March 11, 1977
Page 7335
URGENT SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATION FOR DISASTER RELIEF,1977
Mr. ROBERT C. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask the Chair now lay before the Senate House Joint Resolution 269.
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT pro tempore. Under the previous order, the Senate will now proceed to the consideration of House Joint Resolution 269, which the clerk will state by title.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
H. J. Res. 269, a joint resolution making an urgent supplemental appropriation for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1977, for disaster relief.
The Senate proceeded to consider the joint resolution.
Mr. ROBERT C. BYRD. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The second assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. PROXMIRE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. PROXMIRE. Mr. President, today we are taking up a piece of legislation, House Joint Resolution 269, which will provide $200 million that is badly needed to meet the needs of disaster victims across the country. Initially the Congress appropriated $100 million which, with another $65.8 million in carryover funds should have been sufficient to take care of all disasters in fiscal 1977. However we did not foresee the cruelty of the winter we have just passed through. We did not realize that we could have a drought as severe as the one now devastating the Western part of the United States. The Carter administration has asked that we provide the $200 million included in this resolution so that $100 million can be used to alleviate the effects of the drought and another $100 million can be used to help the victims of some of the coldest winter weather in the Nation's history.
Mr. President. it is generally acknowledged that this money is badly needed. The resolution is supported by the ranking member of the HUD-Independent Agencies Subcommittee, Senator MATHIAS. It passed the House by a 411 to 4 vote on March 3. It was unanimously approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
I move the adoption of the resolution, House Joint Resolution 269, at this time
Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The second assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. PROXMIRE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. PROXMIRE. Mr. President, the Senator from Indiana is very anxious to have action taken by Congress that would permit assistance to be given to four States, including, of course, Indiana. I am very sympathetic with him. We have a problem on this particular bill, but I think perhaps we can work it out very soon.
I am happy to yield to the Senator from Indiana.
Mr. BAYH. Mr. President, I appreciate the courtesy of my colleague from Wisconsin. I apologize for delaying the Senate on a piece of legislation that we are anxious to pass quickly. I shall take only a very few minutes. I wish us to develop a record on which we can rely when we come back to address ourselves to the full supplemental bill.
A number of States are receiving much needed money to deal with a wide variety of disasters. We have droughts and too much water, not enough water, and too much snow. We know what the thrust of much of the disaster portion of this legislation is.
There are four States involved; Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, and my own State of Indiana, with a particular problem. I stood in the Chamber and listened to the pleas of our colleagues, Senator METZENBAUM and Senator GLENN, yesterday. Our States have been turned down by the President in our applications to become disaster relief areas. However, the President has issued an emergency declaration in each of these four States which then made it possible for the Federal Government to provide assistance to remove snow.
In Indiana; this declaration was about 3 or 4 days after the snow had become so deep that people could not get in and out of places. Most small county commissioners are not going to sit around and wait for the Federal Government to trigger legislation when they have old people who cannot get coal and oil or inner city people who cannot get food. So they went out and hired people to remove that snow, got in there, and saved those lives. Then 3 days later the Federal Government came along and said: "OK. We will pay for clearing that snow, but we are not going to pay after the fact."
So I asked my distinguished friend and colleague from Wisconsin for assistance. Although I do not wish to delay this legislation, I wish him to offer his assistance on the full supplemental bill. I would like to be able to say to those communities, who have already used up all of their road maintenance money for this whole year, that we will, in those instances, where there has been an emergency declaration reimburse those small communities for the cost of snow removal.
Mr. PROXMIRE. I think the Senator from Indiana has made a very strong case. As he knows, he is on the subcommittee that will deal with this on the supplemental appropriation, and we will be marking it up very shortly, within a matter of a few days.
I am extremely sympathetic with the Senator's position, and I want to do this if we possibly can. There may be some problems. We have not had any hearings and do not have a record on this. I do not understand it fully. I have not heard any reason why the administration is unwilling to permit the situation the Senator has so well described in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to qualify, and I would like to hear that, but I think the Senator from Indiana has made, as I say, a very strong case, and I am sympathetic and want to do all I can for him.
Mr. BAYH. Mr. President, if the Senator will yield, we have a fellow — and I donot want to get involved in personalities — who has been running that disaster relief agency down there, and is still running it, who I have had some dealings with over the past 3 or 4 years when we have had tornadoes in Indiana. It seems to me we have the wrong psychology down there, when they say, "You have disaster legislation, and we have to do our best to protect people from going in there and using that disaster legislation." So we have people with their barns blown down, their fences rolled up, their cattle gone, and we have people in that office using every jot and tittle to see if they can avoid making disaster relief payments.
Mr. PROXMIRE. Is it the Senator's interpretation that the administration could do it if they wanted to?
Mr. BAYH. A humane interpretation of the law, it seems to me, would do it. The emergency declaration provided for clearing roads, but because of the timing of that declaration, the counties and the small towns involved have already gone in and cleaned the roads, to help people who were in trouble. Why in the world should not the Federal Government say, "We are going to go back and reimburse them"?
I am not talking about reimbursing them for something that they would not have been entitled to if the Federal declaration had been made before the fact. But the fact is that when you have a snow emergency, it is different from a tornado. If you have a flood or a tornado, the destruction is there after the fact, to see. Snow melts eventually and is gone.
Mr. PROXMIRE. I will agree wholeheartedly that the administration should interpret the law the most humane way they possibly can. I agree with the Senator on that, and I would hope the administration would reconsider and permit some of these funds to be used for the purpose the Senator has described extremely well. I think that is a humane kind of action. It clearly is not an emergency under these circumstances.
Mr. BAYH. I appreciate that.
Mr. PROXMIRE. I support the Senator, and will do whatever I can to be helpful to him when the supplemental comes before the committee.
I do want to hear the views of the administration; I am not making a final commitment, but I am very sympathetic.
Mr. BAYH. I appreciate the views of the Senator from Wisconsin, and I appreciate his tolerance in taking some timeon a very busy day and a very important piece of legislation.
Mr. MATHIAS. Mr. President, I am pleased to support the speedy passage of this supplemental appropriation for disaster relief. The $200 million provided in this appropriation will go a long way toward aiding the thousands of people and businesses hurt by this winter's severe effects of freezing, droughts, and floods throughout the country.
The entire Nation has felt the effects of the most severe winter in 30 years. From the citrus growers in Florida, to the breadbasket farmers in the Midwest, to the fruitgrowers in California. to the fishermen on the Chesapeake Bay — all these Americans have been set back by either drought or freezing.
This appropriation will provide the funds for loans and grants to those people under the Disaster Relief Act to get back on their feet.
The fishermen, oystermen, and crabbers of Chesapeake Bay were unable to pursue their very livelihood for a period of almost 6 weeks this winter when the Chesapeake Bay froze solid..
They could not fish. They could not venture from their homes at times. Fuel and food was scarce, particularly for those on Tilghman Island, Kent Island, and other fishing communities.
Emergency supplies had to be helicoptered in.
When you see situations like that, as I did in January, the stark reality of a natural disaster is indelibly printed in your mind.
We have got to help the fishing industry recover as quickly as possible from the freeze because Chesapeake Bay supplies the country with a substantial portion of its seafood.
Maryland, in 1975, provided over 14 million pounds of fish; over 25 million pounds of crabs; over 2 million bushels of oysters; and over 6 million pounds of clams.
There were other ravages of nature prior to this winter which this appropriation will also help to relieve. My hometown of Frederick, Md., was devastated by a freak storm in October of last year flooding residents and businesses, forcing them from their homes, and generally causing havoc. I want to insure that those people make a quick recovery from that devastation and are able to take advantage of loans to repair their homes and businesses.
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, the bill now before the Senate, House Joint Resolution 269, would provide $200 million in supplemental funding for disaster relief.
This supplemental has been made necessary by severe drought in the Western States and severe winter storms in the East. The hardship of individuals and the economic losses to business were so severe that they overwhelmed the ability of regular Government programs to respond. The Federal Disaster Assistance Administration relieved numerous crises with disaster unemployment assistance, emergency snow removal, and the purchase and transportation of animals and feed. I understand that if these additional funds are not quickly appropriated, the Disaster Relief Fund will shortly be depleted.
Mr. President, the amounts in this supplemental can be accommodated within the spending ceiling established in the third budget resolution which was approved by Congress on March 3, 1977. I support enactment of House Joint Resolution 269.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. FORD). The joint resolution is open to amendment. If there be no amendment to be proposed, the question is on the third reading of the joint resolution.
The joint resolution was read the third time and passed.