Schatz Calls For Additional Federal Disaster Relief Funding For Maui, Other Impacted Communities

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) today delivered remarks on the Senate floor to call on lawmakers in Congress to pass additional disaster relief funding for Maui and other disaster-impacted communities across the country.

“Eight months on from the devastating fires on Maui, the needs remain enormous. Thousands of people are still living out of hotels and vacation rentals, unable to rebuild their lives. Roads and water systems have yet to be repaired. Small businesses and their employees continue to struggle without tourism. For Lahaina to recover, thousands of homes will need to be rebuilt. Critical infrastructure will need to be restored. Businesses will need to get up and running again. So Congress needs to step up and help here. That includes providing funding for the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery – or CDBG-DR – program as the supplemental request calls for. CDBG-DR funding has long been a lifeline for families and small businesses rebuilding after disasters. Maui and countless other communities nationwide are now counting on that help,” said Senator Schatz, Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development.

Schatz continued, “It’s been almost six months since the president called on Congress to help communities recover from disasters. We’ve waited a long time, but we can’t wait any longer. The disasters keep piling up, and with them, the urgent needs of survivors. People need help. And so we need to pass this supplemental and make sure all survivors are getting the relief they need. This is not each against all. We’re all in this together. Every community deserves help – and Congress must provide it.”

The full text of the Senator’s remarks as prepared for delivery can be found below. Video is available here.

It’s been over five months since the president submitted a domestic supplemental appropriations request to Congress. And among other things, it called for funding recovery efforts in communities across the country struck by disasters, including Maui. Every one of these affected communities…in Florida, California, Vermont, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Alaska, South Dakota, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana Tennessee. Each one of them is in the middle of a long and difficult process of rebuilding and getting back on its feet.

Recovering from a disaster, whether natural or manmade, is hard…it’s time-intensive…and it’s incredibly expensive. Surveying the damage in the immediate hours and days following the event. Undertaking the complex and often dangerous process of debris removal. Rebuilding homes, roads, schools and other essential infrastructure that were destroyed. Providing financial assistance to people, families, and small business owners who lost their jobs and livelihoods overnight. It takes months and years, and tremendous effort from thousands of people, to return these communities to anything close to normal.

Today, another community is unfortunately confronting the colossal task of rebuilding – this time in Baltimore in the wake of the tragic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Our hearts go out to the families of the 6 men who were lost that day. They were fathers, husbands, and brothers. Immigrants who worked day and night to provide for their families. Their losses are heartbreaking.

As Baltimore recovers, we stand ready to support all of the communities and businesses that relied on that bridge and the Port of Baltimore every day to get around and move goods through. As Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, I’m committed to doing everything I can to help pass the necessary funding to rebuild.

As we do that, we also have an opportunity – and a responsibility – to support every other community that has been devastated by a disaster. Because we’re all in this together. No state or county…big or small, red or blue, wealthy or not…can shoulder the burden alone. When a disaster is so big…so catastrophic for any one state or locality to handle, it falls on the federal government to step up and help. It’s central to the promise of the federal government. We can argue about the size and scope of the government all we like. Which programs to fund…what levels to fund them at. But even the most libertarian among us can agree that helping our fellow Americans when they are in crisis…when they’ve lost everything and are desperate for support…helping them is patriotic and important.

It’s why funding disaster recovery has historically been a bipartisan effort in Congress. Because people on both sides of the aisle have recognized, rightly, that disasters don’t discriminate between red states and blue. Accidents don’t pick and choose their victims. Every community that has had the misfortune of being struck by disaster needs and deserves help.

Maui is just one example of what these communities are facing. Eight months on from the devastating fires, the needs remain enormous. Thousands of people are still living out of hotels and vacation rentals, unable to rebuild their lives. Roads and water systems have yet to be repaired. Small businesses and their employees continue to struggle without tourism.

For Lahaina to recover, thousands of homes will need to be rebuilt. Critical infrastructure will need to be restored. Businesses will need to get up and running again. So Congress needs to step up and help here. That includes providing funding for the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery – or CDBG-DR – program as the supplemental request calls for. CDBG-DR funding has long been a lifeline for families and small businesses rebuilding after disasters. Maui and countless other communities nationwide are now counting on that help.

It’s been almost six months since the president called on Congress to help communities recover from disasters. We’ve waited a long time, but we can’t wait any longer. The disasters keep piling up, and with them, the urgent needs of survivors. People need help. And so we need to pass this supplemental and make sure all survivors are getting the relief they need. This is not each against all…we’re all in this together. Every community deserves help – and Congress must provide it.

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