William Jefferson

Mr. JEFFERSON

Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. First, I would like to thank the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. McCrery) for joining me in introducing this important piece of legislation. I also want to thank the chairman of the committee, Mr. Thomas, and our ranking member, Mr. Rangel, for their efforts in bringing this bill to the floor. I also would be remiss if I failed to thank both the Republican and Democratic staff of the committee for their extraordinary bipartisan effort to put this tax relief package together. And I want to do something which is a little bit out of order, and that is to thank someone who is not properly a Member of this body, our mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, who is here with us today. He has, as much as anyone, pushed this House and this Senate and our Congress and our President to make sure that our region is not forgotten; and I want to thank him for his presence here in the Chamber. Mr. Speaker, the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act of 2005 provides much needed aid and comfort to the victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma across the gulf coast and provides a much-needed shot in the arm to the many thousands of businesses that have been shuttered, suffered serious damage, or have seen their customer bases erode significantly or disappear in the wake of horrible storms. The economy of the gulf coast and particularly that of my home State of Louisiana has been severely compromised by the ravages of two terrible storms. One of our Nation's largest and most economically important cities, the city of New Orleans, was evacuated and commercially shuttered for most of the fall. Even today, as New Orleans slowly regains her footing, most of her citizens remain in a hurricane- forced exile as the city's businesses struggle to rebuild and to make a fresh start with a significantly diminished customer base, extraordinary costs of repair and reconstruction, and a distressed infrastructure. Mr. Speaker, the cities, parishes across the gulf coast, and counties across the gulf coast are struggling to recover from a deluge that laid them low. My constituents and those of my gulf coast colleagues, however, are a resilient people. They have confronted natural disasters before, and they have emerged triumphant and stronger still. I have every confidence that the same is true today. With the right tools in their tool box, New Orleanians and our neighbors in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida will rebuild and recover and a brighter future will emerge. Today, Mr. Speaker, with the passage of this important piece of legislation, we provide the entrepreneurs of the gulf coast a sturdy set of tools with which to jump-start our recovery. We also address an unprecedented housing crisis with unprecedented resources to rebuild and rehouse the thousands whose homes are damaged or destroyed by these vicious storms. We also are keenly aware of the financial crisis that the States, our cities, our parishes are confronting. In order to ease those burdens, this bill also provides several important tools to give our hometowns access to the capital they need to survive in the short term and thrive over the long run: $500 million in tax credit bonds to meet debt service needs, $3 billion in partially guaranteed general obligation bonds, and $7.75 billion in private activity bond authority. I am confident that by properly leveraging these tools, the States, our cities, parishes, school boards and others will emerge from the hurricane stronger than before they struck. Mr. Speaker, with the passage of this act, businesses in New Orleans and surrounding parishes will enjoy tremendous tax advantages for the next few years that should give them the boost they need to survive and a little leg up to get ahead over the longer term: expanded section 179 expensing for small businesses; bonus depreciation; expenses for demolition and clean-up costs, including brownfields clean-up; an enhanced rehabilitation tax credits; and increased net operating loss carry-back among others. By affording these tools to be combined with effective economic planning, the House today greatly enhances the opportunity for a great, but shattered, community to rebuild, not just to recover, but to become more survivable, more sustainable, more equitable, and more prosperous over some time, but all at once. Mr. Speaker, the efforts of my colleagues in providing the relief we need in the gulf coast have been unparalleled to any I have witnessed during my tenure in Congress. For that I am extraordinarily grateful. However, we still have a long way to go before we achieve the full recovery that I know we all want. I look forward to working with each of you in the coming weeks and months as we rise to the challenge of ensuring that, like the Phoenix of myth and fable, New Orleans rises from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina as a bright shining model of American ingenuity and opportunity. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones), a distinguished member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Berkley).

Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Houston, Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee). (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I would like to make brief remarks to again thank all who have worked on this bill, particularly Mr. Thomas, Mr. McCrery, and Mr. Rangel for their work and support. It is going to mean a lot to our region, a lot to my city and my district. And a great part of what we have to do, of course, is to give business the tools it needs to partner with our government to get businesses stood up, to get people back into jobs, to get housing back into our communities so that we can restore our depopulated city and other depopulated parts of parishes around Louisiana and throughout counties in Mississippi and Alabama, and this bill is going to go a long way toward helping us do that. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. JEFFERSON

Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Oxley) for the work that he has done on the bill and for the entire committee and all who have had a hand in it. Like the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank), I would liked to have seen this bill involve the reforms we have talked about to make it easier for people to make claims once they have them. We have had the unprecedented flooding in our area, which is the reason why this bill is needed. FEMA is out of money for the very clear reason that we have had flooding that nobody could have possibly anticipated. We have claims far beyond what anyone had imagined. There have been 220,000 homes, just homes in our area, that have been affected by flooding; 108,000 of these have been rental units, and the rest are single residences. It is unheard of. Sixty thousand of these will probably have to be gotten rid of because they cannot be cleaned up and put back into commerce. We have had the insurance companies take the position that every instance of damage was caused by flooding as opposed to the wind-driven rain that would cover them under their homeowners insurance, consequently creating more pressure to pay on the flood insurance than ever before. For these two reasons, I would urge that we adopt this provision because it is much needed by the people back home both because we have had an unprecedented level of loss in flooding and because insurance companies have pushed all the emphasis down on the flood insurance program and made it very difficult for people to recover otherwise. I urge the House to adopt this because we need it so much in our area.

Mr. JEFFERSON

Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, reserving the right to object, and I do not intend to object, I want to thank the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. McCrery) for his efforts in this regard to this bill. I want to thank the gentleman from California (Chairman Thomas) and the ranking member, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel), and all of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means and others who have taken up the cause of helping our dear friends and my constituents back in Louisiana, our constituents back in Louisiana. The gravamen of the problem that this bill addresses is that our local governments, are State governments, are severely handicapped to serve their citizens because of a lack of finance to service our people. Our city has lost its tax base completely, and so has the school board and other cities in our region. Our State is facing a big budget hole because of the decimation of our cities on a fiscal basis. This bill gives us a chance to address those issues through self-help approaches, through the refinancing of bonds, through the extending of taxable bonds, and through the extension of bonds to service debt. I think it is an important part of the recovery of our State of Louisiana. I am very grateful to this House and to my colleagues on the Committee on Ways and Means, Mr. McCrery, for his leadership on this issue and for our partnership in this endeavor.

Mr. JEFFERSON. I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana.

Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of objection.

Mr. JEFFERSON

Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.

Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I rise to bring attention, as the gentleman is doing so well, to the natural gas crisis that our country is facing today, and I want to thank the gentleman for the commitment he has shown on this issue, for the clarity with which he articulates the concerns that we all have in this country, that we ought to have anyhow, about the natural gas crisis, and for calling upon the leadership of this Congress to bring this matter to the floor so Members can take a vote on it and people in this country can have the benefit of the wise legislation that the gentleman is proposing. The price of natural gas is approximately three times the average price from 2000 to 2005, and it is nearly seven times the average price during the 1990s. This natural gas crisis has been building for years, for the last 2 years, and has suddenly erupted as those hurricanes hit the gulf down there and the aftermath has paralyzed much of the gulf natural gas and oil production. No region in the United States provides the United States with more natural gas than the gulf where 10 billion cubic feet are produced each day, representing approximately 20 percent of the gas consumed in the U.S. and 16 percent 16 percent of that is produced. This tight market, as the gentleman points out, is exacerbated by the devastating impact of these hurricanes we have just lived through, Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Katrina, and the price has risen dramatically from $3.21 in 1995 to $12.68 per million BTU today, as opposed to other countries. For example, China pays 4.85, Iran pays $1.21, Russia, 95 cents. I mean, how can we compete with that? How can the American consumer compete with these sorts of prices? According to the Energy Information Agency, the heating costs are expected to increase somewhere between 69 to 77 percent for homeowners in the Midwest, for Southerners, 17 to 18 percent, for Northeasterners, 29 to 33 percent, and people can expect huge heating costs increases. The average family is looking at heating costs of $1,666 this year, which is a $433 increase from last year. These are huge numbers. The expected rise of home energy costs will particularly affect low-income people and fixed-income individuals. According to a survey on the rising energy costs on poor families conducted by the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, 32 percent of families will have to sacrifice medical care, 24 percent will fail to make their rent or mortgage payment, 20 percent will be without food for at least a day, and 44 percent will skip paying or will pay less than their home energy bill in the past years. So these are devastating results. As others have said and as the gentleman has said tonight, most devastation is going to take place in our economy and the capacity of our businesses that rely on natural gas as a major feedstock to survive. Fertilizer plants, chemical plants, food processing plants, other small businesses, our Nation's 32 million small businesses are going to suffer if we do not do something about these natural gas prices. That is not the end of the story. Homeland security, national security all are affected here. This is a blue collar, working-family issue. People simply are going to be unable to afford it, and their families are going to have to sacrifice as a result of it. It is something we can do something about. A lot of the time we face these issues and we know the consequences and we do not have any way to get out of it. But this time we do. It is a pretty simple solution: open up the Outer Continental Shelf to gas production. It is as simple as that. If we do that, we can fix the problem for God knows how many years into the future. I think it is a solution that this Congress cannot afford not to take at this time, and the American people cannot afford to take at this time. And I applaud the gentleman for the efforts he is making to get this brought before the Congress, before the people of this country and have an honest debate about it, and then I believe we can get this bill passed. I think the people of America, once they see it, will push our colleagues to make the right choice, and I thank the gentleman for his leadership.

Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, I can tell my colleagues that this has an effect on the balance of payments on trade deficits that our country is so concerned about. Domestic production is going to mean we will have to import less and less of our fuel for this country's needs, and I just think it makes sense on every score that we look at it. It is a blue collar working issue, it is an economic issue for our economy, it is a national security issue for our country, and it is an issue of global competitiveness for our country. I think it encompasses so many important points that the gentleman has pointed out, and I think it is time for this Congress to face up to the fact that we have to do something about it. This is a bipartisan issue. We had a press conference a few weeks ago and you had Democrats and Republicans pushing this idea together. I think it is a welcome, I think, respite for the country to see us come together on an issue, and embracing it in a bipartisan way to try to get the Congress to make the right choice here.

Mr. JEFFERSON. I think you are exactly right. We have encouraged, by national policy, the use of natural gas for the very reason that it burns cleaner; it is better for the environment when we are using it. And as you point out, the production of it has not resulted in a catastrophe that anybody has been able to single out as a reason why we should not produce it in these areas that have been foreclosed so far. We cannot have it both ways. You cannot encourage the use of natural gas as a cleaner-burning fuel, and at the same time see prices go up, at the same time make it harder for people to get access to that fuel without paying higher prices. It does not make any sense. So if you are going to end up encouraging it, you have got to have a policy that makes it affordable for people.

Mr. JEFFERSON. If I can get back to your environmental point for just a minute. We are relying a lot in the future on the importation of liquified natural gas from other parts of the world. The process to deliquify that and gassify it again is a very problematic environmental question. We are concerned about fisheries that are going to be affected by the heat that is generated by this process in the gulf, in these facilities that are used to gassify the liquified natural gas. We do not have answers to that. We have people who are objecting to the location of these plants around the country because they worry about this sort of issue. Yet as you point out, there is such an increasing demand in the country for natural gas uses, that means we are going to rely on imported natural gas and suffer the consequences of trying to figure out how to degassify it in a way that does not cause environmental degradation. If we can produce it ourselves, we would not have that sort of issue. We would have all of the pipelines to distribute from down in Louisiana and the rest of the gulf and other parts of the country. We can move it straight from the point of exploration to the distribution points around the country and solve this whole issue of how we handle the regassification of liquified natural gas for use in this country.

Mr. JEFFERSON. It is very difficult. The ports in the gulf and Texas, Louisiana are trying very hard to work with putting liquified natural gas into a gas form again. But there are many places around the country where this is simply unacceptable technology and, consequently, it means that the supply that is available around the world is still hard to get into this country; but when we do, we do face environmental challenges that we otherwise would not face. Now, the gentleman makes the point about national security. Our own government estimates that by 2020 half of our energy will be produced by unfriendly and unstable governments. Our reliance on natural gas from these countries is going to get us in the same fix we have been in for all these years with oil. And to go down the roads we are headed in a direction we know does not work for us currently does not make any sense for fuel so valuable for us in the future and where we are placing such reliance on it in the future. I think for all the reasons we pointed out, for our small businesses, for our own domestic chemical producers, for our own fertilizer producers, for our homeland security concerns, and our national security concerns, and just for the idea that the average consumer needs to have access to energy that is affordable, these just argue very strongly for our working the solution out that has us exploit our own resources and rely on ourselves to bring this vital energy source to our people.

Mr. JEFFERSON. That is absolutely true. Most folks around my way will tell you the best fishing is around these platforms. We look to them as landmarks to get out there and get good fishing in. I want to give the gentleman the last word on there because it is his bill and it is his passion that has brought it to this point. But I do want to say that we are the only developed nation in the world that has locked up our access to our offshore gas resources. That ought to be a telling point. We have 406 trillion cubic feet of natural gas along the OCS. And currently we produce about 9.5 trillion cubic feet per year, which means we have 50 years at our current usage of natural gas that is locked up just by the fact of our policy having done it. Nobody did it to us. No country forced us to do it. There are not any international treaties or anything that prevents us from doing it. It is our own legislation, our own lack of will to make this decision. I think it is high time we turned our attention to solving our own problems here at home in this arena. I want to thank the gentleman again for what he has done to bring it to the attention of the country, and I am proud to be associated with the gentleman on this issue.

Mr. JEFFERSON

Mr. JEFFERSON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. First, I want to thank the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. McCrery), my friend and colleague, for joining me in introducing this important piece of legislation. I also want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas), the chairman of the committee, and the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel), our ranking member, for their swift action in bringing this bill to the floor, as well as the members of the Committee on Ways and Means. I also would be remiss if I failed to thank both the Republican and Democratic staff of the committee for their extraordinary bipartisan effort to put this tax package together in such a timely way. Madam Speaker, the Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act of 2005 provides much-needed aid and comfort to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the many thousands of good Samaritans who have opened their arms, wallets and homes to provide food, clothing, shelter and medical care and other necessities to the thousands of Americans who have been uprooted in the wake of this horrible storm. As we have all seen, while Hurricane Katrina was indiscriminate in the destruction it wrought, the unprecedented property damage, human toll and economic loss fell disproportionately on the backs of our poorest and most vulnerable citizens. A disproportionate share of the damage in my hometown of New Orleans was meted out on parts of our great city that were already extraordinarily economically disadvantaged. The poverty, disability and economic disenfranchisement in these areas in no small way were factors in the extraordinary loss of life and property experienced by my constituents. For this reason, I am grateful that the bill we consider today provides important relief to these vulnerable families. First, families who have been displaced in the wake of Hurricane Katrina are held harmless against the loss of critical economic security and benefits. Damage caused by the hurricane has displaced hundreds of thousands of individuals, who are temporarily living with family, friends or good Samaritans. Under current law, a prolonged change in their living situation could affect their eligibility for various tax benefits. The proposal allows individuals the option of using their 2004 income tax returns to calculate their child credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit on their 2005 tax returns. This special rule applies to individuals who lived in areas eligible for individual assistance from the Federal Government as a result of the disaster as of August 28, 2005. The proposal also grants the U.S. Treasury Department authority to ensure that taxpayers do not lose dependency exemptions or child credits for 2005 due to temporary relocations. In many areas of the gulf coast devastated by Hurricane Katrina, including my hometown of New Orleans, the EITC is a vitally important part of many families' economic security. This bill ensures the continuing eligibility of the thousands of families displaced by Katrina. Second, the legislation ensures that the victims of Hurricane Katrina are able to account fully for the losses they have suffered in the aftermath of the hurricane. Moreover, it exempts the value of forgiven mortgages and other debt from taxable income. These two very important provisions demonstrate compassion by prohibiting the IRS from kicking these families when, for many of them, they are at the lowest points in their lives. Madam Speaker, this Act also provides an added measure of financial security to the many victims of this storm by providing them with added flexibility to access the savings they have set aside in 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts without the usual penalties. In a time when so many have lost jobs and, consequently, their paychecks, denying or penalizing access to their savings is inappropriate, and this bill recognizes that. As I have said repeatedly over the past 2 weeks, the recovery, reconstruction and revival of the gulf coast region, and particularly New Orleans, will require an unprecedented Federal commitment. The bill we will pass today takes two important steps toward that recovery. First, the bill expands the availability of low-interest mortgages for the building and purchasing of homes in the affected areas. We all understand that the most solid foundation for the economic security of our Nation's families is homeownership. By lifting some of the restrictions on the use of mortgage revenue bonds, this bill will help to build a solid economic foundation for the families whose lives have been turned upside down by Hurricane Katrina. In addition, the Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act also provides targeted incentives for returning businesses and new businesses to employ the thousands of hardworking Americans who have been displaced or lost jobs to Hurricane Katrina. By encouraging businesses to hire workers from the affected areas, this bill takes another very important step toward our uniform goal of rebuilding and resettling New Orleans and other areas tragically struck by the hurricane. Finally, Madam Speaker, the legislation we consider today recognizes the important contributions that good-hearted and generous Americans have made to the recovery effort. By increasing the value of the charitable deductions and providing relief to the thousands of Americans who have opened their homes to my constituents who have lost theirs, this bill is an important expression of gratitude from this Congress to the American people for rising to the challenge of Hurricane Katrina in truly extraordinary ways. Madam Speaker, the efforts of my colleagues in providing the relief we need in the gulf coast has been unparalleled to any I have witnessed during my tenure in Congress. For that, I am extraordinarily grateful. However, we still have a long row to hoe before we have achieved the full recovery that I know we all want. I look forward to working with each of you in the coming weeks and months as we rise to the challenge of ensuring that, like the Phoenix of myth and fable, New Orleans rises from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina as a bright, shining model of American ingenuity and opportunity. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. JEFFERSON. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cardin), a distinguished member of the Committee on Ways and Means. (Mr. CARDIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. JEFFERSON. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. JEFFERSON. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel), a distinguished member of the Committee on Ways and Means and whose family has donated generously to our food relief efforts in the affected area.

Mr. JEFFERSON. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to my colleague and friend, the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor).

Mr. JEFFERSON. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer).

Mr. JEFFERSON. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I again want to thank my colleague from Louisiana (Mr. McCrery) and others who have worked so carefully on this bill. This has been an important debate, an important discussion about where this Congress is going and how it is helping out and the generosity of this Congress as we tackle these important issues and the difficult issues back home. To those who say this is not a huge step forward, I should say to them that it is huge for the people who are involved. We take to heart the remarks made by Mr. Emanuel, the bill that he and Mr. Obama are pushing to get this relief out fast. I think it is very important. This is a huge step, but it simply is not the last step. It is far from the last step in providing relief to our region. We want this Congress to walk along with us as we make one step after another toward realizing the vision of restoring our area and rebuilding it to a new, better, higher place. I look forward to this walk with this Congress over the next months and years. I hope that we will stay engaged as fully as we are in these early days throughout this lengthy process. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. JEFFERSON

Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis) for his fine gesture and for the work they have done on this appropriations matter. We have all seen the devastation in the news of my home district and my State of Louisiana and the gulf coast, but that is only a pale reflection of the destruction my constituents have experienced. Hundreds of thousands of my constituents have been uprooted from their homes. More than 100,000 businesses have been shuttered. And hundreds, possibly thousands, of lives have been lost due to the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. So words do not describe the damage. Just last week, this House convened in emergency session and appropriated $10.5 billion to begin the recovery from this natural disaster. And, remarkably, less than a week later, most of that has been spent or committed. Accordingly, we come together today for another $50 billion or so to continue what is a long, hard recovery throughout the gulf coast, but particularly in my hometown of New Orleans. With the passage of this supplemental appropriation bill, we have committed almost $63 billion to the recovery and reconstruction efforts. But I want to sound the alarm today, lest the House become the victim of Hurricane recovery fatigue. In normal circumstances, $63 billion would be a lot of money for recovery and reconstruction. But Hurricane Katrina was no normal hurricane, and her effects are unprecedented. So I want to make sure that this House and this Congress understand that these monies are just the beginning, what the President has called a down payment on the long-term commitment to the recovery and revival of the areas decimated by Hurricane Katrina. Reliable economic estimates suggest that the total Federal cost of the reconstruction and recovery of the affected areas will be in the neighborhood of $225 billion, with $100 billion required to clean up, reconstruct, resettle and revive my hometown of New Orleans. In other words, the almost $52 billion we are allocating today, while needed and wonderful, and we are grateful that we are doing it, and I appreciate everything that is being done here, it is just a down payment. I wanted to say one other thing today that concerns me, and I hope we can fix it up later. The bill, as it is presently set up, raises the cap on government emergency micropurchases from $15 million to $250 million. This may work to the detriment of small businesses and prevent them from participating in this program. This is something we cannot let happen, and I hope we will fix this up as the bill moves along. But I am grateful to the House for its quick action on this matter. Our people need it.

Mr. JEFFERSON

Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time, and I thank the chairman and the members of our committee who have brought this legislation forward. Louisiana and New Orleans, in particular, and the entire Gulf Coast region face a horrific set of challenges. They can all only be met by extraordinary action by this House and by its Members. The compassion that Members have shown, the prayers that have been extended, the helping hands across the country have been absolutely unheard of before; and the level of support that we are getting in New Orleans we are thankful for. This TANF program is going to provide some flexibility that we need now to help reach the needs of our people for cash assistance and for other assistance, for the flexibility that we will need to take care of our evacuees and some of the areas and families that have been so devastated by the hurricane. But as the President said, and as I think we all know, this effort, while it is good and while it is necessary and while it is timely, is a down payment of what we have to do here because the devastation has been so extensive. So everything now that we do we must think outside of the ordinary. We must think outside of the usual set of issues we face in disasters, and we must think differently, more deeply, more broadly, more innovatively, and more compassionately than we ever have before to make these programs work for people who are living lives they never thought they would have to face, people displaced from home, having no connection to their home place at all. The psychological trauma, the mental stress that they are under, apart from the disconnection from families, all of these are matters which are deeply distressing and disturbing and unusual. So I thank the Congress for taking the steps it is taking today. I thank Members on this side. I thank the Republicans on the other side. I thank all, without regard to party, for stepping up to work on this matter today. And I look forward to all of us remaining engaged on these issues so that we can find a way to really address the needs of people, many of whom were very disadvantaged starting out and of course are simply disadvantaged beyond all belief now. So I thank them for what they are doing. We look forward to it, and I hope all will understand that we will have to come forward with a full recovery plan for our area that I hope this Congress will embrace.