Federal Emergency Management Agency Continuing Resolution

Floor Speech

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.J. Res. 85, a bill which claims to fund operations at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but in reality is a piecemeal approach to funding government operations in order to score political points.

Let me be clear, I support FEMA and appreciate greatly the dedicated men and women who work on behalf of FEMA, but I do not support this bill because, in the end, it does more harm than good.

I believe the proper way to fund FEMA is for Congress to fulfill its constitutional responsibility and pass regular appropriations bills. The House passed a full year funding bill for DHS in June that would provide $40.1 billion more for DHS than the bill before us today.

Using a piecemeal approach to fund selected programs within an agency neglects other important programs within that same agency. In this case, supporting H.J. Res. 85 funds FEMA at the expense of the Secret Service, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Office of Disaster Assistance at the Small Business Administration.

The fact is that by taking up the Senate's clean continuing resolution and sending it to the President for his signature tonight, we can fund FEMA, DHS and all the other important programs and services of the government. That is why I call on my colleagues to bring up the Senate CR so we can end this shut down and get all our federal workers back on the job.

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