Floor Statements

Mr. President, this past August the President signed into law the Higher Education Opportunity Act which reauthorized programs for postsecondary and higher education. Contained within the reauthorization is the Education Disaster and Emergency Relief Loan Program. The bill established a loan program within the U.S. Department of Education to provide critically needed low-interest guaranteed loans to institutions in the event of catastrophic natural or manmade disasters.

The colleges and universities in Louisiana, particularly those in the New Orleans area, remain in many ways financially crippled by Hurricane Katrina. Three years after Katrina and Rita devastated Louisiana and Mississippi these institutions still have nearly $700 million in unrecovered losses. The estimates for Gustav and Ike are still not finalized, but at this stage the damage is purported to be at least $46 million to State colleges and universities alone.

Before Katrina, the 11 colleges and universities in the New Orleans area educated 70,000 students. Today, that number is only 50,000, but it continues to slowly rebound. This growth comes despite the fact that our institutions of higher education experienced more than $1 billion in physical damages and operational losses due to the 2005 hurricanes and have recovered less than half of those losses. Higher education institutions are the largest employers in New Orleans both before and after Katrina. The higher education industry in New Orleans continues to attract millions of research dollars and supports industries as diverse as biotechnology, aerospace, and medicine. The work of each institution in the city can be seen in every aspect of the region's recovery, from the redesign of the city's troubled public schools to coastal restoration and hurricane protection to the provision of health care across the region. They engage in this important work even as they continue to struggle with mounting revenue losses, buildings that remain in disrepair due to flooding, and the loss of key faculty and staff.

I call today on the Secretary of Education to make the Education Disaster Loan Program a top regulatory priority. It is my understanding that some Department of Education officials have said that they will not promulgate regulations on any newly created programs in the Higher Education Act until funds are appropriated. This simply is not acceptable. This issue has become a major roadblock in the current disaster funding process, and it is my hope that the Secretary and the Department will move expeditiously to establish regulations so that the program may provide crucial assistance to the colleges and universities impacted by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Ike, and the Midwest floods.

Mr. President, today I wish to celebrate the life of Michael Proctor Smith, who passed away at his home in New Orleans on Friday, September 26, 2008. He was 71. Michael, a native of New Orleans, was an award-winning professional freelance photographer who chronicled the music, culture, and folklife of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana for over 40 years.

Michael was well known for documenting New Orleans social club parades and jazz funerals, neighborhood traditions, Mardi Gras Indians, spiritual church ceremonies, and many of the city and State's renowned jazz, blues, rhythm and blues, and gospel musicians. He was a fixture at every New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival since it began in 1970 until his retirement in 2005. His works are internationally recognized and are permanent collections at a number of museums including the Bibliothque National in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the Historic New Orleans Collection, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, and the Louisiana State Museum.

In the last few years, Michael had been honored with numerous awards celebrating his work. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities in 2002 and was named Music Photographer of the Year by Offbeat magazine. In 2004 he received a Mayor's Arts Award from the Arts Council of New Orleans and a Clarence John Laughlin Lifetime Achievement Award from the New Orleans/Gulf South chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers. In 2005, he received the Delgado Society award from the New Orleans Museum of Art, the first photographer to be so honored. The recipient of two Photographer's Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Michael's prints have toured worldwide through the U.S. Information Agency.

Michael's photographs grace the covers of many CDs and record albums, illustrate numerous books and magazine articles published in America and Europe, and are a staple of documentary films on the rich cultural history of New Orleans and Louisiana.

He was also an original owner and founder of Tipitina's, an iconic music club located at the corner of Napoleon Avenue and Tchoupitoulas Street in uptown New Orleans.

Michael is survived by his partner Karen Louise Snyder; his brother Joseph Byrd Hatchitt Smith; two daughters, Jan Lamberton Smith and Leslie Blackshear Smith; and three grandchildren, Chance King Doyle, Leslie

Elizabeth Doyle, and Francis Brandon Arant.

Mr. President, I am proud to honor a group of 88 World War II veterans from every region of Louisiana who are traveling to Washington, DC, this weekend to visit the various memorials and monuments that recognize the sacrifices of our Nation's invaluable service members.

Louisiana HonorAir, a group based in Lafayette, LA, is sponsoring this Saturday's trip to the Nation's Capital. The organization is honoring each surviving World War II Louisiana veteran by giving them an opportunity to see the memorials dedicated to their service. On this trip, the veterans will visit the World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Iwo Jima memorials. They will also travel to Arlington National Cemetery to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns.

This is the first of four flights Louisiana HonorAir will make to Washington, DC, this fall.

World War II was one of America's greatest triumphs, but was also a conflict rife with individual sacrifice and tragedy. More than 60 million people worldwide were killed, including 40 million civilians, and more than 400,000 American service members were slain during the long war. The ultimate victory over enemies in the Pacific and in Europe is a testament to the valor of American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. The years 1941 to 1945 also witnessed an unprecedented mobilization of domestic industry, which supplied our military on two distant fronts.

In Louisiana, there remain today more than 33,000 living WWII veterans, and each one has a heroic tale of achieving the noble victory of freedom over tyranny. The oldest in this HonorAir group was born in 1913. Two of these veterans began their service in the Louisiana National Guard as early as 1936, and were activated for Federal service in 1941.

This group served in every branch of the military, including 29 in the U.S. Army, 14 in the U.S. Army Air Corps, 23 in the U.S. Navy, 8 in the U.S. Marine Corps, 2 in the U.S. Merchant Marines, one in the U.S. Coast Guard and one in the Women's Reserve of the U.S. Naval Reserve. Our heroes served across the globe, participating in major invasions such as the Battle of the Bulge, the Battle of Huertgen Forest, and the battles of Tunisia, Naples-Foggia, Rome, Anzio, Po Valley and North Apennines. They served in Europe, North Africa and the Pacific Theater. One was wounded in Germany, and another was captured as a prisoner of war.

Many of these veterans earned Purple Hearts, including one with three Battle Stars. One of our veterans went on to serve in both Korea and Vietnam, retiring in 1967.

I ask the Senate to join me in honoring these 88 veterans, all Louisiana heroes, who we welcome to Washington this weekend and Louisiana HonorAir for making these trips a reality.

Mr. President, I wish to take a few moments to acknowledge the life and work of a very ordinary, yet extraordinary, American named Bob Roth of Bristow, VA. Bob died of cancer earlier this year, at the young age of 44, leaving behind a wife of 19 years and five young children. His was one of far too many vibrant young lives cut short by this terrible disease. As was his way in life, Bob fought cancer to the very end attacking the disease as ferociously as it attacked him.

Recent developments in the FBI anthrax case had brought the case back into the media in the last month. I want to pause and recognize that the recent breaks in the case were built upon the hard work of Special Agent Roth and his team. Many of us remember what it was like on Capitol Hill in October of 2001 when an anthrax-laced letter appeared in Senator Daschle's office and another in Senator Leahy's office. Spores were found at the U.S. Supreme Court, and postal workers who handled the letters died from inhalation. No one felt entirely safe from one of the most deadly germs known to man.

The FBI was immediately on the case, and a September 2003 Washington Post article explained their approach in the following manner:

To run the anthrax case day to day, Assistant FBI director

Van Harp turned to veteran FBI agent Bob Roth whose

meticulous style mirrored his own. Roth sometimes referred to

himself as a cops-and-robbers kind of guy, best suited to

pursuing the mobsters, embezzlers and kidnappers who had

always been the FBI's bread and butter. But this case posed

an entirely new set of challenges, and Roth was willing to

try almost anything to solve it . . . the FBI's

frustrations with the case were palpable. At one meeting at

the Washington field office, agents talked candidly about the

toll the long hours were exacting on their families. Roth

vented, too, groaning to no one in particular, ``Get me out

of this.''

But he never asked to get out. Long after the media lost interest, Agent Roth worked tirelessly. As the FBI slogged through one of the most complicated, high-profile cases it ever faced, Agent Bob Roth served his country as a pioneer in the efforts to fight domestic terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. He literally risked his life investigating scenes and evidence from the anthrax case. He was later honored by being promoted to Assistant Section Chief of the Bureau's newly created Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate. It was a role he had little time to address because he spent the last year of his life fighting against his own personal WMD: multiple myeloma, an aggressive bone cancer.

Bob was an exemplary father, devoted husband, committed Christian, community leader, and Government servant. He served 16 years for the FBI and was highly commended and decorated for his exceptional life and unfailing integrity, for his leadership and excellence in his profession for his inspiring example as a devoted husband and loving father to five beautiful children for his character and long service to our country, and for his pioneering efforts in fighting against weapons of mass destruction.

I ask that the Congressional Record reflect the impressive contributions made by Special Agent Robert Roth to his country.

Mr. President, today I celebrate the life of Mary Keating, who, until she passed away last October, was a proud resident of the city and great State of New York for nearly 78 years. Mary first came to America at the young age of 17, far from her home and her family in Derry, Kilshanny, County Clare, Ireland. Not long after she arrived, she met and married Martin Keating, who also hailed from County Clare. She and Martin shared many passions, most notably their love for their family, their friends, and their deep, abiding faith in God. While neither of them were musicians, they relished the Irish country sets of their native Clare and carried them with them to this country, eventually to meet and dance them on the Rockaway Beach boardwalks, which as far as they were concerned was simply the last parish in Clare. As one of her youngest grandchildren, Ronan, observed, if you visited their home you would find a layer of dust on the top of the knob on their radio because it had not been moved from its resting spot on the Irish music station in decades.

Music was not the only way that Mary celebrated her Irish heritage. It also could be found in her love to entertain friends and family. It was well known in their neighborhood and beyond that there was always an extra spot at the dinner table in the Keating home. As Mary would say, ``what is one extra potato in the pot?'' One could never visit her home without enjoying at least a cup of tea and an assortment of food. Three generations of Keatings grew up savoring her specialties such Irish soda bread, turnips, and leg of lamb. Much to their chagrin, her daughters and granddaughters have never been able to make a soda bread half as delicious as Mary's, simply because the ``recipe'' was all done by taste and memory. As her granddaughter Kristin noted, the only one of Mary's dishes her grandchildren will not miss is her ``lumpy'' mashed potatoes, especially since Martin was a firm believer in the notion that children should finish everything they are served.

Mary will be remembered by all who knew her as a strong and caring woman

who lived a life guided by her faith and values. Long before recycling became the politically correct thing to do, Mary Keating saved and reused every bread bag, rubber band, piece of tinfoil, and jar she ever brought into the house. Old jelly jars were magically transformed into milk glasses and bread bags were used to store everything from school lunch to sea shells from Rockaway Beach.

Even though Mary has left this world, her legacy will continue through the lives and work of her 8 children, 20 grandchildren, and 24 great-grandchildren. I know this because her granddaughter, Kathleen Keating Strottman, served as my staff for over 7 years and I saw many of these traits in her. In honor of Mary's Irish heritage, I would like to close my remarks with the refrain of an Irish ballad, ``The Lovely Rose of Clare'':

Oh my lovely rose of Clare, you're the sweetest girl I

know, You're the queen of all the roses, the pretty flowers

that grow, You are the sunshine of my life, so beautiful and

fair, And I will always love you, my lovely rose of

Clare.

Mr. President, I hope I am not wearing out my welcome. I know that I have spoken more today than the other Members. I was proud this morning to have achieved a small--but I think significant-- victory, as I pressed for a rollcall vote which would have required the Senate to come back tomorrow, but in acquiescing on that, I was able to introduce a bipartisan piece of legislation with key Members, including Senator Cochran, Senator Hutchison, Senator Conrad, Senator Lincoln, and Senator Pryor on a piece of very important legislation for farmers and for the agricultural community and rural communities throughout the Nation.

Hopefully, by this piece of legislation being filed today and the work that can go on over the next few days before the lights go out in this Chamber and we all leave to go home for the election, something could be done to help rural America because the big bailout package, no matter how it is structured, will not really reach to the problem quickly enough and the regulations have not been written for the bill that is in place to help them. So between the bill that doesn't have regulations written and the bailout package, which has nothing at this moment for them, we are trying to stand in the gap and provide some sort of bridge assistance for the farmland of America and the rural areas and to give our farmers some hope until we can come back and address their needs. I am pleased to have at least accomplished that today. While I am speaking, Members of the House--both Republicans and Democrats--are putting a bill together and circulating letters so that, hopefully, we can accomplish something before we leave.

I did have an option to hold up the Defense authorization bill, as the Presiding Officer knows. It was a bill that the Presiding Officer and Senator Warner spoke about. It passed in record time--in less than a minute, as I recall--because I was standing right here when it did. I could have exerted my ability as a Senator to object but, not only out of respect for the Presiding Officer as well as the Senator from Virginia but also out of respect for the men and women who wear a uniform, I did not think that it was an appropriate vehicle to use to make my point. I am certain the people of my State would agree with that, and so I did not. That does not mean I won't continue over the course of the next several days to use other vehicles, other opportunities to press this case.

Leaving that subject for a moment, I wish to spend a moment to again talk about the need for coastal protection and restoration in Louisiana. I have spoken about this topic hundreds of times and will for the next 15 minutes do it once again.

Louisiana's coast is literally washing away. Even if we didn't have Katrina or Rita--the major storms that affected us in 2005--and even if Gustav

and Ike had never happened, the devastation along Louisiana's coast is substantial. It affects a little bit of the Mississippi coast as well and a small portion of east Texas. I am sorry I do not have Texas on this map. Southeast Texas is very much like southwest Louisiana in topography. So what I am saying affects them as well. Of course, southwest Mississippi, our neighbor to the east, the southwestern part of Mississippi is protected by this great wetlands, but it is basically the Mississippi delta area.

One hundred years ago, the Mississippi River delta consisted of 7,000 square miles of coastal marshes and swamps, making it one of the sixth or seventh largest delta complexes in the world. The delta's growth depended on periodic flooding of the Mississippi River that drains 41 percent of the continental United States, with the river sediments gradually settling in the surrounding wetlands. So as the sediment came down the Mississippi River, this is how this area was built. Of course, it took thousands and thousands of years, but that process still exists to this day. The Mississippi River and the sediment come down and overflow this great delta.

Portions of the State I represent have grown up on this delta. This is New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Lake Charles right here, the four major cities in Louisiana. I don't have to explain to people-- even people who have never been to New Orleans or to the cities I mentioned--how important and rich this land is, not just for agriculture and forestry but also for fisheries, both commercial and sports fishermen, as well as the great cities that call this area home.

We have been trying to stay high and dry and out of the water for over 300 years. If we don't act more urgently in this Congress, it will be a losing battle.

Since the early 1900s, this national ecological jewel has lost 2,000 square miles of coastal wetlands, with the expectation of another 500 square miles by 2050. Again, these hurricanes seem to be happening more frequently and with more ferocity in the way they rush to our shore. Their increased velocity and frequency are wreaking havoc on many parts of the coast from Florida to the east coast, but particularly the State I represent.

The construction of flood control and navigation levees along the Mississippi River, which we had to do for the commercial activities of our Nation, had the side effect--the unfortunate side effect--of blocking deposits of the Mississippi River sediment into the surrounding wetlands. Without these sediments, the coastal system has slowly subsided, turning these wetlands into open waters.

I read a letter an hour ago about a farmer, Wallace Ellender, whose father was a Senator. As a young girl, I remember Senator Ellender. He testified in committee that his farm that used to sit close to the shore, they now had to swim 30 miles in open water to the island on which he used to picnic as a child. This is the largest loss of lands. If the enemy was taking this much land, we would literally declare war and attack them. That is how great is the land loss. The enemy is water, rising tides, more frequent storms, and climate change.

I am not here only to complain. I am here to offer a solution, the solution we have passed by this Congress--which I commended Senator Domenici for this morning because without him, it never, ever would have happened--that we have decided as a State to take President Truman up on his offer that he made to us in 1949 to use a portion of our offshore oil and gas revenues that come to the Treasury, $10 billion a year. The people of Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi, from the offshore oil and gas off our coasts, contribute to the Federal Treasury billions and billions of dollars. Since the year I was born, 50-plus years ago, we have sent over $117 billion to the Federal Treasury to fund all sorts of programs--domestic and international, including supporting the wars that have been waged on behalf of this country. We have contributed the second largest portion outside individual income tax.

With Senator Domenici's help and with my leadership, we led an effort to take President Truman up on an offer that we were too foolish to accept at the time and passed the Domenici-Landrieu Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act. I am proud to add my name on that bill which will redirect 37.5 percent of these revenues to the coast to secure these wetlands, to build these levees, to protect not just New Orleans but Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Lake Charles, to protect the Ellender farm, to restore the culture and protect the great Cajun culture of south Louisiana--many of the people still speak French, as the original settlers to this area--and to preserve the culture of our fishermen and oystermen.

Mr. President, you can appreciate that because being from Michigan, you have quite a diversity of constituents you represent. I don't know Michigan, of course, as well as I know Louisiana. I am certain you have pockets of immigrants who have come to Michigan who have proven themselves to be outstanding citizens.

I met with a very strong, strapping man who came to Louisiana probably when he was a child, I imagine as a young teenager. He is now pushing 50 to 60. He met with me not too long ago over a small table in Plaquemine, LA. He had his sleeves rolled up. His arms were quite large. He is an oyster fisherman. He came from Croatia. He had no money in his pocket when he arrived, but he and his sons have been oyster fishermen down in this area for decades.

He looked at me and he said: Senator, I could not love a country more than I love America. I came here as a penniless child, he said, and I have been trying to make a living fishing in the oyster beds in Louisiana. His son was sitting right next to him. He said: But Senator, if we don't do something, all that we have done for these decades will be lost.

I share that story. I am sure Senator Mikulski could tell a story about her fishermen from Maryland, and I am certain Senator Carper could relay a similar story from Delaware, and I am certain, Mr. President, that you have similar stories from people who came here, not born in America, but came here looking for a chance and in their quest to find that chance have provided so much wealth, more than you can imagine, for themselves and their families and for all of us, as well as people who were born in south Louisiana, who were born here, or working side by side with those who came, looking for a new life decades ago to preserve this great place. If we do not step it up, if we do not expedite this effort, their work will have been for nought.

A couple of years ago, we passed a bill that will give us revenue sharing to try to build the levees. We went actually after the storm--I was so devastated after Katrina thinking where could we find help, where could we find a plan. I traveled to the Netherlands, to Europe, to look at the systems they have. I brought 40 elected officials, both Republicans and Democrats, with me, laymen and engineers, to say: If the Netherlands, which is a small country that can fit inside the State of Louisiana--this is our State. The Netherlands is so small it could fit inside Louisiana. It is a powerful nation but a small one. It has the same problems as we do. If their levees break, they will lose their entire country. So they don't fool around with it as we do in America. They actually build levees that hold. They have great engineering. We have great engineers here, but we are not giving the support or tools they need to do this job. So our land continues to wash away while the Netherlands has managed to save itself.

I learned a very interesting thing over in the Netherlands when I went, and it was shocking to me. Netherlands has no system of insurance such as we do. We have flood insurance here. It is a bill we actually could not pass in the last few years, but we technically have flood insurance. We have commercial insurance. In the Netherlands, they don't have insurance because their levees are built to withstand a storm once every 10,000 years.

I hate to be the one to be the bearer of bad news, but our levees are not even built to withstand storms once in 100 years. The levees the Netherlands build protect their people once every 10,000 years, so they virtually never break. That little picture everybody might remember, at least those of my age and older, of that little boy with the finger in the dike, that is not how it is. They have the most extraordinary investments and infrastructure you can imagine. They have gates that

open and close. They have diversion systems. I literally have people in their living rooms with buckets trying to keep the water out.

I had elected officials come to my office this week with pictures of everything that their town owned dumped out on the street because the water comes in. And somehow in America we have lost either the interest, the will, or the ability to use the resources we have and the brains that God gave us to figure this out.

Although countries have done it--and I am sure the Netherlands is not the only country that has done it--I am here to tell you America is a long way from getting this right.

I came to the floor to introduce a bill--it is not going to completely solve this problem, but I will send it to the desk because it is going to take more than one bill to do it. In the supplemental bill we passed, the emergency disaster bill, there is a portion in that bill--it is a $1.5 billion portion--that is directed to only one project in south Louisiana. This bill I am going to lay down will suggest that the $1.5 billion that is directed to one project be given to the State in a way that our Governor, who is not a Democrat but a Republican--so I am not doing this with party. He is Republican and I am working with him--to give him and his team an opportunity to use those funds to cover the billions of dollars of projects we have underway.

We have billions of dollars of projects underway. We have $1.5 billion in the bill. So instead of directing it to one particular project, I thought it might be worth discussing the wisdom and the benefit of trying to give it to our State, allowing them to use it in a way that will most quickly benefit the most people.

I want to show the levee structure. We have passed since 1986 eight WRDA bills, water resources development bills. This is the way Congress builds levees all over the country. The red represents Federal levees in Louisiana, the green represents local levees, and then the yellow is boundaries separating our parishes. We don't have counties, we have parishes. Here is St. Bernard Parish. This parish, by the way, with 67,000 people, was completely obliterated in Katrina--completely. Out of 67,000 people, there were 5--5--homes that were not completely inundated up to the roof with water. That is St. Bernard Parish.

Then we have Orleans, and we saw what happened when the levees broke: 70 percent of the city went underwater. What you didn't see was Plaquemine Parish went underwater. This levee helped. This is the only levee in our entire State, Golden Meadow, even though it held in Katrina--you are going to have a hard time believing this, but this little levee held down here in Golden Meadow. But since Katrina, I can't seem to get a dollar to lift it a little higher because the Corps of Engineers, for some reason, doesn't think this is a big priority. It held again in Ike, and it held again in Gustav. They keep telling me there is something wrong, we can't build a levee this way. I said: Since this levee held and yours broke, maybe Golden Meadow knows something about building levees. Nevertheless, we don't have money to help them strengthen that levee, although it has been through four hurricanes now.

In the last WRDA bill, we authorized $6.9 billion of projects, which is the good news, and some of that money will be spent here. By the way, there will be billions of dollars spent around the country on levees such as this. We are only one of 50 States. I most certainly don't think we should get all the money in Louisiana, although we have a lot of the water. The Mississippi River probably deserves a little extra because of that, and we do because it is a water bill, it is not a desert bill. If it were a desert bill, New Mexico would get a good portion of that money. It is a water bill. We have a lot of water, so we get a lot of money.

We have $6 billion. However, in the actual appropriations bill, we only have $1.5 billion. So the best way I can think to take that $1.5 billion, instead of dedicating it to one project, is give it to the Governor and let him, with his team and the legislature, Democrats and Republicans, figure out how to lay that money down on south Louisiana to save as much as we can while we wait and work for the revenue- sharing piece I talked about earlier, the portion of the offshore oil and gas revenues. We are now going to get 37 percent of those revenues, which are moneys that come to the Federal Treasury that if Louisiana weren't willing to produce oil and gas, the country would not have. They might own the resources off our coast, off our 9-mile boundary, but they couldn't access those revenues without the people of Louisiana agreeing.

Remember, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama are the only States that allow drilling off their coasts, and Alaska, which is not in the lower 48, of course. So because we allow drilling, because we generate $10 billion, we thought instead of coming here hat in hand every year, let us direct some of that money to help us build these levees and then in the meantime, we can get occasionally some money in the water resources bill or in an appropriations bill to add to that so we can start protecting our people. We may not get to 1 in every 10,000 years' storm, but we most certainly need to get past 1 out of every 100 years. We have to move not from a category 3 protection but to a category 5 protection, and we have to do it quickly. So I send this bill to the desk and hope we can consider it at the earliest convenience.

I wish to also send to the desk some more detailed information about what I have spoken about, and I will conclude this portion by saying that this is an urgent matter. I don't know how many storms we have to endure on the gulf coast, America's energy coast, before this Congress realizes this is an economic disaster, it is an emotional drain on people who continue to watch everything they own flood time and time again.

If I thought I could relocate 2 million people to another part--even if I could get them to go, which I couldn't because this is their home--it would be too expensive. Who would stay and run the river? Who would keep these channels open? Who would drill for the oil and gas? We haven't figured out how to do this from unmanned aerial platforms yet. People actually have to go out into this coastline and work hard every day in agriculture, in oil and gas and in fisheries. This operation cannot be run from Kansas City or from Little Rock, AR. It has to be run on the coast. And everybody who lives on a coast, whether you live in Florida or Texas or South Carolina or North Carolina or Georgia understands what I am talking about. We can't relocate everyone to Denver. We have to protect our coasts, and we are doing a terrible job of it in this country. I am one of the Senators who represents the most challenged area in the Nation. Louisiana is not the only . . . .

Mr. President, I hope I am not wearing out my welcome. I know that I have spoken more today than the other Members. I was proud this morning to have achieved a small--but I think significant-- victory, as I pressed for a rollcall vote which would have required the Senate to come back tomorrow, but in acquiescing on that, I was able to introduce a bipartisan piece of legislation with key Members, including Senator Cochran, Senator Hutchison, Senator Conrad, Senator Lincoln, and Senator Pryor on a piece of very important legislation for farmers and for the agricultural community and rural communities throughout the Nation.

Hopefully, by this piece of legislation being filed today and the work that can go on over the next few days before the lights go out in this Chamber and we all leave to go home for the election, something could be done to help rural America because the big bailout package, no matter how it is structured, will not really reach to the problem quickly enough and the regulations have not been written for the bill that is in place to help them. So between the bill that doesn't have regulations written and the bailout package, which has nothing at this moment for them, we are trying to stand in the gap and provide some sort of bridge assistance for the farmland of America and the rural areas and to give our farmers some hope until we can come back and address their needs. I am pleased to have at least accomplished that today. While I am speaking, Members of the House--both Republicans and Democrats--are putting a bill together and circulating letters so that, hopefully, we can accomplish something before we leave.

I did have an option to hold up the Defense authorization bill, as the Presiding Officer knows. It was a bill that the Presiding Officer and Senator Warner spoke about. It passed in record time--in less than a minute, as I recall--because I was standing right here when it did. I could have exerted my ability as a Senator to object but, not only out of respect for the Presiding Officer as well as the Senator from Virginia but also out of respect for the men and women who wear a uniform, I did not think that it was an appropriate vehicle to use to make my point. I am certain the people of my State would agree with that, and so I did not. That does not mean I won't continue over the course of the next several days to use other vehicles, other opportunities to press this case.

Leaving that subject for a moment, I wish to spend a moment to again talk about the need for coastal protection and restoration in Louisiana. I have spoken about this topic hundreds of times and will for the next 15 minutes do it once again.

Louisiana's coast is literally washing away. Even if we didn't have Katrina or Rita--the major storms that affected us in 2005--and even if Gustav

and Ike had never happened, the devastation along Louisiana's coast is substantial. It affects a little bit of the Mississippi coast as well and a small portion of east Texas. I am sorry I do not have Texas on this map. Southeast Texas is very much like southwest Louisiana in topography. So what I am saying affects them as well. Of course, southwest Mississippi, our neighbor to the east, the southwestern part of Mississippi is protected by this great wetlands, but it is basically the Mississippi delta area.

One hundred years ago, the Mississippi River delta consisted of 7,000 square miles of coastal marshes and swamps, making it one of the sixth or seventh largest delta complexes in the world. The delta's growth depended on periodic flooding of the Mississippi River that drains 41 percent of the continental United States, with the river sediments gradually settling in the surrounding wetlands. So as the sediment came down the Mississippi River, this is how this area was built. Of course, it took thousands and thousands of years, but that process still exists to this day. The Mississippi River and the sediment come down and overflow this great delta.

Portions of the State I represent have grown up on this delta. This is New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Lake Charles right here, the four major cities in Louisiana. I don't have to explain to people-- even people who have never been to New Orleans or to the cities I mentioned--how important and rich this land is, not just for agriculture and forestry but also for fisheries, both commercial and sports fishermen, as well as the great cities that call this area home.

We have been trying to stay high and dry and out of the water for over 300 years. If we don't act more urgently in this Congress, it will be a losing battle.

Since the early 1900s, this national ecological jewel has lost 2,000 square miles of coastal wetlands, with the expectation of another 500 square miles by 2050. Again, these hurricanes seem to be happening more frequently and with more ferocity in the way they rush to our shore. Their increased velocity and frequency are wreaking havoc on many parts of the coast from Florida to the east coast, but particularly the State I represent.

The construction of flood control and navigation levees along the Mississippi River, which we had to do for the commercial activities of our Nation, had the side effect--the unfortunate side effect--of blocking deposits of the Mississippi River sediment into the surrounding wetlands. Without these sediments, the coastal system has slowly subsided, turning these wetlands into open waters.

I read a letter an hour ago about a farmer, Wallace Ellender, whose father was a Senator. As a young girl, I remember Senator Ellender. He testified in committee that his farm that used to sit close to the shore, they now had to swim 30 miles in open water to the island on which he used to picnic as a child. This is the largest loss of lands. If the enemy was taking this much land, we would literally declare war and attack them. That is how great is the land loss. The enemy is water, rising tides, more frequent storms, and climate change.

I am not here only to complain. I am here to offer a solution, the solution we have passed by this Congress--which I commended Senator Domenici for this morning because without him, it never, ever would have happened--that we have decided as a State to take President Truman up on his offer that he made to us in 1949 to use a portion of our offshore oil and gas revenues that come to the Treasury, $10 billion a year. The people of Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi, from the offshore oil and gas off our coasts, contribute to the Federal Treasury billions and billions of dollars. Since the year I was born, 50-plus years ago, we have sent over $117 billion to the Federal Treasury to fund all sorts of programs--domestic and international, including supporting the wars that have been waged on behalf of this country. We have contributed the second largest portion outside individual income tax.

With Senator Domenici's help and with my leadership, we led an effort to take President Truman up on an offer that we were too foolish to accept at the time and passed the Domenici-Landrieu Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act. I am proud to add my name on that bill which will redirect 37.5 percent of these revenues to the coast to secure these wetlands, to build these levees, to protect not just New Orleans but Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Lake Charles, to protect the Ellender farm, to restore the culture and protect the great Cajun culture of south Louisiana--many of the people still speak French, as the original settlers to this area--and to preserve the culture of our fishermen and oystermen.

Mr. President, you can appreciate that because being from Michigan, you have quite a diversity of constituents you represent. I don't know Michigan, of course, as well as I know Louisiana. I am certain you have pockets of immigrants who have come to Michigan who have proven themselves to be outstanding citizens.

I met with a very strong, strapping man who came to Louisiana probably when he was a child, I imagine as a young teenager. He is now pushing 50 to 60. He met with me not too long ago over a small table in Plaquemine, LA. He had his sleeves rolled up. His arms were quite large. He is an oyster fisherman. He came from Croatia. He had no money in his pocket when he arrived, but he and his sons have been oyster fishermen down in this area for decades.

He looked at me and he said: Senator, I could not love a country more than I love America. I came here as a penniless child, he said, and I have been trying to make a living fishing in the oyster beds in Louisiana. His son was sitting right next to him. He said: But Senator, if we don't do something, all that we have done for these decades will be lost.

I share that story. I am sure Senator Mikulski could tell a story about her fishermen from Maryland, and I am certain Senator Carper could relay a similar story from Delaware, and I am certain, Mr. President, that you have similar stories from people who came here, not born in America, but came here looking for a chance and in their quest to find that chance have provided so much wealth, more than you can imagine, for themselves and their families and for all of us, as well as people who were born in south Louisiana, who were born here, or working side by side with those who came, looking for a new life decades ago to preserve this great place. If we do not step it up, if we do not expedite this effort, their work will have been for nought.

A couple of years ago, we passed a bill that will give us revenue sharing to try to build the levees. We went actually after the storm--I was so devastated after Katrina thinking where could we find help, where could we find a plan. I traveled to the Netherlands, to Europe, to look at the systems they have. I brought 40 elected officials, both Republicans and Democrats, with me, laymen and engineers, to say: If the Netherlands, which is a small country that can fit inside the State of Louisiana--this is our State. The Netherlands is so small it could fit inside Louisiana. It is a powerful nation but a small one. It has the same problems as we do. If their levees break, they will lose their entire country. So they don't fool around with it as we do in America. They actually build levees that hold. They have great engineering. We have great engineers here, but we are not giving the support or tools they need to do this job. So our land continues to wash away while the Netherlands has managed to save itself.

I learned a very interesting thing over in the Netherlands when I went, and it was shocking to me. Netherlands has no system of insurance such as we do. We have flood insurance here. It is a bill we actually could not pass in the last few years, but we technically have flood insurance. We have commercial insurance. In the Netherlands, they don't have insurance because their levees are built to withstand a storm once every 10,000 years.

I hate to be the one to be the bearer of bad news, but our levees are not even built to withstand storms once in 100 years. The levees the Netherlands build protect their people once every 10,000 years, so they virtually never break. That little picture everybody might remember, at least those of my age and older, of that little boy with the finger in the dike, that is not how it is. They have the most extraordinary investments and infrastructure you can imagine. They have gates that

open and close. They have diversion systems. I literally have people in their living rooms with buckets trying to keep the water out.

I had elected officials come to my office this week with pictures of everything that their town owned dumped out on the street because the water comes in. And somehow in America we have lost either the interest, the will, or the ability to use the resources we have and the brains that God gave us to figure this out.

Although countries have done it--and I am sure the Netherlands is not the only country that has done it--I am here to tell you America is a long way from getting this right.

I came to the floor to introduce a bill--it is not going to completely solve this problem, but I will send it to the desk because it is going to take more than one bill to do it. In the supplemental bill we passed, the emergency disaster bill, there is a portion in that bill--it is a $1.5 billion portion--that is directed to only one project in south Louisiana. This bill I am going to lay down will suggest that the $1.5 billion that is directed to one project be given to the State in a way that our Governor, who is not a Democrat but a Republican--so I am not doing this with party. He is Republican and I am working with him--to give him and his team an opportunity to use those funds to cover the billions of dollars of projects we have underway.

We have billions of dollars of projects underway. We have $1.5 billion in the bill. So instead of directing it to one particular project, I thought it might be worth discussing the wisdom and the benefit of trying to give it to our State, allowing them to use it in a way that will most quickly benefit the most people.

I want to show the levee structure. We have passed since 1986 eight WRDA bills, water resources development bills. This is the way Congress builds levees all over the country. The red represents Federal levees in Louisiana, the green represents local levees, and then the yellow is boundaries separating our parishes. We don't have counties, we have parishes. Here is St. Bernard Parish. This parish, by the way, with 67,000 people, was completely obliterated in Katrina--completely. Out of 67,000 people, there were 5--5--homes that were not completely inundated up to the roof with water. That is St. Bernard Parish.

Then we have Orleans, and we saw what happened when the levees broke: 70 percent of the city went underwater. What you didn't see was Plaquemine Parish went underwater. This levee helped. This is the only levee in our entire State, Golden Meadow, even though it held in Katrina--you are going to have a hard time believing this, but this little levee held down here in Golden Meadow. But since Katrina, I can't seem to get a dollar to lift it a little higher because the Corps of Engineers, for some reason, doesn't think this is a big priority. It held again in Ike, and it held again in Gustav. They keep telling me there is something wrong, we can't build a levee this way. I said: Since this levee held and yours broke, maybe Golden Meadow knows something about building levees. Nevertheless, we don't have money to help them strengthen that levee, although it has been through four hurricanes now.

In the last WRDA bill, we authorized $6.9 billion of projects, which is the good news, and some of that money will be spent here. By the way, there will be billions of dollars spent around the country on levees such as this. We are only one of 50 States. I most certainly don't think we should get all the money in Louisiana, although we have a lot of the water. The Mississippi River probably deserves a little extra because of that, and we do because it is a water bill, it is not a desert bill. If it were a desert bill, New Mexico would get a good portion of that money. It is a water bill. We have a lot of water, so we get a lot of money.

We have $6 billion. However, in the actual appropriations bill, we only have $1.5 billion. So the best way I can think to take that $1.5 billion, instead of dedicating it to one project, is give it to the Governor and let him, with his team and the legislature, Democrats and Republicans, figure out how to lay that money down on south Louisiana to save as much as we can while we wait and work for the revenue- sharing piece I talked about earlier, the portion of the offshore oil and gas revenues. We are now going to get 37 percent of those revenues, which are moneys that come to the Federal Treasury that if Louisiana weren't willing to produce oil and gas, the country would not have. They might own the resources off our coast, off our 9-mile boundary, but they couldn't access those revenues without the people of Louisiana agreeing.

Remember, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama are the only States that allow drilling off their coasts, and Alaska, which is not in the lower 48, of course. So because we allow drilling, because we generate $10 billion, we thought instead of coming here hat in hand every year, let us direct some of that money to help us build these levees and then in the meantime, we can get occasionally some money in the water resources bill or in an appropriations bill to add to that so we can start protecting our people. We may not get to 1 in every 10,000 years' storm, but we most certainly need to get past 1 out of every 100 years. We have to move not from a category 3 protection but to a category 5 protection, and we have to do it quickly. So I send this bill to the desk and hope we can consider it at the earliest convenience.

I wish to also send to the desk some more detailed information about what I have spoken about, and I will conclude this portion by saying that this is an urgent matter. I don't know how many storms we have to endure on the gulf coast, America's energy coast, before this Congress realizes this is an economic disaster, it is an emotional drain on people who continue to watch everything they own flood time and time again.

If I thought I could relocate 2 million people to another part--even if I could get them to go, which I couldn't because this is their home--it would be too expensive. Who would stay and run the river? Who would keep these channels open? Who would drill for the oil and gas? We haven't figured out how to do this from unmanned aerial platforms yet. People actually have to go out into this coastline and work hard every day in agriculture, in oil and gas and in fisheries. This operation cannot be run from Kansas City or from Little Rock, AR. It has to be run on the coast. And everybody who lives on a coast, whether you live in Florida or Texas or South Carolina or North Carolina or Georgia understands what I am talking about. We can't relocate everyone to Denver. We have to protect our coasts, and we are doing a terrible job of it in this country. I am one of the Senators who represents the most challenged area in the Nation. Louisiana is not the only . . . .

Mr. President, I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate a message from the House of Representatives with respect to S. 3023.

The Presiding Officer laid before the Senate the following message from the House of Representatives:

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate concur in the amendment of the House to the Senate bill and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; further, that any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate a message from the House with respect to S. 2162.

The Presiding Officer laid before the Senate the following message from the House of Representatives:

Resolved, That the bill from the Senate (S. 2162) entitled ``An Act to improve the treatment and services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs to veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and substance disorders, and for other purposes'', do pass with an amendment.

I ask unanimous consent that the Senate concur in the amendment of the House to the Senate bill and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; further, that any statements be printed at the appropriate place in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 1157, which was received from the House.

I ask unanimous consent the bill be read three times and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 1532, which was received from the House.

I ask unanimous consent the bill be read three times and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statement related to the bill be printed in the Record.

I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 6946, which was received from the House.

I ask unanimous consent the bill be read three times and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.

Mr. President, I understand there is a bill at the desk. I ask for its first reading.

I now ask for a second reading. In order to place the bill on the calendar under the provisions of rule XIV, I object to my own request.

I ask unanimous consent that the Foreign Relations Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 660 and the Senate then proceed to its immediate consideration.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the amendment which is at the desk be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements be printed in the Record.

I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.