Midwestern Flood Tax Relief

Floor Speech

MIDWESTERN FLOOD TAX RELIEF -- (Senate - July 31, 2008)

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I rise for the purpose of a unanimous consent request for the Midwestern flood tax relief bill sponsored by the Senators of several Midwestern States, including Senator Harkin of my State, Senator Durbin, Senator Obama of Illinois, and other midwestern Senators.

I rise to seek fairness and equity for people in the Midwest who have been hurt by floods, and I would say fairness and equity as measured by how Congress responded to the natural disaster of Katrina, New Orleans, et cetera.

I remember back in September of 2005, after that terrible catastrophe of August 29, what happened in New Orleans. Within the week after we were in session, after Labor Day, we had appropriated $60 billion. Within 3 weeks after that--I was chairman of the Finance Committee--we voted out of committee a tax equity bill that changed provisions of the Tax Code to encourage employers and businesses and people to stay there and weather it out.

What we did, we did without asking any questions.

And now we seek the same tax relief for the States of the Midwest that have had the same type of catastrophe happen to them. I would measure catastrophe by a 500-year flood in the city of Cedar Rapids, IA, which won't be the same as it was prior to the flood.

So we have entered this legislation for consideration. We have worked it out with a lot of people who were involved in it. We worked closely with Senator Baucus's staff, with the staff of Ways and Means, trying to satisfy everybody. We think we have a consensus.

Here it is, 6 weeks after the floods hit, and Congress has not acted. Congress should act. In other words, shouldn't the people hurt by the natural disaster of the Midwest have the same consideration as the people of New Orleans and those with other catastrophes? We are not getting it. It is very clear that when our disaster is not on television for 2 months in a row, like the disaster of New Orleans was on television for 2 months in a row, somehow Congress is absentminded about what happened in the Midwest.

So we face things like arguments from staff of some of the people in the other body that, well, this disaster wasn't anything like what happened in Katrina or you hear things like, well, we need to offset this bill. When I was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and the people in New Orleans were hurting, we did not ask for offsets. We did not play political games with the legislation we eventually passed, like some efforts this Midwest Tax Flood Relief Act ought to be connected with extenders or with AMT or something like that. We got the job done. We didn't worry about it.

I come before this body tonight to ask for consideration of this legislation.

UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--S. 3322

At this point, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be discharged from further consideration of S. 3322 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I ask unanimous consent that the Grassley amendment at the desk be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be read the third time and passed; that the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; and that the bill be held at the desk pending House action on the companion measure.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I am speaking on behalf of Senator Baucus. I note that the Senator from Iowa realizes the bill that was before us yesterday, S. 3335, would not only have taken care of his State of Iowa, which truly deserves disaster assistance, but also my State of Illinois and all of the States that faced that disaster problem this year. Unfortunately, it did not pass; otherwise, it would have been on its way to the House yesterday. Had we received more than five Republican votes, it might have passed the House and be on its way to the President. But the decision was made on the Republican side of the aisle not to vote for that measure that would have helped Iowa, Illinois, and all of the States.

The measure Senator Grassley brings before us leaves behind victims of disasters in States of Nevada, Colorado, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas--to name a few--who would receive no relief under Senator Grassley's bill but would have under the bill he opposed. So it is sad. I wish this could have been resolved yesterday with the vote if the Republicans would have joined us. Unfortunately, they did not. We will have to take this matter up when we return. I hope we can find a way to help all of the victims, not just in the Midwest but all across the country, which is the tradition of the Senate and the House. Regretfully, I object.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent for 1 minute.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I point out that what the Senator from Illinois described is an amendment that would not have responded to the Midwest in exactly the same way as we responded to Katrina. It would not have been as beneficial. It also did not contain the same 25 provisions we did for New Orleans, which were in that tax bill to help them.

I think we have a situation where we ought to respond the same way we did for Katrina. We are not doing it because the disaster in the Midwest is as bad. When we thought about Katrina, we didn't argue with other people about going back and taking care of disasters that previously happened. We took care of what was before us.

Right now, the flood of the Midwest is before us, and we ought to have the same equity and fairness that, when we had a Republican Congress, we gave to New Orleans. Whether we have a Democratic Congress or a Republican Congress, that should not make any difference. We are being treated differently when the Democrats control the Congress.

I yield the floor.

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