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Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHATZ. Madam President, on Monday, President Biden submitted to Congress an emergency supplemental funding request for nearly $100 billion to help communities across the country recover from disasters.

Whether it is Lahaina, Maui, or Burlington or Davenport or Asheville, every community that has had the misfortune of being struck by a disaster deserves help. No one is ever fully prepared for a tornado or a flood or a fire, but everyone has to go through the long and difficult and painful process of rebuilding--rebuilding their lives, rebuilding their homes, rebuilding their stores, rebuilding their communities--which is why every time a disaster has devastated our fellow Americans, Congress has recognized the need for help and stepped up to fulfill our responsibility to provide that help. We don't first check to see if it is a blue or a red or a purple State or county.

And, today, disaster survivors in almost 40 States, including my own, are counting on us to do exactly that. They have had their lives turned upside down, and in the wake of awful death and destruction, they are trying to find some semblance of stability and peace in their lives. But, to recover quickly and fully, they need our help. It has been more than 15 months since Lahaina burned down to the ground--in a matter of hours--by ferocious fires. More than 4,000 homes were destroyed, and yet, as of today, just one home has been rebuilt--one home. There are 4,000 homes gone, 12,000 people without a house, 2,200 structures incinerated--1 home rebuilt.

Even before the fires, Lahaina was a working-class town where people were mostly renters, and while a disaster of this scale is catastrophic for any community, the financial burden inflicted on these survivors is especially, especially acute. Everyone is doing the best that they can to recover. They are working so hard. They have pulled together so much. They have so much courage and compassion and persistence. They have plowed through every barrier put in front of them. They have saved each other's lives. They are trying to rebuild this beautiful, historic, pluralistic, joyful, multicultural town, but they need our help.

This is a core responsibility of the United States Federal Government. There are certain things that we should be arguing about; there are lots of things that we should be arguing about. Among those things is, What does the Federal Government do, exactly? What is the Federal Government's role, exactly, in education? in healthcare? in transportation?

One thing we cannot argue with each other about is this: when your fellow Americans are in a situation where their counties, their churches, their communities, their States are just simply overwhelmed and cannot recover without the resources of the Federal Government, that the Federal Government steps up and does their job.

So we are about to wrap this week up before the Thanksgiving break, and then we have a tight, little work period to get a hell of a lot done. The one thing we cannot leave undone in December--the one thing we cannot leave undone in December--is disaster aid not just for the people of Maui but for people all across the country. If the Federal Government is for anything, it has to be for this.

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