Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. JONES. Madam President, before I get into my initial remarks, let me commend my colleague, the Senator from Wyoming. I didn't know about all of the Wyoming women having been first in women's issues. I congratulate that State, and I hope that, given the record number of women we have in this body and in the Congress of the United States, we will continue that march toward progress that Wyoming started over 150 years ago. H.R. 2157

Madam President, today I rise to speak about a disaster so many of our American citizens have experienced over the last few months. I am not talking about the historic flooding that has taken place in the Midwest. I am not talking about the devastating tornadoes that have touched down all over the country, including most recently in my home State of Alabama. I am not even talking about Hurricane Michael, which hit Alabama's Wiregrass and wiped out entire fields of crops. We all agree those have been tragic and deadly natural disasters, but the disaster I want to talk about for a few moments today is the self-imposed disaster that was created by this U.S. Government that has taken place in the wake of these storms and natural disasters.

President Trump and certain Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have managed to take what has traditionally been a bipartisan process and turn it into a political mess. It began last December when the President decided to insist on funding for some type of wall along our southern border. That demand resulted in the longest government shutdown in our Nation's history. It also set off a series of delays for badly needed disaster relief. Only after the President dropped his demand for wall funding could the government once again open and resume full operations.

After the government reopened and disaster relief was proposed in this new Congress, the President was locked into a political dispute with leaders in Puerto Rico and refused to provide the necessary aid to those American citizens--American citizens--and yet another stalemate thus began. As that stalemate dragged on, the President once again injected the issue of border security and immigration into the unrelated discussions regarding disaster relief. Finally, after a delay of several months that saw the occurrence of additional weather-related disasters, the President, just as he had done with the most recent government shutdown in January, resumed his political demands and signaled he would sign a clean bill that included only disaster relief.

That bill passed the Senate a couple of weeks ago by unanimous consent. Unfortunately, it did not pass the House last week because of three individuals who refused to let it pass the House also with unanimous agreement. It was only after the President withdrew his demands that the bill got to the Senate floor with enough support to garner the necessary votes to pass.

What was interesting about the bill that passed by unanimous consent in the Senate a couple of weeks ago and passed the House of Representatives just last night was the ``lo and behold'' moment as Republicans voted for the bill last night. A month ago, they had voted against an almost identical bill in order to please the President. They obediently switched their votes to aye when the President signaled his support.

Folks, I think it is somewhat shameful to play politics with people's lives the way we have done in this Congress over the last few months-- to play politics with people's lives and their livelihoods, especially when the political issues that were holding things up had really nothing to do with the important issues at hand.

You can see it here. This photograph shows what happened in the Wiregrass area of Alabama just last fall as a result of Hurricane Michael. On the left side of this graphic is the ``before'' picture. We had a record cotton crop that was ready to be harvested, and everyone was excited about the bumper crop we had. Hurricane Michael came through, and, with no pun intended, it was just gone with the wind-- literally wiped out. That was last fall.

Then it was in March that the tornado season once again hit Alabama. This is one photograph, but I can show you many of the devastating effects of the tornado that touched down in Lee County in March, killing 23 people. I myself visited there with the first responders to comfort those who had lost loved ones and had lost everything.

What you cannot see in this picture is the littered countryside of Lee County, littered with not only the splintered trees but with people's lives--their homes, their belongings, their mobile homes that were scattered throughout the entire area. All was lost in that area and in Beauregard and in Smith Station. Yet these folks couldn't get the disaster relief they needed in a timely manner because it was being held up by the President and Congress. These folks had been through so much already, and the fact that we put them through so many months of uncertainty while they were waiting for help from their elected representatives is really unconscionable.

Now that this bill has passed--and I am assuming that as soon as the President comes back, he will sign it, as he signaled he would--I want to thank my senior colleague from Alabama, Senator Shelby, and Senator Leahy for their leadership in getting this bill across the finish line. I want to also say a special word of thanks to my neighbors from Georgia, Senator Isakson and Senator Perdue, who worked tirelessly--so hard--to make this bipartisan deal such that the President would sign it.

Although it took far too long, I am certainly grateful that farmers and Americans across the country who have suffered from these disasters, experienced them firsthand, can finally breathe a sigh of relief today because of the disaster relief bill that has finally been passed.

(The remarks of Mr. Jones pertaining to the introduction of S. 1708 and S. 1709 are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')
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