Providing for Consideration of Motions To Suspend the Rules

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF MOTIONS TO SUSPEND THE RULES -- (House of Representatives - September 08, 2005)

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Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my good friend, the gentleman from Florida, for yielding such time right now.

This is obviously a time of great emotional sadness for all of us, as we are attempting to help fellow Americans who are in a special need, a special time of need. It is a trying time; and, hopefully, it is one where we can keep focus on the true issue, which is how to get emergency relief as quickly as possible to people who desperately need it.

The rule that is being proposed here, and sometimes in our rhetoric on these rules we kind of go far afield from what the issue is, the issue is still the rule, does not prevent any kind of unanimous consent for more time for more issues to be raised at such time in the future, but it does provide a backup to guarantee that the issue at the end of this day will be decided and that relief money can be moved on without any kind of impediments or Congress trying to add extraneous issues to the debate or discussion, unless there is unanimous consent, obviously, for that.

There is precedent for what we are doing. This is not unusual. It has been done before. It will be done again in the future. It does, though, try to state that there is a time and a place for everything that we do. There is a time to try and pass emergency relief and get that relief moving as quickly as possible, to really hit what is human suffering.

This particular request deals with temporary assistance. It deals with providing temporary housing, money for home repairs, medical, dental costs, repair work, cleanup, ensuring that the firemen get their pay. It is emergency equipment.

Much of the discussion we have heard this morning deals with long-range policy issues. I am not saying they are bad, because that policy discussion needs to take place. It should take place. We need to determine what the city of New Orleans did well and what it did poorly; what the State of Louisiana did well, what it did poorly; what the Federal Government did well. We even need to discuss what the United States Congress has done well and poorly in this particular issue.

But those need to be discussed with dispassion in some way so that when we make broad policy decisions, those broad policy decisions can be made with a clear conscience and clear focus on what the issue really is. That takes regular order, and for some who would like to bypass regular order to quickly pass some of these, we are doing a disservice to long-term policy discussions.

The senior member of the Committee on Appropriations from Wisconsin is someone I have enjoyed listening to. He oftentimes will say those things which ring true. What he wants to discuss is significant, but it needs to be done in the regular order, not on top of this emergency bill; and I am sure that will take place.

Mr. Speaker, I would also be remiss if I did not take this opportunity just to say a few things that are positive. Though I do not know what has been happening throughout the entire world, I do know what has been happening in my backyard of Utah where some of these evacuees are presently residing. I guess the State of Utah took the Jazz; we should also take some of the evacuees at the same time.

In addition to those evacuees who are in my State, the State of Utah is also stepping up. There are in the State of Utah 475 volunteers who have been working since Saturday with these evacuees. They have done everything from having a child care center on site, to providing 6,000 meals, to even having a volunteer life guard manning the pool at the base at which these evacuees are staying. $2 million since Saturday have been donated in Salt Lake City as well; 7,000 people have called asking what they can do. Some of them have been very creative in what they are trying to do.

A Ronna Guidera who lives in Salt Lake City, and actually in Draper, went down there and took trips from the military base where the evacuees are staying into Salt Lake City for sightseeing, for shopping trips.

Steve Gordon had the idea of actually providing as many tickets as he can get to go to the Utah-Utah State game. It may not be what they necessarily wanted to see that Saturday, but it is the best game in town that we have to offer.

People are stepping up from their hearts for this disaster. It is also time for Congress to step up with their hearts and provide the temporary relief, and then use our minds to go back and discuss the policy issues and policy initiatives, but go through the regular order so that we do not jump to conclusions, we do not make mistakes as we go through.

All of these discussions are important, they are there, but the rule at hand is to get emergency relief on the floor to help people right now, and we should not lose sight of that in our efforts to try to expand it into other areas, legitimate discussion areas, but other areas that do not pertain specifically to this point at hand as to how we get that $50 billion to help people right here right now.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's indulgence. I appreciate the time. I support this rule because it is the right thing to do to help people right now and put everything in its proper perspective.

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