 1671 and ask for
its immediate consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:

The Senator from Ohio [Mr. DeWine], for himself, Mr.
Voinovich, Mr. Allen, Mr. Warner, and Mrs. Murray proposes an
amendment numbered 1671.

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading
of the amendment be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The amendment is as follows:

(Purpose: To make available, from amounts otherwise available for the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, $906,200,000 for
aeronautics research and development programs of the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration)

On page 170, between lines 9 and 10, insert the following:
Sec. 304. Of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made
available by this title under the heading ``National
Aeronautics and Space Administration'', $906,200,000 shall be
available for aeronautics research and development programs
of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I rise today to join with Senators Allen,
Murray, Warner, and Voinovich in an effort to maintain our Nation's
commitment to vital aeronautics research. We are offering this
amendment to restore the aeronautics research & development program to
last year's level of $906 million.
For decades, NASA has conducted a wide array of aeronautics research
programs that have helped ensure our economic and military security and
revolutionize the way we travel. NASA's work in aeronautics has
captured the spirit of the Wright Brothers, spawning generation after
generation of progress. The amendment before us will help make certain
that progress continues in the coming fiscal year.
The impact of NASA's work is widespread. The U.S. aviation industry
supports over 11 million jobs and contributes $1 trillion in economic
activity. Our airlines carry 750 million passengers per year, with that
number expected to grow to a billion within 15 years. We ship 52
percent of our exports by air, and in fact, the aviation industry
contributes more to the U.S. balance of trade than any other domestic
manufacturing industry.
Yet unfortunately, we are at grave risk of losing the staff,
facilities, and expertise necessary to continue NASA's aeronautics
programs. We are at risk of essentially allowing the first ``A'' in
NASA--the one that stands for aeronautics--to die over the next several
years. We are at risk and we better pay attention.
The bill we have before us now is a good bill, and I want to
congratulate Chairman Shelby and Ranking Member Mikulski on their hard
work in meeting so many needs with a very tough and tight budget
allocation. One thing the bill does not include, however, is a specific
reference to aeronautics funding.
Nonetheless, we know of NASA's plans for aeronautics from its fiscal
year 2006 budget request. We know that the agency intends to reduce
overall aeronautics funding by $54 million from the previous year, a
cut of over $200 million from 2004. In fact, the 2006 Budget shows
aeronautics programs facing a nearly one-third cut in the next 5 years
for aeronautics. That is simply not acceptable.
What will the practical consequences of these cuts be? The cuts mean
that subsonic and hypersonic research will

[[Page S9900]]

be terminated. This is the research that focuses on designing stronger
airframes and better engines, technologies that with just a little work
can be taken from the lab and applied directly to aircraft, whether
commercial or military. As a result, U.S. aerospace producers will lack
access to solid pre-competitive research, while competitors abroad
benefit from well financed efforts, such as the European Union's
``Vision 2020'' program.
Second, many of the facilities necessary to design and test new
aeronautics technologies will be closed as a result of budget
shortfalls. Wind tunnels and propulsion test facilities are used by
Government, academia, and industry--often on a pay-for-use basis--and
require minimal funding to maintain.
A recent RAND National Defense Research Institute study determined
that over 84 percent of these NASA facilities serve strategic national
needs, and that the success of the U.S. aerospace industry relies on
NASA's workforce and test facility infrastructure.
So, these proposed aeronautics cuts are a double threat to the U.S.
aviation industry: On the one hand, they get NASA out of the business
of key aeronautics research areas, and on the other, they will lead to
the closure of the very facilities industry and academia would need to
replace that research. The cuts undermine our national defense by
decimating cross-cutting technologies used by the Department of
Defense. The cuts will force massive layoffs among NASA's best and
brightest engineers, and will also impact the scores of Americans
working for private sector aerospace companies. These cuts are simply
unacceptable.
We need to step back and re-evaluate where we are with aeronautics
research, where we want to be in 5, 10, 15 years, and make a commitment
to do what it takes to get us there. A National Institute of Aerospace,
NIA, study commissioned by Congress and unveiled earlier this year
shows a need for vastly increased investment within NASA aeronautics
programs. Our amendment does not reach the levels recommended by the
NIA report, but it does move us in the right direction, the same
direction that the House of Representatives has taken in its version of
this bill.
Our amendment follows directly from budget language adopted by the
Senate this year calling for an adequate aeronautics investment. We do
not cut space exploration programs to make this increase. This is a
clean, deficit-neutral amendment that will help ensure our national
competitiveness in civil and military aerospace, and it deserves the
Senate's support.
I will be back on the floor later to talk more about this amendment,
as my other colleagues will, but at this point I ask unanimous consent
that the amendment be set aside.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Burr). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
Mr. DeWINE. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mrs. CLINTON. I ask unanimous consent the pending amendments be set
aside.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

amendment no. 1660

(Purpose: To establish a congressional commission to examine the
Federal, State, and local response to the devastation wrought by
Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Region of the United States especially in
the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and other areas impacted
in the aftermath and make immediate corrective measures to improve such
responses in the future)

Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I call up Senate amendment No. 1660, an
amendment establishing an independent Katrina commission.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the amendment.
The legislative clerk read as follows:

The Senator from New York [Mrs. Clinton], for herself, Ms.
Stabenow, Mr. Corzine, Mr. Reed, Mr. Salazar, Mr. Lautenberg,
Mr. Jeffords, Mr. Schumer, and Ms. Mikulski, proposes an
amendment numbered 1660.

Mrs. CLINTON. I ask unanimous consent the reading of the amendment be
dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(The amendment is printed in the Record of Thursday, September 8,
2005 under ``Text of Amendments.'')
Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I hope we will be able to address this
important matter. I believe it is essential for the people who have
been directly affected along the Gulf Coast, and really for all
Americans, that we have an independent commission consisting of people
who have no direct involvement in either the administration or
congressional activities, similar to what we had with the 9/11
Commission that I believe discharged its responsibility to the American
people with such a high degree of civic-mindedness and public
citizenship.
When I was in Houston last Monday a week ago, I met with a number of
the people who had been evacuated out of New Orleans and the
surrounding parishes. They kept asking me questions I certainly could
not answer: What happened to the buses that were supposed to pick them
up and take them out? Why wasn't there adequate security at the
Superdome or the convention center? How come helicopters were flying
overhead and never coming to pick them up?
This morning I heard on the radio an interview with a gentleman who
is the president of one of the parishes surrounding New Orleans. I
believe his name is ``Junior'' Rodriguez. Mr. Rodriguez said he
couldn't get any help at all. He kept trying to get help and he kept
waiting for help and nothing happened.
This, as we know now, was a catastrophe of almost Biblical
proportions for the people who suffered it: people who lost their
homes; people who were driven from their homes; the people who, most
tragically, lost loved ones. Many are still searching for members of
their family whom they have not been able to find since they got on a
bus or left a home and waded through water.
I hope we will address this. I believe it is a matter that needs to
be taken out of politics as usual. I personally don't want members of
the administration whose primary obligation is to the people who have
been directly affected, who need to be directing and managing the
relief efforts beginning the rebuilding process, being diverted from
doing so. I respectfully suggest the President's idea of investigating
himself is not an adequate recommendation.
Similarly, I do not believe Congress should be diverted. We have
committees already established and their job is to assess and make
recommendations with respect to all of the matters pertaining to
homeland security, not only the potential of terrorist attacks but also
natural disasters. Therefore, I do believe in an investigation modeled
on the 9/11 Commission where the President--as in my legislation--
appoints the Chair. He can appoint whomever he wishes. He certainly
made an excellent choice when he appointed former Governor of New
Jersey Tom Kean. Then the Democratic and Republican leaders appoint the
other members, to have a 10-member Commission with the President and
his party obviously having an advantage, as is appropriate under the
circumstances, but appointing people for whom there is universal
respect and people who can set aside everything, people who are willing
to delve into this and ask the hard questions about what happened at
all levels of government, so we can get answers.
I think the people who have been evacuated, the people who have lost
loved ones, the people who suffered deserve answers. But it is not just
an exercise in looking backward. I think it is essential that we look
forward. What the 9/11 Commission did was help focus our attention on
what we should be doing, how we should be proceeding to be ready,
prepared in the face of the ongoing threats from the terrorists.
Today we heard about an al-Qaida operative--we think it is some
disaffected American who has gone off and joined al-Qaida--who issued
the threat that specifically named Los Angeles. We need to be sure we
are totally prepared. We have learned some things, but you can't learn
enough unless you are honest enough and out of denial in order to

[[Page S9901]]

conduct a thorough investigation and let the chips fall where they may.
Let's find answers. I hope we will have an opportunity to vote on this
amendment. I invite my friends and colleagues from the other side of
the aisle to join with us to support this independent Katrina
commission and to let us get about the business, on a very short
timetable, of getting answers we can all then implement.
I marked the fourth commemoration of what happened to New York on 9/
11. I spent yesterday, as I have in past years, with the victims, with
the survivors, with family members, with members of the police and fire
departments and emergency workers. I could not be more proud to
represent such extraordinary, heroic people. But, in speaking
especially to our first responder community, they were shaken by this.
We needed Federal help. We did a heck of a job. We had the greatest
police force and fire department--I would say in the world, with not
just pride but with a factual basis. We did a great job, but we needed
help and we got help. But now, 4 years later, we are wondering whether
that help would be there if something were to happen to us. No city, no
State should wonder that.
I think it is a boost of confidence for people to know we are moving
as best we can to understand it, but we are unafraid to face whatever
the facts might be. That is why we need an independent commission
constituted as soon as possible, given the resources to do its work,
and asked to report in as short a timeframe as possible.
I appreciate the opportunity to call up this amendment and I hope
there will be an opportunity to address it and that we will have a
strong vote on both sides of the aisle to proceed with this independent
commission as soon as possible.
Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, the pending business is the Commerce,
Justice, Science appropriations. As the Presiding Officer knows, I am
the ranking member. So our colleagues know, there are about 20
outstanding amendments. We are busy clearing those--Senator Shelby is
on his way to the Senate--that Senator Shelby and I could agree to, so
when we do rollcall votes, we hope to have those reduced to a minimum,
or at least a reasonable number. We will also be awaiting direction
from the leadership, Senator Frist and Senator Reid, as to how we will
proceed tomorrow on rollcall votes. We believe we have some that will
be ready tomorrow to move this very important bill expeditiously.
For those who might not know, this new subcommittee handles all the
Commerce funding, it handles the funding for agencies such as NOAA,
which was so great in telling Americans about the hurricane. It also
has a variety of provisions that would be very helpful to Katrina
victims, including small business disaster loans that are available not
only to business but particularly small business, as well as
residential homeowners, up to $200,000, EDA money, to help local
communities rebuild, particularly infrastructure.
While we are mesmerized by the tragedy in New Orleans, we cannot
forget Mississippi and Alabama and their needs for roads and other
infrastructure projects, including water supply.
The chairman of the subcommittee, Senator Shelby, of course, of
Alabama, and I want to move the bill. We understand our leadership,
Senator Frist, is not going to have rollcall votes during the important
Roberts hearings, so we will work with him to see how to do it. One of
the ways we will work with him is in how to reduce the number of
amendments. We are now waiting for our distinguished Senator from
Oklahoma, Senator Coburn, to join us. We know he has something to say
on the bill.
This is a new subcommittee that has been constituted. I used to be
the ranking member of a subcommittee that has been dissolved, VA/HUD
and Independent Agencies. Under the ``independent agencies,'' was the
important agency of FEMA. Now I understand the leadership of FEMA, Mr.
Brown, has resigned. We look to the President to give us a topnotch
person. We know the vice admiral of the Coast Guard is now in the Gulf.
We look at leadership, such as the wonderful person running Red Cross,
RADM Marty Evans, whom I knew when she was at the Naval Academy, one of
the first women in this country to make admiral rank. Then she went on
to a distinguished career running nonprofits and is now with the Red
Cross, very much in the spirit and competency of our colleague from
North Carolina, Senator Elizabeth Dole. We look forward to that
leadership.
We need to focus now on two things: Recovery and reform. In moving
our bill, we want to work on a bipartisan basis on recovery. There are
three Rs to emergency management: Readiness and preparedness; and then
response, which needs to be swift and effective; third is recovery.
Recovery is tough. In my home State of Maryland, we have had
tornadoes, we have been hit by Hurricane Isabel, when it looked like
Baghdad on the Chesapeake Bay. In no way is this akin to what has
happened to our friends in the Gulf. But, still, when it is your house
and your neighborhood, whether it is 3 blocks or 3,000 acres, we want
to work with recovery and do it on a bipartisan basis.
It will take a lot, No. 1, of rebuilding infrastructure so business
and people can come back. Things such as water supplies have been
damaged or contaminated. Roads and bridges need repair in order for
commerce to pass through.
What comes back? Business, such as the supermarket, or do they wait
for the people to come back? We have to be able to help rebuild those
communities. We cannot do it without the help of the private sector.
I hope those running Homeland Security, as well as the President's
good office, would bring to bear the best of what we know from our home
building and construction agency on what we can do to marshal the
forces for rebuilding homes and those neighborhoods, particularly the
small business--everyone knows what I am talking about, the dry
cleaner, the pharmacist, as well as the supermarkets, et cetera, that
are lifeblood. We also will have to rebuild schools for our children,
as well as coming back with their mom and dad into the safety of a new
home.
We also worry that while we are rebuilding the Gulf, and rebuild the
Gulf we must, we do not want to create shortages in other parts of
other country. Lumber is already in short supply, along with other
building materials, even the talent, the electricians, plumbers,
contractors. That is why we need a national effort.
We hope those who are leading Homeland Security will now look at the
recovery phase while we go through the grim task of recovering bodies.
We have to recover ourselves. What we do not need to recover, though,
because we have never lost it, is the spirit of working together and
the spirit that we will be able to do this.
It is September 12. I remember where we were 4 years ago on September
11. Yesterday morning, when I got up to go to church, I had this eerie
feeling that the weather was exactly the way it was on September 11.
When I went to church, I wore the jacket that I had on that day. I
saved that jacket so I would never ever forget what I wore and what I
experienced that day.
For all of the fear and all of the grief, I remember on the Capitol
steps we sang ``God Bless America.'' I stood shoulder to shoulder with
Senator Lott that day, then as the Republican leader, and stand with
him today in terms of recovery of his own community. We have to get
back to that spirit where we thought we could work together in this
institution, in the House, and with the people.
On September 12, we want to honor, again, pay our respects to those
who were killed on September 11, to our wonderful first responders who
risked life and limb to save people. Now we are at it once again. For
our first responders and our responders in the Gulf now, going through
that mercury-contaminated water, they each have their own risk.
They are counting on us to be able to work together, bring in the
national

[[Page S9902]]

resources and marshal the private sector resources, as well as the
nonprofit resources, so that by the time we get to Thanksgiving we will
have been well on our way. So we look to be able to do that. We
in Commerce, Justice, and Science look forward to doing our part,
carrying our heavy lifting. There is no lifting too heavy to help
people in our own country that have been so devastated.

For everyone working on this out there in the field, the tremendous
number of volunteers, the generosity of spirit of the people and, I
might add, the private sector that is marshaling, we say thank you. We
have a big job to do. One of the big jobs we have to do is here,
working on a bipartisan basis, to be collegial, to be civil, and to get
the job done.
Let's ask of ourselves exactly what we ask the people working down in
the Gulf. Let's not have a slow, sluggish response from the Congress.
Let's be effective in targeting our resources.
I have a long-range idea I would like to share on the idea of reform.
When I was the chairman of VA/HUD, before the 1994 Republican Gingrich
revolution, I found that FEMA was a dated agency. It was focused on the
Cold War. It was worrying about where to send the Coast Guard if we had
a nuclear attack. It was riddled with staff at Federal and State
levels, with cronies and hacks and people with no experience in
emergency management.
When Hurricane Andrew hit Florida with such enormous devastation, we
found Andrew people were doubly victimized. They were victimized by the
hurricane, and then they were victimized by the inept approach of FEMA.
I went to work on reform. I worked with President Bush's dad--I call
him President Bush 1--and Andy Card, who is now the President's Chief
of Staff, to reform FEMA. We did. Let me tell you we totally reformed
FEMA. When President Clinton came in, he took that early work that we
had begun with President Bush 1.
What did we do? First, we said goodbye to the Cold War. The Cold War
was over, except for the Federal bureaucracy. We said goodbye to the
Cold War. We said that FEMA now had to be a professional agency; that
it needed to be headed by someone who had either emergency management
experience, and actually responded to emergencies, or comparable
experience in the military or in private sector with crisis management.
President Clinton gave us James Lee Witt.
Second, we encouraged Governors to do the same thing at the State
level. The more they did, the more we could help.
Third, we said that FEMA had to become an all-hazards agency, it had
to be ready for a hurricane or tornado. But in becoming ``all
hazards,'' it had to go to the risk-based strategy. We analyzed what
Americans were most likely to have, particularly in terms of natural
disasters. It was tornadoes and hurricanes, followed of course by
earthquakes, though less frequent, severe, and devastating. We then
encouraged the States to have real plans for evacuation; that they had
to be ready, they had to have things pre-positioned where things were
most likely to happen. If you were worried about hurricanes and
``northeasters,'' you did not pre-position in Maryland from Allegany
County, where we are subjected more to floods.
So, readiness and then recovery. Readiness, response, and recovery.
It worked very well.
After September 11, and our desire to be effective and supportive in
fighting the global war against terrorism, FEMA was moved to Homeland
Security. I supported that. I felt again that was the home of the first
responders. That was the home where the local fire departments could
apply for protective gear that firefighters needed.
I now have second thoughts because when FEMA moved to Homeland
Security, it lost its focus, it lost its way, and it definitely lost
its leadership. I believe the President will focus now on giving us the
right leadership.
We have to get a new focus, and this is why I would like to see the
Federal Emergency Management Agency again become an independent agency
that is an all-hazards agency, goes to the risks facing the American
people. There are natural disasters and there are terrorists. We cannot
forget there are those who have a predatory intent against the United
States of America and its communities. So we have to be ready to
respond if they get through the fabulous intelligence network that we
have to protect us. We want to be ready for that.
Quite frankly, there are those who say: Well, Senator Mikulski, are
you saying we are going to worry more about tornadoes than terrorists?
Absolutely not. We have to be ready. But if you look at our cities and
our larger communities, which are often the greatest targets of these
international predators, these international thugs, these international
terrorists, we have to be ready.
Just think, New Orleans could have been hit by a dirty bomb. New
Orleans could have been hit by a chemical or biological attack. New
Orleans could have been hit by bin Laden or Zarqawi or whomever, by
blowing up the levees. So the consequences to the city--whether it is
New Orleans or Baltimore or a city in California or any city--would be
the same. We would have to be ready to respond, and to respond swiftly.
Then, of course, we would have the recovery.
So if we have to evacuate the Capital region, it is the same whether
we are hit by some natural disaster or predatory attack. If we have to
evacuate San Francisco or LA in California, it is the same. So the
reform comes after the recovery. Right now, we have to be swift and
sure in responding to the people who need us the most.
Mr. President, I note the Senator from Oklahoma has come to the
floor. I ask the Senator if he is prepared to speak?
Mr. President, I will yield the floor. Again, I reiterate my pledge
for bipartisan support on our recovery efforts. And I look forward to
working on a reform package with equal bipartisan support.
I yield the floor.

____________________