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Floor Speech
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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I was Governor of Florida from January 2011 through January 2019, and we had a variety of disasters. We had four major hurricanes; we had wildfires; we had flooding--a variety of things.
What you find out in that role as Governor is you find out the importance of the Federal Government. FEMA is very important to disaster relief.
Disaster relief is partially borne by whomever is impacted, a family or a business. Partially, it is impacted by the city or county, partially by the State, and partially by the Federal Government.
My experience with FEMA is they are hard-working individuals that work hard to try to be a good partner with our States.
Last September, about 12 months ago, we had a horrible hurricane in our State, Hurricane Ian. We lost over 150 people. We had unbelievable damage. FEMA has been a partner in that hurricane relief.
Just recently--about 3 weeks ago, 4 weeks ago--we had another hurricane, Idalia, and again FEMA came down and is a partner in that hurricane relief.
I met with President Biden 3 weeks ago when he came down to tour the damage, and I talked to him about the importance of getting FEMA fully funded.
There is a Federal Disaster Relief Fund that is part of FEMA that pays for things like debris pickup, helps individuals who have lost their homes, helps our small businesses--a variety of things like that.
Right now, this thing is getting low on funds. I checked on September 11. It is down to $2.5 billion. And they project, by the end of this month, it will be down to $550 million. What they also told me is that there is a community in every State in this country that is getting impacted by the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund.
So I have been trying, for months, to get a vote on a bill which is pretty commonsense. No. 1, it will put funds into FEMA so they can provide help for all these communities in every State. No. 2, the next thing it does is helps our farmers.
Our farmers in Florida have been waiting for almost 12 months for relief from the Department of Agriculture. Historically, what the Department of Agriculture did, especially when I was Governor, was they would provide a block grant to the State, to our farmers, so the money could get out to our farmers quicker.
For whatever reason, Secretary Vilsack, the Secretary of Ag, has decided now that he has to have separate legislation from Congress that gives him specific authority that he can do a block grant.
It has never happened before. But for whatever reason, he believes it has to happen now. That is in this bill.
The Army of Corps of Engineers is a key partner in beach renourishment in any State that has been impacted. I know our Presiding Officer had wildfires, and I am sure their beaches have had some impact. So it would also help our Army Corps of Engineers, help with beach renourishment, and also help our military installations after a disaster.
So mine is a commonsense bill. It impacts some community in every State in the country. So what I am asking for is a stand-alone vote on my bill. It is called the Federal Disaster Responsibility Act. I hope every Senator here will unanimously agree that we should do this.
2721 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; I further ask that the Scott-Rubio substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and the Senate vote on passing the bill, as amended, with a 60-vote affirmative threshold required for passage of the bill; finally, if passed, the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I appreciate my colleague's concern about some of these other issues. I think we ought to have a discussion about those and see if we can get something done. But right now, the Disaster Relief Fund is going to be down to the $550 million by the end of this month. There is a community in every State--and this fund only covers where it fits within the parameters where FEMA says that the Federal Government is responsible for a portion of it. But this would help a community in every State in the country. So I hope, at some point, we can get this passed. There is a community in every State in this country that is getting impacted by this.
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