S6748 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE May 16, 1995

hope this time, for once, he does not

prove to be prescient. But this can only

happen if we attend to what he foresees.

The financial crisis has eased. We are

free to think anew and act anew. There

was at least one such moment in our

involvement with Vietnam. We missed

it.

Mr. PRESSLER. Mr. President, once

SOUTH DAKOTA FLOODS

fagain, Mother Nature’s fury is challenging the spirit and perseverance of

South Dakotans. For the past several

weeks, persistent rains have brought

flooding conditions to much of the

State for the third straight year. As a

result, 38 counties already have been

declared disaster areas. More counties

may be added in the days ahead. Just

by way of comparison, in July 1993, 33

counties were disaster areas due to the

heavy rainfall and flooding that made

front page headlines nationwide.

Flooding has made vital roads and

bridges impassable, placing the assurance of basic services at risk. Rivers

and streams overflowing their banks

have wreaked havoc in urban and rural

areas across South Dakota—basements, fields, and roads are inundated

with water. Damage to public and private property threatens the well-being

of farmers, small business men and

women, families, and individuals.

On Monday, Gov. Bill Janklow requested that the President declare the

State a disaster area and provide Federal emergency assistance in excess of

$16 million. The devastation appears already to have surpassed that caused by

the so-called Great Flood of 1993. Some

areas of the State already are experiencing their wettest springs in history

with 3 weeks remaining in the season.

An end does not appear to be in sight.

National Weather Service reports indicate heavy precipitation will continue

through the end of this month and

maybe into this summer. If this is the

case, South Dakota once again may resemble the Great Lake of the Midwest.

South Dakotans clearly are experiencing hard times. The Governor’s office has informed me that the State is

using all the resources it can to assist

those in need. Federal help is critical.

As South Dakota’s senior Senator, I intend to do all I can to ensure that the

President and our Federal agencies respond to South Dakota’s disaster needs

swiftly and diligently. The people of

South Dakota deserve and should expect no less from their Government.

I already have written to the President, the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA], and the Small

Business Administration [SBA], and

the Federal Highway Administration,

alerting them of South Dakota’s urgent situation and urging quick approval of the Governor’s aid request.

I also invited the Administrator of

the Federal Highway Administration,

Rodney Slater, to personally assess the

damage of our flood-damaged roads and

bridges and to give immediate consideration to a request from the State for

assistance. Having endured $1.2 million

of damage to roads and bridges last

year, additional damage to roads and

bridges makes FHWA assistance even

more critical this year.

Administrator Slater for some time

has planned to survey damaged roads

and bridges in South Dakota. Unfortunately, he has not scheduled a visit.

Now is as good a time as any for him to

see just how serious the situation is.

South Dakotans have no time to

waste. The Federal Government should

act, and act fast. South Dakota deserves the same response other areas of

the Nation receive in times of need. I

intend to see that this action is taken.

What kind of action can be taken at

the Federal level? Plenty. In fact, a

number of initiatives can be taken

without a Presidential disaster declaration—initiatives that are critical

to South Dakota farmers and ranchers.

First and foremost, the Department of

Agriculture and the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation must provide far

greater flexibility in the administration of the Crop Insurance Program to

South Dakota farmers.

The Crop Insurance Program, which

has replaced disaster payments as the

central means for emergency relief, is

predicated on the planting of crops.

However, as we all know, the clear

problem caused by the recent rain and

floods for crop farmers is that they are

unable to plant. Consider the percentage of crops planted, as of May 8, 1995,

as compared to the 5-year average:

corn—1 percent, 5-year average—19 percent; spring wheat—17 percent, 5-year

average—89 percent; oats—12 percent,

5-year average—85 percent; barley—6

percent, 5-year average—84 percent.

I already have written to Agriculture

Secretary Glickman, urging administrative flexibility for the Crop Insurance Program. Specifically the Secretary needs to take the following

steps:

First, provide prevent planting coverage on crops that producers paid premiums on. If a producer was unable to

plant the insured crop by the final

planting date, crop insurance should

pay the prevented planted indemnity

and permit the producers to plant any

subsequent crop possible and insure

that crop.

Second, provide crop insurance coverage for producers who aerial seed this

year’s crop. With the degree of wet conditions occurring in South Dakota, aerial seeding needs to be considered a

usual practice.

Third, withhold penalties against

producers by permitting prevented

planting coverage even if a producer

enters the 0/92 program.

Fourth, release Conservation Reserve

Program [CRP] acres for haying and

grazing.

Fifth, extend immediately the May 15

deadline for calving on CRP acres. I am

pleased that Secretary Glickman has

responded to this request, and has extended the deadline.

Sixth, permit the following crops to

be planted this year without the loss of

farm program benefits: millet, soybeans, buckwheat, sunflowers.

FEMA, SBA, and the FHWA also

should be equally responsive, fair, and

flexible to the needs of South Dakotans

should the Governor request Federal

assistance.

The need for equitable treatment in

response to disasters is very important

to me. In recent years, I have been very

critical of what I believe to be the apparent discriminatory administration

of Federal emergency assistance. It

seems that disaster aid is always quick

in coming to States and localities with

major media markets and big electoral

votes. However, whether you are from

Humboldt, CA, or Humboldt, SD, a disaster is a disaster—a lost home, business, or income due to Mother Nature

is hard for all Americans, regardless of

where they live. Thus, treatment of

these disasters should be fair.

Once again, the wrath of Mother Nature is challenging the people of our

great State. Times are tough, but I

know South Dakotans will persevere.

The pioneer spirit and sense of community within all South Dakotans will

rise to the occasion. In the last few

days, my wife Harriet and I have

talked to a number of our friends in

South Dakota. We have heard the difficulties they have faced. Our hearts

and our prayers are with them—the

farmers, ranchers, business men and

women, and the families impacted by

the flooding. I intend to do all I can to

ensure that the Federal Government

stands side-by-side with all South Dakotans during this difficult time. The

President can begin this effort by approving Governor Janklow’s request

and send assistance where needed. I

urge him to do so without delay.

Again, the people of South Dakota

should expect and deserve no less.

CELEBRATION OF THE LIFE OF ED

fROBERTS

Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, it was

with profound sadness that I learned of

Ed’s death. On March 14, 1995, not only

did the world lose one of our most dynamic and forceful advocates for the

rights and empowerment of people with

disabilities; on that day, I lost a friend

and confidant.

Ed Roberts was a kid who lived for

baseball when he contracted polio at

age 14. He became severely disabled almost overnight, needing large equipment and assistance simply to breathe.

Ed overheard the doctor tell his mother that it would be better if he died because he was going to be a vegetable.

He decided right then that if he was

going to be a vegetable, he would be an

artichoke: prickly on the outside with

a tender heart.

A lot of people told Ed there were a

lot of things he could not do.

They told him he could not graduate

from high school because he could not

pass PE or driver’s education, so he
May 16, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S6749

had to argue with and convince his

principal to change these requirements

because they were not fair.

They told Ed he could not attend the

University of California at Berkeley

because they had never had a student

in a wheelchair, one who used a respirator, or one who slept in an iron

lung. Ed fought all that too, and convinced the university to admit him.

‘‘Helpless Cripple Goes to College’’ was

one of the headlines marking Ed’s entrance to college.

They made him live in the infirmary.

But Ed was not helpless. By the time

Ed left UC Berkeley, he and fellow student activists who called themselves

the Rolling Quads had organized funding to begin transforming the campus

into a model of physical accessibility

for students with disabilities.

As Ed said, ‘‘We realized that we

could change some things, and the first

thing we can do is change our own attitudes toward ourselves, be proud of

who we were and what we were and go

out and change it for others and for

ourselves * * * that liberated me when

I realized that I can help others. It

made me a lot freer to help myself.’’

Ed went on to graduate school in political science and taught at UC Berkeley for several years. One of Ed’s deans

once told him, ‘‘Oh, you’ll finish your

Ph.D and they you’ll live in a nursing

home.’’ But Ed knew otherwise. He told

that dean, ‘‘No, that’s not the plan.

We’re here to change that whole idea.’’

And at his memorial service, a representative from the university described him as ‘‘bringing the honor of

being the right kind of troublemaker

here at Cal.’’ Today, over 800 students

with many kinds of disabilities attend

UC-Berkeley where there are scholarships in his name for undergraduate,

graduate, and postdoctoral students

with disabilities.

After his university years, Ed went

on to establish the first Center for

Independent Living in the country.

Where was it was located? Where else?

Berkeley. Today there are over 300

independent living centers all across

the country. Independent living is a

philosophy which defines independence

as full inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of community life.

Ed lived this philosophy, and he helped

others live it as well. His colleague

Doug Martin, ADA and 504 compliance

officer for UCLA, recently described Ed

during the CIL years when he said, ‘‘He

believed in us before we believed in

ourselves.’’

Ed’s philosophy of independent living, and his ability to get the money

and the people behind it changed our

lives. It changed the lives of millions of

people in this country and abroad—people with disabilities, their families,

their friends and many others who

began to see the universality of his approach. As Ed put it, ‘‘I’m paralyzed

from the neck down, but I’m completely in control of my own life. I can

make decisions about what I want.’’

Early on, they told Ed he was unable

to be rehabilitated. However, this

rehab failure went on to become director of the California State Department

of Vocational Rehabilitation. You see,

Ed loved to turn barriers upside down,

rendering each one a challenge in his

own slalom course toward

empowerment and independence. And

by the end of his tenure in Sacramento,

Ed knew he wanted to be a full-time

rabble-rouser. Ed told his friend Stephen Hofman, ‘‘I don’t want to work. It

prevents you from raising hell, and I

like to raise a lot of hell * * * After all,

if raising hell doesn’t work, the only

solution is to raise even more hell, and

then, they give up!’’

As Joe Shapiro wrote in U.S. News &

World Report the week after Ed died,

‘‘He knew that it was the paternalism

of others, more than his own disability

that held him back.’’

In 1984, Ed was awarded a MacArthur

Genius Fellowship, which he used to

live on as he started The World Institute on Disability, a disability policy

think tank located in Oakland, CA. Ed

testified before committees in Congress

numerous times, and many of us grew

to know him well. But Ed was not content to be a solo rabble-rouser. He

wanted to join forces, debate the issues, hammer out policy and see it implemented in his lifetime. WID was the

crucible Ed fashioned with his colleagues for stoking fires and building

community.

Ed’s vision was exemplified in the

way he lived his own life, but he also

very much believed in empowering others. As one of his colleagues at WID

said, ‘‘Part of his star quality was that

he always talked about ‘we’. He always

would come up and say ‘we’ve got to do

that,’ ‘we need people,’ ‘we need to

work on this together,’ ‘we can make

this happen.’’’ Ed blew people’s minds

when he took to the streets of Moscow

in his motorized chair in 1993. There,

he has become a symbol of freedom, a

household word to millions of people

with disabilities.

But Ed was more than a civil rights

hero. He was a man with heart, a man

whose love and sense of humor were

tools just as powerful as his keen mind

and his passion for justice. Ed always

took the time to find out how you were

doing.

He took the time to encourage young

students with disabilities to study public policy.

He took time to talk with personal

assistants about the powerlessness of

being underpaid.

He took the time to visit other respirator users in the hospital when they

were despairing over living independent lives.

He took the time to stop on the

street and talk with homeless people,

people with disabilities that the ‘‘system’’ has forsaken.

He took the time to laugh, to have an

adventure, and always to eat a good

meal!

Ed did just about everything a person

could dream of doing. He got married.

He fathered a son—his absolute pride

and joy. Ed swam with the dolphins,

practiced karate, was almost eaten by

a shark, threw tremendous dinner parties, and travelled all over the world.

As WID vice president and one of Ed’s

former proteges, Debby Kaplan said recently, ‘‘He had a determined exuberance for life.’’

We are all fortunate to live in this

world which Ed so deeply touched, so

richly celebrated.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

At 11:58 a.m., a message from the

MESSAGES FROM THE HOUSE

fHouse of Representatives, delivered by

Ms. Goetz, one of its reading clerks, announced that the House has passed the

following bills, in which it requests the

concurrence of the Senate:

H.R. 1045. An act to amend the Goals 2000:

Educate America Act to eliminate the National Education Standards and Improvement Council, and for other purposes.

H.R. 1266. An act to provide for the exchange of lands within Admiralty Island National Monument, and for other purposes.

The following bill was read the first

MEASURES REFERRED

fand second times by unanimous consent and referred as indicated:

H.R. 1266. An act to provide for the exchange of lands within Admiralty Island National Monument, and for other purposes; to

the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

MEASURES READ THE FIRST TIME

The following measure was read the

ffirst time:

H.R. 1045. An act to amend the Goals 2000:

Educate America Act to eliminate the National Education Standards and Improvement Council, and for other purposes.

The following reports of committees

REPORTS OF COMMITTEES

fwere submitted:

By Mrs. KASSEBAUM, from the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, with an

amendment in the nature of a substitute:

S. 454. A bill to reform the health care liability system and improve health care quality through the establishment of quality assurance programs, and for other purposes

(Rept. No. 104–83).

INTRODUCTION OF BILLS AND

JOINT RESOLUTIONS

fThe following bills and joint resolutions were introduced, read the first

and second time by unanimous consent, and referred as indicated:

By Mr. HATFIELD:

S. 806. A bill to amend the Public Health

Service Act to provide grants to entities in

rural areas that design and implement innovative approaches to improve the availability and quality of health care in such rural

areas, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Finance.

By Mr. LIEBERMAN: