Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act--

Floor Speech

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Mr. WELCH. Madam President, I thank the Senator from Hawaii. First of all, I want to acknowledge my great appreciation for the work that the Senator and his committee have done on bringing attention to the ongoing challenge that communities that have been hammered, like your community of Lahaina and my State of Vermont, from natural disasters, and I am going to speak in support of the efforts you are making to get supplemental funding for the absolutely essential, flexible funding that goes with the block grant Disaster Relief Fund. Thank you very, very much.

You know, we are all in this together. What Senator Schatz said about the formality of a Federal disaster declaration--the formality is it is an acknowledgement that what happened, through no fault of anybody in Hawaii, through no fault of anybody in Vermont, is beyond the capacity of the communities in Vermont and Hawaii--beyond the capacity of Vermont and beyond the capacity of Hawaii--to handle the entire consequence of those events.

What is more important, more essential for the Senate than to acknowledge that all of us as Americans, that there but for the grace of God goes our community when a natural disaster occurs? So we have to respond.

There are two times that there is a response. One is in the immediate trauma of the event. It is all hands on deck. The community does everything it can. And there is one story after another in Lahaina; in Ludlow, VT; in Johnson, VT, of people coming together literally to save fellow citizens and neighbors and oftentimes people they don't even know. And the Federal Government comes in--President Biden was immediately responsive in Vermont, as he was in Lahaina--and our FEMA administration came in and was immediately responsive, and that really helps. It really, really makes a difference.

But do you know what? This is a photograph of the capital of Montpelier right after the flood. It is totally inundated in water. Every business on Main Street was basically destroyed, and the immediate relief efforts were about the water going down, getting the mud out, trying to find some temporary place to live, and see if you can save your business. But on that Main Street in Montpelier, our businesses are coming back, but they are not all back yet.

What I have seen is that the money that comes in right away and the help that comes in right away gives hope to folks. It gives all of the citizens in the State who are sad by what has happened to their neighbors but who, by the grace of God, avoided their own home and their own business from being flooded, it gives them and me hope that those folks are going to get some help from the Federal Government. And they did. Our roads and bridges, we are putting them back together. Some of the water treatment facilities that were destroyed, we are putting some of those back together. But the reality is, there is a long and lasting trauma and practical challenge of trying to get everybody back on their feet.

I get asked by my colleagues--and I really appreciate their concern-- Peter, how is Vermont doing? I don't quite know how to answer that because on one level, Vermont is doing great. We have moved on. That flood in July, we have done the major things that have to be done. The help we got from the Federal Government was really essential in doing that. The good wishes from my colleagues, I am so grateful for.

But the other part of that is when I am asked: How is Vermont doing? The Vermonters, if it was your home, if it was your business, if it was your farm, you are not doing well. You know, it is a lot to try to put that business back together. It is a lot to look at that home and realize you may not be able to get back in.

So let me just give an example. You know, I was in Barre, VT. That is about 5 miles from Montpelier. You are seeing that here. They got flooded, much like Montpelier did. In Montpelier, most of the damage was to businesses; in Barre, most of it was the homes.

FEMA Administrator Criswell joined me and Senator Sanders and Congresswoman Balint on the tour of homes. I returned in March, and the folks who came to our meeting and took a tour of Barre with me were a lot of the folks whose homes had been damaged. They are still trying to find out whether they can get bought out. They are still trying to find out whether they can get back in their home.

One couple was at the home when I showed up. They weren't able to get back in. They are living in a mobile home about 50 miles from where their home is. And there is a lot of confusion about what you can do and how you can do it. Those thorny questions about what is available and how are you going to implement what is needed for that home or for that business, those really linger.

At this point, FEMA--I don't want to say they are gone because they have done what their job is. But the pain and recovery, the pain is still very present for those folks: your farm, your business, your home. And the challenges of getting through the bureaucracy are very complicated. That is what I learned with the folks in Barre who basically have a group of volunteers who have managed to stay together to try to address concerns and questions that various members of the community have.

But the thing that is absolutely vital--absolutely vital--is the flexible funding that comes from the Disaster Relief Fund.

You know, no matter how hard and how competent and how professional our FEMA folks are, the reality is they have to move on to the next disaster. That is what is happening in this country.

But the pain in that community is behind, and it is the folks in the community who really have to have the capacity and the tools and the resources to do what only can be done by folks in Barre, in Montpelier, in Johnson, in Ludlow, in Weston. And I am sure that is true in Lahaina. Of course, those are the best people to do the work. They live in that community. The most important thing to them is to restore the vitality of the community that they love.

So the disaster relief funding is the absolutely essential component to allow the full rebuilding and the recovery for the folks who lost their homes, for those farmers whose crops have been wiped out, and for those businesses that are so vital, not just to that individual business owner but to that downtown community that depends on retail downtown so neighbors can come in, shop, see one another, and have a sense of community.

If we are going to have an effective disaster relief program, yes, it starts with the Federal declaration. Our President and previous Presidents, in my experience, have been very responsive to communities that, through no fault of their own, suffered a devastating loss from a weather event or a fire, as was in the case of Lahaina. But what happens after the waters recede, after the FEMA emergency folks are gone? It is the hard work of actually rebuilding that house, repairing that business. That is left in the community, and if they don't have that disaster relief funding and the flexibility that is required to respond to the very particular challenges in that community, then we haven't completed the job. And it creates a sense of frustration and anguish and pain that we can alleviate by having a disaster relief response that starts when the event occurs--that is the disaster declaration--but continues until the job is done.

And that is where the funding for the disaster relief is so absolutely essential for us in order to maintain the commitment that I believe this Senate has to help folks who have been on the receiving end of a catastrophic loss.

I am fully in support of the supplemental appropriations request that the Senator from Hawaii is making because, in my view, he speaks for all of us. In my view, there but for the grace of God goes your community. We in Vermont, just as Senator Schatz in Hawaii, have always been there to support the funding for communities around this country that have suffered losses such as what happened in Hawaii and what happened in Vermont. I thank the Senator for organizing this, and I look forward to working with Senator Schatz and others in order to make sure we get that disaster relief funding in the supplemental appropriations.

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Mr. WELCH. Madam President, May 11 will mark the second anniversary of the fatal shooting of a Palestinian American and accomplished Al Jazeera journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh. She was shot in the head while reporting on an Israeli raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. At the time of her death, she was wearing a bulletproof vest with ``PRESS'' written in large letters on the front and on the back.

While there had been some earlier exchanges of gunfire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants, there is no credible evidence that has been produced that the shooter acted in legitimate self-defense. No one in Shireen's immediate vicinity was armed, and no shots were fired from her location. Another journalist near her was also shot, but he survived.

Shortly after Shireen's death, Secretary of State Antony Blinken rightly called for a credible, thorough investigation and that the individuals responsible should be held accountable.

Israeli officials first denied responsibility. But when it became clear where the shots were fired from, they called Shireen's death an unintentional, tragic mistake. The shooter reportedly fired from an armored vehicle that was 190 meters away.

The inescapable conclusion is that she was intentionally targeted. The question is: Why?

My predecessor, Senator Patrick Leahy, asked detailed questions about her case, including why the Leahy law was not applied to stop U.S. assistance to the unit--the particular unit--responsible for Shireen's death. His questions were never answered. Since then, there has been no credible investigation.

I am disappointed that Israeli authorities have failed to fully cooperate with U.S. efforts to determine what happened, and nobody has been held accountable.

Shireen Abu Akleh's case has become one of many unresolved shootings in the West Bank and Gaza. Since the Hamas attack--the terrible attack on October 7--more than 140 journalists have reportedly been killed in Gaza. None of those cases have been investigated, and no one has been held accountable.

We have not and we will not forget Shireen Abu Akleh. She was an American citizen. More importantly, she was an innocent civilian doing her job, which she paid for with her life. She, her family, and her colleagues in the press deserve justice.

On May 3, World Press Freedom Day, Secretary Blinken said:

In their pursuit of truth, journalists often face unprecedented danger worldwide. On World Press Freedom Day, we recognize their bravery, resilience, and vital role in ensuring the free flow of accurate information. Our support for journalists and an independent media is unwavering.

My hope is that Secretary Blinken uses his influence and insists on the credible, thorough investigation of the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh that he called for 2 years ago and that those responsible be brought to justice.

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