{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.schatz.senate.gov/news/press-releases/as-session-nears-end-schatz-continues-leading-calls-to-pass-long-term-disaster-relief-for-maui-survivors", "As Session Nears End, Schatz Continues Leading Calls To Pass Long-Term Disaster Relief For Maui Survivors", "2024-12-11", "2024", "2024-12", "Democrat", "Senate", "HI", "Brian Schatz", "S001194", "www.schatz.senate.gov", "schatz", "https://www.schatz.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai\u2018i) 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\u2019s Lahaina fires so that they can rebuild as quickly as possible, particularly housing.\n\n\u201cI want to be perfectly clear: we cannot and we will not leave town next week without passing disaster aid,\u201d Schatz said.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re 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\u2019t get this done this is another day survivors can\u2019t get back to life as they knew it,\u201d said Senator Schatz. \u201cNobody is asking for charity. What they\u2019re asking for is the kind of aid that\u2019s helped restore so many communities across the country over the years.\u201d\n\nThe full text of Senator Schatz\u2019s remarks is available below. Video is available here.\n\nWe\u2019re 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.\n\nPeople have waited\u2026and waited\u2026and waited for help to arrive. And every day we don\u2019t get this done this is another day survivors can\u2019t get back to life as they knew it. Going to work\u2026going to school\u2026dropping their kids off at basketball practice\u2026getting together with their friends and neighbors.\n\nFor people in Lahaina, help can\u2019t come soon enough. Almost a year-and-a-half since the tragic fires, it\u2019s 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\u2019s not for a lack of trying. It\u2019s that they were never meant to confront this recovery alone. When you\u2019ve lost everything\u2026when you\u2019re still mourning friends and loved ones\u2026when you\u2019re 16 months into the recovery and normalcy still feels so far away\u2026you need help. And getting that help is the difference between people being able to stay on Maui or leaving\u2026reluctantly, but out of necessity\u2026from the only place they\u2019ve ever called home. Those are the stakes\u2026and they are not theoretical.\n\nLahaina is not the only community that\u2019s been devastated by a disaster. Communities in 40 states are building back from a disaster of some kind \u2013 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\u2019re asking for is the kind of aid that\u2019s 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.\n\nThe Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program \u2013 known as CDBG-DR \u2013 works. It\u2019s 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 \u2013 for people in Lahaina and all across the country \u2013 would be the unusual thing.\n\nWe have a simple task here\u2026to 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.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T22:13:55Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.schatz.senate.gov/news/press-releases/as-session-nears-end-schatz-continues-leading-calls-to-pass-long-term-disaster-relief-for-maui-survivors"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8582319132983685, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}