Mary Landrieu

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I am proud to honor a group of 88 World War II veterans from every region of Louisiana who are traveling to Washington, DC, this weekend to visit the various memorials and monuments that recognize the sacrifices of our Nation's invaluable service members. Louisiana HonorAir, a group based in Lafayette, LA, is sponsoring this Saturday's trip to the Nation's Capital. The organization is honoring each surviving World War II Louisiana veteran by giving them an opportunity to see the memorials dedicated to their service. On this trip, the veterans will visit the World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Iwo Jima memorials. They will also travel to Arlington National Cemetery to lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns. This is the first of four flights Louisiana HonorAir will make to Washington, DC, this fall. World War II was one of America's greatest triumphs, but was also a conflict rife with individual sacrifice and tragedy. More than 60 million people worldwide were killed, including 40 million civilians, and more than 400,000 American service members were slain during the long war. The ultimate victory over enemies in the Pacific and in Europe is a testament to the valor of American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. The years 1941 to 1945 also witnessed an unprecedented mobilization of domestic industry, which supplied our military on two distant fronts. In Louisiana, there remain today more than 33,000 living WWII veterans, and each one has a heroic tale of achieving the noble victory of freedom over tyranny. The oldest in this HonorAir group was born in 1913. Two of these veterans began their service in the Louisiana National Guard as early as 1936, and were activated for Federal service in 1941. This group served in every branch of the military, including 29 in the U.S. Army, 14 in the U.S. Army Air Corps, 23 in the U.S. Navy, 8 in the U.S. Marine Corps, 2 in the U.S. Merchant Marines, one in the U.S. Coast Guard and one in the Women's Reserve of the U.S. Naval Reserve. Our heroes served across the globe, participating in major invasions such as the Battle of the Bulge, the Battle of Huertgen Forest, and the battles of Tunisia, Naples-Foggia, Rome, Anzio, Po Valley and North Apennines. They served in Europe, North Africa and the Pacific Theater. One was wounded in Germany, and another was captured as a prisoner of war. Many of these veterans earned Purple Hearts, including one with three Battle Stars. One of our veterans went on to serve in both Korea and Vietnam, retiring in 1967. I ask the Senate to join me in honoring these 88 veterans, all Louisiana heroes, who we welcome to Washington this weekend and Louisiana HonorAir for making these trips a reality.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, this past August the President signed into law the Higher Education Opportunity Act which reauthorized programs for postsecondary and higher education. Contained within the reauthorization is the Education Disaster and Emergency Relief Loan Program. The bill established a loan program within the U.S. Department of Education to provide critically needed low-interest guaranteed loans to institutions in the event of catastrophic natural or manmade disasters. The colleges and universities in Louisiana, particularly those in the New Orleans area, remain in many ways financially crippled by Hurricane Katrina. Three years after Katrina and Rita devastated Louisiana and Mississippi these institutions still have nearly $700 million in unrecovered losses. The estimates for Gustav and Ike are still not finalized, but at this stage the damage is purported to be at least $46 million to State colleges and universities alone. Before Katrina, the 11 colleges and universities in the New Orleans area educated 70,000 students. Today, that number is only 50,000, but it continues to slowly rebound. This growth comes despite the fact that our institutions of higher education experienced more than $1 billion in physical damages and operational losses due to the 2005 hurricanes and have recovered less than half of those losses. Higher education institutions are the largest employers in New Orleans both before and after Katrina. The higher education industry in New Orleans continues to attract millions of research dollars and supports industries as diverse as biotechnology, aerospace, and medicine. The work of each institution in the city can be seen in every aspect of the region's recovery, from the redesign of the city's troubled public schools to coastal restoration and hurricane protection to the provision of health care across the region. They engage in this important work even as they continue to struggle with mounting revenue losses, buildings that remain in disrepair due to flooding, and the loss of key faculty and staff. I call today on the Secretary of Education to make the Education Disaster Loan Program a top regulatory priority. It is my understanding that some Department of Education officials have said that they will not promulgate regulations on any newly created programs in the Higher Education Act until funds are appropriated. This simply is not acceptable. This issue has become a major roadblock in the current disaster funding process, and it is my hope that the Secretary and the Department will move expeditiously to establish regulations so that the program may provide crucial assistance to the colleges and universities impacted by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, Ike, and the Midwest floods.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 3229, and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to the measure be printed in the Record.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 1052, H.R. 6098.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from North Dakota. I couldn't say it better myself, and I most certainly don't know it as well as he does, but I wish to read to the Senator, before he leaves the floor, something that I think will make him even more concerned. I would like to say to the Senator that, in anticipation--because I was getting nowhere with my conversations, except with good people such as yourself, and of course Senator Harkin was very interested, Senator Lincoln, and Senator Hutchison, but others didn't seem to have a real understanding of this situation despite the fact that we kept talking. So I wrote a letter to HUD, because in the disaster package which we are voting on now, the Senator may know that there is $22 billion of special disaster relief, and in that there is $6.5 billion of community development block grant money, for which we are grateful. That is money for Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and, frankly, the whole part of the country that got hit by the storms. But Houston alone--the mayor of Houston, just to put this in perspective, was on record this week saying that Houston alone needs $30 billion. Now let me repeat that. Houston alone may need $30 billion, and we have $6.5 billion in this bill that we are going to spread the best way we can throughout many States. So people would tell me: Senator, you don't have a problem. Just go get some money from the community development block grant. Maybe you all can come up with a plan to help your farmers. So I thought: Well, let me scurry over and find out if that could be possible. So I wrote a letter as quickly as I could, and I said: Gustav and Ike caused an estimated $700 million in damage in agricultural damage in Louisiana alone. Regulations have still not been written . . . will not be available through this program until 2009, which is much too long to wait. Can CDBG funds be used to provide grants and loans to individual farmers, ranchers, and fishermen, as well as agricultural lending institutions and processing facilities? I was hoping that maybe I could get a glimmer of hope. But I want to read for the record what they wrote. This is probably an eligible activity under the CDBG disaster recovery program. CDBG funds may be used to assist businesses to create or retain low- and moderate-income jobs, and the CDBG disaster recovery program allows the State to make grants and loans directly rather than working through local governments. But here is the kicker: The only issue that may arise is that Circular OMB A-87 does not allow one Federal program to be used for costs allocable to another program and these costs may be allocable to the USDA SURE Program. And here is the last sentence: If the CDBG activity is designed to only cover costs USDA will not allow, then it could work. Mr. President, I tell my friend from North Dakota, if I go home and try to read this paragraph of gobbledygook to my farmers, I wouldn't blame them for trying to find another Senator. I mean, I cannot even understand it myself, yet I am supposed to go home and tell the people whom I represent that this is the paragraph I have left Washington with? I didn't think this was sufficient, and so I make no apologies to my colleagues, but as a way of explanation, the reason I am standing here for this 1 hour is to just testify that this paragraph is not sufficient. The program is not sufficient. As I speak, I know the powers that be in this Chamber, on both sides, and in the White House have been in meeting after meeting trying to bail out Wall Street. Could somebody spend 1 hour or 2 hours figuring out how to bail out our farmers throughout the entire midpart of our country? Because this paragraph isn't going to do it.

Ms. LANDRIEU. I will yield.

Ms. LANDRIEU. I thank the Senator from Mississippi. How much time do I have remaining?

Ms. LANDRIEU. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, let me take a few moments to say what an absolutely outstanding privilege it has been for me, for 10 of the 12 years I have served in the Senate, to serve on the Energy Committee with Senator Domenici. It is rare to see a person in public office who cares equally as deeply about his family and his children and his work. Sometimes families get pushed aside because of the work of men and women who think the work they do is somehow more important than raising their children. I have experienced struggling for that balance in my own life, watching my father struggle with that balance. Sitting on the committee watching Senator Domenici has been an inspiration to me, to watch him handle some of the biggest issues of our time, truly, over 36 years. He spoke about some of them--the budgets of the entire Congress, the nuclear renaissance in the country, major pieces of social legislation he has shepherded and nurtured and loved. But in between many of these discussions I have been privileged to have with him, he will stop in the middle of a conversation and talk about one of his children or one of his grandchildren. He is the father of eight. I am one of nine and the mother of two. I just want to tell him, in these brief moments--and I am just going to speak for 2 or 3 minutes--what an inspiration he has been to me as a man who loves his wife and his children and his grandchildren so deeply and has managed to serve his State with such passion and grace and love for 36 years. And New Mexico is not a next-door kind of place. New Mexico is a long way from Washington, DC, but it has never been long from the Senator's heart. The final thing I want to say is that, on behalf of the people of my State, I want the Senator from New Mexico to know we will be forever grateful for his leadership when it came to passing, for us, something in the nature of the Declaration of Independence. And I don't mean to belittle that document, but for the people of Louisiana, who for 60 years have struggled to try to find some way to preserve this great coast of ours and to save our communities, our culture, and our economic livelihood, this Senator stepped up, this Senator from New Mexico--not much water there--and his heart was with the people of Louisiana and the gulf coast. He and his wife flew over this great expanse of land, which has been under water now for quite some time with these storms in the last years, and he basically took the lead on establishing for us something that had eluded us for 60 years--since President Truman was the President of the United States. Senator Domenici changed the fortunes of Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Alabama by putting in a major piece of legislation that will establish a way for us to secure this coast. So, Senator, I could speak for a long time--many more hours--about what you have done, but there are other Members much more senior to me and in your own party who wish to speak. I just wanted to lay down for the record the comment to you--and I will submit a more formal statement for the Record--that the people of Louisiana whom I represent will be forever grateful for your leadership. I yield the floor.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask the Chair to lay before the Senate a message from the House of Representatives with respect to S. 3023. The Presiding Officer laid before the Senate the following message from the House of Representatives:

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate concur in the amendment of the House to the Senate bill and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table; further, that any statements be printed in the Record.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the amendment which is at the desk be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements be printed in the Record.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 6946, which was received from the House.

Ms. LANDRIEU. I ask unanimous consent the bill be read three times and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the tributes to retiring Senators that appear in the Congressional Record be printed as a Senate document and that Senators be permitted to submit such tributes for inclusion until Friday, November 21, 2008.

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Madam President, reserving the right to object.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. 3641, introduced earlier today.

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I hope I am not wearing out my welcome. I know that I have spoken more today than the other Members. I was proud this morning to have achieved a small--but I think significant-- victory, as I pressed for a rollcall vote which would have required the Senate to come back tomorrow, but in acquiescing on that, I was able to introduce a bipartisan piece of legislation with key Members, including Senator Cochran, Senator Hutchison, Senator Conrad, Senator Lincoln, and Senator Pryor on a piece of very important legislation for farmers and for the agricultural community and rural communities throughout the Nation. Hopefully, by this piece of legislation being filed today and the work that can go on over the next few days before the lights go out in this Chamber and we all leave to go home for the election, something could be done to help rural America because the big bailout package, no matter how it is structured, will not really reach to the problem quickly enough and the regulations have not been written for the bill that is in place to help them. So between the bill that doesn't have regulations written and the bailout package, which has nothing at this moment for them, we are trying to stand in the gap and provide some sort of bridge assistance for the farmland of America and the rural areas and to give our farmers some hope until we can come back and address their needs. I am pleased to have at least accomplished that today. While I am speaking, Members of the House--both Republicans and Democrats--are putting a bill together and circulating letters so that, hopefully, we can accomplish something before we leave. I did have an option to hold up the Defense authorization bill, as the Presiding Officer knows. It was a bill that the Presiding Officer and Senator Warner spoke about. It passed in record time--in less than a minute, as I recall--because I was standing right here when it did. I could have exerted my ability as a Senator to object but, not only out of respect for the Presiding Officer as well as the Senator from Virginia but also out of respect for the men and women who wear a uniform, I did not think that it was an appropriate vehicle to use to make my point. I am certain the people of my State would agree with that, and so I did not. That does not mean I won't continue over the course of the next several days to use other vehicles, other opportunities to press this case. Leaving that subject for a moment, I wish to spend a moment to again talk about the need for coastal protection and restoration in Louisiana. I have spoken about this topic hundreds of times and will for the next 15 minutes do it once again. Louisiana's coast is literally washing away. Even if we didn't have Katrina or Rita--the major storms that affected us in 2005--and even if Gustav and Ike had never happened, the devastation along Louisiana's coast is substantial. It affects a little bit of the Mississippi coast as well and a small portion of east Texas. I am sorry I do not have Texas on this map. Southeast Texas is very much like southwest Louisiana in topography. So what I am saying affects them as well. Of course, southwest Mississippi, our neighbor to the east, the southwestern part of Mississippi is protected by this great wetlands, but it is basically the Mississippi delta area. One hundred years ago, the Mississippi River delta consisted of 7,000 square miles of coastal marshes and swamps, making it one of the sixth or seventh largest delta complexes in the world. The delta's growth depended on periodic flooding of the Mississippi River that drains 41 percent of the continental United States, with the river sediments gradually settling in the surrounding wetlands. So as the sediment came down the Mississippi River, this is how this area was built. Of course, it took thousands and thousands of years, but that process still exists to this day. The Mississippi River and the sediment come down and overflow this great delta. Portions of the State I represent have grown up on this delta. This is New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Lake Charles right here, the four major cities in Louisiana. I don't have to explain to people-- even people who have never been to New Orleans or to the cities I mentioned--how important and rich this land is, not just for agriculture and forestry but also for fisheries, both commercial and sports fishermen, as well as the great cities that call this area home. We have been trying to stay high and dry and out of the water for over 300 years. If we don't act more urgently in this Congress, it will be a losing battle. Since the early 1900s, this national ecological jewel has lost 2,000 square miles of coastal wetlands, with the expectation of another 500 square miles by 2050. Again, these hurricanes seem to be happening more frequently and with more ferocity in the way they rush to our shore. Their increased velocity and frequency are wreaking havoc on many parts of the coast from Florida to the east coast, but particularly the State I represent. The construction of flood control and navigation levees along the Mississippi River, which we had to do for the commercial activities of our Nation, had the side effect--the unfortunate side effect--of blocking deposits of the Mississippi River sediment into the surrounding wetlands. Without these sediments, the coastal system has slowly subsided, turning these wetlands into open waters. I read a letter an hour ago about a farmer, Wallace Ellender, whose father was a Senator. As a young girl, I remember Senator Ellender. He testified in committee that his farm that used to sit close to the shore, they now had to swim 30 miles in open water to the island on which he used to picnic as a child. This is the largest loss of lands. If the enemy was taking this much land, we would literally declare war and attack them. That is how great is the land loss. The enemy is water, rising tides, more frequent storms, and climate change. I am not here only to complain. I am here to offer a solution, the solution we have passed by this Congress--which I commended Senator Domenici for this morning because without him, it never, ever would have happened--that we have decided as a State to take President Truman up on his offer that he made to us in 1949 to use a portion of our offshore oil and gas revenues that come to the Treasury, $10 billion a year. The people of Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi, from the offshore oil and gas off our coasts, contribute to the Federal Treasury billions and billions of dollars. Since the year I was born, 50-plus years ago, we have sent over $117 billion to the Federal Treasury to fund all sorts of programs--domestic and international, including supporting the wars that have been waged on behalf of this country. We have contributed the second largest portion outside individual income tax. With Senator Domenici's help and with my leadership, we led an effort to take President Truman up on an offer that we were too foolish to accept at the time and passed the Domenici-Landrieu Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act. I am proud to add my name on that bill which will redirect 37.5 percent of these revenues to the coast to secure these wetlands, to build these levees, to protect not just New Orleans but Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Lake Charles, to protect the Ellender farm, to restore the culture and protect the great Cajun culture of south Louisiana--many of the people still speak French, as the original settlers to this area--and to preserve the culture of our fishermen and oystermen. Mr. President, you can appreciate that because being from Michigan, you have quite a diversity of constituents you represent. I don't know Michigan, of course, as well as I know Louisiana. I am certain you have pockets of immigrants who have come to Michigan who have proven themselves to be outstanding citizens. I met with a very strong, strapping man who came to Louisiana probably when he was a child, I imagine as a young teenager. He is now pushing 50 to 60. He met with me not too long ago over a small table in Plaquemine, LA. He had his sleeves rolled up. His arms were quite large. He is an oyster fisherman. He came from Croatia. He had no money in his pocket when he arrived, but he and his sons have been oyster fishermen down in this area for decades. He looked at me and he said: Senator, I could not love a country more than I love America. I came here as a penniless child, he said, and I have been trying to make a living fishing in the oyster beds in Louisiana. His son was sitting right next to him. He said: But Senator, if we don't do something, all that we have done for these decades will be lost. I share that story. I am sure Senator Mikulski could tell a story about her fishermen from Maryland, and I am certain Senator Carper could relay a similar story from Delaware, and I am certain, Mr. President, that you have similar stories from people who came here, not born in America, but came here looking for a chance and in their quest to find that chance have provided so much wealth, more than you can imagine, for themselves and their families and for all of us, as well as people who were born in south Louisiana, who were born here, or working side by side with those who came, looking for a new life decades ago to preserve this great place. If we do not step it up, if we do not expedite this effort, their work will have been for nought. A couple of years ago, we passed a bill that will give us revenue sharing to try to build the levees. We went actually after the storm--I was so devastated after Katrina thinking where could we find help, where could we find a plan. I traveled to the Netherlands, to Europe, to look at the systems they have. I brought 40 elected officials, both Republicans and Democrats, with me, laymen and engineers, to say: If the Netherlands, which is a small country that can fit inside the State of Louisiana--this is our State. The Netherlands is so small it could fit inside Louisiana. It is a powerful nation but a small one. It has the same problems as we do. If their levees break, they will lose their entire country. So they don't fool around with it as we do in America. They actually build levees that hold. They have great engineering. We have great engineers here, but we are not giving the support or tools they need to do this job. So our land continues to wash away while the Netherlands has managed to save itself. I learned a very interesting thing over in the Netherlands when I went, and it was shocking to me. Netherlands has no system of insurance such as we do. We have flood insurance here. It is a bill we actually could not pass in the last few years, but we technically have flood insurance. We have commercial insurance. In the Netherlands, they don't have insurance because their levees are built to withstand a storm once every 10,000 years. I hate to be the one to be the bearer of bad news, but our levees are not even built to withstand storms once in 100 years. The levees the Netherlands build protect their people once every 10,000 years, so they virtually never break. That little picture everybody might remember, at least those of my age and older, of that little boy with the finger in the dike, that is not how it is. They have the most extraordinary investments and infrastructure you can imagine. They have gates that open and close. They have diversion systems. I literally have people in their living rooms with buckets trying to keep the water out. I had elected officials come to my office this week with pictures of everything that their town owned dumped out on the street because the water comes in. And somehow in America we have lost either the interest, the will, or the ability to use the resources we have and the brains that God gave us to figure this out. Although countries have done it--and I am sure the Netherlands is not the only country that has done it--I am here to tell you America is a long way from getting this right. I came to the floor to introduce a bill--it is not going to completely solve this problem, but I will send it to the desk because it is going to take more than one bill to do it. In the supplemental bill we passed, the emergency disaster bill, there is a portion in that bill--it is a $1.5 billion portion--that is directed to only one project in south Louisiana. This bill I am going to lay down will suggest that the $1.5 billion that is directed to one project be given to the State in a way that our Governor, who is not a Democrat but a Republican--so I am not doing this with party. He is Republican and I am working with him--to give him and his team an opportunity to use those funds to cover the billions of dollars of projects we have underway. We have billions of dollars of projects underway. We have $1.5 billion in the bill. So instead of directing it to one particular project, I thought it might be worth discussing the wisdom and the benefit of trying to give it to our State, allowing them to use it in a way that will most quickly benefit the most people. I want to show the levee structure. We have passed since 1986 eight WRDA bills, water resources development bills. This is the way Congress builds levees all over the country. The red represents Federal levees in Louisiana, the green represents local levees, and then the yellow is boundaries separating our parishes. We don't have counties, we have parishes. Here is St. Bernard Parish. This parish, by the way, with 67,000 people, was completely obliterated in Katrina--completely. Out of 67,000 people, there were 5--5--homes that were not completely inundated up to the roof with water. That is St. Bernard Parish. Then we have Orleans, and we saw what happened when the levees broke: 70 percent of the city went underwater. What you didn't see was Plaquemine Parish went underwater. This levee helped. This is the only levee in our entire State, Golden Meadow, even though it held in Katrina--you are going to have a hard time believing this, but this little levee held down here in Golden Meadow. But since Katrina, I can't seem to get a dollar to lift it a little higher because the Corps of Engineers, for some reason, doesn't think this is a big priority. It held again in Ike, and it held again in Gustav. They keep telling me there is something wrong, we can't build a levee this way. I said: Since this levee held and yours broke, maybe Golden Meadow knows something about building levees. Nevertheless, we don't have money to help them strengthen that levee, although it has been through four hurricanes now. In the last WRDA bill, we authorized $6.9 billion of projects, which is the good news, and some of that money will be spent here. By the way, there will be billions of dollars spent around the country on levees such as this. We are only one of 50 States. I most certainly don't think we should get all the money in Louisiana, although we have a lot of the water. The Mississippi River probably deserves a little extra because of that, and we do because it is a water bill, it is not a desert bill. If it were a desert bill, New Mexico would get a good portion of that money. It is a water bill. We have a lot of water, so we get a lot of money. We have $6 billion. However, in the actual appropriations bill, we only have $1.5 billion. So the best way I can think to take that $1.5 billion, instead of dedicating it to one project, is give it to the Governor and let him, with his team and the legislature, Democrats and Republicans, figure out how to lay that money down on south Louisiana to save as much as we can while we wait and work for the revenue- sharing piece I talked about earlier, the portion of the offshore oil and gas revenues. We are now going to get 37 percent of those revenues, which are moneys that come to the Federal Treasury that if Louisiana weren't willing to produce oil and gas, the country would not have. They might own the resources off our coast, off our 9-mile boundary, but they couldn't access those revenues without the people of Louisiana agreeing. Remember, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama are the only States that allow drilling off their coasts, and Alaska, which is not in the lower 48, of course. So because we allow drilling, because we generate $10 billion, we thought instead of coming here hat in hand every year, let us direct some of that money to help us build these levees and then in the meantime, we can get occasionally some money in the water resources bill or in an appropriations bill to add to that so we can start protecting our people. We may not get to 1 in every 10,000 years' storm, but we most certainly need to get past 1 out of every 100 years. We have to move not from a category 3 protection but to a category 5 protection, and we have to do it quickly. So I send this bill to the desk and hope we can consider it at the earliest convenience. I wish to also send to the desk some more detailed information about what I have spoken about, and I will conclude this portion by saying that this is an urgent matter. I don't know how many storms we have to endure on the gulf coast, America's energy coast, before this Congress realizes this is an economic disaster, it is an emotional drain on people who continue to watch everything they own flood time and time again. If I thought I could relocate 2 million people to another part--even if I could get them to go, which I couldn't because this is their home--it would be too expensive. Who would stay and run the river? Who would keep these channels open? Who would drill for the oil and gas? We haven't figured out how to do this from unmanned aerial platforms yet. People actually have to go out into this coastline and work hard every day in agriculture, in oil and gas and in fisheries. This operation cannot be run from Kansas City or from Little Rock, AR. It has to be run on the coast. And everybody who lives on a coast, whether you live in Florida or Texas or South Carolina or North Carolina or Georgia understands what I am talking about. We can't relocate everyone to Denver. We have to protect our coasts, and we are doing a terrible job of it in this country. I am one of the Senators who represents the most challenged area in the Nation. Louisiana is not the only . . . .

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I hope I am not wearing out my welcome. I know that I have spoken more today than the other Members. I was proud this morning to have achieved a small--but I think significant-- victory, as I pressed for a rollcall vote which would have required the Senate to come back tomorrow, but in acquiescing on that, I was able to introduce a bipartisan piece of legislation with key Members, including Senator Cochran, Senator Hutchison, Senator Conrad, Senator Lincoln, and Senator Pryor on a piece of very important legislation for farmers and for the agricultural community and rural communities throughout the Nation. Hopefully, by this piece of legislation being filed today and the work that can go on over the next few days before the lights go out in this Chamber and we all leave to go home for the election, something could be done to help rural America because the big bailout package, no matter how it is structured, will not really reach to the problem quickly enough and the regulations have not been written for the bill that is in place to help them. So between the bill that doesn't have regulations written and the bailout package, which has nothing at this moment for them, we are trying to stand in the gap and provide some sort of bridge assistance for the farmland of America and the rural areas and to give our farmers some hope until we can come back and address their needs. I am pleased to have at least accomplished that today. While I am speaking, Members of the House--both Republicans and Democrats--are putting a bill together and circulating letters so that, hopefully, we can accomplish something before we leave. I did have an option to hold up the Defense authorization bill, as the Presiding Officer knows. It was a bill that the Presiding Officer and Senator Warner spoke about. It passed in record time--in less than a minute, as I recall--because I was standing right here when it did. I could have exerted my ability as a Senator to object but, not only out of respect for the Presiding Officer as well as the Senator from Virginia but also out of respect for the men and women who wear a uniform, I did not think that it was an appropriate vehicle to use to make my point. I am certain the people of my State would agree with that, and so I did not. That does not mean I won't continue over the course of the next several days to use other vehicles, other opportunities to press this case. Leaving that subject for a moment, I wish to spend a moment to again talk about the need for coastal protection and restoration in Louisiana. I have spoken about this topic hundreds of times and will for the next 15 minutes do it once again. Louisiana's coast is literally washing away. Even if we didn't have Katrina or Rita--the major storms that affected us in 2005--and even if Gustav and Ike had never happened, the devastation along Louisiana's coast is substantial. It affects a little bit of the Mississippi coast as well and a small portion of east Texas. I am sorry I do not have Texas on this map. Southeast Texas is very much like southwest Louisiana in topography. So what I am saying affects them as well. Of course, southwest Mississippi, our neighbor to the east, the southwestern part of Mississippi is protected by this great wetlands, but it is basically the Mississippi delta area. One hundred years ago, the Mississippi River delta consisted of 7,000 square miles of coastal marshes and swamps, making it one of the sixth or seventh largest delta complexes in the world. The delta's growth depended on periodic flooding of the Mississippi River that drains 41 percent of the continental United States, with the river sediments gradually settling in the surrounding wetlands. So as the sediment came down the Mississippi River, this is how this area was built. Of course, it took thousands and thousands of years, but that process still exists to this day. The Mississippi River and the sediment come down and overflow this great delta. Portions of the State I represent have grown up on this delta. This is New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Lake Charles right here, the four major cities in Louisiana. I don't have to explain to people-- even people who have never been to New Orleans or to the cities I mentioned--how important and rich this land is, not just for agriculture and forestry but also for fisheries, both commercial and sports fishermen, as well as the great cities that call this area home. We have been trying to stay high and dry and out of the water for over 300 years. If we don't act more urgently in this Congress, it will be a losing battle. Since the early 1900s, this national ecological jewel has lost 2,000 square miles of coastal wetlands, with the expectation of another 500 square miles by 2050. Again, these hurricanes seem to be happening more frequently and with more ferocity in the way they rush to our shore. Their increased velocity and frequency are wreaking havoc on many parts of the coast from Florida to the east coast, but particularly the State I represent. The construction of flood control and navigation levees along the Mississippi River, which we had to do for the commercial activities of our Nation, had the side effect--the unfortunate side effect--of blocking deposits of the Mississippi River sediment into the surrounding wetlands. Without these sediments, the coastal system has slowly subsided, turning these wetlands into open waters. I read a letter an hour ago about a farmer, Wallace Ellender, whose father was a Senator. As a young girl, I remember Senator Ellender. He testified in committee that his farm that used to sit close to the shore, they now had to swim 30 miles in open water to the island on which he used to picnic as a child. This is the largest loss of lands. If the enemy was taking this much land, we would literally declare war and attack them. That is how great is the land loss. The enemy is water, rising tides, more frequent storms, and climate change. I am not here only to complain. I am here to offer a solution, the solution we have passed by this Congress--which I commended Senator Domenici for this morning because without him, it never, ever would have happened--that we have decided as a State to take President Truman up on his offer that he made to us in 1949 to use a portion of our offshore oil and gas revenues that come to the Treasury, $10 billion a year. The people of Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi, from the offshore oil and gas off our coasts, contribute to the Federal Treasury billions and billions of dollars. Since the year I was born, 50-plus years ago, we have sent over $117 billion to the Federal Treasury to fund all sorts of programs--domestic and international, including supporting the wars that have been waged on behalf of this country. We have contributed the second largest portion outside individual income tax. With Senator Domenici's help and with my leadership, we led an effort to take President Truman up on an offer that we were too foolish to accept at the time and passed the Domenici-Landrieu Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act. I am proud to add my name on that bill which will redirect 37.5 percent of these revenues to the coast to secure these wetlands, to build these levees, to protect not just New Orleans but Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Lake Charles, to protect the Ellender farm, to restore the culture and protect the great Cajun culture of south Louisiana--many of the people still speak French, as the original settlers to this area--and to preserve the culture of our fishermen and oystermen. Mr. President, you can appreciate that because being from Michigan, you have quite a diversity of constituents you represent. I don't know Michigan, of course, as well as I know Louisiana. I am certain you have pockets of immigrants who have come to Michigan who have proven themselves to be outstanding citizens. I met with a very strong, strapping man who came to Louisiana probably when he was a child, I imagine as a young teenager. He is now pushing 50 to 60. He met with me not too long ago over a small table in Plaquemine, LA. He had his sleeves rolled up. His arms were quite large. He is an oyster fisherman. He came from Croatia. He had no money in his pocket when he arrived, but he and his sons have been oyster fishermen down in this area for decades. He looked at me and he said: Senator, I could not love a country more than I love America. I came here as a penniless child, he said, and I have been trying to make a living fishing in the oyster beds in Louisiana. His son was sitting right next to him. He said: But Senator, if we don't do something, all that we have done for these decades will be lost. I share that story. I am sure Senator Mikulski could tell a story about her fishermen from Maryland, and I am certain Senator Carper could relay a similar story from Delaware, and I am certain, Mr. President, that you have similar stories from people who came here, not born in America, but came here looking for a chance and in their quest to find that chance have provided so much wealth, more than you can imagine, for themselves and their families and for all of us, as well as people who were born in south Louisiana, who were born here, or working side by side with those who came, looking for a new life decades ago to preserve this great place. If we do not step it up, if we do not expedite this effort, their work will have been for nought. A couple of years ago, we passed a bill that will give us revenue sharing to try to build the levees. We went actually after the storm--I was so devastated after Katrina thinking where could we find help, where could we find a plan. I traveled to the Netherlands, to Europe, to look at the systems they have. I brought 40 elected officials, both Republicans and Democrats, with me, laymen and engineers, to say: If the Netherlands, which is a small country that can fit inside the State of Louisiana--this is our State. The Netherlands is so small it could fit inside Louisiana. It is a powerful nation but a small one. It has the same problems as we do. If their levees break, they will lose their entire country. So they don't fool around with it as we do in America. They actually build levees that hold. They have great engineering. We have great engineers here, but we are not giving the support or tools they need to do this job. So our land continues to wash away while the Netherlands has managed to save itself. I learned a very interesting thing over in the Netherlands when I went, and it was shocking to me. Netherlands has no system of insurance such as we do. We have flood insurance here. It is a bill we actually could not pass in the last few years, but we technically have flood insurance. We have commercial insurance. In the Netherlands, they don't have insurance because their levees are built to withstand a storm once every 10,000 years. I hate to be the one to be the bearer of bad news, but our levees are not even built to withstand storms once in 100 years. The levees the Netherlands build protect their people once every 10,000 years, so they virtually never break. That little picture everybody might remember, at least those of my age and older, of that little boy with the finger in the dike, that is not how it is. They have the most extraordinary investments and infrastructure you can imagine. They have gates that open and close. They have diversion systems. I literally have people in their living rooms with buckets trying to keep the water out. I had elected officials come to my office this week with pictures of everything that their town owned dumped out on the street because the water comes in. And somehow in America we have lost either the interest, the will, or the ability to use the resources we have and the brains that God gave us to figure this out. Although countries have done it--and I am sure the Netherlands is not the only country that has done it--I am here to tell you America is a long way from getting this right. I came to the floor to introduce a bill--it is not going to completely solve this problem, but I will send it to the desk because it is going to take more than one bill to do it. In the supplemental bill we passed, the emergency disaster bill, there is a portion in that bill--it is a $1.5 billion portion--that is directed to only one project in south Louisiana. This bill I am going to lay down will suggest that the $1.5 billion that is directed to one project be given to the State in a way that our Governor, who is not a Democrat but a Republican--so I am not doing this with party. He is Republican and I am working with him--to give him and his team an opportunity to use those funds to cover the billions of dollars of projects we have underway. We have billions of dollars of projects underway. We have $1.5 billion in the bill. So instead of directing it to one particular project, I thought it might be worth discussing the wisdom and the benefit of trying to give it to our State, allowing them to use it in a way that will most quickly benefit the most people. I want to show the levee structure. We have passed since 1986 eight WRDA bills, water resources development bills. This is the way Congress builds levees all over the country. The red represents Federal levees in Louisiana, the green represents local levees, and then the yellow is boundaries separating our parishes. We don't have counties, we have parishes. Here is St. Bernard Parish. This parish, by the way, with 67,000 people, was completely obliterated in Katrina--completely. Out of 67,000 people, there were 5--5--homes that were not completely inundated up to the roof with water. That is St. Bernard Parish. Then we have Orleans, and we saw what happened when the levees broke: 70 percent of the city went underwater. What you didn't see was Plaquemine Parish went underwater. This levee helped. This is the only levee in our entire State, Golden Meadow, even though it held in Katrina--you are going to have a hard time believing this, but this little levee held down here in Golden Meadow. But since Katrina, I can't seem to get a dollar to lift it a little higher because the Corps of Engineers, for some reason, doesn't think this is a big priority. It held again in Ike, and it held again in Gustav. They keep telling me there is something wrong, we can't build a levee this way. I said: Since this levee held and yours broke, maybe Golden Meadow knows something about building levees. Nevertheless, we don't have money to help them strengthen that levee, although it has been through four hurricanes now. In the last WRDA bill, we authorized $6.9 billion of projects, which is the good news, and some of that money will be spent here. By the way, there will be billions of dollars spent around the country on levees such as this. We are only one of 50 States. I most certainly don't think we should get all the money in Louisiana, although we have a lot of the water. The Mississippi River probably deserves a little extra because of that, and we do because it is a water bill, it is not a desert bill. If it were a desert bill, New Mexico would get a good portion of that money. It is a water bill. We have a lot of water, so we get a lot of money. We have $6 billion. However, in the actual appropriations bill, we only have $1.5 billion. So the best way I can think to take that $1.5 billion, instead of dedicating it to one project, is give it to the Governor and let him, with his team and the legislature, Democrats and Republicans, figure out how to lay that money down on south Louisiana to save as much as we can while we wait and work for the revenue- sharing piece I talked about earlier, the portion of the offshore oil and gas revenues. We are now going to get 37 percent of those revenues, which are moneys that come to the Federal Treasury that if Louisiana weren't willing to produce oil and gas, the country would not have. They might own the resources off our coast, off our 9-mile boundary, but they couldn't access those revenues without the people of Louisiana agreeing. Remember, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama are the only States that allow drilling off their coasts, and Alaska, which is not in the lower 48, of course. So because we allow drilling, because we generate $10 billion, we thought instead of coming here hat in hand every year, let us direct some of that money to help us build these levees and then in the meantime, we can get occasionally some money in the water resources bill or in an appropriations bill to add to that so we can start protecting our people. We may not get to 1 in every 10,000 years' storm, but we most certainly need to get past 1 out of every 100 years. We have to move not from a category 3 protection but to a category 5 protection, and we have to do it quickly. So I send this bill to the desk and hope we can consider it at the earliest convenience. I wish to also send to the desk some more detailed information about what I have spoken about, and I will conclude this portion by saying that this is an urgent matter. I don't know how many storms we have to endure on the gulf coast, America's energy coast, before this Congress realizes this is an economic disaster, it is an emotional drain on people who continue to watch everything they own flood time and time again. If I thought I could relocate 2 million people to another part--even if I could get them to go, which I couldn't because this is their home--it would be too expensive. Who would stay and run the river? Who would keep these channels open? Who would drill for the oil and gas? We haven't figured out how to do this from unmanned aerial platforms yet. People actually have to go out into this coastline and work hard every day in agriculture, in oil and gas and in fisheries. This operation cannot be run from Kansas City or from Little Rock, AR. It has to be run on the coast. And everybody who lives on a coast, whether you live in Florida or Texas or South Carolina or North Carolina or Georgia understands what I am talking about. We can't relocate everyone to Denver. We have to protect our coasts, and we are doing a terrible job of it in this country. I am one of the Senators who represents the most challenged area in the Nation. Louisiana is not the only . . . .