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“APPROVING THE RENEWAL OF IMPORT RESTRICTIONS CONTAINED IN THE BURMESE FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY ACT OF 2003--MOTION TO PROCEED” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Transportation was published in the Senate section on pages S5511-S5513 on Sept. 13, 2011.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
APPROVING THE RENEWAL OF IMPORT RESTRICTIONS CONTAINED IN THE BURMESE
FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY ACT OF 2003--MOTION TO PROCEED
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to H.J. Res. 66, which the clerk will report.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
Motion to proceed to the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 66) approving the renewal of the import restrictions contained in the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.
Destruction from Hurricane Irene
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I have spoken to so many of my colleagues--
I know I have with my good friend, a distinguished Member of this body, the Senator from Montana, and others--about what has happened in Vermont. We are a little State. We are 660,000 people. We are a State that has sent volunteers all over the country where people have been hit by earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, and flooding, but now Vermont has been hit.
I was born in Vermont. My family came to Vermont in the 1800s. The only thing that could even begin to match what we have seen were the horrible floods of 1927. I was not alive then, but I remember the stories my parents told me. Certainly in my lifetime we have never seen anything like this. Vermont continues to grapple with the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene. It does not make a difference if you are a Republican or a Democrat, all Vermonters are joined together to rebuild after this disaster.
I wish to call the Senate's attention today to the severe and extensive damage done to our State's transportation infrastructure and to how the washed out roads and bridges are affecting the lives of all Vermonters.
Here are a few of the scenes of the destruction. This was a main highway. You can see one lane here. Look what happened. The road does not begin to pick up again until we get over here. That was a highway that had been used for decades. It is Route 100, south of Plymouth.
Plymouth, VT, is where Calvin Coolidge was born. He was spending time there with his father when he got news that he had suddenly become President and was sworn in by his father, who was the justice of the peace. The deputy sheriff thought they may need security so he stood there with a pitchfork in one hand and a lantern in the other.
But this photo shows you what has happened. They tried to build a temporary bridge up there. As you know, being from a northern State, Mr. President, we are going to have snow in Vermont in a matter of weeks and, of course, companies stop making asphalt in early November.
This is a photo I took of U.S. Route 4. I took it from a helicopter when Governor Shumlin and I toured the State immediately after Irene. It is a major east-west route across Vermont. Again, look at this. We can't see one of the lanes of the road. It would have gone just like this, but it is gone, and look how deep it is. That is because this river moved from where it had never been before and tore it out.
Governor Shumlin, the Governor of our State, General Michael Dubie, the head of our National Guard, and I toured the damage around Vermont by helicopter immediately after the storm. We actually needed the helicopter because many of the places we went were unreachable on the ground.
This third one is the New England Central Rail Line in central Vermont that hosts Amtrak's Vermonter train. One can actually get on the Vermonter here in Washington and take it to New York and go up through New England to Vermont, which I have done a number of times. Economic Recovery Act funds had just repaired this line to nearly mint condition. Look at it now. We couldn't take a train across it. It has sunk out from underneath the track. That is a pretty horrific situation.
This shot was taken along Vermont Route 30 in Jamaica, VT, or what is left of it. This is while rains from the remnants of Hurricane Lee fell on Vermont. We just got hit and hit and hit up there. We can see work crews trying desperately to stay ahead of the rising water and some of them, frankly, risking their lives to do that.
I might say, in that regard, we have had people come in to help out. I told the two Senators from Maine yesterday, we had highway construction people from Maine--crews, some on vacation--who came down and helped. In response, when we thanked them, they said: You helped us; we will help you. The Presiding Officer knows rural America. He knows we pitch in to try to help each other.
Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Roads, bridges, and rail lines all over the State have been wiped out. I apologize to my colleagues for being emotional, but this is my State. This is my home. It is the home of my ancestors. We have seen flooding close more than 300 town and State roads and damage more than 30 bridges, stranding people in more than one dozen towns for days. Damage to the State's Federal aid roads and bridges will exceed $\1/2\ billion in our little State. It is going to take years and years to recover.
It has been extremely difficult to move emergency supplies and building materials around. Some of the washed-out roads have gaping gullies in the middle that are 30 feet or more deep. One can't drive a truck over that. Some of the reopened roads and bridges are not yet recommended for heavy traffic.
The consequences have been harsh. Residents are forced to make a 30-
mile-plus detour to the nearest grocery store or doctor on mountain roads, many of them dirt roads. Businesses are struggling to reopen, rehire their people, and then to find new customers. Schools have been forced to remain closed until repairs are made, and children are wondering--adding to the trauma of what they have seen--when they are going back to the normalcy of going to school. Tourists are worrying about traveling to Vermont this fall to see the foliage or this winter to do some skiing. These are major industries in our State.
The end of construction season in Vermont is fast approaching. As I mentioned earlier, by November, it will be too cold to lay asphalt. By December, snow and ice will cover the mountains, leaving many towns dangerously isolated. My home was safe, but I live on a dead-end dirt road. It is 2 miles to the nearest paved road. I know how easily these dirt roads can be disrupted.
I applaud the Vermont Agency of Transportation and the Vermont National Guard--along with the work crews and Guardsmen from States all around the country--because they are moving quickly to make emergency road repairs and install temporary bridges. Governor Shumlin, General Dubie, and I had to helicopter into one town because it was the only way to get there. At least now it has a temporary road. But these are lifelines to the hardest hit communities. We need to make more permanent repairs as soon as possible or future rains and the fall's freeze-thaw cycle will further deterioration of our roads and make them all but impassable in the winter and cut off major parts of my State.
Given the breadth and depth of Irene's destruction, on top of the disasters already declared in all 50 States, we have to ensure that FEMA and the Department of Transportation have all the resources they need to help our citizens in their desperate time of need.
The other night the President addressed the Congress and the Nation from the floor of the House of Representatives. On his way in, he leaned over and said to me: I am thinking of your people in Vermont. That means a lot. I applaud him for issuing the emergency declaration very quickly and then making adjustments when we needed them.
We have to replenish the FEMA disaster relief fund and the Federal highway emergency road fund, both of which are at dangerously low levels right now, not just for Vermont but for every other State that has been hit with the same kind of problems. Without supplemental funding to these and the other emergency accounts, Vermont and all the other 49 States with ongoing Federal disasters are not going to have the resources to rebuild.
Americans should be worried about Americans. The kind of money we are talking about we throw away in Iraq and Afghanistan in 1 week's time and we do it on a credit card and we say we don't have to pay for it. Now we have some say: If we are going to help Americans, we better find out some way we can pay for it. What can we take away from other Americans to help these Americans? Can we take away from education, medical research, housing?
Let's start thinking about America. We have seen the billions, eventually trillions, we have spent trying to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan, and we know how much that is appreciated. These are Americans who do appreciate and need the help.
Let us come home. Let us take care of the needs in America. There is so much on the line, so starkly for so many, it would be horrible and unseemly to play politics with disaster relief. We have never done this before.
I was heartened, as I came into one, badly damaged town and I got an e-mail from a very conservative Republican Senator who said: Pat, you helped us when our State was hit. What can we do to help your State? That is the kind of bipartisanship, Republicans and Democrats, have displayed in the past to come together.
Thousands of American families and businesses have been devastated by an unprecedented series of floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, and wildfires--look at the pictures out of Texas--and other disasters over these years. The people are hurting out there. They are not thinking about Democrats versus Republicans or red States versus blue States. They are saying: We are Americans. We help everybody else; we can at least help ourselves. People are desperate for a helping hand from their fellow Americans. We are one Nation. We have traditionally come to the aid of our fellow Americans in times of need.
In my 37 years in the Senate, we have always dealt with disaster bills together. We haven't cared whether it was a Republican State or a Democratic State or Democratic or Republican President. We have worked across the aisle, in the spirit of bipartisanship, in the best interests of America and in the best tradition of our country. As a nation, can we afford to toss that tradition and cooperation overboard? It is unconscionable that a small number decided to inject politics and political point-scoring into a situation that already is so difficult and so laden with grim realities for so many of our fellow citizens. Go and talk to a farmer who has seen his herd decimated and tell him that. Go and see a small business owner who is a major employer in a small town who is saying: I don't know how I can keep hiring these people. Go and tell a child who has asked their parents when the road will be done so we can go to school or visit grandma. Tell them. Tell them.
Leader Reid is right to bring an emergency disaster relief package to the floor that will give aid to all 50 States suffering from the effects of unprecedented natural disasters. I state the obvious when I say we need Republican cooperation to get this urgent job done. I encourage my colleagues to end this shameful filibuster of the disaster relief bill. Let us proceed to a full debate on how to help our fellow Americans--our fellow Americans--as quickly as we can.
I have taken a lot of time of the Senate. I yield the floor.
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