Calling for Vote on Disaster Funding

Floor Speech

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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Madam Speaker, I will tell the gentleman this: He has been a great model for me serving on the Energy and Commerce Committee. It is always good to go to the physician to hear firsthand what the patients need and want. So I thank the gentleman for healing his constituents over the years, and now serving them in the United States Congress.

Madam Speaker, I cannot stress enough the devastation that hurricanes over the last few years have inflicted not only on the State of Florida, but all over the country, as you can see, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, what have you. And folks, we need to get--come together. We need to come together and get this done for the American people.

This should be a no-brainer. We have waited too long for this to happen, and it needs to be a bipartisan bill out of the Senate. Get it on the floor of the House as soon as possible so we can help our constituents.

One particular case, in the city of Tarpon Springs alone, Hurricane Irma exacerbated shallowing problems at its port. This puts at risk the livelihood of our marine and tourism business owners and impacts $250 million in yearly commerce a year.

A remedy known as the Anclote River Dredge Project was set to be funded under the previously-passed emergency supplemental bill. We were given assurances--I understand we have a lot of disasters that need to be taken care of--but we need to take care of our constituents, and this is a good example.

And we did this right. We have county matching funds, State matching funds that are at risk right now. The city has put up money. We have got to get this project through.

The seafood industry is suffering. Again, commerce, the sponge industry is suffering because of the lack of dredging of this beautiful Anclote River.

Unfortunately, the sheer number of areas in need of repair from disasters force the already-allocated funding to be moved to other projects, and I understand that. But these projects are important as well.

We need to ensure projects like Anclote are quickly and adequately fixed after a hurricane or other disaster; and, therefore, I support the immediate consideration of a disaster supplemental bill.

I thank my colleague, Neal Dunn, for this Special Order. He is doing an outstanding job.

We have got to get this done quickly for our constituents.

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