As Congress Returns, Schatz Calls For Passing Long-Term Disaster Relief To Help Survivors On Maui, Nationwide

WASHINGTON – As Congress reconvenes this week for the final few weeks of session for the year, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) today called on colleagues to prioritize passing a disaster aid package that includes long-term relief for disaster survivors on Maui and elsewhere across the country. Schatz underscored the long road to recovery in Lahaina since last year’s tragic fires and the range of outstanding needs, including rebuilding homes, small businesses, schools, and other critical infrastructure. To help survivors recover in the months ahead, Schatz stressed the need to pass flexible, long-term assistance in the form of Community Development Block Grant Disaster Relief (CDBG-DR) funding.

“While a strong federal response to the fires has helped complete the cleanup process ahead of schedule, much more help – and a different kind of help – will be needed in this next phase of recovery,” said Senator Schatz. “As cleanup gives way to rebuilding, survivors will need significant financial assistance over a period of months and years. Building a home, building a store, building a community takes time and it takes resources. These things don’t magically appear overnight nor do they happen without enormous investments.  Which is why it’s essential that Congress, as part of any forthcoming disaster aid package, includes flexible, long-term assistance in the form of Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funding.”

Senator Schatz continued, “Survivors in Lahaina and in more than 20 other states aren’t asking for a miracle. All they want is to return to life as they knew it. To go to work, to drop their kids off at school, to come back to a home of their own. A life of stability and safety and security. And to do that, they need our help. They need Congress to do the thing we’ve always done, which is to show up for survivors and stick with them for as long as they need help. It’s my understanding that the Administration will, in the coming days, submit to Congress an updated request of disaster needs. And I want to be very clear that we cannot and must not leave town for the holidays next month without passing the long-term relief that survivors need and deserve. This is not optional. We need to get this done.”

The full text of Senator Schatz’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, can be found below. A video is available here.

Every month, in states all across the country, more and more communities are confronting the awful burden of recovering from a devastating disaster. The process is long. It’s expensive. It’s confusing. It’s painful. Some communities are at the very beginning of their recovery. Others, like Lahaina on Maui, are more than a year into the process, but still nowhere near back to normal. And they need help.

It’s now been more than 15 months since ferocious fires leveled Lahaina in August of last year, destroying 2,200 structures – most of them homes – and displacing more than 12,000 people. For more than a year, survivors and their families have shifted from one temporary housing unit to the next, struggling to find any semblance of stability. Finding a new job when tourism is still lagging is hard. Rebuilding small businesses without access to capital and a robust workforce is hard. Catching up children on lost time in school is hard. Helping loved ones cope with their grief and trauma is hard. And even after enduring months of uncertainty and persistent hardship, survivors have little assurance that the road ahead will be any easier.

They’re doing all they can to get back on their feet – for themselves, for their families, and for their communities. But the simple fact is, they can’t do it alone. They need the federal government’s help.

Thousands of homes need to be rebuilt. Yet only a small fraction has begun the process. Small businesses need help rebounding. Critical infrastructure, including water and wastewater facilities, is not yet fully restored. A permanent site for the King Kamehameha III Elementary School is still under deliberation. The needs are great and they are many. And as resilient as the people of Lahaina have been thus far, they cannot and should not shoulder this burden alone.

While a strong federal response to the fires has helped complete the cleanup process ahead of schedule, much more help – and a different kind of help – will be needed in this next phase of recovery. As cleanup gives way to rebuilding, survivors will need significant financial assistance over a period of months and years. Building a home, building a store, building a community takes time and it takes resources. These things don’t magically appear overnight nor do they happen without enormous investments. Which is why it’s essential that Congress, as part of any forthcoming disaster aid package, includes flexible, long-term assistance in the form of Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery funding.

Short-term assistance to respond to the immediate aftermath of a horrific disaster is vital. But that alone isn’t enough. It’s not enough to clean up the wreckage and say: The rest is on you. You figure out how to rebuild. The federal government’s responsibility to help survivors doesn’t end when the streets are clear. Walking away halfway through the process, leaving exhausted survivors high and dry and with no one to turn to, is not an acceptable or successful outcome.

Survivors in Lahaina and in more than 20 other states aren’t asking for a miracle. All they want is to return to life as they knew it. To go to work, to drop their kids off at school, to come back to a home of their own. A life of stability and safety and security. And to do that, they need our help.

They need Congress to do the thing we’ve always done, which is to show up for survivors and stick with them for as long as they need help. It’s my understanding that the Administration will, in the coming days, submit to Congress an updated request of disaster needs. And I want to be very clear that we cannot and must not leave town for the holidays next month without passing the long-term relief that survivors need and deserve. This is not optional. We need to get this done.

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