Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act--

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHATZ. Madam President, disaster survivors are running out of time; disaster survivors are running out of money; and they are running out of patience. These people have been to hell and back, enduring the worst horrors of Mother Nature: wildfires, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes. They have lost loved ones. They have lost their homes. They have lost livelihoods. And after all that, after having their lives totally upended overnight, many have been stuck in limbo for months or even years waiting for help to arrive.

It hasn't always been this way. Over the years, Congress, on a bipartisan basis, has consistently stepped up to help hundreds of communities decimated by disasters, no matter the political color of the State or the size of the town or the pricetag of the cleanup. Why? Because we have recognized--correctly--that disasters do not discriminate and that helping communities recover is one of our most fundamental responsibilities in the Federal Government.

What is the Federal Government for if not to help our fellow Americans in their hour of need? What are we doing here if we can't agree that disaster relief is urgent and important and necessary for the well-being of our country?

It is not acceptable to keep survivors waiting. Congress must act. We need to pass disaster relief funding with the urgency that it demands and get survivors the assistance that they need to fully recover.

Nine months ago today, fires, fueled by 70-mile-an-hour winds, stormed the town of Lahaina on West Maui, incinerating everything in their path and leaving behind little more than ash, rubble, and smoke: 101 people died; 2,200 structures were leveled; and almost 12,000 people were immediately displaced. Just about everyone in that tight- knit community lost someone or something that day.

A few weeks after the fires, when President Biden came to Lahaina, he promised the survivors that his administration and the Federal Government would be there to help as they recovered--not just in those early weeks and months but throughout--for as long as it took; for as long as it took.

Nine months later, cleanup is still ongoing, not a single home has been rebuilt. And the infrastructure that was destroyed--the harbors, the roads, the water and sewer systems--all of it has yet to be restored.

The recovery was never going to be quick. The damage was so vast, the destruction so total and so toxic that bringing Lahaina back to anything close to normal was always going to be a multiyear endeavor. And that is the case for so many communities across the country that have been devastated by disasters.

When the President declares disaster in a community, it means a very specific thing. It not just like it is the President's whim or whether they like the place that has been hurt. It means that the community's recovery needs are so great that the State and local governments can't handle them alone. It means that the capacity of the local government has been exceeded, and the President is declaring that this place is a Federal disaster, so the Federal Government has to step in and help, which is why almost 7 months ago, the President of the United States submitted a supplemental funding request to Congress which included funding for disaster relief and specifically for the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery, or CDBG-DR, Program.

The CDBG-DR serves a simple but essential purpose. It provides survivors with the funding and flexibility to rebuild their homes, small businesses, and communities over the long term. For more than 30 years and in practically every State in the country, the program has been a lifeline for people trying to get back on their feet and economies trying to get back on their feet.

But it has been a year and a half since Congress last funded CDBG-DR, and in that time, disasters have piled up in every part of the country. Unfortunately, we know more are coming, especially with hurricane season around the corner. So for Lahaina and dozens of communities nationwide, this funding is urgent.

Rebuilding after a disaster--as a community but also as a family or an individual--is among the hardest things that anybody is ever going to go through. One moment you are going about your day--going to work, dropping off your kids at school, making dinner for your family--and the next thing you know, you are living out of a hotel, if you are lucky, not knowing where your next paycheck will come from or when or where you will have a permanent place to call home again.

The ordeal of recovery is hard; it is long; it is confusing; it is painful; and it is expensive. And, understandably, survivors look to their government for help. They have waited a long time. But time is running out, and money has run dry. Congress must act and pass disaster aid as soon as possible.

We have done full-year appropriations. We have done an international supplemental appropriations bill. We are about to finish the FAA. The next big bill that we pass has to be providing disaster relief across the country.

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