Floor Statements

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that privilege of the floor be granted to Jason Matthews and Kathleen Strottman during consideration of this legislation.

Mr. President, I understand we are now in morning business. I ask unanimous consent that immediately upon the disposition of the Defense appropriations bill, on which we just voted cloture, that immediately following the vote on that bill that the Senate return to consideration of S. 1716, which is a bill by Senator Grassley and Senator Baucus to provide emergency health care relief to the many victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita throughout the gulf coast and the needs of States throughout the Nation. I ask unanimous consent that the bill be brought up for consideration right after the final vote on the Defense appropriations bill.

Mr. President, may I ask the majority leader a question?

Through the Chair, first of all, I appreciate the work that he has been doing behind the scenes with the leadership in the Senate to press forward on this very important issue. But I would like to ask him what he thinks about the possibility of us going home on break for over a week before something can be determined definitively as to whether people who are without a home, without a job, without a church, without a neighborhood, without their family--does the Senator think we should possibly make some decisions at least about their emergency health care needs before we leave?

Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Illinois, who has been such a champion for people in need, for people who need their Government to step up and to be with them in times of difficulty. That is what governments are all about.

We appreciate the self-sufficiency of people. We appreciate the value of upward mobility. We appreciate the values of family that Illinois and Louisiana treasure, about moving forward. But we also understand when life throws you a curve ball, when you are hit by a monster storm, when the home you have worked for all your life and might in fact have been paid for is literally washed away before your eyes; when the business that your father or your mother handed down to you and you built up to be something to be proud of, to turn over to your children, is gone in the flickering of an eye; when your child is in an accident and it was unexpected and the health insurance doesn't pay for it and you have a child now who is in great need--you would think we would have a government that would not question whether we should be there to help.

We would say: Of course. This is America. This is what we do. We help each other through difficult times. That is the way the country used to be. That is the country I grew up in. But I am standing here now on the floor at a quarter to 11 on Wednesday night. We are getting ready to pass a very important bill. We, the other Senator from Louisiana, Senator Vitter, and I, have been patient--persistent but patient over the 31 days since this first hurricane hit Louisiana and devastated our largest city and rocked the whole southern part of our State back on its heels. We have been to countless meetings, countless conferences, countless telephone conversations, countless visits back to our State and region, visiting from shelters to briefing rooms. We have outlined what we need. I have to stand here now at a quarter to 11 on

a Wednesday night with the idea that Congress is basically prepared to go home and do nothing other than what we have done, which is give $62 billion to an agency that does not work.

That is where we are. Thirty-one days after the worst natural disaster in the history of the country, the subsequent breaking of a levee system that is primarily the fault of the Federal Government--not only but primarily the fault of the Federal Government from decades of neglect and disinvestment, disengagement, and disinterest--and I have to go tell my constituents that people in Congress needed a break and we had to go home, and the only thing we could do is give $62 billion to the agency about which the only thing we all seem to agree, Republican and Democrat, House and Senate, is that it doesn't work.

I sent a letter--I have sent many, but this is another letter--to the leadership, to say:

Although a month has passed since Hurricane Katrina

destroyed the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands

of Americans, survivors of this disaster and Hurricane Rita

[throughout Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama] still

await direct federal assistance.

They are not getting much direct Federal assistance because the assistance has gone to FEMA. FEMA is not resourced, organized or prepared to handle it, so people are not getting the money.

So, instead of doing something before we leave to actually get the money to people it could help, we may do nothing.

In order to provide immediate relief to millions of Americans, I am suggesting that part of the FEMA money be reallocated. There is $43 billion tonight--we checked today--of the $61 billion or so we have appropriated. There is about $43 billion sitting there, $43 billion the taxpayers have already appropriated, we have already voted for, sitting there.

Some of us are suggesting that we take a few billion of that $43 billion that is sitting there doing nothing and do something important with it, such as send signals to Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama that they could be reimbursed for their hospital and health care expenses for the 2 million people who have been displaced from their homes, from their neighborhoods, from their church communities, so there would be no question that they could get that reimbursement and States could begin planning how to provide critical health needs.

The Senator from Tennessee said that everyone will be getting health benefits. If you are a middle-income family and had private health insurance with your employer, and your employer went out of business, you don't continue with that health care unless we pass all or part of the Baucus-Grassley bill that provides a way for that health care to be continued.

The Senator says you can get health care. Yes, you could go stand in line in an emergency room and wait for a day, 2 or 3 days. The lines were long before Katrina, and after Katrina and Rita, I had a mother tell me she waited 2 days with her child with cerebral palsy in her arms--for 2 days trying to get health care.

Unfortunately, many people go to the emergency room to get health care. But in this case, we have many people who don't usually get their health care from emergency rooms that need the Grassley-Baucus bill to be able to extend their private coverage at a reasonable and affordable rate until we can figure out a better way to keep them with health insurance, get them back in their jobs, get them back into homes, and decide how to do that.

That is why I sent a letter today saying I think we should act on the Emergency Health Care Relief Act--not 2 weeks from now, not a month from now, but right now. Take a few billion dollars and instead of letting it sit there doing nothing under the FEMA headline, take this money and use it for health care.

In addition, we have had 71,000 small businesses at a minimum--it could be more--71,000 small businesses, from restaurants to small manufacturing shops to high-tech businesses to agricultural-related businesses to art stores. I could go on and on and on. These are people who worked their whole lives to create a business for themselves and their children. They may employ three or four people. But it was a successful business. They were proud of their business. The business is gone.

Instead of Congress acting to help small business through the Small Business Administration, we have decided we want to give all the money to FEMA. If FEMA gives it to small businesses, fine; if they do not, OK with us. We are going home for 2 weeks.

So I sent the letter saying, Could we take some of that FEMA money-- they have $43 billion--just $720 million of the FEMA money and give it to the Small Business Hurricane Relief and Reconstruction Act, sponsored not by Democrats but by the Republicans, by the chairman of the committee, the very able Senator from Maine, Senator Snowe, who 2 weeks ago moved a bill out of her committee at the request of the Small Business Administration, and because of the need of small businesses in the gulf coast, moved a tight, comprehensive, direct package. But, no, we can't do that. We have to go home without helping our small businesses.

When I was on the committee the Small Business Administration testified. This was a week ago. They said 25,000 businesses had put in applications for aid and they had approved seven. That was last week.

I think that we should do anything we can do to give some money to the Small Business Administration, through already approved law-- nothing new on the books--that they asked for, that the Republican chairman of the Senate committee said absolutely this is what we should do, with the ranking member, the Senator from Massachusetts, Senator Kerry, agreeing. It passed unanimously out of our committee. We have very liberal members of our committee, and very conservative members of our committee who passed this unanimously, but for some reason we can't do this before we leave because the House leadership and the administration don't think that this help for small business is an emergency.

I might want them to call some of the 71,000 small businesses that don't have their business any longer and ask them if they could wait another few weeks for no reason, just because we can't manage to get a bill that passed unanimously over here, for the White House or someone in the administration to say, you know, that would be a good idea. FEMA is not working so well. While we try to work on getting FEMA to work better, it would make sense to us to take $720 million of the $43 billion that FEMA has and get it to the small businesses to help.

Another part of this letter is $3.3 billion for immediate funding for elementary, secondary, and postsecondary relief for children. We go to school early in the South. Up here around Washington people do not go to school until after September. But down South, we all go back to school around the middle of August. In Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama, kids that just finished with their new backpacks, got in their little uniforms, parents are excited, kids are excited, they had just started school the week before the hurricane.

Then, on August 29th, Katrina, a category 4 or 5 hurricane, with 165- mile-an-hour winds, slammed into the gulf coast and destroyed hundreds of schools--public, private, parochial.

The superintendents, in their self-reliant way, started making phone calls and saying 250,000 children need to go to school. So they start making all kinds of arrangements, principals and teachers, mothers and fathers without much money, having lost their home and in some cases their business, scrambling to find schools to put their kids in. Why? Because a smart, good educator from Louisiana, the superintendent, who is universally admired in our State, said to people 12 days after the storm, You might have lost everything, but if you still have your children, do me a favor. Get them in school because it will bring normalcy to them. It will calm them from this tragedy, and it will provide some order for your family.

Wealthy people had many options. Middle-income people had fewer options, but they kind of made it work. The poor have struggled with this issue.

Our States have said it has been a month. We know there are 250,000 children, just elementary and school-age kids, that are enrolled in other schools,

strange schools. Children have been doing beautifully though, showing up to a brand new school, sometimes without any of their friends with them.

I have been through the shelters. I have seen the children leave, I have seen them come back. They are doing a great job.

The only people not doing very well are the Members of Congress on the House side and the administration that can't seem to find $3 billion to let the States know that those children's tuition will be paid for. Maybe public schools can survive this. Maybe public schools just know: I am a public school and I know I am going to get our money. But what about the parochial schools?

Let me also remind you that these schools are employers. They employ teachers and support staff. Maybe they can wait until January, but since the administration has said we want to give help--$4,000 a child or up to $7,500 per child to make sure the States of Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Texas are whole--we should allow the schools that have taken in these children to be compensated at some great expense to the schools that were already full.

Let's take the State of Arkansas. They took 75,000 people; maybe they have 25,000 children or maybe only 20,000 children. Those children have gone to schools in Arkansas. They have taken them in. Those schools have not received one penny for those children and are not quite sure if they will. They have taken them in anyway, though. The parents do not know if their children are going to be paid for or if they will have to pick up a second tuition. Some of them have already paid tuition for the school they were in before the hurricane hit.

I am wondering, why is this complicated? The administration has said they are for it. Lamar Alexander, Senator Kennedy, two Republicans, and a Democrat have pretty much agreed on how to do this. It only costs $3 billion. Again, we would just as soon take it from FEMA since they are not doing very well with the money we have given them. It wouldn't cost us anything and we would get that done for our States, something positive and concrete. But, no, we have to go home.

The fourth thing in the letter we sent today was to see if we could get some direct funding, $1.5 billion we say here, for just 3 months, it would just cover about 3 months of basic payroll for sheriff departments, for police, for fire fighters in the cities and counties and parishes that were the hardest hit.

Today, in the city of New Orleans--and this is a picture of one neighborhood--the headline in our hometown newspaper is that the city is to lay off 3,000 city employees. When a city has been destroyed, as this picture indicates, and people in your city look like this picture, which can be seen all over south Louisiana--this is what most homes in the southern part of Mississippi and throughout south Louisiana look like. Whatever town, county, or city she lives in, you can obviously tell she will not be paying any sales tax. If you could see a broader picture, there are no stores standing where, if she could get up and walk, she could buy something and pay sales tax. Obviously, she will not be paying any ad valorem tax on this house.

Counties and parishes all over south Louisiana made their payrolls in August. They made their first payroll in September. They made their second payroll the end of September. They have no revenues coming in. They come here and ask for $1.5 billion and are told: Why don't you go back and tighten your numbers a little bit. Why don't you go back and just see if there is any way this lady could pay a little tax. I have never seen or heard anything like this in my life.

FEMA has $43 billion unallocated. Throughout the entire region, they have no sales tax to operate, no property tax to operate, and are getting ready to declare bankruptcy. And Congress says, they have to tighten their numbers. If we give them the money in New Orleans, if we give the money to them under current law, we have to pay it back.

How is New Orleans or Waveland or anyplace that looks like this, how are they going to pay any money back? If we do not get this law changed before we leave, the only money New Orleans could get under the current law, which is why we keep saying FEMA is not working--under the current law a city or county can get a maximum of $5 million by loan, which they have to pay back.

Do you know how much the annual operating monthly payroll is for the city of New Orleans? It is $40 million. How would the $5 million help the city of New Orleans to stay in business when in 1 month they spend $40 million just on operating expenses for the city that looks like this? I come and ask for $40 million for 1 month and get told it is too much to ask for? Don't ask for too much, Senator.

OK, well, we will ask for just 3 months of operating expenses for some of these communities. I suggest if you are giving tax credits to get people to come back, you might need a city they can come back to, or a county they can come back to that is actually operating. I don't know too many businesses that want to operate in a place with no police protection, no fire protection, no sewer, no water, and limited utility maintenance for electricity because the city is shut down. Maybe there is a community like that somewhere in the world or in America, but I don't know of one. Even people who live in rural areas--and I have been out to Montana, Idaho, and beautiful places in the West where you never see anyone--have a beautiful ranch in the middle of nowhere, and there is a fire department that would come if their ranch caught on fire.

We have cities and communities on the gulf coast that are letting their police and their firemen go, and we are sitting around passing tax credits.

I am sure this woman could use some of the tax credits we have passed. I have not figured out exactly which one, but I will work on that tomorrow, something she might particularly benefit from.

I have sheriff's departments, cities, counties, and parishes that do not know how they will make payroll. FEMA has $43 billion, and I cannot get $1.5 billion to help them stay in business. Anything we might do in December could actually work.

I don't know how to express any more the tragedy and the magnitude of this disaster. I hope perhaps some people listening would pick up the special edition of National Geographic, ``Why It Became a Man-made Disaster, Where It Could Happen Next.'' The pictures are hard to look at. The text is even more difficult to read--not because the words are large but because it makes you so sick when you read it because it was avoidable.

This was all avoidable, but there were many failures along the way at the national level, at the State level, at the local level. I hope we can learn from what we did so people do not think: Well, the Senator from Louisiana is just talking about the people from Louisiana.

Let me read you the last page, which is why I am spending time on the floor, why I am going to stay on this floor, why I am going to push this issue, so we get something for the people of Louisiana and the gulf coast before we leave, something for their health care or something for their education or something for their small business or something for their police and fire departments, something for their operating budgets, so we can have something to work with when we get back.

But the reason I am also pressing it is because I know, as sure as I am standing here, there is going to be another disaster. If we do not fix FEMA, if we do not fix some of these systems and set a precedent-- not a precedent because it is already in the law; but actually act on what the law already says, which is all we are asking, not anything new; but we are setting a precedent by acting on what the Federal Government already has--it is going to happen to someone else. And I am likely to tell you now who that someone else is going to be.

The next Katrina? According to NOAA--which is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration--meteorologist Joe Golden, the five places in the United States at greatest risk for a calamitous hurricane are Tampa Bay, FL--heads up, Senators from Florida--Mobile, AL--heads up, delegation from Alabama--Houston, TX--heads up to the Texas delegation--New York City and Long Island, NY, and Miami, FL.

This is a picture of the likely areas of threat in the dark color on this map in

the National Geographic article. So not only do we have to get this right for the gulf coast, which has been hit hard and knocked down--but not knocked out--we have to fix this so it does not happen again, and if it does, the people of Florida do not have to suffer the way the people of Louisiana and Mississippi have had to suffer; so the people of New York would not have to go through what we went through.

But I do not know if I have hope about that because also in National Geographic they remind us of something that I knew of as a kid. Everybody in Louisiana knows about it. It was Hurricane Betsy--the largest natural disaster in the history of the country. There is a hurricane that all the old-timers know about that hit in 1965, Hurricane Betsy. It flooded a great area of the metropolitan area, Plaquemines Parish, Saint Bernard Parish, and the Lower Nine, which was also terribly affected by Katrina.

As a result of Betsy, the Federal Government did the same thing. President Lyndon Johnson came down at the request actually of Senator Russell Long from Louisiana who said: Please come, see what has happened, and help us.

President Johnson, I am proud to say, came down and seemed to do more than we are doing now. I have a memo I am going to submit for the Record that he himself wrote--that I got from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library today--upon his return, as he indicated to Congress what needed to be done. Maybe this would inspire us to do more.

Anyway, that hurricane occurred. We set out to build a levee system, a bold, aggressive plan for a levee system. But somewhere along the way that plan fell by the wayside. Congress got distracted. Other priorities came up. Even though our delegation, decade after decade, Republican and Democrat, pleaded, begged, and used our own political chits to add money to the executive budget every year for levees and flood protection and important dredging projects, it was never a promise that was fulfilled.

So we find ourselves, 40 years after Betsy, having basically a collapse of a levee system. I would like to be optimistic, but I am not sure I can be, because in 1927 the great flood before Betsy did the same thing. The picture I have in the Chamber is eerily the same, except there is no overpass. This first picture was taken in 1927. This other one was taken in 2005. You would think that a sophisticated country such as ours--sophisticated governments such as ours--would understand that every now and then you have to make smart investments and smart decisions about levee protection and about growth.

So I am hoping, since we had this once in 1927, we flooded again in the 1960s, and now in 2005, we could learn some lessons about how to prevent this because it is preventable. We are not the only people in the world who live below sea level. There are examples all over the Earth of people who have to live close to the water for trade and commerce purposes who have managed to discipline themselves, restrain themselves, wisely spend their money, and invest it in the protections that their homeowners and their businesses and their people need to have a long and prosperous and safe existence.

But we did not learn it in 1927 sufficiently. We did not learn it in 1965. And I am hoping today we can learn it in 2005.

Before we build the levee system, though, we have to face the immediate issues, which is why we sent this letter to the leadership, why I have said: Let's not go home until we take some money from FEMA, which has $43 billion and is not spending it very well. And everyone agrees with that. There is not a person in Congress now who is defending the way FEMA is distributing this money. It is not because they do not have some good people at FEMA. I have met many of them. They are caring and compassionate individuals.

But FEMA is not organized to manage this crisis, and they are the agency that should be coordinating it. They are not resourced. They are not staffed. They are not organized because they were put in the Department of Homeland Security, stripped of much of their independence. Their budget was slashed. Most of the people who knew how to run disasters either left or were asked to leave. So they have a group of people who are not as experienced, not as well organized, and not prepared.

As a result, our people in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are suffering. So instead of complaining more about it, which we have done ad nauseam almost for 31 days, we said: OK, let's move on here. Let's take some of the money that is not being used and direct it immediately to things that would really make a difference in people's lives and, most importantly, would send a positive signal that help is on the way.

So I do not know why we are not able to do this, which is why I have called up this bill, the Grassley-Baucus bill, why I am going to push and insist and use all the power I have as a Senator from this State of Louisiana, with anyone else, Republican or Democrat, who will help to try to get this message to the White House, to the House leadership: Please do not abandon the people of Louisiana again, and the people of Mississippi again, and the people of Alabama again by leaving before we do something to help them in a direct and concrete manner.

Now, there have been a lot of press releases issued. I will submit those for the Record. There are lots of messages that people give out, that people are asked to say--things like: The President has called on all Americans to help those in need; the President has asked for this; So and so has asked for this; please tell people they are not alone.

We have programs such as the opportunity zones, urban homesteading. I think there is some merit in some of this that has been proposed. I am not opposed to exploring options for anything to encourage home ownership. But right now our State, the city of New Orleans, cannot keep people on the payroll. If we do not do something immediately to give money to our local governments, to sheriffs, to first responders, for firefighters, I do not know how anything else we do is going to matter because there will not be a city to do it in, or there will not be a county that is functioning when the schools manage to get rebuilt, when any businesses decide to take advantage of the tax credits we have given them to open, there will not be a city to move into.

We are trying to get some of our neighborhoods back in New Orleans, and the mayor and Federal officials and the Governor and the council have been working through a complicated plan that is not universally supported. But I can understand why we have to go neighborhood by neighborhood, because some neighborhoods are totally uninhabitable. You want to bring some life to the city, but what is the use of moving people back into Algiers, which is where we want to move them on the west bank, or back into the CBD, if the mayor has to let 3,000 people off this week and 3,000 people off next week? Who would the people in the central business district call when they need a permit?

I don't think this is too complicated. It is time for us to act. We have passed some tax credits in a bipartisan fashion, $6 billion in tax credits to help people with casualty loss, to let people take some money out of their IRA tax free, to tell the IRS, don't collect any taxes for people. If anybody owes you money or if people are late or don't expect any quarterly reports, that has all been helpful. We have given a $2,400 credit to employers. One thing we can do in this Congress is pass tax cuts. We have become very good at passing tax cuts. We are appreciative of these tax cuts, $6 billion. But I can tell you that our State needs $9 billion. Maybe we could live with $6 billion if we eliminate some things that we need. Perhaps we could wait for a couple of months to get this emergency health care relief act.

We need the $720 million for small business relief already passed in a bipartisan way. We need money for our elementary and secondary schools. And most importantly, we need money for our community disaster loans and for several hospitals in the region. When the whole community was collapsing, when certain hospitals had to evacuate, these three hospitals in the metropolitan area--West Jefferson, East Jefferson, and Oschner, two public hospitals and one private hospital--stayed open the whole time, never closed their doors, even with water rising and windows out and all sorts of disaster and

difficulty. Because of their sheer determination to do so, they stayed open. As a result, Oschner can't qualify for insurance because they never closed their doors. But if we don't give them some immediate help, this well-respected institution may not be able to keep their doors open. They are one of the largest employers, most respected institutions. What are we going to do, say, sorry, come back in a month? They may not be here in a month.

We don't even have on this list our universities. The University of New Orleans, Southern University, Dillard University, Xavier University, Tulane University, Loyola University, and our largest community college, Delgado, which had five feet of water around it. These are not only the brainpower that is going to help us rebuild a city greater and better, higher and stronger and smarter, these are employers who employ thousands of the professionals who make up the heart of our region. We don't even have them on the list. They were on the front page of the New York Times, on CNN last night, saying: Does anybody know we are out here? We are not able to make payroll.

Why wouldn't they be able to make payroll? They have no students in their university. So what does the president of the university tell his faculty: Go to Atlanta and come back in 2 years? And if Xavier is not functioning, and Dillard is not functioning, and the University of New Orleans is not up and operating, and Tulane can't get completely back up, and Loyola, who do the small businesses we are trying to give tax credits to, who do they sell their products to if there are no large businesses that have survived?

Let me talk about one other employer, the Catholic Church. There are people in this Congress who have this idea that in a storm such as this or in a hurricane or disaster, let's have faith-based initiatives. Churches do beautiful work. The synagogues do beautiful work. People of faith have done so many things that I want to say thank you to everyone who has helped in every way. But in my city, as a Catholic city predominantly, the Catholic Church not only runs schools and senior centers and feeding centers and homeless shelters, they don't think of themselves as a business. They think of themselves as a ministry. They, in fact, are one of the largest employers in our region and have been since before the Government actually existed in the way we know it today. In other words, the Ursuline nuns, the nuns of the Holy Sisters, the Sisters of the Poor, the Jesuits came to the city before we even had an American Government and helped to stand the city up. That is how long they have been there. They have helped decade after decade, through the Revolutionary War, the Battle of New Orleans, the Civil War, through every tragedy, the nuns, the priests, the teachers have been there.

Now their schools are ruined. Their hospitals are ruined. They come to ask the Government for some help. We act like, go ask a faith-based institution. They are a faith-based institution. Whom should they go ask? They have to let off maybe 1,500 people. Why would we want our largest employer to let go people so these people who are trained in the ministry, who deliver services, who are the social workers of the city, the psychologists of the city, the counsellors of the city, the teachers of the city could go to Atlanta or Houston or Michigan or Dallas and come back in a couple years? We need them to stay there and help us build the city and community.

I am sure that is true in Waveland. I am sure it is true in Pass Christian. I am sure it is true throughout the gulf coast of Mississippi. Instead we get: Go ask a faith-based institution for help. Go ask a church. They are the church. They can't even save their own employees so how are they going to help everyone else? I don't know what has happened to us as a country. It makes me frightened to think about how far we have come as a nation that we don't understand the role of the Federal Government at a time such as this, that we are so focused on tax cuts, on other priorities, that when hard-working Americans, hard-working American citizens, who have done nothing but work hard all their lives to build some equity, to get to a place not of luxury but of peace and comfort, lose everything in the blink of an eye, we have to come up here to the Federal Government and beg on their behalf, instead of the Federal Government saying: This is why we are here. That is what being part of a nation is all about. If one State is hurting, the other 49 can lift them up. Or if two States are hurting, the other 48 can lift them up.

Instead, we have to listen to editorial after editorial saying: Why can't Louisiana be more self-reliant? The State needs to demonstrate self-reliance.

The Budget Director of Louisiana reported to our legislature that their revenues will be short $1 billion out of a budget of approximately $14 billion. But the State needs to be self-reliant; the people in Louisiana are not self-reliant.

I want to show a picture of a woman who I think is self-reliant. She is not on a wagon train out West, but this is what I think about self- reliance. She has her baby in her arms. She is doing the best she can in a very tough situation. I want to show some other pictures of self- reliance.

This is a woman for whom no one came. She probably has no car, but she has the two babies that she can carry, and I am sure if she had a third, she would have managed to put a third one in her arms and wade through 5 feet of water to try to get these children to safety. This is what Senator Landrieu thinks is being self-reliant.

There is another picture in this magazine of some people in a boat. There is a picture in this magazine of about 10 people in a boat. The boat does not have the Coast Guard emblem--and let me thank the Coast Guard. They saved 32,000 people in the course of 3 and 4 days; 32,000 the Coast Guard alone saved out of houses, off porches, off roofs. That is not counting the thousands of people who were saved by Wildlife and Fisheries.

But there is a picture in this magazine of a boat that looks like it is sort of a blown-up boat with about 12 people in it. There are no paddles. So the people in the boat found some wood floating in the water and picked up the wood and started paddling.

This is the picture. I hope the cameras can see it. They are going to have to really blow it up, but here it is. It is not very large. But this is what the Senator from Louisiana thinks is being self-reliant. People found something that floated, put themselves and their children in it, found some old wood, and started paddling to safety. And I have to listen to news people saying that our people are not self-reliant?

I will not apologize for asking for help on behalf of the 4.5 million people who live in my State--Black and White, Hispanic and Asian--who have been devastated by this storm, 2 million of whom have lost their homes and their neighborhoods. Most of them have never asked the Government for one thing, have never been on one program, and they come here to ask for a little bit of help and they are told: You need to be more self-reliant. How much more self-reliant can people be other than to raise their children, send them to school, balance their budget, pay for their house, pay their bills on time, and serve in the military? How much more self-reliant can they be?

I thought and I think they thought they lived in a nation that when something such as this happened that was unexpected and not their fault, somebody would be there to help them. All we have is photo ops, message boards, and press releases. But when it comes down to actually passing some legislation with some money attached to it that could actually help someone, we cannot seem to find the will to do it, despite the fact that what we are asking for we can take from the FEMA money and not add anything. Republicans and Democrats have come together almost unanimously in support of these, but yet we are going to go home without doing anything.

Mr. President, I hope I have made my point. I will be back in the morning to talk about some other aspects of this recovery. Again, to be perfectly clear, FEMA has been given $51 billion. There is $43 billion, as of yesterday, that is unallocated. Everyone agrees that FEMA is not what it used to be, that it is not working very well. For whatever reason and for whose ever fault that might be, we cannot fix that overnight. So I am asking to take a few billion of that money that is just sitting there and allocate it to programs already established, that are already working, that are desperately needed, that have

been agreed to by Republicans and Democrats alike before we leave so we can give hope to people.

I am going to stand here on this floor all day tomorrow and use every pressure point I can to see that some agreement can be reached to do something before we leave and when we come back, to agree to up-or-down votes on some critical bills on which we need action now. We don't get action on them, anything we do in January or February or March or April, in large measure, will be for nought because the counties, cities, parishes, police departments, and fire departments that we are trying to help may not make it that long. Without them, it is very hard, if not impossible, to build our communities and build our cities.

In conclusion, people want to come home. Some people may not be able to. But as a Senator from Louisiana, I want people to know from our State that everyone is welcome home. All people are welcome, and we want everyone back. We are doing the very best we can to try to provide and prioritize what we need to do first, second, and third in order to get people back and get our communities started again.

Not only is New Orleans a great city, but the region is pretty spectacular and special. The whole gulf coast is a place that when you grow up in New Orleans, you know about Waveland, Pass Christian, places that are very special to people along that gulf coast. Generation after generation of families have vacationed together and lived together and worshipped together and gone to school together, and it is gone.

We would like the help of this Nation to build it back higher, stronger, and better. We don't want to waste a penny, but we need this help now.

Let us act when we come back early in the morning to get some of this done and to work with our colleagues to see that we can get help to the people who are desperately in need of help.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I rise to support my colleague from Montana and his counterpart from Iowa, Chairman Grassley, who have stepped up to the plate, along with the Senator from Arkansas on the Finance Committee and other Members, to put forward a bill that is absolutely crucial for the hundreds of thousands, in fact millions, of people who have been impacted directly by these two storms and the subsequent failing of a levee system in a major metropolitan area of this Nation.

This is an unprecedented natural disaster. We have said it so much that maybe it is a cliche and people are not quite understanding the magnitude of this, but these hurricanes and the subsequent levee breaks have truly displaced 1.5 million people who are without homes, without businesses, without their churches, without their synagogues, without their extended families around them, without their pharmacists, without their doctors, and they need help now.

I wish we had organized, funded, and resourced FEMA in such a way that this could be taken care of, and actually the next time this happens I hope we will have done just that. But for today, for the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and now Texas, who were also hit with this last storm Rita just 6 days ago, we have not had time to reform and reorganize FEMA. So if we wait for FEMA to do this, these people will not get the help they so desperately need.

We need some additional resources. That has been documented on radio, television, in print newspapers from conservative to liberal to right up the middle that FEMA is not functioning as well as it once did. This is not about blaming anybody, this is about recognizing that fact and moving on. So Senators Baucus and Grassley, the good leaders that they are, in a bipartisan fashion, without trying to blame anyone, have said: OK, let us step in the gap. We have people who need help. We have the money to help them. Let us help them. They have put a bill together that will do that.

We are now 31 days since Katrina made landfall, the most powerful storm and subsequent levee break in the history of the country, and 6 days since Rita. Maybe people can wait another week or two, maybe three, maybe the people who just got hit 6 days ago can hold on literally to their life, their health, their children, their parents, with no health insurance, nowhere to get medical coverage, maybe they can, but maybe they cannot. Why should we again make them victims of our inability to act?

This is not a Democratic bill. This is not a Republican bill. This is a bill put together by Republicans and Democrats, tightly and carefully drawn. Maybe some other additional compromises can be made; I do not know, but what I do know is we have to pass this bill very shortly or we are going to end up spiraling downward instead of upward in this region.

The needs are great. It is not just health care and not just unemployment benefits, but when there are big cities and small towns from the Texas coast to the Louisiana coast to the Mississippi coast that are obliterated, they are not functioning, there is not a building standing--in some communities such as Waveland or in parts of Biloxi or Cameron Parish, which is a large but sparsely populated parish in my State, 10,000 people, there is not a structure standing as far as the eye can see, except the courthouse that was built in the early 1930s.

In New Orleans, still a large part in the West of the city is like a ghost town. The mayor is doing a good job getting people back to the city. Our city council is working hard. Our sheriffs, our policemen, our firemen--all of them are working very hard trying to get people back to the city. The health care system that existed just 32 days ago in New Orleans does not exist anymore. The one that existed in Waveland is completely gone. The one that was in Cameron is gone.

So I wish FEMA had showed up the next day and said: Here are your health care cards, here is what you do, here is help. But that did not happen. I am not here to fuss with FEMA; I am here to fix the problem. We do not have a lot of time.

Let me say something else to my colleagues. Congress normally does not work quickly. It is not what we are created to do. I understand that. I have been in the Senate now 6 years. We are created to sort of go slowly. It is because the Founders did not want us in passion to move too quickly. I understand that. But we were also supposed to take the responsibility to create agencies that could act quickly, efficiently, and effectively. In large measure, we have failed to do that. It was not the Republicans' fault or the Democrats' fault or this administration or the previous administration. I am not interested in that. I am just saying the reality is the people--2 million and more because other people have been impacted--need help. We have to provide it.

There are some problems over in the House of Representatives, and people know about those problems. I can understand that. But the Senate, Republicans and Democrats, has put together not just this bill, we have put together four or five bills on education, health care, small business tax relief, community development block grants, getting people immediate help to relieve their mortgage payments. If we do not do this in the next few days, the economy of the gulf coast will begin a downward spiral, and I do not know what else it will take with it.

Everybody keeps saying this is a local problem, this is about New Orleans or Plaquemine or Saint Bernard or just Waveland. It is not. It is a regional crisis. It is a very important region for our country. It is the heart of the oil and gas industry. It is the largest river system in the Nation. It is the largest fisheries and maritime complex in the country. This is not time to cower.

The Presiding Officer is from the South, a different part of the South, but as a Governor he most certainly understands the dynamics of the Washington-Virginia region, and if it was impacted in such a way, it could have national ramifications. The Chair most certainly understands that. That is what is happening in our region.

Slidell, a population of 25,000--direct hit, the eye. Most of these people work at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi or they work in New Orleans East, which is completely gone--most of the residents are-- at NASA at the Michoud plant. A lot of people in Slidell are poor, middle income and wealthy. The neighborhoods have all been hurt and affected. Some are doctors, some are small businesses.

Lake Charles, 71,000--not a direct hit but took a big hit in the hurricane, and the small cities around there, Sulphur and White Lake. I have mentioned Waveland and Pass Christian, MS, Beaumont, TX, Bay Saint Louis, MS, just to name a few. These are the people, the working folks who support the maritime and the energy industry.

It is a complex and comprehensive plan that is necessary for rebuilding, and we are working on the pieces of how to do that. There are many different ideas that are floating around. Something will come together, whether it is done for each individual State or whether we end up coming together as a gulf coast region and doing something. I am confident, with the good ideas I have heard expressed here, some compromise will come together.

But we can't wait for this huge structure of rebuilding before we take care of some of the urgent and immediate needs: water, electricity, food, health care--the basic needs, the basic fundamentals of those governments, so small businesses can actually have a permit to stay in business, so businesses who want to locate actually have somewhere to send their letter: ``Dear Mr. Mayor, I would like to locate in your town.''

If there is no city hall, there are no people on the payroll, there is no executive assistant to the mayor, where do they send the letter to open a business?

I know I might be exaggerating a little bit, but I do it to make the point that, yes, we need tax cuts, yes, we need incentives for small business, but no small businesses can operate on an island by themselves. They actually have to plug into electricity and hook up to water. They have to be able to file their permits with city hall.

We have cities right now deciding whether they need to lay off all of their employees, half of their employees--maybe we will lay off 10 percent every week until somebody in Washington hears us.

I don't know why we have trouble hearing in Washington. I am not certain; maybe we talk too much. I most certainly myself could be blamed for that. I do a lot of talking. People say, Mary, you talk a lot, and I have to admit I probably talk too much and maybe I need to listen a little bit more. But I am starting to think a lot of people in Washington are not listening because the people in my State are crying desperately for help. I can hear people from Mississippi and Texas and Alabama crying for help. I know we do not normally act quickly, but we have to figure out a way to do it.

I am not talking about taking the Treasury and dumping money down there. I am talking about passing the bill of Senators Baucus and Grassley that was worked out by Democrats and Republicans. Maybe we can tighten it even more. Maybe there is a compromise even further to be had. But there are a lot of Republicans supporting this bill. We need the House and we need this administration to support this bill and get it passed before we leave next week.

I am going to conclude because Senator Lincoln, who is truly an expert on this subject, wants to speak about this particular bill. But when we come back next week, I, as the Senator from Louisiana, want my colleagues to understand it is going to be very difficult for any of us--and for me particularly--to go home next weekend for a break when nobody in Louisiana, very few people in Texas, Mississippi, or Alabama have had any break and will not for a while. The only thing they are going to get as a break is broken homes and broken hearts, displaced families. We cannot go home without helping them to more quickly get back home.

We are grateful for the hospitality of Arkansas and New York. I went to New York to personally thank New York Mayor Bloomberg and the police and firemen for everything they did to help us. I have had people from all over the world in my office, thanking them for coming to our aid-- internationally as well as nationally--but we cannot go home next week without helping the people from the gulf coast get home. We have to fix the education crisis. I am going to list a few things we have to do before we leave:

We have to fix the education crisis. Lamar Alexander, the Senator from Tennessee, has been working very hard all week on a compromise. I would like to see his bill passed.

We have to pass the Grassley-Baucus, or Baucus-Grassley Medicaid proposal for health care for people.

We are going to have to pass some kind of mortgage relief. We have hundreds of thousands of people for whom--some of them--their home was their largest asset. If we do not give them some relief, they are going to lose the largest asset, the only real asset they have. Some people have more than that, but most people have their wealth in their home. They are getting ready to lose it all because of the conflicts between the insurance companies and whether it was wind or whether it was flood. We are not asking for forgiveness, but a break for 6 months. We have to give them that.

My staff told me today, a few minutes before I came down here--and I am sorry I do not have the document--that the report just came out that there has been the highest number of people in the history of the country who have defaulted on credit card payments. Does anybody wonder why? Is anyone confused about why this month, this report would show the highest number of people in the history of the country to default on credit card payments? It is because the people who are lucky enough to have credit cards and who still have not yet hit their limit are using their credit cards and their cash cards to literally stay alive. They have no health insurance, no hospital, no job, and virtually no action from Congress. They have a credit card and they will hit their limit.

So if we do not get some response quickly, in a bipartisan manner--I see Harry Reid on the floor, our leader,

who knows this well. For the last 2 weeks he has been working to keep Democrats and Republicans working together to get this done--we are going to be in a serious situation. There are some things we have to get done next week.

In conclusion, I thank Senator Baucus and Senator Grassley for bringing their bill up again to the floor. We are going to have to get some things done before we can go home next Friday. I look forward to working with my colleagues in that regard next week.

Mr. President, I will vote for the nomination of John Roberts to be the next Chief Justice of the United States. He is intelligent with an impressive educational background; extensive experience arguing before the Supreme Court; and distinguished public service experience at the highest levels of government. Based on his resume, he has the qualifications to be Chief Justice.

But a nominee's resume alone is not automatic grounds for confirmation to any office. The Senate has a duty to delve more deeply beyond a nominee's paper record. So while Judge Roberts's credentials are clearly impressive, I still had concerns about his original nomination to the Court.

My concern lay in the fact that Judge Roberts was originally nominated to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor who in her 24 years on the court brought a voice of moderation and balance to an increasingly polarized body. She wrote opinions that surprised and outraged both the right and the left; proof positive that she was not grinding a particular political ax or was beholden to one unbending judicial philosophy. She judged and considered both sides of a case and the law carefully and was more interested in getting the case right than pushing a particular agenda.

Justice O'Connor understood, just as Potter Stewart did before her, that power on the Court lay in the center, not at the extremes. Judge Roberts was about to replace that all-important center. I was not sure which way he would go. In the wake of William Rehnquist's death, my concerns for this nominee deepened.

We had seen far right wing conservative ideologues nominated for these life-long positions on the Federal bench. Democrats fought for greater consultation with the President about them, only to be met with the ``nuclear

option.'' Fortunately, a group of my colleagues and I were able to reach agreement to avoid this outcome; we were called the Gang of 14. Judge Roberts's nomination was going to be the first major test of this agreement.

When I had the opportunity to meet with Judge Roberts, he was able to relieve some of my concerns, enough that I knew we would not have to consider a filibuster. He struck me in two ways. First, he described his judicial philosophy as modest. Modesty is not a word that gets used to describe public figures in Washington, DC, that often. He saw the role of a judge as being limited. As he said in his opening remarks before his hearing: ``I come before the committee with no agenda. I have no platform. Judges are not politicians who can promise to do certain things in exchange for votes. I have no agenda, but I do have a commitment. If I am confirmed, I will confront every case with an open mind.'' He further said that the legitimacy of a judge's role is confined to interpreting the law and not making it.

The second thing that impressed me in our meeting was his appreciation that for many in this country the Supreme Court is seen as the last hope they have to ensure that their rights are not taken away. Earlier this year, as my colleagues will remember the Senate finally went on record apologizing for lynching. James Allen's book ``Without Sanctuary'' described in vivid black and white photos and prose the acts of barbarism that were used to terrorize African Americans in our Nation's not too distant past.

I showed this book to Judge Roberts and he was visibly moved. He told me that he never wanted to forget that the courts were there to protect the powerless. Lynching victims did not get due process of law, even though many of the mobs had law enforcement officers in their midst, and often acted to avenge some perceived crime. Those victims did not get a jury trial with the right to face their accusers as called for under the Constitution.

I came away from this meeting believing he will treat all people who come before the Court with respect. That every argument would receive fair consideration because for the party making that argument a tremendous amount could be at stake.

I am well aware of the criticism of Judge Roberts's earlier writings both those we have seen and several we have not. Some of the things he wrote while a young lawyer in the Reagan White House and Justice Departments indicate that he was hostile to civil rights, women's rights, the Voting Rights Act, and the right of privacy. While he was in the Solicitor General's office he wrote a brief suggesting that Roe v. Wade be overruled.

In thinking about these writings and what they mean for who he is now, I was reminded of something that Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once said: ``The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done.'' I chose to look at Judge Roberts's earlier writings in the same light. When Judge Roberts wrote those things he was a young lawyer who came to the Reagan Administration fresh from a prestigious clerkship with then Associate Justice William Rehnquist. He was a young conservative working at the highest levels of power in our country for a conservative icon, President Reagan. In those positions he was an advocate for the administration and the President's agenda at the time.

His most recent experience in private practice has changed his views on the role of the court, the law, and the needs of individuals. He pointed out to me that he has represented a wide range of clients in his private practice: large and small businesses, indigent defendants, and State governments. Each one, he said, deserved a careful analysis of their position and how the law would apply to their case. He took that approach to his current work on the Court of appeals.

I believe that Judge Roberts has taken to heart another observation by Oliver Wendell Holmes and that is, ``to have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.'' Judge Roberts, I am sure would look back on his earlier writings and understand that he must revisit them in light of the new responsibilities he is about to undertake.

In the weeks leading up to the confirmation hearings, there was a great deal of discussion and criticism of the administration for not turning over memoranda Judge Roberts wrote while he was Deputy Solicitor General at the Department of Justice. I was disappointed that the administration was not more forthcoming with these documents. I hope in the future we can reach an accommodation of some kind so that Senators will have complete information on a nominee. But the fact that we do not have these memos is not enough to keep this highly qualified nominee from becoming our next Chief Justice.

I want to congratulate Chairman Specter and Ranking Member Leahy for the quality of the hearings they held for this nominee. The questioning was tough, but fair, and the committee performed its work with dignity. The hearing record gave us plenty of information to go on in making our decisions about this nominee. The qualities that every member of the Judiciary Committee saw in Judge Roberts, I saw firsthand in our meeting.

John Roberts is an excellent nominee who will be a fine Chief Justice. I encourage President Bush to send us a similarly qualified, modest, fair nominee to replace Justice O'Connor. The White House reached out to many Senators before naming Judge Roberts and I hope the administration will continue to build on that approach for this next nominee. I fully expect the President to nominate a conservative to fill Justice O'Connor's seat, but I also expect that nominee to be fair. Judge Roberts has set a very high bar. I hope the next nominee meets that standard.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to be added as a cosponsor of the Bond-Leahy amendment regarding additional funding for the Guard and Reserve.

This is relative to the extraordinary work that they did in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and the extraordinary work that our Guard does throughout the Nation. In fact, as I speak, I am sure they are on the ground for this unfolding tragedy in California with the fires. I am not able to speak more fully at this time but I wanted to register my support for the amendment and will speak later tonight. I understand this amendment may be accepted. I thank my colleagues for their great support at this time of obvious need. The people of Louisiana and the gulf coast are grateful.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, before the chairman leaves the floor--he has put in a long day today and has some more things probably to do this evening--I wish to thank him for his extraordinary leadership at this time and also the Senator from Montana who was here earlier. They have been working on this bill now for weeks because they are aware of the great need, the extraordinary need of the people from the State I represent, Louisiana, but also our neighbors now in Texas and in Mississippi and in Alabama.

As the Senator from Iowa knows, and the Senator from Montana, this is the largest natural disaster in the history of the United States. We had one hurricane and major levee failings in a region with over 2 million people. Then on the heels of it, we have had another hurricane, not quite as large but equally as damaging to some rural areas, Mr. President, that you are very familiar with, not big cities but small cities that are gone. They are just gone. There is no more city. There is no more community.

All along the gulf coast--you can ask the Senators from Mississippi-- Waveland and Biloxi and Cameron Parish, 10,000 people lived there 5 days ago. No one lives there today.

I flew over the other day. There is one building, the courthouse building, that stood in the Audrey hurricane, it stood in the Rita hurricane. When we rebuilt the Cameron Parish, I told them: Go find the architect who built that courthouse because we are going need to have everything built that way if we are going to live here.

This was not a coast of people sunbathing at resorts or second homes. These were people running our pipelines, our gas lines, our fishing industry. These were people running the refineries, the infrastructure that is on that coast. They didn't just go there in the last decade to retire. Their families have been there for generations, all along this gulf coast. When they went there, there was more land and more protection. But because they are not super rich and because they did not have a lot of extra money and because over a lot of decades the Federal Government did not do what it should--maybe we all missed a little bit here or there--the land is washed away. They find themselves more vulnerable.

But they are not sunbathing down there. They are working on the ports, on the oil and gas industry, and they desperately need our help. These people need immediate medical attention and care. As a doctor, you can understand the anxiety of people who do not know where to go for health care. They are in strange places. They need to be qualified.

This has been well researched by the staffs. We have had input, of course, Senator Vitter and myself, but this comes straight from the Finance Committee, to extend what is already in the law for people to help them get coverage for 5 months, just 5 months until people can catch their breath, get up on their feet, try to find their families, make decisions. They lost their homes. They lost their business.

It also helps private employers. I have had private employers, little ones, medium ones, and big ones pouring into my office. And this is what they say: Senator, we are not leaving. We want to stay. We are going to exhaust the money in our bank accounts to keep our employees whole. But could you please ask the Federal Government to give us a little help here? We want to keep their coverage. We want to keep our employees. We want them to come back. We don't want our companies to leave. But a lot of them had to leave. They had no choice. They are going to Oklahoma, they are going to Houston but at a lot of cost.

I talked to a gas pipeline company. They are having their employees come back this weekend right in Cameron Parish. But they need our help.

One of the things this bill does is it helps them--if they were giving insurance to their people--continue to give private insurance. If some companies had to leave temporarily, their employees can still get private coverage through a program that already exists.

The chairman and the ranking member put their heads together and said, Let us do this for 5 months.

I know there is an objection, because some have expressed a few objections, that said let us not extend it to all States, let us keep it targeted to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas.

We thought about that. But the reason there is one provision that allows the other States to keep their Medicaid, 100-percent reimbursement, is because they have taken a lot of our people. Arkansas didn't have a hurricane, but they took our people. They had 75,000 people.

So if we cut the State of Arkansas' health care benefits which may go into effect soon, that is what we were anticipating. It puts so much strain on Arkansas for the 75,000 people.

We think it is reasonable to ask for a 5-month waiver for all of the States just to help us through this difficult period.

We are not trying to expand a Government program. We are trying to use what is available now in the law and extend it to millions of people who need help immediately.

It is not everything we need in health care. We still have problems with losses because companies are out of business. Doctors who want to stay have no place to work. Even if they showed up to the hospital to work, the city of New Orleans is still virtually empty. It is a large city. One-half our population has been impacted. Almost half, 4.5 million people, live in the southern part of our State.

Everyone has been impacted by these two disasters. A large population in Texas, a large population in Mississippi, and a medium-sized population in Alabama have been affected, but not to the level that, of course, Louisiana has taken. It has taken a hit to its major metropolitan area, as well as then being followed up by another major hit to the rural area to the western side of our State.

I say ``rural''--there are good-sized cities, such as Lake Charles and other cities that are in that area.

We have large cities, medium-sized cities, and small villages and communities--such as Cameron--that have been very hard hit.

It is very important that we try to work through whatever the difficulties might be. We don't have that much time.

If we can move on this package in the next day or two, and work out whatever objections there are, I think it would be a great signal to send from this Congress.

I know we have to get it past the House. I know we have to get it signed by the President. But the President has been to our State many times. I have been with him on almost every trip. He has assured me that he understands that people are in desperate need, and he wants to see the Federal Government use the resources that we have to meet that need. I know we can't do everything. But this is minimal. This is basic coverage for people who have nothing right now.

While churches are helping and while the private employers are doing a good job, private employers cannot take on more risk than is their fiduciary responsibility. They have a responsibility to their stakeholders, to their shareholders, and to their board of directors. They cannot run charities.

That is why we have the role of Government. That is why we have to step up and meet them halfway.

I am proud of our employers, but they need our help. The business community needs us to be a partner, and part of this bill would do that.

I see the Senator from Illinois.

That is what this bill does.

The Senator is correct. That is what this bill does. Senator Vitter from Louisiana and Senator Landrieu--and I am almost certain that every Senator of the affected States--have signed off on this, asked for it and said ``yes.'' We desperately need it.

I believe the Senator from Iowa and the Senator from Montana have been working on this for 2 weeks. We are into our fourth week of Katrina and the first week of Rita.

But again, it is the largest natural disaster that has hit the Continental United States. We are getting ready to rebuild, after we work out our differences, a major American city for the first time since the Civil War and the region that surrounds it. We are learning as we go. There is not a textbook to follow. So we have to use our common sense. We have to trust each other on some of these things.

The Senator from Iowa and the Senator from Montana have run this committee, and their members have put a great bill together that is modest but so needed.

I am hoping the Senator from Illinois can help us figure out how to move this legislation quickly.

That is what it seems to be. It is unfortunate.

I am hoping, through the Chair to the Senator from Illinois--and I see that our minority leader from Nevada is here with us--that we could do our best in the next 24 hours, either through action on this floor or meetings, to answer questions that a few Senators may have. I have heard objections, such as too much corruption. We have problems with Mississippi spending money and corruption, but we shouldn't blame these people. All they want is health care benefits. We can fix that issue. We can work on that issue.

But let us not hold up health care to people until we get the system perfect. If that is the case, we should stop working tonight. The system is never going to be perfect. It can be better.

Let us not take it out on these people. They have already been victimized outside of any of their control.

The Senator should know that one of the objections was that we shouldn't expand a Government program.

But again, I just want to reiterate to the Senator that this is not an expansion. It is in the law. It is 5 months of special help to people who need it and to people who have private insurance that have lost it and can't have it, if we don't meet their employers halfway.

The only expansion for the country is to say in the next 5 months the Federal Government will not cut any State's Medicaid Program because so many of our States are helping our people. Again, in Arkansas, 75,000. It would not be fair to Arkansas, even though they didn't get hit by the hurricane, to cut their State program when they are absorbing some many extra people from Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi.

I think that makes common sense.

I see the Senator from Nevada. Maybe he can shed some light on this.

I will yield the floor. I have spent the time and more than I was asked for.

I thank the Senators who are here who are trying to get this important bill passed by the end of the week.

Mr. President, I rise today to raise some concerns about H.R. 3672, the TANF Emergency Response and Recovery Act of 2005 passed recently by the House of Representatives.

I regret that the House Ways and Means Committee did not have the benefit of the insights of those in Louisiana responsible for administrating this critical Federal program. Because if they did, I think that the bill might have been drafted very differently. I very much appreciate the leadership allowing me this opportunity to state these concerns for the record and am hoping that we can work together in the days and weeks ahead from this point on to be certain that these concerns are addressed.

Hurricane Katrina has left the Southeastern part of Louisiana in a state of emergency which, by all accounts will have significant and wide spread impact on our State and local economy. As a result, larger than expected numbers of individuals will be left without employment and in need of the services and support provided by the TANF program. It is precisely to address these circumstances, although I am not sure Members anticipated a disaster of this magnitude that compelled Congress to create a contingency fund in the 1996 Act. The purpose of the contingency fund was for States to be able to access additional funds in a time of need. But instead of availing ourselves of the funds contained in the contingency fund to carry us through this unexpected downturn, the House bill limits the use of these funds for nonrecurring, short term benefits to persons displaced by this disaster. I am afraid that this narrow definition of eligibility will stand in the way of people in need getting the support they deserve. I am pleased that the Grassley-Baucus proposal would allow Louisiana access to these funds and allow my State to direct these funds to families in need.

In addition, it should be noted that while the House bill contemplates that some families affected by Hurricane Katrina will need some short term benefit that should be considered differently from regular welfare, it does not extend eligibility for these emergency benefits to all families in the affected States. I believe that we should extend this benefit to all families in need. I am pleased to note that the Grassley-Baucus welfare proposal would extend eligibility of ``Hurricane Katrina Emergency TANF Benefits'' for over a year to affected families in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama regardless of their circumstances prior to this disaster.

I will raise my final point in the form of a question to my good friend, the Senator from Iowa, Chairman Grassley. The House bill includes a provision that provides that no penalty may be imposed against any of the States of Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama for failure to repay a loan made to a State before October 1, 2007. Given the current financial conditions, our Governor is concerned about the State's long term ability to pay a loan of this size back in such a short time. They have been assured that the intent was for this provision to serve as a grant and that there is no penalty should they be unable to fully reimburse the Federal Government. Is that the Senator's understanding?

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

Mr. President, I understand we are currently considering the Kerry-Landrieu amendment to the CJS appropriations bill. We have been considering amendments to this important bill all day in light of the devastation and tremendous challenge that is before the Nation right now to help rebuild our gulf coast area and particularly the southeastern part of the State I have the great privilege and honor of representing.

I understand there are various different opinions from the Republican side and the Democratic side about what to do and how much to do and when to do it regarding either communications or housing or health care or education. I understand a lot of those details are being worked out as we debate on the floor.

In a spirit, though, of bipartisanship, I do come to the floor to urge special consideration for this particular amendment. Believe me, there are so many amendments to this bill I have voted for today and wish we could have adopted. But the reason I feel particularly strongly about this amendment is because small business is the heart and soul and strength of the economy in Louisiana, in the gulf coast region, and, as a matter of fact, throughout the Nation. I do not think we realize that. We say it, but I do not think we really believe it. So I thought I would come to the floor and talk about how many businesses in Louisiana have been destroyed, totally destroyed, and destroyed not because the people who run them have lost their lives, but either their facilities are underwater, their equipment has been ravaged by the winds and the storm, or perhaps their inventory has been completely wiped out. It has happened to 110,000 small businesses out of 300,000 businesses. So we are talking about a third of the businesses that were here 3 weeks ago and are gone or are not able to operate anywhere near their 100 percent or 50 percent or even 25 percent capacity.

Now, I know this because I am getting calls from hundreds of small business owners that go something like this: Senator Landrieu, we are trying to answer the phones when they ring. When the communication systems work, we are answering the phone. We want to come back and build up our business. But doesn't anybody in Washington understand, you can't build a region until you build small business back?

It is the first thing we have to help build back. Why? Because these small businesses employ most of the people we are trying to help. Without a paycheck, it does not do a lot of good to give people anything else because they need a paycheck to basically live and put capital back into the community.

So I am making a special request of my colleagues, particularly the Senator from Maine, Ms. Snowe, who has been such a great advocate for small business, for Senator Kerry from Massachusetts, who has been a wonderful and very effective advocate for small business. I am pleading with my colleagues on this amendment particularly. If we can accept this version, great. If there is another version that could help, please, let's do something today to send a signal to small businesses.

Gautreau's is a very well known and beautiful little restaurant that has

been around for many years in New Orleans. It is a small cafe. Patrick Singley is the owner. He has had 20 employees. This is just one of hundreds of stories I could tell. His 20 employees keep calling him asking when they can come back to work. He has lost the roof of his restaurant. His restaurant is completely flooded. His insurance company is covering his expenses for 2 weeks. The last I looked, those 2 weeks are gone. It may be months before he can reopen. He can't pay his workers.

We could adopt this amendment today in the Senate and get it over to the House. In a few days, they could take up this amendment.

This is not new legislation. Except for one provision that I understand is new, everything else exists. It has worked before, and it could work again. We have to get these small businesses help: deferred payments on their SBA disaster loans; help them refinance their existing disaster loans and their business debt; increase the disaster loan cap from $1.5 million to $10 million, as we did for 9/11 victims. I know that some businesses could borrow $250,000 to get back in business and be in good shape, but some small businesses are going to need to borrow a million dollars to get back in shape. Yet others are going to need to borrow $10 million. We know large companies are going to be borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars, maybe even billions, depending on how large the companies are.

Small businesses that have trouble accessing capital because of their small size need the Federal Government to stand up for them and support them. The supplemental 7(a) program is one with which we are familiar. We have supported it. There are State bridge loans. This amendment, which is part of this package, would authorize $400 million to the affected State governments of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama to provide emergency bridge loans or grants to small businesses in the disaster area that have been adversely affected. In other words, a lot of these businesses have insurance policies, but those insurance policies won't kick in for some time. Many of these small businesses don't have a lot of cash, 6 months or a year, to continue their operations--this is a very important component of what we are trying to do--whether they are a shoe store, a candy store, a restaurant, a manufacturer, a telecom company, or a high-tech company in Louisiana trying to operate. Small business counseling--we could all use a little counseling--our small businesses can most certainly use it to help them get through this difficult time.

I know others have spoken about the amendment. I know there is a big decision. Some say: We don't want to do it now. We want to do it not in a piecemeal fashion. We have to wait until the whole package is together.

I am saying, as a Senator from Louisiana, we can't rebuild without our small businesses rebuilding first. We have to help people with food, water, and shelter. We have to lift them out of the floodwaters. We are still burying our dead respectfully. We are saving lives. But the first cornerstone of rebuilding must be helping our small businesses get back on their feet. They employ most of the people. They have been the hardest hit. They are the ones that have the least ability to maneuver in a situation such as this.

I am pleading with the Senate, please take a hard look at this amendment. Don't just say: We will do it in a month or two. Forty percent of businesses that go through a disaster never start up again. According to national statistics, 43 percent of small businesses never reopen. An additional 30 percent close down permanently within 2 years. It is not fair to small businesses that have staked their anchor in Louisiana for generations. Fathers who have passed these businesses to their sons, mothers to their daughters, grandparents to their grandchildren, need help now.

That is why I appreciate Senator Kerry and Senator Snowe for this amendment. Senator Kerry has offered it, and many people are thinking about whether to vote for it.

I just had a visit from one of our fine business owners who is currently serving, thank the Lord, as chairman of the board of directors of the U.S. National Chamber of Commerce, Maura Donahue from St. Tammany Parish. She just left my office. She and her husband operate a small business. I said: Maura, God has put you in this special place for a reason, because you know personally, as the businesses that have suffered in Louisiana, what we need. Her leadership is going to be tremendous. I want to acknowledge her. Through all the difficulties she has been, through her own business and her own family, she is there to help businesses in Louisiana. She can speak from firsthand experience what this storm has done to her own business and to the employees.

Let me define small business. I don't know exactly how many people her business employs, but I am talking about businesses that have less than 20 employees. That is little, not tiny--1 or 2 could be small--but 20. That is where the bulk of our employment is. If we allow them to collapse because we can't get it together, we can't agree, or we have to wait for 2 months, most of these businesses will not be around by the time the package gets through Washington bureaucracy. I am here to plead on behalf of small business, please give them a chance to stand up. Their electricity is getting back on. They need their roofs fixed, inventories restored, cell phone service turned on, BlackBerries need to work. Then they can start putting people back to work. If not, the bill that is going to come to this Congress for us to give unemployment to people, for us to pick up their medical, for us to pick up their livelihoods is going to be even more.

Let's get our small businesses started first. That is why I support this amendment. I don't know when we will vote on it. I offer my strong statement of support for the small businesses in my State, for all businesses, but particularly for the small businesses that employ about 85 percent of the people who are desperate for employment and desperate for a place to show up to go to work.

I thank the Chair. I suggest the absence of quorum.

Mr. President, a Federal District Court judge in the Ninth Circuit has once again declared that the reference to God in the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. Just a couple of years ago, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reached a similar conclusion in the case of Newdow v. U.S. Congress. I am now, as I was then, surprised and disappointed with this new ruling by the District Court.

Today I am reintroducing a proposed constitutional amendment that simply says that references to God in the Pledge of Allegiance and on our currency do not affect an establishment of religion under the First Amendment. References to God are found in every

one of our founding documents from the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution, as well as in the Pledge of Allegiance. The phrase ``In God We Trust'' appears on all of our currency and on many public buildings. Every day, we begin Senate sessions with a prayer and the Pledge. I firmly believe that the framers of the Constitution and the First Amendment did not want to ban all references to God from public discourse when they wrote the Establishment Clause. What they wanted to prevent was the establishment of an official national religion and to keep the government from getting intimately involved in the organization of one religion over another.

These references to God are ceremonial. Certainly, they do have meaning, but individuals are free to put whatever meaning on the word they choose. Indeed, I fully respect and support the rights of people not to participate in the Pledge or in ceremonial prayer and my amendment will not coerce anyone to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in public or in school.

I had hoped that the Supreme Court, which took the Newdow case up on appeal, would have settled this question once and for all. It did not. The Court dismissed the case saying Mr. Newdow lacked standing. The Supreme Court may have the opportunity to hear arguments in this case later on. If the Supreme Court should decide not to hear the case or to overrule the lower court, then Congress should restore the appropriate balance between church and state that I believe was the intent of the framers.

I urge my colleagues to support this joint resolution and I ask unanimous consent that the text of the resolution be printed in the Record.

There being no objection the bill was ordered to be printed in the Record as follows.

S.J. Res. 24

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the

United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of

each House concurring therein), That the following article is

proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United

States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as

part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of

three-fourths of the several States within 7 years after the

date of its submission by the Congress:

``Article --

``Section 1. A reference to God in the Pledge of Allegiance

or on United States currency shall not be construed as

affecting the establishment of religion under the first

article of amendment of this Constitution.

``Section 2. Congress shall have the power to enforce this

article by appropriate legislation.''.

Mr. President, I was pleased to be in the Chamber to hear the remarks of the junior Senator from Louisiana and want to sincerely say to all of our colleagues who are here that Senator Vitter and I offer our views about the conditions in Louisiana and the gulf coast having been there, as Senator Vitter said, through almost every day of this horrific and devastating tragedy, a tragedy not just for our city of New Orleans and the parish of Jefferson but the region of the gulf coast.

I thank Senator Vitter for his words to our colleagues about the way we have urged our delegation to work in a bipartisan spirit, with commonsense solutions and out-of-the-box thinking to put together a framework of a plan for rebuilding that calls on the best from our National Government, the best from our State government, the best from our local government, the best from our private sector, individual citizens, and nonprofit communities to rebuild this region and rebuild our cities and our towns, our counties and our parishes, in a way that honors the spirit of the great Americans who have called this place home for over 250 years.

I thank the Senator for his remarks. He has been a steady voice of outstanding confidence for the people of our State, and his views and his wisdom that he shared with all of us today truly is inspirational to us all. I thank him very much for the personal invitation to be with him as he spoke today.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Will the Senator yield?

I ask unanimous consent for 2 minutes for the Senator.

If the Senator will yield, I caught the tail end of the Senator's comments about Halliburton. Of course, we have people who work in Louisiana for Halliburton, but I most certainly understand the Senator's concern if there are these accusations against Halliburton in Iraq. We want to be very careful with our reconstruction dollars right here at home, that companies we ask to do work are doing good work, being accountable to the taxpayers.

As the Senator knows, while it may be hard to track some of this across the ocean, it will be easier when it is in the United States. I don't know if the Senator would have any suggestions. Are there other companies that can do some work along the lines of reconstruction other than this one company? Does the Senator know?

I hope, Mr. President, as we lay out the rebuilding efforts for the Gulf Coast region and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we can do better than what the Senator has spoken about.

On that subject, just for the record, I think maybe the Senator from Louisiana, Mr. Vitter, and I would like to submit for the Record a list of Louisiana-Mississippi-based contractors that can do great work in the rebuilding of the Culf Coast region. We understand that Halliburton is a Texas company. We are happy for our Texas counterparts. As I said, many people in Louisiana work for Halliburton. I think we have several thousand people who do. But I want this Senate to know--Senators on both sides of the aisle--we have a lot of Louisiana and Mississippi contractors who can build houses, et cetera.

Mr. President, I see the Senator from Mississippi is in the Chamber. I do not want to interrupt any scheduled business. I was scheduled to speak in morning business. I can take 5 minutes later, after the Senator from Mississippi is finished, if he would like to proceed. I do not mind waiting.

Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Mississippi. I ask unanimous consent for 5 minutes, and then we could proceed to the bill.

I thank the Presiding Officer.

Mr. President, today is day 15 of Hurricane Katrina, which has devastated the southeastern part of Louisiana and parts of Mississippi and some parts of Alabama and other States. I have come to the floor, just for a few minutes, to give a few brief remarks--some on a positive note as to some positive things that are taking place, and then some which are descriptive detail as Senators, both Republicans and Democrats, begin to build ideas for the rebuilding of this great region.

First, let me say how pleased I am that a group of Senators will be coming down to the region on Friday. Details of that trip will be announced, but Senators from Mississippi and Louisiana have suggested that some of our colleagues come down and see firsthand the devastation. Not wanting to use assets that were being required for search and rescue, now that phase is almost completed, and it is appropriate for Senators to come down. I understand Senator Reid and Senator Frist are organizing that trip with some of the Senators here. Senator Vitter and I and others look forward to getting them down on the ground to show them the breadth of the devastation.

One point on that: This is a picture of New Orleans that was done by the New York Times. I thought it was extremely helpful, and I would like to take a moment of my short time on the floor to show this picture in a larger view.

We understand the city of New Orleans has been particularly hard hit, not only by the hurricane but the subsequent breaches of the levees that put most of the city under 10 feet of water for 5 days, 6 days. Even going into actually today, the 15th day of this disaster, there is still water in the city, which is being pumped out now that the levees have been fixed. But the water is still not completely gone.

In addition, in the picture you can see Jefferson Parish. I am going to try to provide an update of that tomorrow. Over here is St. Bernard Parish. Again, I am going to try to provide an update. On this side of the lake is St. Tammany Parish, and I will try to get to that in another day or so.

But as Senators come down to view this whole region--not just New Orleans but an area of 90,000 square miles, the size of Great Britain, stretching from the Gulf Coast halfway through Louisiana--one thing to note about New Orleans that is still not quite understood is this river ridge was the high part of the original city. As you know, before we had concrete highways, the highways we built this Nation on were our rivers. So this city, being one of the oldest in the Nation, was built on this river.

Amazingly and thankfully, the areas close to the river are not underwater, which is this whole ridge. The French Quarter has stayed pretty much high and dry, even the Lower Garden District. Some of the poorer areas along Tchoupitoulas Street are, thank God, out of the water all along the river ridge. The west bank has been spared where we want to build our Federal city complex. We now know it is a good place because it is a highland area and a good place to build.

But this entire city--eastern New Orleans, which is a middle-income neighborhood of White and Black citizens, as well as some poor, very poor; and the Lower Ninth Ward--this is where the Lower Ninth Ward is-- Gentilly, which is a middle-income neighborhood of Black and White citizens; the Bywater neighborhood; Mid-City; Lakeview, which is predominantly White but very integrated in some parts and very high income--is completely underwater. Then, of course, there is the midpart of the city, which is low.

So as our Senators come in, they will literally see what looks like Noah's Ark, looks like something of Biblical proportions. Maybe the water will have gone down by Friday. They are pumping it out quite fast. But just to get some sense, the entire city--poor areas and wealthy areas--is underwater, as well as the east bank of Jefferson. St. Bernard was still completely underwater the last time I flew over as well.

So our work is complicated by having banks and schools not functioning. Shown in this picture, in each one of these blocks--I know I only have 1 minute left--these are schools, these green dots. All of these schools have 10 feet of water in them, every single green dot, except for the ones along the ridge. These are our courts. Most of our courts are not able to function, city or Federal courts.

Our police stations are underwater, which is why some of our police were not able to function as well as they would under normal circumstances. But I am pleased to report, after hearing from Chief Compass today, not one commander of the New Orleans police force left his post, even though 80 percent of them have lost their homes. Some of them have lost their families. As the President said himself, first responders have been victims themselves.

So I thought I would present that today, to say thank you to the Senators for organizing the trip. I know the Finance Committee is going to announce in just a few minutes some tax relief opportunities that Senator Grassley and Senator Baucus have worked out. I have worked with them. Senator Vitter and others have worked to put that together. We are very pleased more help is on the way.

Mr. President, I appreciate Senator Cochran giving me the opportunity to speak for a few minutes about those points. I will try to get to the floor sometime tomorrow for the same reason.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for approximately 30 minutes, perhaps more.