Community Disaster Loan Act of 2005

COMMUNITY DISASTER LOAN ACT OF 2005

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Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I rise today first to pay tribute to the senior Senator from Louisiana for her courage, her strength, and her resolve. I have been so amazed and impressed at the way she has been willing to continue to be on this floor, regardless of how tired she became, in order to fight for the people of Louisiana. I hope everyone in Louisiana understands what she is doing on their behalf and on behalf of all of those in the entire gulf region.

What is so disappointing for me is to see that this has not been a bipartisan effort. It seemed reasonable to me. I represent Michigan, and fortunately we have not been in a situation like my colleagues from New York or the gulf or California. So far--knock on wood--we have not had to face that kind of a catastrophe. But I found what the Senator from Louisiana was asking for very reasonable.

On a bipartisan basis, we have appropriated $61 billion to be used through FEMA. We assumed it would be already being used for the things the Senator talked about. I was shocked to learn that those funds had not been released to help local communities, as we have been told, and that the process was not moving as it should when people are so desperately in need of support, whether it be the small businesses, the families, the seniors, the cities.

When the Senator from Louisiana asked us for a very modest request of allowing $1 billion of $61 billion to be used directly and immediately to help those who have been so devastated, we do not have bipartisan support for that. I was very disappointed that both Senators from Louisiana were not standing together for that, very surprised that instead what we see is an alternative that comes back that is not only less than what is needed but has restrictions that have not been put on other States and other communities. The caps being talked about being raised in terms of loans have been done before, but it is my understanding that no community has been asked before to guarantee a repayment on those loans. I do not know why anyone would support that kind of an effort for their State or their communities to be treated differently than other States or other communities.

If I were in that position, I would not want to say to my folks: I trust you less than I trust the folks in New York; I voted for a different set of rules for what happened in New York, what happened in relation to Washington, DC, and the Pentagon. I certainly would not want to be in a situation of saying that I would vote for rules that were penalizing my own people or saying we do not trust you as much as we trust people in other places. So I am surprised and disappointed, and I know the senior Senator from Louisiana, Ms. Landrieu, is as concerned, surprised, and deeply disappointed, certainly, as I am and more than I am because she is working on this every single day.

I just want to indicate that we could have done better, and I believe working together America can do better. I believe we can do better for the people of Louisiana and the gulf coast than what has been offered and passed here today. I know the senior Senator from Louisiana has worked very hard in order to put forward proposals that are better and that would do better than what has been achieved today.

I commend her once again and thank her on behalf of all of us who at any moment could find ourselves in the same situation, could find ourselves fighting for our people because of a devastating attack or natural disaster. I hope I would have the courage of conviction, the compassion, and the strength that the Senator from Louisiana has shown and I know will continue to show.

I yield back.

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