Calling for Vote on Disaster Funding

Floor Speech

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Mr. DUNN. Madam Speaker, today, I join my colleagues in calling for an immediate vote on disaster funding.

In 2018 and so far in 2019, we have witnessed devastating disasters with hurricanes hitting Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and the Carolinas; wildfires in California; flooding in the Midwest; an earthquake in Alaska; and several other widespread weather events that have harmed communities across our country and our territories.

The people in our districts and States need our help, and it is our duty to fight for them.

I thank my colleagues for joining me today, and I yield to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Mrs. Roby), whose district adjoins my district.

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Mr. DUNN. Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend, Representative Carter, for his impassioned words. Obviously, he is echoing thoughts that we have heard from the other speakers.

Seldom has a Special Order been so well subscribed. So many people came to speak, so many people moved and hurt by the disaster.

It leaves me with very little time, but I want to say a couple things.

I want to reiterate that this is an unprecedented event for timber. Nobody has ever seen this much timber on the ground, 3 million acres of timber. Think about what that does to the foresters, the loggers, and the sawmills.

The military, we have lost an Air Force base, probably $4 billion to $6 billion worth of damage to that. We will rebuild it. We will rebuild it, and it will be great, but we need help from Congress to do that.

I have a Navy base in my district, $288 million in damage.

I have a Coast Guard base in my district that is particularly sad. They have a single building standing. They were victims of the storm; they were first responders to the storm. They were not paid, because they are with the Department of Homeland Security, for a month. It is shameful. These are fine people in the Coast Guard.

We have housing problems right now. Thirty percent of the homes in my home county is uninhabitable. Fifty percent of the commercial real estate is not usable.

We have special geography. We are 100 miles away from the next place where there is multifamily housing. We need housing on the ground in the affected areas.

Madam Speaker, I thank all the people who took time to come and tell our story, which is a sad story, and I urge the Congress to come to our rescue.

That picture, by the way, is not 6 months old. It is 2 weeks old.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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