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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, Congress is failing disaster survivors across the country right now. Whether in Lahaina or in Burlington, survivors are not getting the full support of the Federal Government because Congress has yet to provide funding for long-term disaster recovery needs. That is in spite of the fact that, every passing month, more and more communities are being struck by extreme weather and need help in the rebuilding process.

It was more than 4 months ago that President Biden requested $2.8 billion for the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program, or CDBG-DR.

CDBG-DR funding is a lifeline for families and businesses that are trying to recover from disasters, helping them to get back on their feet faster and more fully. Yet the spending package that Congress passed 2 weeks ago did not include a dime in new funding for CDBG-DR, despite the efforts of myself and my colleagues--including the Presiding Officer--on both sides of the aisle from disaster-affected States.

Supporting disaster survivors has never been and should never be a partisan issue, nor can it be buried at the bottom of a long list of Federal priorities. It is one of our most core responsibilities, as the Federal Government, to show up for Americans in their hour of need, when the State and local governments are overwhelmed. We have a chance to do that by including CDBG-DR funding in the appropriations package that we will be voting on later this week.

People on Maui and in every other disaster-struck community are counting on us for support, and it can't be that the Federal Government leaves them high and dry, midway through the process of putting their lives back together, because we couldn't get some numbers to add up. That is unacceptable, and we need to pass this funding now.

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