Senate Proceeding on Sep 16th, 2009 :: 8:59:20 to 9:14:10
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8:59:17 to 8:59:37( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: and it is clear to me we're losing momentum. this is not a time to deliberate. this is a time to act. the presiding officer: the senator has a senator: thank you; mam president. the presiding officer: the senator from louisiana. landrieu dew i ce to -- ms. land drew: i come to the

8:59:20 to 9:14:10( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Mary Landrieu

8:59:38 to 8:59:58( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: floor to speak on three amendments very briefly. ms. landrieu: allhree senators have been leaders on the issue of our international engagements and just a few thoughts. you i hope that the -- i hope that the three senators, senator

8:59:59 to 9:00:21( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: mccain and senator graham, as we contemplate the issues be willing to fund nonmilitary programs as well that have shown in front of the armed services committee, in front of the many appropriations committees, the testimony given by secretary gates himself as well as many military leaders to invest in

9:00:22 to 9:00:43( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: programs that actually help reduce violence by supporting development in afghan empowering individuals, particularly, i might say, women in afghanistan. who with a ttle bit of help and a little bit of support can be strength and the cement that

9:00:44 to 9:01:04( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: holds these communities and villages together. educating girls is an important strategy. so one thing we have learned from the failed policies of the previous administration is you have to power combined to make it smarter so we can actually win some of these battles.

9:01:05 to 9:01:25( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: and i president obama and his team are thinking about. how do we unite the congress past partisan rhetoric and trying to gain political points and come up with a really smart strategy to win in afghanistan so that not only do we protect our troops, we might be able to

9:01:26 to 9:01:46( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: get them home a little bit sooner. so i'm sure that that's what the president is thinking about and i look forward to working with senator lieberman, senator mccain, and senator graham as we move forward hopefully in a bipartisan fashion to protect our troops and to win in a place that we most certainly need to

9:01:47 to 9:02:08( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: win and keep the taliban at bay. but i came to talk about two other, three other issues. one is an amendment that i have pending, madam president. it's 2365, and i see on the floor my colleague, senator hutchison, who is a cosponsor of this amendment. and although we are not going to

9:02:09 to 9:02:29( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: vote on it tonight, i wanted to speak for just a moment, if could, about this amendment. unfortunately, i'm going to be away from the senate tomorrow in a longstanding speech that i promised to give for senator domenici in new mexico. so i will not be here,

9:02:30 to 9:02:50( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: unfortunately, for this vote. but i know that my colleagues who are supporting this amendment will stand in and carry the torch here. but the important thing for the community development block grant amendment that we have is for the communities in texas that are continuing to recover and in louisiana, and in iowa, and in california, and i think

9:02:51 to 9:03:11( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: even, madam president, in your state of that had a disaster in 2008, we appropriated community development block grant for them, which is the way the congress has been trying to help our communities after disasters.

9:03:12 to 9:03:32( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: but the problem was in this particular allocation did, we prohibited these communities from using money to match other federal moneys that might be available to about it was not done that way for any

9:03:33 to 9:03:53( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: other disasters in any other years for the last 17. so what my amendment will do is to basically revert to the regular language so that tse communities, galveston, senator hutchison and i will be there on friday to tour to see how they're coming back. she's been such a leader in this effort.

9:03:54 to 9:04:14( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: there's still many communities in new orleans and in southwest louisiana and other par south louisiana. so this amendment is crucial. it doesn't add money to the bill. it just allows us to use money smarter. and for the communi really struggling, not just because of because of the atmosphere of

9:04:15 to 9:04:35( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: tough economic times, it gives our local and state leaders a little bit more flexibility to pull down some of the federal money that's already been allocated to these communities that need it the most. so, again, it's 2365. senator grassley is supportive, senator and i thank them so much.

9:04:36 to 9:04:58( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: and we will consider this amendment tomorrow. i want to speak against an amendment by my colleague, senator vitter, that will also be on the and, again, i will not be here to vote no, but will statement to the record. but i wanted to speak tonight

9:04:59 to 9:05:19( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: about how strongly i oppose amendment 2359, which will be voted on tomorrow. thiss an amendment, for tw reasons on the policy issue number one, it's bad policy and i'll talk about why in a minute, but the other reason i'm against it is because this amendment

9:05:20 to 9:05:41( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: only deals with public housing residents in the city of new orleans, not public housing residents everywhere in the country, not public housing residents right here in the district of columbia, not public residents in the city of chicago or new york but only in the city of new orleans, not in baton rouge, not in lafayette, louisiana.

9:05:42 to 9:06:02( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: so that is perplexing to me that it would be focused in only one city in our state and only one that's oneeason to vote against the amendment, no matter what it said, basically, because it's not including other communities. but the real reason to vote

9:06:03 to 9:06:25( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: against it is because it is mean-spirited and it is counterproductive. and what it amendment basically says is that you from public housing if a the family commits a crime or gets in trouble with the law.

9:06:26 to 9:06:48( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: now, i understand that me siblings; i'm married and now have two children; i have many, many brothers and sisters and 38 cousins in our extended family and two president knows this; she's met many members of my family, and i like to try to take

9:06:49 to 9:07:09( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: my family -- but parents, no matter how hard you try, or aunts or hard you try, sometimes somebody that's wrong. should the entire family become homeless? that is what amendment will do.

9:07:10 to 9:07:30( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: it is such it's so it's so counterproductive. it is an increase in homelessness, for s city that's already seen our homeless rates go up four

9:07:31 to 9:07:52( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: but more nature of this amendment is so punitive. and out of the control of grandmothers or great-aunts or moms in many cases, but sometimes moms and dads that are trying to do the but children sometimes do very

9:07:53 to 9:08:14( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: bad things, and sometimes you'll have a family of five children, all four children are wonderful and straight-a students, and then you have one child that just gets in trouble with drugs or becomes a trouble for the family, so senator vitter wants to put in an amendment -- and has put it in, is going to ask this body to

9:08:15 to 9:08:36( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: vote on it -- to when one member of the family gets in trouble with the law, the whole family gets throng out on the street. now, i would like, if this amendment passes, for him to have fourth grade because, let's say the teenage son that's 17 is the

9:08:37 to 9:08:59( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: one that's causing the problems, and i don't want people to think i just pick on boyce, but i think people understand that we have lots of trible with this age group, of all races. so i'd like maybe for my colleague to be the one that has to knock on the front door and tell fourth-grade little girl who

9:09:00 to 9:09:23( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: just got an "a" on her test, just performed in the band and has straight a's that she can pack her bags and spend the night on the street. and if i could amendment to make him have to do that, i would. this is n conservatism.

9:09:24 to 9:09:46( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: is is mean and it's nonsense. and it needs to be voted down. and just to repeat the so my colleagues, both democrats and it it's 2359 only for n orleans and only for people in public housing.

9:09:47 to 9:10:07( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: so i hope people vote "no." let me say one other thing about this. unfortunately, my colleague and some people supported tearing down all of these public housing units after the storm because they were -- some of them were destroyed, some of but some people took this as an opportunity to say, we never liked them anyway.

9:10:08 to 9:10:29( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: they weren't run very well -- which i -- so let's just knock them all down. and too bad for the people lived there. even though most people that live there work. and i'd like to remind my colleague and others, they don't live there for under the their

9:10:30 to 9:10:52( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: but he wanted to go all down, and so some of us fought back and said, okay, we want to reform them. we want to build better communities. we'll work with you here. and so because i stepped in and a bunch of other folks stepped in -- catho many, many different walks of life, including the business community

9:10:53 to 9:11:13( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: -- we came and said, okay, we're going it rebuild these communities and the most amazing thing about it is shaun donovan, our secretary of h.u.d. was just downhere. we had standing-room only. and walk of life. we're patting ourselves n. on the back and say, you know, it

9:11:14 to 9:11:34( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: was bad 10 years ago, it was bad five years ago but now we're all wo of unity in a city that has been absolutely brought to its knees by flooding and bickering and we were all just down there, and then this amendment has to hit the floor of the senate.

9:11:35 to 9:11:55( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: it's a disgrace. so i'm urging vote "no" on 2365. and while ema here, i'd just as soon say a word about the other amendment -- and while i'm here, i'd just asoon say a word about the other amendment that passed this afternoon by 73 votes.

9:11:56 to 9:12:16( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: it was another vitter amendment. it was 2376. i voted "no." there are 26 of us that voted "no," and i will be one minute. i see the senator from texas. 73 people voted "yes." so i know i'm in the minority. but that's what the senate about, giving the minorities a voice.

9:12:17 to 9:12:37( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: so i want to say something about this. this amendment reinstated a law that says that if you live in public housing, you have to do eight hours of communi service. that sounds pretty

9:12:38 to 9:13:00( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: people think, you know, we're providing housing for people. they should be grateful. the least they can do is do community service. i'm a big supporter of community service. i try to do it i support broad community service. what i don't support is making

9:13:01 to 9:13:21( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: poor people minorities do community service while other people si sideline and never are required to do it, even if the largess given by their government is much greater than a resident of public housing could get if they lived there for 50 years. if you live there for 50 years,

9:13:22 to 9:13:42( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: you could not as much from the general treasury as if you were t executive of a.i. g.i., who we just gave a gazillion dollars to. did we ask him to do eight h of community we didn't even ask him to pay the money back. now, something has got to wake

9:13:43 to 9:14:04( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: up in this chamber, and i'm not fussing at my colleagues, because i know that people have a different view about this. but if we want to require law students to do eight hours of community service for the loans in a they get, fine. if we want to don't just pick on the poor because they can't fight back.

9:14:05 to 9:14:12( Edit History Discussion )

Mary Landrieu: and they don't have any lobbyists up here for them. and that's the two amendments