Mary Landrieu

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. I thank the Senator from North Dakota. Again, because I was able to introduce this bill this morning, I wanted very much for it to be introduced with the support of both Republican and Democratic leaders, and I was able to secure that. As I said, the senior Senator from Texas is a cosponsor of this bill, and I am certain that sometime before the next few days she will speak on behalf of the farmers of Texas because I myself am aware, having flown over many parts of southwest Louisiana, what the agricultural situation in Texas looks like. It is not quite as bad per capita as Louisiana--and, of course, Texas has Galveston, Bridge City, Houston, and so many other areas affected--but the agricultural hit to Texas is going to be significant. May I inquire of the Chair how many minutes I have remaining?

Ms. LANDRIEU. I thank the Chair. Mr. President, I think this says it all. I most certainly am not trying, again, to grandstand here because I do understand the significance of what happens on Wall Street and in Manhattan and in many of the financial centers of this country, of which New Orleans, whether it is a small city--Merrill Lynch actually started in New Orleans many years ago. So I am not unaware of the significance of cities such as Boston and Manhattan and New Orleans and San Francisco and Chicago and the well-being of our financial sector and our country to operate. I am not unaware of the importance of this financial system needing to be secure not just for our people or our institutions and our taxpayers but for the world. Our economy is so large, and so much of the rest of the world's finances, in large measure, now are so interconnected. So I am not here complaining about the time and effort that has gone into trying to figure this situation out. What I am complaining about is that in all of these discussions, no one seems to understand that there is a financial crisis right now in the heartland that is not being relieved by this disaster bill we are getting ready to vote on, nor, to date, have I heard one sentence, one phrase, one section, one paragraph that might bring any hope to the thousands of farmers and ranchers who never even saw a subprime loan, who have never filled out an application for a subprime loan, yet whose crops in the field are rotting, are unharvestable--not one single word about them. So I thought it was worth at least 1 hour of this Congress's time to hear that word from me and to hear that word from Senator Lincoln and to hear that word from Senator Conrad and to hear that word from Senator Pryor and to hear that word from Senator Wicker and Senator Hutchison, who have joined in this effort. I am going to ask the other Senators to join with us. Many of them are reading the document now. Senator Harkin has it under consideration. Senator Saxby Chambliss has it under consideration. I have expressed to both of them, with respect, as leaders of the Agriculture Committee--should they see anything in this bill that they think should be modified or increased or decreased or written in a different way, the Senator from Louisiana is most certainly willing to take any amendments that they would think necessary to make this work. I am not even asking for this, again, to be for Louisiana. This is for the whole country. I have to spend an hour saying $700 billion for Wall Street and zero for farmers? It could be said a different way: $700 billion for financiers, zero for farmers. If you want to know why people in America are upset with this bailout, I could give you several reasons. Let me try one big one. The regular people out there, who put boots on in the morning and go to work, direct traffic, run the daycare centers, teach our kids in school, get on the fire trucks in the morning, shine shoes, open the grocery store--they don't think anyone is listening to them. And they are right. No one is listening to them. Everyone is listening to the people who have a lot of money--money, money, money. People who work hard every day and actually put in 14-hour days and maybe make--not farmers, because they usually make more than this--but $8 or $10 an hour, they work hard, they never heard about a quick buck--there are no quick bucks in the life they live. They don't make $500 million an hour. They don't make $1 million a minute. They are lucky if they make $1 million in a lifetime. I have to go home and tell them not only I wasn't able to do anything to help them but no one in the whole Congress could come up with a plan to help them. I am not going home with that. I am not going home with it. I am not going home with gobbledegook. I want to read it again in the last 5 minutes. This was the response I got. Senator, we can't do anything for you, we can't amend the bill, we can't give you a vote on the floor, we can't put it in the bailout package, we can't put it in the disaster package, we can't have a committee meeting, we can't do anything. We can't do anything. That is what I was told all week. This is the sheet of paper I am going to submit for the Record. This is $6.5 billion. I hope the cameras could see it. I wish I had it blown up; $6.5 billion. That is what we are taking home for all the disasters including Houston, Galveston, everything else. I was told if I needed help for my farmers, I could do this: Dear Senator, your request to help farmers, this is probably an eligible activity under the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program. These funds may be used to assist businesses to create or retain low- and moderate-income jobs and the CBDG Disaster Recovery Program allows the States to make grants or loans directly rather than through local governments. The only issue that may arise is that circular OMB 8-87 [may?] does not allow one Federal program to be used for costs allocable to another program and these costs may be allocable to the USDA shore program. If the CDBG is designed to only cover costs USDA would not allow, then it would work. I don't have time to explain this to my farmers because it doesn't make any sense. The only thing--actually nothing makes sense to them. I went home last weekend--and I am going to wrap up. I have about a minute left. I went home last weekend and told them I would be there, and hundreds of them came out of the fields with dirt on their hands, of course, filthy dirt. These are men who had been farming for decades, who said: Senator, I left my sons in the field to come meet you. These are the farmers I met with. They said: Senator, what is going on in Washington? Between the weather reports we have to read and working hard in our fields all day, we are having a hard time understanding about this bailout. Who are we bailing out? Why are we bailing them out? And does anybody know that our crops are under water, that we have had the worst disaster? This disaster for us, may I remind everyone, comes 3 years after Katrina hit our State and it was the worst natural disaster and manmade disaster. Let me give you some numbers to illustrate this. When Hurricane Andrew hit, the per capita was $58. After the attacks on the World Trade Center, the per capita equaled $1,050. But after Katrina and Rita hit, the per capita damage shot up to $4,366. And that number will only increase after all the damage left by Gustav and Ike has been assessed. Let me repeat that. No disaster in the history of the country ever exceeded the mark that Katrina and Rita have left Louisiana, including 9/11 or anything. Our disaster in Katrina and Rita, from Mississippi and Louisiana, exceeded $4,000 per capita. I know about disasters. I have been through the worst one in the history of the country. We are just recovering. We are grateful for the aid. We are still struggling. We have communities that are still destroyed, neighborhoods with houses that are worth $600,000 as well as $50,000, still struggling. The gulf coast is not back. And then we get hit by this and then I have to go home and tell my farmers that we are going to do $700 billion for financiers, and nothing for them? I have to go home and tell them I don't know what is going on in this bailout passage, all I can tell you is it looks as though the financiers are going to win and you are going to lose again. I thought before I did that, if at least they could see that I was fighting for them and they could see an actual bill we introduced, that might be helpful. I see my good friend, the Senator from Mississippi, here. I would be happy to yield a minute if he wanted to speak on this, or two?

Ms. LANDRIEU. I am going to wrap up now in 1 minute and yield the rest of my time because I know the Senators are anxious for a vote. I couldn't think of a better way to end than with an endorsement from the senior Senator from Mississippi. He and I and his colleague before him, Trent Lott, have been through the mill, as they say at home, with these storms. Well fought, shoulder to shoulder, side by side. We have had disagreements, but we continue to work on behalf of the people of Mississippi and Louisiana, the gulf coast. We have said often--he and I have come to the floor to say this is America's working coast. We are America's energy coast. We are a breadbasket in our farming community for the rice, cotton, sugarcane, and corn. I appreciate his support. I will be pleased to add him as a cosponsor.

Ms. LANDRIEU. Again, I want the Senator to understand I would not have taken this time--and I do not take it lightly. I am not here complaining about something that only affects Louisiana, although that would be meritorious enough. But I am here saying we cannot talk about a bailout of $700 billion for Wall Street and zero for the rest of America, particularly our farmers. I yield the time. Cooperative Development Program

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Banking Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 5872, 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, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to the bill be printed in the Record.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to morning business, with Senators permitted to speak for up to 10 minutes each.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I intend to speak for these next few minutes, and then perhaps at least once or twice more as the day goes on. As you know, yesterday, because of my initial insistence on a potential rollcall vote that would require the Senate to come back, we were able to at least secure the introduction, at least the introduction of a bipartisan bill cosponsored by several leaders on the Republican side in agriculture and several leaders on our side on agriculture. We voted to extend our Government operations until March. And attached to that continuing resolution were four very important bills to this country--Homeland Security, Defense appropriations, Homeland Security appropriations, in which I had a hand, as all of us did, in crafting. It has a disaster aid package, very specific, not a stimulus, not a spending bill, but a disaster aid package of $22 billion that was passed. The aid package is going to be a great help for the States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, particularly, that were hit so hard by these last storms. That is Congress's responsibility, not to do it all, but to step up in times of disaster and help States and cities and counties through these major disasters. I am starting to feel as if I am an expert on disasters, not something I want to be or that I am happy to be, because there is nothing happy about people losing their life savings, the only home they have ever lived in, having to use up all of their savings that they had for their retirement or their grandchildren or children's college education, to try to keep their home together after everything they have ever known is gone. I have, unfortunately, in my short career here in the Senate, had to be witness to too many of these kinds of disasters in the State I represent. This Congress, particularly, I have to say, the Democratic Congress, has been very generous to help the people of Louisiana and Mississippi. I have been joined at times by Republican leaders who have understood what we are going through. But a few hours ago we passed a bill with some objections, and mine was one, that said there was a glaring omission in all of these bills. It looks as though unless something is done in the next few days this Congress may leave here with $700 billion for Wall Street and zero for farmers. I represent large cities such as New Orleans, my hometown, and large parishes such as Jefferson Parish, in my neighboring city; cities such as our capital city, which is now the largest city in Louisiana because of the damage done to New Orleans by Katrina. But I also represent rural communities such as Delhi and Rayville, and Cheneyville, and Dry Prong, and other places in between that have suffered tremendously, not just from the levee breaches but from the hurricanes and the rain from Fay that hit Florida, but dumped inches of rain on our State, Ike and Gustav. I have spent a good bit of the morning, and I wish to spend now, reading into the Record the real description of this disaster and continue to ask in public places such as this, on the floor of the Senate, for the leaders to come together and do something before we leave. As I speak, the delegation from Louisiana on the House side is gaining signatures from the legislators in Mississippi, the Congressmen from Mississippi, Texas, and Arkansas to join this effort, and agriculture commissioners around the State, around the country, led by Mike Strain, our commissioner, interestingly enough, who is a Republican, I am a Democrat. This is not a partisan issue, this is an issue of fairness and justice, to try to help get our farmers some help before we send a $700 billion package or $350 billion package or $100 billion package, whether it is in one tranche or three tranches or seven tranches, could there possibly be a tranche for middle America, and particularly for our farmers and our rural communities? I wish to read a portion of a beautifully written statement that was delivered before my subcommittee earlier this week as we scrambled to get our information and our data together. It is not as though we were dillydallying or waiting to the last minute. These storms, both Ike and Gustav, happened within the month. Ike happened 2 weeks ago. The people of Galveston literally were allowed back in the city I think 3 days ago to basically look, cry, and leave. I have witnessed this before as people came back to look, cry, and leave, all throughout the coast of Mississippi and Louisiana. Well, my heart goes out to Galveston and to Houston. I committed to their leaders and to all of them, I will do everything I can in the time here to help them. In the midst of all this, focused on levees and breakwaters and rising tides, what the Congress has forgotten is that rains accompany a lot of these storms. The rains fell and fell and fell and devastated parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Of course, earlier in the year, we had the great floods in the Midwest. Of course, even earlier in the year, we had the great fires in California. I am not here saying woe is us, we are the only ones who ever have disasters. What I am saying is, this Congress should not leave trying to bail out Wall Street and leave farmers holding soggy rice or sugarcane or rotten sweet potatoes or cotton in their hands that cannot be harvested. People are scratching their heads, asking me: Does anybody know we are out here? Does anybody care? I was privileged to have Wallace Ellender IV testify before our Agriculture Committee this week. The interesting historical note is that his grandfather was actually the chair of the Agriculture Committee. We had the hearing in the same room that his grandfather chaired, Senator Ellender from Louisiana, a great Senator and a man I knew as a child. He chaired the Agriculture Committee. I would like to read into the Record a portion of this testimony because I thought it was beautifully written and so appropriate for the time. Wallace Ellender writes not only as a sugarcane farmer himself but as chairman of the National Legislative Committee of the American Sugar Cane League. He writes: My brother and I are fifth-generation farmers who grow sugarcane on two farms in the Raceland and Bourg communities in southeast Louisiana, including the land that my ancestors settled in 1853. As a child, I remember my grandfather telling me a story about a stubborn dog that he had when he was a kid on our farm. On one occasion, the family loaded up everyone but the dog in a sailboat and sailed down the bayou to the Gulf. That dog trotted down the bayou behind the boat all the way down to the Gulf at Timballier Island. Other than fording a couple of small streams, he went all the way on foot. Today, that dog would have to swim 30 miles to reach timballier Island. Where Timballier Island is, is washing away at an alarming rate. This is the coast of Louisiana. Timballier Island would be right down in this section. I wish to repeat: That dog trotted down the bayou behind the boat all the way to Timballier island. Other than fording a couple of small streams, he went all the way on foot. Today that dog would have to swim 30 miles to get to the island. As I have said time and time again, if this Congress does not do more--and this administration--to send urgent and direct help through revenue sharing and some special disaster relief, there will not be any farms in south Louisiana left. He continues: Gone are some of the barrier islands and most of the wetlands that served as a natural buffer from the worst of the storms that came in from the Gulf of Mexico. We are losing coastal wetlands at a rate of 40 square miles each year. Some experts predict that the shoreline will move inland over 30 miles in the next 30 years. I hope this gives you some perspective of the breadth of the long-term problem our communities are facing when we look to the south. I don't have to tell anyone who owns a TV or computer about winds that demolish houses and flatten forests and fields, or floods that overwhelm levees and shove aside homes, but the ominous power of the sea when it surges 20-30 miles inland is something to behold. What the sea leaves behind when it retreats can be bad, but what it leaves behind when it stays in the fields is worse. Once breached, levees that held back the tide will hold back the ebbing waters. We tear holes in the levees when necessary to allow the sea to retreat, but sea surges of the magnitude of Rita in 2005 and Ike in 2008 flow over the levees and push vast volumes of seawater to the lowest elevations in the fields. When the tides turn, the storm-ravaged cane fields become salt lakes. But sugarcane is a hearty plant and, with good weather and time, the cane can rebound and produce a decent crop. Harvesting it will be more difficult,and costly, but we can still hope for a mild autumn and a good price to help offset some of the additional costs we will incur in harvesting a bent and broken crop. On the other hand, we may not have much time to finish planting and harvesting before winter frosts and freeze become a concern. Further complicating the matter, sugarcane is a perennial crop and time will be needed to determine whether fields holding surge water for extended periods will recover next year. He goes on to say: According to Dr. Calvin Viator and his team of agricultural consultants, the worst of the wind damage to sugarcane from Gustav occurred in Terrebonne Parish, Assumption Parish, and parts of Lafourche, Ascension, Iberville, West Baton Rouge and Point Coupee Parishes. All these parishes are here, and this represents about 2 million people in the southern part of the State. He says: The northeastern corner of the eye of the hurricane caused the worst stalk breakage, but this damage occurred virtually everywhere in the cane belt. He writes: Hurricane Ike's eye stayed to our south as it moved in on Texas, but this meant that the counter-clockwise winds drove the sea surge deep into Louisiana's cane belt in a manner eerily familiar to those of us who experienced Hurricane Rita in 2005. I wish to stop here and say it is hard to describe the magnitude of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the largest natural disasters in the history of the United States, flooding more than the land of Great Britain, causing economic damage, up to $150 to $200 billion by estimates from conservatives to liberals, estimates from some of the greatest economic think tanks in the country. But all of that aside, to have that happen 3 years ago and then have other storms, Gustav and Ike, hit the same region again is more than I can possibly describe. He goes on to describe the destruction that is occurring right now. This is one of our most successful farmers. This farmer is a wealthy farmer. Whether he and his family will be able to make it, I don't know, but whether you are a wealthy farmer or a middle-income farmer or barely scraping by, the Government has an obligation to respond to disasters that are not of your making. Our leaders have been meeting nonstop for 2 weeks, 3 weeks, and longer in other meetings, trying to figure out a way to handle a disaster that was of our making. These farmers in Louisiana and Mississippi and Arkansas and throughout the country had no hand in this. It was a natural disaster. Yet we have to put up $700 billion for a bailout for Wall Street and the financial markets, and we can't seem to find $1 billion to help families. I will submit this letter for the Record, but I will close with this statement. I know some people listening to me might say: Senator Landrieu, every time we see you, you are asking for help. Every time we hear you, you are saying some other group needs help. I wish to read, on behalf of sugarcane farmers, this sentence: For the record, Louisiana sugarcane growers have received agricultural disaster assistance [just] twice in 200 years of production. I wish to repeat that. We have received, for all the work that has been done, disaster assistance twice in 200 years. Can I say, as their Senator, I don't think that is too much to ask once every hundred years. Some people come to this floor and can't wait until the ink is dry on the tax bill before they come and ask for another loophole, another deduction. They can't wait to take their taxes offshore so they don't have to pay anything. Our farmers in Louisiana have gotten disaster assistance twice in 200 years. I am here asking for them a third time, and I don't think that is too much. They have nowhere to go. They are literally between the sea and disaster. That is the sugarcane farmers in south Louisiana and in north Louisiana. I wish to put up a picture of the cotton crop and what it looks like because it is up north. I wish to submit for the Record part of the beautiful testimony written by Jay Hardwick. I understand I have how much more time?

Ms. LANDRIEU. I ask unanimous consent for 3 more minutes.

Ms. LANDRIEU. This is beautiful testimony by Jay Hardwick, who is vice chairman of the National Cotton Council. Jay is from Newellton, LA, a small town up north. He is also director of the peanut board, past president of the cotton producers, a man who works hard and knows his business well. He farms 7,300 acres of cotton, corn, grain, peanuts, soybean, and wheat. He is diversified. He says: Our producing mission is to achieve a viable and profitable farm enterprise while providing a balance between habitat and production resources with a minimum impact upon the farm ecosystem. Emphasis is placed on conservation crop production methods including no-till, crop rotation, residue maintenance, erosion control and precision technologies to apply and reduce pesticides and nutrient resources to help restore and improve water, air, soil, wildlife habitat. . . . He continues: Plentiful fish, deer, turkey, neotropical birds, migratory waterfowl, turtles, alligators, black bears, and increased sightings of eagles and various cat family members inhabit the property. Our farmers are getting so smart and so good, and they have so much respect from me, trying to use so many techniques to not just produce the healthiest food and fiber in the Nation but to do it in an economical and environmentally safe way. They were environmentalists before the term was made cool in Washington. The farmers in America were the first environmentalists and always will be. They continue to apply techniques to minimize damage. If the people on Wall Street took as much care in their business to minimize damage as farmers in America do every day before 9 o'clock in the morning, we would not be here this weekend. For this Congress to leave without doing anything is a gross violation of our responsibility. This is what the cotton crop looks like, not because there was some ``fancy dancy'' paper taken out and it just turned it bad. A hurricane came through and rains fell and the farmers could not get it out of the fields fast enough. I see the leader. I thank the Senate, at least some Members, for stepping up this morning--Thad Cochran and others--to sign on to a bill that might provide some relief to the farmers, not only in Louisiana but Texas and Mississippi, Alabama, and throughout. I will continue to speak about this as time allows and continue to push the leaders on both sides to come up with something that we can do before we leave.

Ms. LANDRIEU. And Arkansas. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to print in the Record the testimonies to which I referred.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 15 minutes as in morning business.

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

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, I rise to highlight the continued and critical need for post-Katrina health care recovery funding for those hospitals that have struggled to this day to provide critical medical services in the New Orleans region. The Congress has been extremely helpful to the State of Louisiana in providing funding support for many Katrina and Rita recovery purposes. However, minimal assistance has been provided to enable the greater New Orleans area hospitals to maintain adequate and required health care operations. The affected hospitals, specifically East Jefferson General Hospital, Ochsner Health System, Touro Infirmary, Tulane Medical Center, University Hospital, and West Jefferson Medical Center, provided over 90 percent of all regional hospital-based health care, and are expected to do so for at least the next five years. It is vitally important that this health care base be maintained in order to preserve other recovery efforts throughout the region. Louisiana hospital executives have testified before Congress concerning the post-Katrina health care funding crisis caused by escalating expenses that significantly outpaced revenues, with no immediate stabilization expected; post-Katrina labor expenses that increased by $140 million; non-labor expenses--i.e. utilities, insurance, interest, bad debts--that increased by $300 million; and fewer skilled healthcare professionals. The regional hospitals are experiencing reduced bond ratings--with defaults looming--increased marketing and recruiting expenses, and even a loss of leadership. The Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General--OIG--and the General Accounting Office, through extensive and voluntary audits, have objectively validated the magnitude of these post-Katrina financial losses and the demonstrated need for New Orleans regional hospital disaster assistance. To stabilize critical health care services in the region, the New Orleans area hospitals require a federal funding ``bridge'' as they transition to a firmer economic base through adjusted wage indexes and other revenue streams. The hospitals are at a critical tipping point in financial losses, and each is determining the steps necessary to remain medically and fiscally sound. Without funding support, the potential reduction in health care services will impact the fragile recovery of the entire New Orleans region. In the pending appropriations bill now before this body, Social Service Block Grant funding is provided to partially address health care and other needs resulting from Katrina, Rita and other hurricanes and natural disasters. I intend to work closely with the President, the Secretary of Department of Health and Human Services, and other Federal officials to ensure that sufficient block grant funding is provided to the New Orleans regional hospitals to ensure the stability of health care services in the Katrina-affected regions. Again, I was instrumental in crafting this program to help hospitals that, with the electricity off and the city underwater, stayed open by the sheer guts of their doctors and nurses. I can still see them in my mind, struggling to keep those hospitals open with the city completely underwater and a parish underwater. This is for Orleans and Jefferson. They still have not been reimbursed for the work that they did during Katrina. For some reason, we can't get this Congress to understand the importance of what those hospitals did during this great time of need. So I wish to send this in for the Record.

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 man-made 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 create 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. This is a program I was proud to author, design, shepherd through the last Congress to help all the colleges and universities that have been so hard hit, and a portion of the community development block grant loans that we have provided could possibly go to help our universities.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, finally, I wish to urge this administration to provide a 100-percent disaster declaration for at least these parishes. Our Governor has asked for 100 percent for all the parishes--and I am going to put up that chart in a minute--but the Governor believes the entire State deserves to have a 100-percent reimbursement because Gustav went through our whole State, and then Ike came up a few weeks later and flooded and did a tremendous amount of wind damage. We are not designated as a 100-percent cost share yet, which means the Federal Government would step in and pick up 100 percent of some of these parishes that are on their last leg. They have been through four storms in the last couple years. Unfortunately, and I am not sure why, but several counties in Texas have been granted the first 0 to 14 days at 100 percent. Yet our parishes, which were hit equally as hard, have not yet received that designation. So I am asking, on their behalf and with the full support of our Governor, our Lieutenant Governor, and others who are leading our effort in the recovery, if the administration would please consider at least giving equal treatment--100 percent, 0 to 14--for the parishes that were as hard hit as the Texas counties were in this aerial. But do not forget, as I close, that when Hurricane Gustav was in the gulf, our Governor called for a mandatory evacuation, and 2 million people, the largest evacuation in the country's history, left their homes to move temporarily, for a couple days, and then came back. The damage was very bad. It wasn't catastrophic such as Katrina, but it was as bad as Hurricane Rita. But when they came home, the Federal Government said: Well, thank you for evacuating, but there is virtually no help for you or your counties. It is expensive to evacuate. I know people don't understand, those who have never had to go through it, but it costs hundreds of dollars to fill your tank with gas, if you have a car; it costs hundreds of dollars to stay at a hotel, even if it is just for a day or two; it costs hundreds of dollars to drive down the road to pick up your elderly aunt or your grandmother, who lives in another parish, to get her to evacuate. I can't tell you the expense that people incur. I don't think the Federal Government should pick up 100 percent of the expense of mandatory evacuations, but I do think, for some period in some parishes, particularly those that have been very hard hit, that the Government, the Federal Government, if they can do it for some of the counties in Texas, most certainly should consider the parishes in Louisiana. So I am going to submit that as my last plea for the Record. I know it has been a long day, but I feel as if we got some things accomplished. I don't know what the schedule will be as the leaders decide on how we bring this particular Congress to a close, but I have to say the work of the recovery is still going on. It will go on for many years. My heart goes out to my neighbors from Texas who are just now discovering with awe and shock, shock and awe, what a hurricane can mean. They haven't had one in 50 years, such as the one in Galveston, and they had one last week. So I know what they are experiencing because we have been through that. I will stand ready to work with them in my committee, as chair of the Subcommittee on Disaster, when we return. Whether it is floods in the Midwest or hurricanes in the gulf, we will continue to, first, try to protect ourselves by better levees and flood control; and then have a better system of aid and help that is reliable and dependable for these people--for our people, our constituents, and our citizens in need.

Ms. LANDRIEU

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, as people who have been following this debate know, the Senate is working into the weekend to try to finalize some very important pieces of legislation. As a member of the Appropriations Committee, I am disappointed in some way that we were not able to pass 13 individual appropriations bills, because that would be the normal course of business. Because so many of our States and counties depend on this Congress to get these bills done in a quick and efficient manner, it is disappointing to me as a member of the committee, despite how hard we have tried and despite the great efforts of our chairman, Senator Byrd, who has worked tirelessly to try to make that happen. It, unfortunately, does not look as though that is going to happen as we come to an end of this session. What we are debating tonight is a continuing resolution that will keep the Government operating until, according to the date in the continuing resolution, I understand, March 6. Also through that continuing resolution we have attached to it the Defense appropriations bill, the Homeland Security appropriations bill, and the disaster package which I, along with many other Senators, worked very hard to shape as we witnessed and participated in--in terms of rescue, help, and support--several of the last few disasters, starting with Hurricane Fay that hit Florida but literally dropped feet of rain throughout many parts of the country, including Louisiana and other Southern States. Then, only a few weeks later, we witnessed and participated and tried to help as Hurricane Gustav--another category four, then three, and as it went inland a category two--a very powerful storm, delivered hurricane force winds through all of Louisiana--all 64 parishes. Even for a person such as myself, who is now sort of battle tested by hurricanes, it still is shocking that a hurricane could deliver such forceful winds all the way up to the northern boundary of a State that is over 400 miles. That is quite a storm. Then the winds were hardly down, and the electricity not even turned back on, and Hurricane Ike came roaring out of the gulf and hit Texas. Unfortunately for us, being on the east side of Texas, a great deal of damage was done as those very powerful winds and tidal surges again hit Louisiana. So the people of my State, needless to say, are very weary and very tired and in great need of disaster assistance. So are the people of Texas. And let me say, I was pleased to be able to find time, even this week, to host a hearing in my subcommittee, along with my ranking member, Senator Domenici. We had four other Senators join us, for a total of six Senators, to listen to the very moving testimony of the mayor of Galveston, the mayor of Houston, the Lieutenant Governor from Louisiana, the Lieutenant Governor from Texas, and other key officials, as they came to this Congress seeking our help and our support to deal with an unprecedented number of disasters that have happened along the gulf coast. I don't want to forget the floods that happened in the Midwest or the great fires out in California. It has been quite a year for disasters in the heartland, and I know this Congress has given a great deal of time and focused on Iraq and winning the war there. I understand we are focused, as I have urged, on more resources for Afghanistan. We have droughts and starvation and problems in other parts of the world, and we will do what we can to address that. But right here in the heartland, right here in our homeland, we have had many disasters that need our attention. So I was pleased, along with the other Members, Republicans and Democrats, to try to fashion a disaster relief bill that will actually make it to the President's desk so it can be signed. There was some debate earlier as to whether that should be attached to a stimulus, which was not passed today. That would have been a disaster in itself, because it would have gone down, as our stimulus package did. But I and others leaned on the leadership to have this disaster relief attached to something that was a must-pass, and I am very happy that was accomplished and attached to the continuing resolution because this resolution has to pass in some form or fashion prior to October 1, which is only a few days away, or of course the Government will shut down. For the people of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Arkansas, my neighboring States, they breathed a sigh of relief that at least $23 billion in this bill was headed their way. There was some $2-plus- billion set aside for the Corps of Engineers, because levees broke everywhere. Luckily, the levees in New Orleans for Gustav and Ike held--barely held--but levees broke everywhere and thousands of people in urban areas, in suburban areas, in exurban areas, in rural areas, and farmers in the field are underwater. This is not enough, but at least it is something. I will come back to that. We have $6 billion for community development block grant disaster special aid. We laid this precedent down in 9/11, when this Congress rallied to New York's aid and sent a block grant of money. I believe that might have been the first time, in 2001, following that disaster, to help New York City stand up. And when Katrina hit and when Rita hit, we sent a similar block grant, although the money did not get divided according to damage and appropriately, but at least we got a block grant for disaster assistance. The Congress has decided again that the damage was so bad for Gustav and Ike to send another $6.5 billion for these States to share. It is more than just the States of Texas and Louisiana. And that is the good news. But the bad news is that the number alone requested by Texas, preliminary number--and this is before the mayor of Galveston got one person back in her city, because they came back yesterday--these numbers were submitted last week, so these are very preliminary numbers that came from the State of Texas--was 6.5 by itself. There is only 6.5 in the bill. I am going to predict the numbers and the need for Texas is going to go up exponentially in the next few days. And of course, with the needs in Louisiana, in Iowa, in Missouri, in Arkansas, and in Mississippi, 6.5 is a start but there is going to need to be a great deal more assistance, particularly for the States of Texas, Louisiana, and some other States hard hit by these storms. But this is a start, and we are going to make it work. And this money has some flexibility. We can use it for a variety of projects that are important--building non-Federal levees, perhaps some support to our farmers in our rural areas who are in great need. Then the bill goes on to provide some money for the Small Business Administration for disaster loans. We have streamlined that process. I am proud of the work I did in that area. Hopefully, this time it will work better. There is some emergency highway relief money. I wish to show a picture of one of our highways, if we can get that. This is how our highways looked after hurricanes came through. There is money for the social services block grant of $600 million. We still, after asking for 4 years, have yet to receive, after Hurricane Katrina, any Federal funding to help the four hospitals that stayed open for that storm. There have been three since then, and these hospitals are using their own surpluses to take care of the injured and sick along the gulf coast. So we hope that included in this $600 million for the whole country that we will find the money to reimburse those hospitals, which amounts to about $100 million to $150 million. Then there is, luckily, $75 million for fisheries. Because while these cameras focus a great deal on the buildings, as people are on their rooftops, and there are homes that are flooded and pictures of urban areas, what the cameras don't often catch, particularly in the gulf coast and particularly in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas--America's working coast, America's energy coast--is the hundreds of fishing boats, trawlers, commercial fishermen and sports fishermen whose boats, even though they try to protect them in these storms, end up as a pile of rubble, like matchsticks. And the Federal Government acts as if this is not a business. This is a multibillion dollar business. These fishermen deserve our help. This is the picture of Highway 1. I am sorry it is a little grainy, but people would be shocked to know this is the highway that goes down to the very tip of Louisiana, with the gulf being out here. It is completely under water. This is not a minor highway. This is a major energy highway--Highway 1--that runs from the tip of Louisiana all the way to Canada. So this is not a farm road. It is not a gravel road. This is a main U.S. highway that we have been trying to build in Louisiana for the last 20 years, trying to get a few dollars here and a few dollars there. Most of the offshore oil and gas that comes out of the gulf finds its way in and around this road. I finally got Senator Murray to designate this as a Federal priority highway a couple of years ago, as the chairman of the appropriations subcommittee. We have been pushing money to this. If we had revenuesharing, this would have been built already, but that is another story. But this is what south Louisiana looks like, and the fishermen need more help. This is Fort Fourchon. Again, this is a major oil and gas hub. When the tidal surge comes up--because we are not investing in the infrastructure--and when the refineries shut down and the oil rigs shut down, these are the conditions they are shutting down in. To end this part, I hope I have demonstrated that while we are grateful for this $23 billion, and we had unprecedented cooperation from the Governors of all of the States, Republicans and Democrats, and unprecedented cooperation putting this package together, this is only a downpayment on the disasters we have to face. So in the continuing resolution there is the DOD appropriations bill, the Homeland Security bill, Military Construction, and luckily we were able to get in a $22 billion disaster relief bill. But the reason I am on the floor tonight--and let me ask how much time I have remaining.

Ms. LANDRIEU. I ask unanimous consent for 5 more minutes.

Ms. LANDRIEU. The reason I am on the floor tonight is to call attention to the fact that despite this good help--and it is good help, and I am very appreciative--we have left out a very important segment of our population in disaster aid, and that is direct aid to our farmers. This is a farmer from Louisiana, in Cheneyville, LA. He is standing in his rice field. You know, rice can be grown dry or in water, but too much of it is a problem. And if it has salt in it, that is a problem. The tidal surges that have come into Louisiana, and the floods, have been so great in central and north Louisiana, that even though some of our rice had been harvested, a great deal was in the fields when Gustav and Ike struck. So Fay came over the south and dumped a tremendous amount of rain just as southern agriculture was preparing for the harvest. Fay came in the early part of August, as we prepare for the harvest in September and October. Mr. President, you most certainly, being a rancher yourself, can appreciate what goes on over the course of a year, where farmers work hard and hold their breath and say a lot of prayers. They roll up their sleeves and get up early and see that the crop looks good; that the weather has been great. They have corn in the field, cotton out there, and they have soybeans. And corn is at a great price. The prices are good for the first time in a long time. The farmers are thinking: Oh, my gosh, we are going to have a great year. We have had a couple of bad years lately. Well, all of a sudden, these storms come out of the gulf, and before you know it, they are barreling down on Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas again, dumping huge amounts of rain, flooding the fields, and at the worst possible time. I wish to put up another picture of our farms from another part of our State. As the staff does that, I wish to read some of the damages, in terms of numbers. Whether it was rice or sugarcane or cotton or soybean, it has been a disaster. I will get to that in a moment. Let me read to you Mr. Harwick's story. Mr. Harwick is a farmer from Newellton, LA. He produces 7,000 acres of cotton, corn, and grain. He is a very successful farmer. He is diversified. He uses the best risk management practices. He also produces wheat. He is Vice President of the National Cotton Council. During Gustav, his family farm received more than 20 inches of rain. Mr. President, I know you are from Montana. I don't think you had 20 inches of rain in several years. So our problem in Louisiana is managing an abundance of water. I know in the West you all struggle with managing too little of it. Our problem is we drain two-thirds of the continental United States. So if it rains in Arkansas, it is not just a problem for Arkansas, it is a problem for Louisiana. When it rains in Missouri, that water eventually finds it way down the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, so this has been a constant battle for our farmers for hundreds of years. Despite that, we have very productive farming. This is what the cotton crop looked like on Jay Harwick's farm. The specialist from the University of Louisiana estimated that the cotton crop will be reduced by $125 to $137 million; anywhere from a $52 to $57 million decline in farm-gate value. It is also estimated that more than 80,000 acres of cotton will not be harvested in Louisiana, and on the remaining acres, the yield losses will be dramatic. That is just cotton. My time is running out tonight, but I will be back tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock, as we vote, and then speaking for most of the day and night on this subject. I do not most certainly have to take up anymore time tonight as I try to call attention to the tremendous devastation in the South and in other parts of this country and the need for this Congress, before we leave, to do something more significant for agriculture and to do it in a way that provides direct assistance to farmers now. I will conclude with this. The reason we cannot wait is the credit crunch is real and now. No. 2, there is nothing to wait for because the new farm program, the rules and regulations that we passed recently, will not even be finished being written, let alone to be able to receive applications for aid, until next year. That will be too late. So for Jay Hardwick, the farmers I represent, the farmers in the South, I am going to stand here for quite a while and talk about their situation and say that, most certainly, if we can spend a few weeks trying to figure out how to save the financial markets and Wall Street, we can spend a little bit of time and a little bit of money trying to help farmers who did not take out subprime loans, who managed their risk well and got caught in circumstances well beyond their control that were not manmade but were of nature's making. The facts of Wall Street and the financial crisis were not natural disasters. We all had a part in, I guess, making that happen. I am not here to point fingers or to blame anyone else. But for these farmers, this was not manmade. The men who grew these crops did everything they were supposed to do, their families did everything they were supposed to do, and the rains came. If we do not give them help, they will not make it until the spring. I will be speaking about this for quite some time this weekend. We are grateful for the aid we received but there needs to be some changes before we leave, and I am going to do what I can to make that possible. I yield the floor.

Ms. LANDRIEU

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

Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I understand that Members can come to the floor to speak for up to 10 minutes in morning business. I ask unanimous consent to extend that to 15 minutes.

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, I know that throughout the Capitol, even at this relatively late hour, there are many meetings going on as Senators and members of the administration and House Members and leadership and rank-and-file struggle with how to address some of the major challenges before our Nation, both domestically and internationally. Of course, Mr. President, you are aware that while all of these issues are going on, for those of us in the South, we have a special mission, if you will, and our attention has been drawn in the last few weeks to the terrible devastation that has occurred not just in Louisiana, not just in parts of Mississippi, not just in Arkansas, but, of course, in Texas as well, where not one storm, not really two, but, Mr. President, as you are aware, three pretty major hurricanes, starting with Fay, came through Florida with drenching rain, rain, rain, and not just in the State of Florida because as that storm moved its way up through the central part of our State, it flooded vast areas of the central part of our country. Then, as people were drying out and cleaning up from the wreckage of these storms, with levees overflowing, creeks rising, farmers struggling, and communities trying to keep dry, lo and behold, here comes Gustav into the gulf, skipping Florida this time, no direct hit-- although you have been hit so many times in the last few years--but slamming right into the coast of Louisiana, as ironic as it would seem, literally almost to the day of the third anniversary of Katrina, which was the worst catastrophe. And we say natural disaster, but actually it was a manmade catastrophe because had the levees that we made held, the city would not have gone underwater, or the region. So it was both a natural and manmade disaster. On the third anniversary, Gustav comes through, with its great tidal surge in south Louisiana. It caught part of Mississippi, as well as a little bit of Texas, but it swept through all 64 parishes in Louisiana with hurricane-force winds. Now, this is not usual for us. We usually have terrible storms, such as Hurricanes Rita and Katrina, without the levee breaks, where the damage is localized to the southern part of our State. But not Gustav. Gustav came through as a category III and then II, and then the winds moved through our entire State. Louisiana was in that path. Just as we were catching our breath and the lights were starting to come back on after weeks, Ike comes roaring in--yes, directly into Galveston and into that path of Houston, but, as you know, the eastern bands are the worst, and to the east of Galveston and to the east of Beaumont, lo and behold, lies southwest Louisiana and coastal Louisiana yet again. I tell my family that I feel as if--not just for me but the people I represent--we are living literally the chapters of Job, I mean for the last several years, just suffering after suffering after suffering. This Congress has been very good, particularly the leadership now, to step up. Even at times when, in my view, the administration turned a cold shoulder for whatever reason, this Congress stepped up and did yeoman's work, basically pushing forward on 100 percent reimbursement when we needed it and, when there was some reluctance to do so at the administration level, giving us more community development block grants, and I could go on and on. We are very grateful. But I had to come to the floor today, Mr. President, to speak again on behalf of the 64 parishes in Louisiana and the southern part of our State. Senators, of course, will speak for their own States, but I am well aware, having been in conversations with Senator Hutchison of Texas earlier today and Senator Blanche Lincoln from Arkansas and other Senators, that the southern part of our State, particularly when it comes to our rural areas and to agriculture, is currently being overlooked, and I am here today to call attention to this fact and to try to lay out some data for the record in hopes that sometime before we leave here we might make a few corrections to this situation because it would be tragic and devastating to not just hundreds but thousands of families in these rural areas. Right now, as I speak, people in these areas are looking out at their fields and seeing complete and total destruction. These storms hit not at planting time, not in the middle of the season, but at harvest time, and because the Fay rains delayed the harvest--and, of course, you know how our crops are harvested, Mr. President. You can't harvest crops in the middle of torrential downpours, so the farmers who were ready waited. We had beautiful crops in the field. We had soybean that looked beautiful. We had cotton. Our sweet potato crop looked promising. We are growing a lot more corn. In Louisiana, we grow it all. We are not a State that grows just one crop. We have vegetables, but primarily it is cotton, soybean, rice, and now our sweet potatoes are growing in many more places, not just south Louisiana. So our farmers were literally giddy with excitement. Only 4 months ago, we were thinking we were going to have a Record, a banner agricultural year. I am sure people were making plans for expansion and new investments and perhaps even acquiring new land or expanding their lease arrangements. Literally within a matter of 90 days, the world turned upside down. The world seems to be turning upside down right now in another sector, in the financial markets. As that world is turning upside down, this Congress is turning with it and all attention right now is focused on Wall Street and financiers and the lack of credit in New York, on the east coast to the west coast. But I am here to tell you there is a credit crunch, a credit crisis right now in the heartland and nobody is talking much about this. We have a $700 billion bailout bill under consideration. I have not heard in the last 2 weeks from anyone--from the Fed to the White House to many of the leadership here in Congress--about any kind of credit crunch happening in small towns, on Main Streets, the heartland, the backbone of this country when it comes to agriculture. I can tell you there is a lot of anxiety and a lot of fear where I come from. I visited some of my farms last week. I went up to northeast Louisiana to see for myself. I have been getting calls, hearing some dire reports, so I thought I better go look and see myself because I am sure--I don't know, but I would venture to say there hasn't been anybody from the U.S. Department of Agriculture up there lately. I thought, since I am a Senator from Louisiana, I would go up and look myself. I am going to put up some pictures here because I was so taken by what I saw that I had my staff blow up some photographs. This is the rice crop in Cheneyville, LA. Of course it is completely ruined. The rice is sprouting in the fields, unable to be harvested. These fields are not able to be drained. That is the rice crop. I want to show a picture of our cotton crop in north Louisiana. And I have a few other photos to share about sugarcane, sweet potatoes, et cetera. This is our cotton crop right here. Again, literally 8 weeks ago this was the most beautiful cotton you could see, for miles and miles. Louisiana, even though we talk a lot about tourism and we talk a lot about the port and oil and gas, we are by nature a very strong agricultural State. Not every State in the Union is such, but we are. We have thousands of acres under cultivation. This is what our cotton looks like. It cannot be harvested. The farmers who were desperate to try to get in there and harvest what they could have been turned away at the gin because the gin is unable to process this cotton. So we are going to have 100 percent losses on some farms, 50 percent losses, 45 percent losses, at a time when the farmers have put every penny they had into their crop, waiting to pull it out. At that moment the rains came. When you talk about a credit crunch, I know it may be tight on the east coast and the west coast, but it could hardly get tighter than in small places that I know of in Louisiana. I am sure this is true of Texas and Arkansas. We are not asking for $700 billion. We are not even asking for $50 billion. We are not even necessarily at this moment asking for $10 billion. But we have to have something before we leave. We have to have something before we leave. When I saw this, I thought surely the Department of Agriculture is on top of this--because I have one staff person who does agriculture--one. The Department of Agriculture--I don't know, but I am going to put in the Record how many employees they might have. I am sure it is thousands. I am going to put into the Record the exact number. So I say to myself: Don't worry, Senator, there is a whole Department of Agriculture out there. Surely the people whose job it is to record this would have been down to either Louisiana or Texas or Mississippi or Arkansas to take pictures and maybe help declare a disaster. On Wednesday I had a hearing and asked the Secretary to come before our committee, to ask him if he has the intention of declaring a disaster in Louisiana. He said he was not sure. When I pressed him for when he might declare a disaster, he did not know. They said they are getting the figures in as we speak. I have the figures from our Commissioner of Agriculture. I am going to submit them for the record. But the preliminary figures that we have been scrambling to get in the last few weeks, from L.S.U., and from our research centers and extension service centers, say it is a minimum of a $700 million loss just in Louisiana. I know Texas is still struggling. The people just got back to Galveston yesterday. We still cannot get into Cameron Parish, which is the parish closest to Texas, along our border, because it is that devastated and flooded. We only have 10,000 people who live there, but it is a great farming and ranching community. Yes, I admit our numbers are not completely in from Cameron. But it doesn't take a month to get numbers from Richland Parish. It doesn't take a month to get numbers from Madison Parish. I suggest somebody who works for the Department of Agriculture might want to spend a little time looking at central and north Louisiana so we can get our numbers in. I thought not only would they do that, they would have declared a disaster and we would have a program to help. You know what I found out when I came back? We had created a program in the last farm bill--that is the good news. The bad news is the regulations have not yet started to be written. Let me be clear. We passed a bill. There is a new program. They have started very briefly to write these regulations but, according to the testimony I received--I am going to submit the full testimony for the Record--the regulations are ``not imminent.'' I will wrap up. I ask unanimous consent for 2 more minutes.

Ms. LANDRIEU. The Under Secretary said--when I said, Could these regulations be written in 3 months? Could they be written in 6 months? Could they be written within the year?--Let me just say, Senator, ``they are not imminent.'' I said, What exactly does that mean? So our farmers have nowhere to ask for help? Well, that is about it. That answer is not acceptable to this Senator. If we are dealing with a credit crisis and can, in 5 days or 7 days, put together a $700 billion bailout for the financiers who bet on the price of cotton and soybean and wheat and sweet potatoes and sugarcane, we most certainly can spend a few days and a few billion dollars supporting the men and women who actually grow it. That is why I am going to spend some time today, tonight, tomorrow and the next day, until I hear from the leadership--the Republican leadership, the Democratic leadership, or from the leadership at the White House--about what we can possibly do to get some help to farmers in the middle of the country who need our attention. The program that will help them, the regulations have not been written. They can't even apply until next year. They have to go to the bank next week. When they go to the bank, if we don't do something here, the bank is going to say I can't lend you money because I can't get it from the elevator, the elevator can't get it from the importer or exporter, and it is a chain event that will result for the people whom we all represent--who have not borrowed one penny inappropriately, who were not engaged in subprime mortgages. All they do is work hard before the Sun comes up and as it goes down they are still working; who pay their bills and pay their mortgages. In their time of need this Congress is going to walk out without leaving a few pennies on the table for them? I don't think so. I have brought this to the attention of the Appropriations Committee in a letter I wrote several weeks ago. I guess the letter was not written strongly enough to get the attention we needed, so I am going to continue to speak and make phone calls and hold meetings and organize as best I can a group of Senators and House Members who represent the southern part of this country and the breadbasket of America, the central interior part, to say while we are bailing out the financial coasts, we have our energy coast, which is a whole other speech that I could give, underwater, our rigs are toppled, now our crops are down in the field down in the south, in the gulf coast, and we cannot even get a quorum in a meeting to take care of this. Let me say generally, the chairman of the Agriculture Committee, Tom Harkin, has been very sensitive. I brought this matter to him and he conducted a joint hearing with me, so I thank publicly Senator Harkin. I thank Kay Bailey Hutchison for phone calls and meetings. I thank Blanche Lincoln. I am sure there will be other Senators who can recognize the damage done, not just to Louisiana but to their States as well, and recognize that the program we have, the regulations have not been written and it is not going to help. Let me also mention Senator Kent Conrad who helped design that program. He has said to me, and will probably speak on this, that he recognizes the program that has been designed is not sufficient and we do need special help. I am going to conclude by saying I will be back on the floor in the morning and many times throughout this weekend as we work through these major bills on defense, homeland security, the Wall Street bailout. But I am going to continue to press for some appropriate immediate relief, targeted and specific to the counties and to the parishes and farmers and farm communities that need the most help. Certainly these Americans who have done nothing wrong but work hard and just got caught in a confluence of terrible rains and bad storms can get the help they need. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.