Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013

Floor Speech

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Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Chair, I rise in strong and vociferous opposition to what I view as a misguided amendment. It aims to cut funding that would help repair the seawalls and research buildings damaged by Superstorm Sandy at the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge in Connecticut. This is a vindictive amendment, in my view, that needlessly slashes disaster relief for one particular State, and I urge its defeat.

Named after the former Republican Congressman from my State, the Stewart McKinney Wildlife Refugee spans 70 miles of Connecticut shoreline, including 800 acres of island habitats, a beach, and tidal wetlands. One of the more remarkable aspects of the McKinney Refuge is a chain of seven islands along the coast. The islands support habitat for several federally endangered and threatened species and also hosts related research facilities.

These islands are key stops for birds migrating along the Atlantic Flyway, and two of them have been named ``important bird areas'' by the National Audubon Society. Some of these islands are also in close proximity to urban centers. All of them sustained severe damage during Superstorm Sandy.

For example, the storm damaged the dock, seawall, and education building on the Outer Island research station, which is also the most visited island within the McKinney Refuge. As a result, the natural resources on Outer Island cannot currently be properly managed. On Outer Island, the lack of repairs will have serious environmental consequences. If the seawall isn't repaired, erosion will undermine the foundation of the main building, dislodge the septic tank and cause significant contamination, and will lead to major repair costs. That's why we need to make available disaster aid to the McKinney Refuge so that they can recover from this storm, just as we have many times in the past for other refuges affected by disasters all across this country.

Let me give you some examples. After Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Ike in 2008, we appropriated $71 million for wildlife refuges in Texas, $20 million in Mississippi, and $74 million for refuges in Louisiana, the sponsor of this amendment's home State.

One of the central responsibilities of this institution is to act on behalf of the American people whenever a major disaster occurs. Federal disaster relief is meant to restore homes, businesses, communities, and Federal facilities to their pre-disaster condition. We do this whether the disaster is a fire in the west, a tornado in the south, or a hurricane in the northeast. There is no good reason to make an exception of the McKinney Refuge here.

The sponsor of this amendment, Congressman Fleming of Louisiana, has argued that this bill includes $9.8 million solely to repair the damage done at the Outer Island. This is simply not true.

The Fish and Wildlife Service requested over $10.9 million for repairs to the McKinney Refuge, including just over $2 million for Outer Island. The rest of the funds, however, would support repairs all along the 70 miles of affected Connecticut coast. By cutting the funding needed to rebuild the Connecticut coastline to its pre-Sandy condition, this amendment prevents the McKinney Refuge from meeting its Federal commitment to conserve wildlife, to provide education and outdoor recreation for the public, and it unfairly singles out Connecticut and all of the protected wildlife along our shores. Is the State and refuge somehow unworthy of Federal support? It's a terrible precedent for disaster aid.

When these disasters occur, we have always come together as a Nation of Americans, just as we did after Katrina and Andrew and Irene, and we should not change that now.

I urge my colleagues to reject what I view as a pernicious amendment and help Connecticut's McKinney Refuge rebuild from this storm.

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Ms. DeLAURO. I would just want to say to my colleague, and quite frankly, I don't recall whether you were here or not here during the extensive debates that we had on this floor as it regarded Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Hurricane Ike in 2008--$71 million for wildlife refuges in Texas, $20 million for refuges in Mississippi, and $74 million for refuges in Louisiana.

Let me just tell you, we have over and over again laid out what the difficulties are and what kind of environmental damage this will cause to the Outer Island, what will happen to contamination in the area, and major areas of our coast along our Connecticut coastline. It is amazing to me that we find it necessary, that in the Northeast, somehow we are being held hostage when the rest of the Nation has received every dime they have asked for. It's wrong, and we should defeat this amendment.

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