Hurricane Harvey

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I just returned from Texas, where, as the world knows, Hurricane Harvey has devastated the gulf coast and now ranks among the costliest natural disasters in American history. Today I want to share with you what my State has experienced in the wake of this storm that has battered so many homes and broken so many hearts.

The storm calamitously resulted in the loss of at least 60 lives, with probably more to come as the water recedes and as people's bodies are discovered. Of course, we mourn with those families who have lost loved ones.

You have seen the pictures, but let me describe what my fellow Texans have experienced firsthand. It started when Harvey ran into a patch of warm water in the Gulf of Mexico the week before last. As Harvey rumbled toward Texas, the ocean churned and the storm grew in size and strength. By the time it made landfall in the Coastal Bend region south of Houston, the hurricane was a Goliath--Category 4. The rain fell, the wind howled, and the water rose in towns like Rockport, Port Lavaca, and Aransas Pass. Streets became swamps, and homes filled up like bathtubs.

First were those smaller coastal communities that I just mentioned, but then one of the largest cities in the Nation, Houston, and nearby areas were hit. Third, let's not forget places like Port Arthur, Beaumont--where I was yesterday with Majority Leader McCarthy from the House of Representatives and my other colleagues--as well as other parts of Jefferson and surrounding counties that were hit when the storm barreled east and then finally abated.

Five days and 50 inches of rainfall--every known record was shattered. The National Hurricane Center was awed by the storm that it called ``relentless.'' The Washington Post appropriately called it ``merciless'' because it was. Sunday, August 27, was the wettest day ever in Houston, where nearly a third of the yearly rainfall came in 24 hours. A third of our annual expected rainfall in Houston came in 24 hours. Not only that, we now know Harvey was the most extreme rain event in the history of the continental United States, a catastrophe so unheard of that it comes perhaps only once in 1,000 years. Let that sink in for a moment--a 1,000-year rain event.

The storm's intensity easily could have overwhelmed first responders.

Medical, law enforcement, and rescue personnel easily could have said: You know, I am exhausted. I haven't slept for days. I haven't been able to change my clothes. I can't do this anymore.

They could have easily said all of those things, but instead they kept wading into the water--the Harris County sheriff's water rescue team, the Texas National Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard, people like Sergeant Steve Perez, a 34-year veteran of the Houston Police Department who drowned in his patrol car during the storm. His wife told him not to go to work on that day, but Sergeant Perez's response was ``We've got work to do.'' He drove for over 2 hours trying to find a safe route to allow him to report for duty and to protect the community he loved. I hope Sergeant Perez's sacrifice will serve as an example to the rest of us to strive to serve others indiscriminately, no matter the potential cost.

Texas's neighbors could have easily stayed home too--after all, our friends in Louisiana learned tough lessons of their own from Hurricane Katrina--but they did not. They quickly mobilized. Calling themselves the Cajun Navy and the Cajun Coast Search and Rescue, they hitched their fishing boats to their pickup trucks and said: ``GTT,'' ``gone to Texas''--gone to Texas to join the other rescuers, both uniformed and volunteers.

What did they all do?

They saved people who were floating on air mattresses, the few belongings they could carry that were stuffed into garbage bags, and people who were stranded on rooftops. They navigated around submerged trees and stop signs and cars, working with little to no sleep, dripping wet with sweat pouring from their faces, and smelling like the murky water that surrounded them. It seems that I heard about these stories over and over and over again during my trips to Corpus Christi, Rockport, Austin, and all around the State. These are the stories I heard in Houston, Beaumont, and other cities--all of them devastated, but in none of them was their spirit destroyed.

My State and our Nation have responded to this terrible natural disaster. As I did a small part in loading bags of ice and water and serving spaghetti to evacuees in Austin, I was struck by how many people--public officials, volunteers, businesses, and nonprofits, great and small--had offered and given their support, and I want to say that we are grateful to all of them.

In particular, Governor Greg Abbott's leadership has been critical.

He and his team of emergency management personnel, led by Chief Nim Kidd, were well prepared in advance, and they moved swiftly following the state of emergency being declared in more than 50 of the 254 Texas counties. Yet it was not just State and local officials who acted with such dispatch. The Federal Government stepped up, too, starting with the President of the United States, who personally, along with the First Lady, made two trips to the affected region. He brought members of his Cabinet, who had previously called

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me and my other colleagues from the Texas delegation over and over and over again, asking: What more can we do?

I thank the President and the Vice President, who also came personally, clearing brush in Rockport, TX, in a demonstration of how to be a good neighbor and in his concern and commitment to the affected region.
I want to say that FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, also deserves recognition as part of this effort. Throughout the storm and in the days following, Administrator Brock Long has been a steady hand at the helm in his support of State and local teams with strategy, equipment, and personnel. Yet it was not just FEMA. It was the Small Business Administration, HUD, and the Department of Homeland Security.

All of the heads of those agencies were there in person in Texas, asking over and over again: What more can we do?

It is not just government and government officials. It is organizations like the Red Cross, which ran shelters around the State, faith-based organizations, and people who just wanted to be good neighbors, doing anything and everything they could to volunteer--to serve food, provide dry clothes, and a safe place to sleep.

Now we know that FEMA's flood insurance programs, while they are being implemented, are about to run out of money by the end of this week. In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, the inspections have begun, and recovery housing teams are on the ground. Countless others--local, State, and Federal actors--are working around the clock to aid rescue and recovery efforts. Yet, as I said in Texas last week, the road ahead is going to be long and winding. In many ways, once the TV cameras leave and the waters recede, as people are just now coming home, the depth of their losses will just be sinking in with their places of business gone, all of their possessions destroyed, their cars inoperable. People are hurting. Housing and food, water and electricity, and transportation are a few of the things people have lost that most of us take for granted but not those who suffered at the hands of Hurricane Harvey.

This is why I am working with Senator Cruz and the entire Texas congressional delegation on an appropriations request for disaster recovery. The many communities that have been impacted by this massive storm will need our help and need it quickly. As I said, FEMA, literally, will run out of funds at the end of this week. Unless we act with dispatch to appropriate an emergency supplemental this week, as the House will do tomorrow, and unless we raise the debt ceiling, there will not be any way that Congress will be able to actually appropriate that emergency funding and get it to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in order to help those who are in so much need. But working together, we are going to deliver that help.

As President Trump said last week, ``Texas can handle anything.'' I think the President is pretty much right. We have seen our share of catastrophes, and we have always bounced back. Texans are tough and resilient, and we always, always band together.

A few years ago, after another tragedy in West Texas that took the lives of a number of first responders in a terrible explosion, I remember running into a county commissioner who said: Texas doesn't just describe where you are from; it describes who your family is.

I know we all love our States, and we love our country, but I am particularly proud of how my State and Texans have stepped forward to help each other in this time of need. I know that all of my colleagues in this Chamber have spent time with their families and their friends this past weekend in honor of Labor Day. As the summer now draws to a close, let's remember that many in Texas were not celebrating that holiday. They are struggling in shelters, not knowing what is left of their homes that they have been forced to flee.

With August now behind us, our work, like theirs, is just beginning.

Tomorrow, as I said, the House will vote on a, roughly, $8 billion aid package--the first of several steps toward delivering relief to Texans.

I appreciate House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who traveled with me yesterday to Houston and Beaumont to survey the damage in Texas. He had previously been with me and the Governor in Austin and talked about coordinating the Federal and State response. I look forward to working with Leader McCarthy and all of my colleagues in both Chambers of the Congress on addressing the needs caused by this terrible storm.

By the way, I appreciate all of the texts, the phone calls, and the emails that I have received from colleagues on both sides of the aisle throughout this terrible storm, expressing their concerns and offering their prayers and their help. I appreciate it.

My colleagues, I will just say this. Let's remember Sergeant Steve Perez, the police officer who died in Houston, whom I described earlier, the officer who could have stayed home. As his wife said: It is just too dangerous to go out there amidst the flood. Like him, let's do our duty and look for a way to work together.
Friends, let's get to work and do our job, not only in providing relief for the victims of Hurricane Harvey, but there is so much more that we need to do, working together.

I will close because I see the distinguished Democratic whip here, who I know has made the condition of the Dreamers--the children who came with their parents when they came to the United States in violation of our immigration laws. Of course, children are not responsible for what their parents have done. I actually believe that the President has given us an opportunity by what he did today. After all, what President Obama did, no matter how much we understand it, was essentially declared illegal by a Federal court. The President has no authority to do this unilaterally. That is what the Federal courts told President Obama, so President Trump has appropriately now said: Congress, you do your job. And we will.

I look forward to the debate. I look forward to working on this important issue, but I dare say that just addressing DACA and the Dreamers by themselves is not acceptable. We are going to do as much as we can to address our broken immigration system, to restore public confidence in our border security and the enforcement of our laws, and, once again, become a nation that is, yes, a nation of immigrants but also a nation of laws.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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