Background: Late tonight, Senator Grassley asked for Unanimous Consent for the Senate to bring up and pass the Disaster Tax Relief Bill that he has spearheaded. The bill would provide targeted assistance to families and businesses in 10 states throughout the central United States to help those who suffered damage from the deadly storms and floods rebuild their lives.
Grassley has been vocal about the Midwest receiving unfair treatment by the Congress as it struggles to recover from the floods and tornadoes that devastated the state. Congress passed a tax bill, similar to what Grassley tried to get passed tonight, within 3 weeks of returning following Hurricane Katrina.
Grassley’s request was objected to by Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois on behalf of Senator Max Baucus of Montana.
Here is the unofficial text of Grassley’s remarks.
GRASSLEY: Mr. President, I rise for the purpose of a unanimous consent request for the Midwestern flood tax relief bill sponsored by senators of several Midwestern states, including Senator Harkin of my state, Senator Durbin, Senator Obama of Illinois and other Midwestern senators.
I rise to seek fairness and equity for people in the Midwest who have been hurt by floods, and I would say fairness and equity as measured by how Congress responded for the natural disaster of Katrina, New Orleans, etc. I remember back in September of 2005, after that terrible catastrophe of August 29, what happened to New Orleans. Within a week after we were in session after Labor Day, we had appropriated $60 billion. Within three weeks after that, I was chairman of the Finance Committee, we voted out of committee a tax equity bill that changed provisions of the tax code to encourage employers and business and people to stay there and weather it out.
What we did, we did it without asking any questions. Now we seek the same tax relief for the states of the Midwest that have had the same type of catastrophe happen to them. I would measure catastrophe by a 500-year flood for the city of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as an example, a city that won't be the same from what it was prior to the flood. So we have entered this legislation for consideration. We've worked it out with a lot of people that were involved in it, we think we have a consensus.
Here it is six weeks after the floods hit and Congress has not acted and Congress should act. In other words, shouldn't the people hurt by the natural disaster of the Midwest have the same consideration as the people of New Orleans had and other catastrophes?
We're not getting it. It's very clear that when our disaster's not on television for two months in a row like the disaster of New Orleans was on television for two months in a row, that somehow Congress is absent-minded about what really happened in the Midwest. So we face things like arguments from staff of some people in the other body that this disaster really wasn't anything like what happened with Katrina. You hear things like, we need to offset this bill. Well, when I was chairman of the Finance Committee and people in New Orleans were hurting, we did not ask for offsets, we did not play political games with the legislation that we eventually passed. For instance, some efforts that this Midwest tax flood relief act ought to be connected with extenders or with AMT or something like that.
We got the job done. We didn't worry about it. So, I come before this body tonight to ask consideration for this legislation.
At this point, Mr. President, I would ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be discharged from further consideration of s. 3322 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration. I ask consent that the Grassley amendment at the desk be agreed to, the bill as amend be read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table and the bill be held at the desk pending House action on the companion measure.
DURBIN: Objection (full text of remarks not available at this time)
GRASSLEY: I'd ask unanimous consent for one minute and then I'll finish. I'd like to point out that what the Senator from Illinois described is an amendment that would have not responded to the Midwest in exactly the same way as we responded to Katrina. It wouldn't have been as beneficial. It also did not contain the same 25 provisions that we did for New Orleans that were in that tax bill, to help them. I think we have a situation where we ought to respond the same way we did for Katrina and we're not doing it because the disaster in the Midwest is just as bad. When we sought (assistance for) Katrina, we didn't argue with other people about going back and taking care of disasters that previously had happened. We took care of what was before us. Right now, the flood of the Midwest is before us and we ought to have the same equity and the same fairness that when we had a Republican Congress, we gave to New Orleans. Whether we have a Democrat Congress or a Republican Congress shouldn't make any difference. But we're being treated different when the Democrats control the Congress. I yield the floor.
