The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“LOUISIANA” mentioning Bill Cassidy was published in the Senate section on page S4612 on June 17.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
LOUISIANA
Mr. CASSIDY. Mr. President, June marks the start of the Atlantic hurricane season, and 2021 is on us, but my constituents are still suffering from the storms of 2020. There are a lot of folks in Louisiana who are still hurting. If you were to fly over Lake Charles, LA, you would still see blue tarps on roofs of homes damaged a year ago.
I took to the Senate floor last month stressing the need for disaster supplemental while Lake Charles and Baton Rouge at that time were getting hit by heavy rains and severe flooding. At the time, Lake Charles ended up with 8 to 15 inches of rain in less than 12 hours. It is heartbreaking to see them affected once more by a natural disaster. Baton Rouge got more than 13 inches of rain overnight, with 15,000 homes and businesses without power the next morning. All this comes on the heels of Hurricanes Laura and Delta and winter storms which had catastrophic damage to livestock, crops, and structures for Louisiana farmers.
For those who need a refresher, 2020 set a record for the most named storms--30 in 1 season and 5 of those named storms hitting Louisiana, which is also a record. Hurricane Laura, a category 4 hurricane, hit Lake Charles, devastated it, and then almost the exact same place that Laura hit, Delta hit--category 2--6 weeks later. It is unprecedented to have one hurricane followed by another.
NOAA calculates the damage from Hurricane Laura at about $19 billion and Delta at $2.9 billion. Laura wreaked havoc through devastating winds, which reached 150 miles per hour at landfall--the strongest hurricane to hit my State since 1856. Delta was just rain. In LeBleu Settlement, just northeast of Lake Charles, they received almost 18 inches.
I may sound like a broken record, but I need to just play this broken record once more. We cannot allow the impact of an entire year's worth of natural disasters to go unaddressed.
Just a few weeks ago, I was in Lake Charles, and I heard incredible frustration about rebuilding in the aftermath of these storms--a church still with its roof ripped off; homes, as I mentioned, covered with tarps--and stories from members of the community who are not back in their homes and, frankly, may not even be back in their city because there are no homes and there is no housing for them to return to.
The people in Lake Charles have an incredible resilience and an incredible we-can-do spirit. So you go there, and people are laughing and they are smiling, but then you see that blue tarp, and you know that this community will not recover at the way things are going. I would argue that the weather events were tragic, but the lack of action upon recovery is making a tragedy worse.
In March, my colleague from Oregon, Senator Jeff Merkley, and I urged the Biden administration to support a supplemental disaster appropriation to urgently address and direct Federal resources to communities throughout America struggling to recover from hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and other 2020 natural disasters.
President Biden came to Louisiana. Once more, he heard from Mayor Nic Hunter, Governor Edwards, and myself that we could hopefully have some relief. We need programs like community development block grants, disaster recovery, mitigation funding, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineer funding for southwest coastal Louisiana hurricane and storm damage risk reduction. We need emergency solutions grants and social services block grants to provide assistance to the thousands of families who have lost their homes due to hurricanes like those I have been describing.
We are past due moving quickly. If it happened tomorrow, it still would have not happened quickly, and we have gone into another year which could have similar storms. We need to help the people of Southwest Louisiana. The region has been pounded. My job is to do all I can to help them get back on their feet.
Once more, I call on my colleagues in the House and the Senate with a simple message: Let's get a disaster supplemental done.
With that, I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Michigan.
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