Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I rise today on my own behalf and on behalf of my colleague Senator Bill Cassidy.

I know this has been true for States besides Louisiana, but for the last 18 months, from a weather perspective, Louisiana has been a fantastic impression of hell. We have had three hurricanes. We have had, depending upon how you define them, probably 10 different heavy rain events. And when I say ``heavy rain events,'' I mean, that doesn't sound very serious. I can assure you, it was. When you get 6, 8, 10, 12 inches of rain in a short period of time, you are going to flood. I don't care if you are living on Pikes Peak. You are going to flood. The water has to go somewhere. And, of course, we were part of the bad, debilitating freeze, as well, that also hit Texas very hard.

My people are very resilient, and they are tough, but they are tired.

Most Americans, when they think of a natural disaster, at least in connection with Louisiana, think of Hurricane Katrina, and, certainly, it was a bad one. I was there. We never would have recovered without the help of the American people, and I will never be able to thank the American people enough for putting forth their hard-earned tax dollars to help us recover.

These new hurricanes and rain events and freezes impacted probably close to one-third, maybe 40 percent of my people. The worst part of it, but not the only part that was hit hard, was Southwest Louisiana. At last count, about 100,000 homes were damaged, flooded, or blown over.

They are still running the numbers. The damages are in the billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars, and my people need help.

The purpose of my bill today is to offer us help for them. My bill today and Senator Cassidy's bill today--as I said, I am here on behalf of Senator Cassidy, as well--would authorize $1.1 billion to help my people recover.

Now, I want to emphasize, some people, when they think of flooding and hurricanes, think of wealthy people with second homes, with multimillion-dollar dwellings on the beach. That is not what I am talking about. I am not putting down anybody who has a nice, expensive beach house, but that is not what we are talking about in Louisiana.

The people who were hit by these weather events, through no fault of their own, are just good, honest middle Americans who get up every day and go to work and obey the law. They pay their taxes. They try to do the right thing by their kids. Their biggest investment is their home, and many completely lost their home. Many of them had flood insurance, and many of them had homeowner's insurance--and both. But it just didn't cover their losses completely. So we are talking about middle America here, and I want to make that clear.

Now, Mr. President, I am sure you are thinking, because I know you well and you are a smart man: OK, if we are spending $1.1 billion here, where are we going to get it?

Well, I come to you today with a problem, but I also come to you today with a solution.

I don't want to digress too much, but, as you know, we are trying to build out 5G in America, and 5G operates through radio waves through the air called spectrum. And the FCC is in charge of those radio waves. A couple of years ago, the FCC--and those radio waves, by the way, belong to the American people. The FCC licenses them out to companies to use in wireless communications. A few years ago, the FCC was about to give away what is called the C-band spectrum, these particular radio waves that would allow for 5G to become reality in America. And a number of us objected. We said: You know, you don't own these radio waves. The American people own these radio waves. Why are you giving them away?

And after some lively discussions, we finally turned the FCC around, and they decided to auction those radio waves to the highest bidder. They brought in $80 billion--$80 billion--and I am very proud of that. That money is sitting in an account in the Department of the Treasury.

Senator Cassidy's bill and my bill would authorize the use of $1.1 billion of that $80 billion in cash to be used through community development block grants to help my people recover.

I can assure you that I wouldn't be here today asking for this if my people didn't desperately need it. They are hanging on. They are hanging on with every ounce of strength they have, but they are human. And, as I said, they are tough, but they are tired.

2359, which is at the desk. I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

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