Further Continuing Appropriations and Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the American Relief Act. We all know the basis of this bill is a continuing resolution to fund the government and to prevent us from shutting down until sometime in the first quarter.

I admit I think we all know a continuing resolution is neither the best way to fund our government nor be responsible for our taxpayers' dollars. We have an appropriations process that should work. To the credit of Chairman Cole, that did work through the Appropriations Committee. I certainly appreciate the chairman's strong leadership in getting us through that.

It is noteworthy that he pointed out the Appropriations Committee by itself does not get to determine how we fund our government.

We have got many needs and necessary reasons to keep our government functioning. The American people are counting on us. Our military and our border guards are counting on us.

Our enemies are watching. We all know North Korea, Russia, China, and others do not have to face issues such as a government shutdown.

Keeping the government open is critical to the district that I represent in western North Carolina.

I would like to take a moment and speak specifically to the disaster relief portion of this bill. As most of my colleagues are aware, North Carolina was hit by Hurricane Helene on September 27 of this year. We experienced unprecedented disaster and destruction.

It is going to cost North Carolina about $58 billion to rebuild. This storm was the most deadly in North Carolina's history. We lost 126,000 homes that were either damaged or destroyed. Countless people are now homeless.

I thank Speaker Johnson for personally visiting western North Carolina, getting his boots muddy, and seeing what we are dealing with there. I thank Leader Scalise for visiting western North Carolina. Chairman Cole also took time to come down. Many other Members were there.

We are going see a number of Members on this floor argue against this bill. Mr. Speaker, I need to remind you that folks in western North Carolina have been paying their taxes for decades, taxes that have gone toward funding disasters in every other part of this country, from California to the Midwest to the Gulf Coast, without argument.

Mr. Speaker, now North Carolina needs our help. They need the help of this body. I am sure some folks are going to speak against this bill. I urge them to think about the disasters that they may have experienced and what they have seen in the news and what they are hearing from me about the need in western North Carolina.

I even heard one Member last week refer to recipients of disaster relief as ``coastal elites.'' I represent about 783,000 people in the mountains of western North Carolina. I can promise you not one single one of those people is a coastal elite. Those are hardworking, taxpaying Americans that deserve the help of this body at this time. I urge passage of this bill.

I must also say that I am disappointed. Even though there is $110 billion in here to help begin to rebuild my great State, there is a provision for private roads and bridges that was stripped out of this for some reason in the last moments of pulling this bill together.

The folks from FEMA in western North Carolina have told me that the most significant difference they see in this disaster versus those they have dealt with in other areas is the number of private roads and bridges that we have.

So, I am hoping, and I appreciate Chairman Cole offering to help me, to get this provision back in with some other vehicle at some other point in the future.

Mr. Speaker, I urge Members' support of this bill. North Carolina deserves and needs the respect and the help to rebuild.

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