Making Emergency Supplemental Appropriations For Fiscal Year 2010

Floor Speech

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Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I rise to discuss a huge challenge in the State of Oregon--specifically, a drought that is affecting the southern Klamath Basin. This is an area that had a terrible drought in 1992. This drought set everyone in this basin against each other. How do you allocate those few precious drops of water between the river and the lake and the irrigation, the fish, the farmers?

It is terribly tough when it doesn't rain. It so happens that this year, the water that has come into the lake is lower than at any time the water levels have been recorded and lower by very significant amounts. So this isn't just a shortfall of rain below the average or a modest few weeks without precipitation; this is the worst drought in the Klamath Basin in recorded history. That is why it has received status as a Federal disaster. The Governor of Oregon wrote on March 16 and on April 5 requesting a disaster designation for Klamath County, OR, due to the losses caused by the ongoing drought and related disasters, and the Department of Agriculture assessed that and issued that disaster declaration. There are well over 1,000 families--about 1,400 families--who farm the Klamath Basin and about 200,000 acres of land in that very productive region.

As we have immersed ourselves in discussions with the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior, there are a couple key strategies that can be pursued to prevent what is a terrible situation right now from being an utter and total disaster by August and September. Those strategies are pumping ground water, which is quite expensive due to the power needs, and idling land--asking some farmers who have water rights to set aside their rights for modest payments, and by modest, meaning less than $200 an acre for highly fertile ground. But that greatly reduces the size of this disaster to the community.

I applaud the hard work the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior have done. They have worked to reprogram, to make those modest changes so they are allowed to free up a small amount of funds, a modest amount of funds. But to really address this situation, to idle basically what amounts to a fourth of that land, would take $10 million.

I have an amendment filed, amendment No. 4251, that I hope will have a chance to be brought up and considered later on because we are addressing some major disasters around the country in this appropriations legislation, and it is certainly appropriate, when you have a declared Federal disaster in my State, to have this modest amount of money, in comparison to the other requests, receive consideration for the community.

I note that Senator Wyden from Oregon and Senator Boxer and Senator Feinstein are very supportive and cosponsors because this Klamath Basin is on the boundary between Oregon and California, so there is territory within both States that is affected by this disaster and would be assisted by this revenue.

So I will wrap up my remarks to give an opportunity for others to take the floor, but I do ask my colleagues: We have a federally declared disaster in Oregon that needs a modest amount of help, and I ask for the opportunity to have this request duly considered by this body as this debate progresses.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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Mr. MERKLEY. Reserving the right to object, this is an amendment that addresses the terrible drought we have in southern Oregon. Of course, we are addressing many natural disasters, and we have a natural disaster, a federally declared natural disaster in Oregon, in which we have been seeking to have a conversation about spending $10 million on the front end of what is a terrible situation: the worst drought in recorded history of the Klamath Basin, with 1,400 farming families and 200,000 acres affected.

I was seeking the opportunity to have a discussion and a vote on this which, in consultation with the committee, the esteemed Chair and his team had suggested a pathway. It would mean a tremendous amount to the families in trouble to have their disaster considered while we are addressing other national disasters. This is the moment. This is the moment when we can still have an impact, through land idling and the pumping of water, to save families' financial foundations and, for a few families, through the pumping of water, to save their farming season.

If my colleagues on both sides of the aisle would be amenable, I would certainly ask this request be amended to allow a debate and a vote on amendment No. 4251.

Mr. REID. Mr. President, I appreciate the good will of my friend from Oregon. I would be happy to work with my friend. But at this stage, as the Senator understands, this is two pieces of legislation we got from the President--one dealing with emergencies. FEMA is out of money, totally out of money. This will replenish the money. And there will be opportunities for FEMA, when we do this, to have the ability to do some things such as helping the State of Oregon and other problems.

As we all know, there is going to have to be some work done with the gulf. So I will be happy to work with my friend in any way I can, but I think at this stage this bill has been through a lot already. Not only do we have the
emergencies dealing with the normal emergencies that come about as a result of floods, fires, and all this, we also have the troops who have to be taken care of. We must get this done. We are running out of money there.

If the Senator wishes to modify the amendment, I, of course, have no objection there. I will work with the Senator to try to find some pathway to do this. A modification is fine. But I want to make sure the Senator understands that at this stage we will have to try to figure out something separate and apart from this consent request.

Mr. MERKLEY. Reserving the right to object--I thank the leader--it is very hard for me to go and explain to folks in Oregon we have calamities in other parts of the country being addressed and this one is not. I would greatly appreciate the unanimous consent to modify my amendment. I do understand from what the Senator has said there is probably not a pathway to have it considered. But I would appreciate the Senator's support and my colleagues' support from Mississippi to try to--there should be no party line when it comes to addressing a federally declared disaster.

Mr. REID. I would say to my friend, most of the things that are listed here emergencywise--they are not coming to Democratic States. We have had these acts of God in most instances that happen where they happen. We have two Senators from Tennessee, and this has nothing to do with partisanship. But I am committed to help my friend from Oregon. We have other problems similar to that in Oregon, and I would be happy to work with the distinguished Senator from Oregon, who is always very reasonable. I will do what I can to work with the Senator and Senator Wyden to make sure we take care of Oregon.

Mr. MERKLEY. I very much, thank the leader.

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