Thomas MacArthur

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 3628) to reauthorize the National Flood Insurance Program.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, this is an unfortunate day where we are once again extending the National Flood Program for--I don't know how many times we have done this. We have been unable to get to the basic reforms that this program demands.

But, Mr. Speaker, there are 140 million Americans who live in coastal counties, millions of whom depend on this program to protect them from flood risk. Without this program, they cannot buy or sell homes. If their policies lapse because we allow the program to lapse, they will not be able to buy a new policy, and if, God forbid, a storm like Sandy or like the storms that ravaged the Southeast recently, if one of those storms comes along during that lapse, those people will have no coverage. We simply cannot allow our failure to so negatively affect so many millions of Americans.

So, today, we are here to extend the program for another 6 months to give a new Congress time to get to some reasonable bipartisan reforms that will put this program on a solid footing for the future.

I am asking that we pass this bill, this extension. It is not perfect, obviously, but it is better than the alternative, and we need to get this done before this Congress recesses.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I agree with everything the ranking member said except she turned me into an Irishman. It is ``MacArthur'' like the general, not ``McCarthy'' like the majority leader.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Graves), who has been keenly focused on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 148) directing the Secretary of the Senate to make a correction in the enrollment of the bill S. 3628.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, this is a simple technical correction to fix a date error in the suspension bill that we just debated. I don't think it requires any discussion, other than if we want that bill to pass and have effect, we need to change the date, and that is what this bill accomplishes.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Montana for yielding and for his work on the committee. As my colleague from New York has just said, this has been a bipartisan effort, and I appreciate that. It is bipartisan in the Senate, as well.

Seventeen years ago yesterday, our world changed forever. Every one of us

remembers where we were that day. It is getting harder to remember life before 9/11. We have a whole generation that doesn't know what it is like to go to an airport and not take off their shoes, or not sit on board a plane and wonder if somebody is meaning them harm.

I was working in New York City in 2001, right up the block from the Trade Center, and on that terrible, sunny Tuesday when terrorists flew two planes into the New York World Trade Center, we lost nearly 3,000 of our fellow citizens. Like others, I lost people who I knew. Some lost those dearest to them: their husbands, their wives, their mothers and fathers, their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and close friends.

We were also moved that day by stories of heroism, and we all watched as New York's finest and first responders from elsewhere in the region ran toward danger, not away from it.

In the months that followed, I had to take the ferry to New York each morning because the tunnel was closed. And I think it seared on my memory for life the look and the smell of going past Lower Manhattan and seeing the rubble still smoldering and smelling the electrical fires still burning.

Mr. Speaker, 10 years later to the day, on 9/11/2011, the memorial at the World Trade Center opened. It was erected to remember those who fell; to recognize the endurance of the survivors; to honor the bravery of those who risked their lives to save others; and above all, to remember the power of our free Nation to overcome evil with good.

It stands as a reminder to every generation: Never forget. Never falter.

Mr. Speaker, most Americans probably don't know that that memorial was erected with donations from privat citizens, and it has continued for 7 years now with donations from private citizens. I commend them for their good work.

But it is now our turn, the United States Congress, to do our part to preserve and protect this hallowed ground, and to answer this national tragedy with national support. I introduced this bill to start a process for providing funding for this memorial and other memorials of what happened on 9/11, and it will provide, ultimately, funding for security, for maintenance, for operations, and still allow those who run the museum there and who have poured their hearts and souls into this, to continue to do that.

I commend the private citizens for doing what they have done, but it is now our solemn duty to not only honor the fallen, but make sure that we protect the living, and that this site is a safe place for people to go and to remember.

Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of the 9/11 Memorial Act. Again, I want to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for coming together to introduce and, hopefully, pass this bill today.

I want to thank my colleague in the Senate, Cory Booker, for introducing similar legislation so that we can do our part to honor those who fell.