As Session Nears End, Schatz Continues Leading Calls To Pass Long-Term Disaster Relief For Maui Survivors

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) today reiterated calls for Congress to pass long-term disaster aid for survivors on Maui and nationwide before Congress is scheduled to go on recess at the end of next week. Schatz has repeatedly led calls for flexible, long-term aid for survivors of last year’s Lahaina fires so that they can rebuild as quickly as possible, particularly housing.

“I want to be perfectly clear: we cannot and we will not leave town next week without passing disaster aid,” Schatz said.

“We’re running out of time. We have just over a week left before Congress goes home for the holidays which means we have just a few days to what we should have done a long time ago and pass long-term disaster relief. People have waited and waited and waited for help to arrive. And every day we don’t get this done this is another day survivors can’t get back to life as they knew it,” said Senator Schatz. “Nobody is asking for charity. What they’re asking for is the kind of aid that’s helped restore so many communities across the country over the years.”

The full text of Senator Schatz’s remarks is available below. Video is available here.

We’re running out of time. We have just over a week left before Congress goes home for the holidays. And we cannot leave without passing long-term disaster relief.

People have waited…and waited…and waited for help to arrive. And every day we don’t get this done this is another day survivors can’t get back to life as they knew it. Going to work…going to school…dropping their kids off at basketball practice…getting together with their friends and neighbors.

For people in Lahaina, help can’t come soon enough. Almost a year-and-a-half since the tragic fires, it’s as hard as ever to make ends meet. Housing is uncertain. Prices are going up. And jobs are hard to come by. People are doing everything they can to get by and help each other out. So it’s not for a lack of trying. It’s that they were never meant to confront this recovery alone. When you’ve lost everything…when you’re still mourning friends and loved ones…when you’re 16 months into the recovery and normalcy still feels so far away…you need help. And getting that help is the difference between people being able to stay on Maui or leaving…reluctantly, but out of necessity…from the only place they’ve ever called home. Those are the stakes…and they are not theoretical.

Lahaina is not the only community that’s been devastated by a disaster. Communities in 40 states are building back from a disaster of some kind – floods, fires, hurricanes, and the like. And more than 25 states are relying on long-term federal assistance to get survivors back on their feet. No one is asking for charity. What they’re asking for is the kind of aid that’s helped restore so many communities across the country over the years. Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. New York and New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy. Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. California after the 2018 wildfires. And more than a dozen states nationwide as recently as 3 years ago.

The Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program – known as CDBG-DR – works. It’s supported millions of Americans struck by disaster over the past 30 years by giving them flexible and long-term assistance. And so, to not do this now – for people in Lahaina and all across the country – would be the unusual thing.

We have a simple task here…to help our fellow Americans in their hour of need. And I want to be perfectly clear that we cannot and will not leave town next week without passing disaster aid.

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