Small Business Program Extension and Reform Act of 2011
Floor Speech
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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, let me say to the Senator from Louisiana, she has been a clarion and consistent voice on this issue because she has seen it and lived it. Anyone representing the State of Louisiana can give a lesson to all of us about what happens when the unexpected occurs and people lose their homes, their businesses, their lives. They are uprooted.
We had some folks from New Orleans in Chicago. They were leaving New Orleans to come to one of our fabulous winters because they had nowhere to go, and I saw the look in their eyes. They did not know where to turn. At that moment in time, many people across America count on the American family. That is who we are and we represent that family in the Senate.
We stand for this country and for the families who are suffering through no fault of their own. When the Senator from Louisiana comes and tells us: Be careful when we set a standard that says before we can send the first dollar to someone who has lost their home or their business or their farm or whatever we have to come back to Washington and go through a budget debate and decide where we are going to cut--out of money for education and medical research and the like. That is not the way it has ever happened. Emergency spending is emergency spending.
I have lived through it--nothing like what my colleague went through in Louisiana, but the floods of 1993 in downstate Illinois, I was in pretty decent shape when it was over for all the sandbags I filled and pushed around with thousands of volunteers. We saw what happened. There were terrible things that happened, and I think the Senator from Louisiana would agree with me that flooding is one of the worst. It doesn't go away. It sits there destroying people's homes and everything they own, and when it finally goes away, what a mess. Also, in the Midwest, we have a little thing called a tornado. I grew up as a kid in downstate Illinois listening for the siren and heading for the basement. We did that I don't know how many times, sometimes in the middle of the night. But look at what happened to Joplin, MO. This beautiful town in Missouri was almost wiped off the map by a tornado.
What do we tell the people who survive the next day? Sorry, Congress has to meet and debate and we will get back to you? Of course not. We stand and help people--scores of volunteers, hundreds of volunteers who come in for the Red Cross and so many other agencies and all the first responders. Governors don't say: We will see if the Federal Government will pay for this before we go in and help and provide lifesaving efforts. They do it, anticipating we will stand with them.
Now Congressman Cantor of Virginia decides there should be a new approach: We need Congress to get together and debate before we help people who are victims of disasters.
That is a serious mistake. We have to stand by people, whether they live in red States or blue States, whether they are Democrats, Republicans, Independents. We stand by one another and that is critically important.
Let me say to the Senator from Louisiana, I think the thing I noticed over the weekend in Illinois, as I traveled around, was how fed up people are with what is going on in Washington on Capitol Hill. When they see us break down into another cussing match over shutting down the Government, they say: For goodness' sake, grow up--grow up and accept your responsibility.
We are here today accepting a grownup responsibility. The House of Representatives is not here today. I hope they are going to send a message to us that they found a solution or, if not, I hope they are planning on returning this week because we have work to do.
On Saturday, the spending for the Government ends. Once again, we face a shutdown, a shutdown which would cause unnecessary hardship to innocent people all across America. If you think you have heard this script before or watched this movie before, you have. This is the third time this year the House leadership has pushed a shutdown in front of us and said: That is it. Take it or leave it.
That is no way to run a Congress, and it is no way to run a great nation. We need to come together and agree. I will tell everyone what Senator Reid, the leader on the Democratic side, did to try to reach an agreement. We had originally asked for $7 billion additional money for FEMA for next year. I will bet we need it. But Senator Reid said: In an effort to compromise, I will cut that request in half. We can get back together if we need it. There was an effort in consensus and compromise. It was totally rejected by the House. That is not a good way to act.
I also wish to add to what the Senator from New York,
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