Good afternoon. And ia summer day today and sarin others were honored to join the president at the pentagon in a moment of silence on the south lawn as well. In addition i would note that President Trump continued a long tradition of president s since 9 11 to receive a counterterrorism briefing this morning in the oval office from his intelligence community, from his director of National Counterterrorism center, from myself and others on the team. The purpose of that is to give the president a sense of the terrorist threat that exists globally and to the homeland and give him a sense of what were doing about it and make sure hes comfortable with our posture. As i said the other day, we dont have current, active threats against the homeland to our knowledge and thats a good news story for today. Let me move into a quick thought. Before i do it, though, sarah noted we created the department of Homeland Security in the wake of 9 11. I would note that the government engaged in a massive reorganization of its structures and efforts to create and National Counterterrorism center, created the department of Homeland Security, office of director of national intelligence, a u. S. Northern command, which youve seen marshal resources in expert fashion for these storms, a combatant command in the United States. Weve marshaled resources and organized them in a way to confront the threat of terrorism but also to organize ourselveses in a way to allow us to respond to any event from a manmade hazard to an unfortunate terrorist attack but also to a hurricane. Let me see if i can today talk to you about what we done. I believe harvey, as i said earlier, was the best integrated, union fid, joint federal, local, state response effort our country has seen in its history. I continue to stand by that. Weve got roughly 700,000 registrants for individual assistance in the greater houston and the southwest texas area. President trump continues to work with him and direct his cabinet to not lose focus then people of texas. With respect to hurricane irma, its now a tropical depression. That does not mean its not a dangerous storm. As youll see, jacksonville is suffering what has been called some of the worst flooding its seen in 100 years. The category might be reduced by the effects on jacksonville, for instance, when you combine storm surge and winds, might replicate that of a category 3 storm even though its a tropical depression as that flooding is ongoing, we have life save, lifesustaining operations under way. We are prayerful there are not people right now trapped by floodwaters. The president spoke this morning to the governor of the u. S. Virgin islands, governor mapp, expressed he thanked the u. S. Government for providing a Rapid Response and ongoing response. If i could on that, ill speak to it later, but the mobilization of our military in response to the storms in puerto rico and the u. S. Virgin islands is the largest ever mobilization of our military in naval and marine operations. We now have an air force carrier deployed in this effort. S the first ever as well. We have the largest flotilla operation in our nations history to help not only the people of puerto rico, people of the u. S. Virgin islands but also st. Martin and other nonu. S. Islands affected and the people of florida. With respect to puerto rico, the president spoke the governor of puerto rico this morning around 11 30 a. M. And they discussed similarly how happy they were with the federal government response to their needs, the governor communicated to the president that they have a large, islandwide power outage problem that were addressing as soon as we can. And then florida, i think Governor Scott has been demonstrating an outstanding leadership instinct and pressing forward, continuing the message of getting people out of harms way which is an ongoing effort. The storm is still hitting the United States in georgia and south carolina. Itll move up through an inland flooding problem in tennessee, maybe North Carolina as we see the storm progress. Governor scott has at this stage begun conducting overflight surveys of the keys and it looks like to the north and east of key west, the islands there took the largest brunt of the storm. Ill be able to speak to that when we take questions. If i can come back to 9 11, i think the lesson we learned that day among others was that not only does evil exist but good people taking action can confront that. What ive been assured and reassured about for the last 24 hours, how many good people are taking action. So thats kind of my lesson for today. Id like to take questions now. Reporter in the immediate aftermath of harvey, the federal response priority was to rescue people who were trapped by the enormous flooding. In the state of florida whats the priority for the federal government . Theres a number of priorities in federal government. Right now because the tomorrow is storm is ongoing, our priority is life save, life sustaining. The keys are taking a considerable amount of attention. What youll see in florida and more broadly speaking as a comparative matter, houston and harvey was an acutely narrow area of operations, comparatively. What we have now is a large scale area of operations. What were trying to do is marshal the resources where theyre needed so its a prioritization effort. We are worried about flooding, house, debris and power restoration. Power restoration is also a function of access to fuel, refined fuel. As youll see the next days and weeks play out, well have to clear debris from roadways so people can gain reentry. Right now though the message is not to rush reentry. There are still dangerous conditions, downed electric lines, flood conditions, problems that would be compounded by your reentry. Listen to your local officials not only about evacuation but also when and how to stagger your reentry. Theres a Public Safety reason. Theres a priority set, eventually well move into issues about recovery and insurance. What are you doing on the fuel front . Mr. Bossert what were doing at this stage and were doing leading up was get out of the way. We waived regulations, waived rule, waived the jones act restrictions to free up additional capacity. Florida is a uniquely postured state in the way it receives refined fuel. Its not part of the larger Pipeline System throughout the country. It receives fuel by ship tanker, those ship tankers then link a and then link into intermodal sites where think fill up trucks and truck distribute. What well doe is clear those pathways, assess those three ports where those tankers dock, make sure theyre not damaged and get things back up and running and Florida Power and light and the Nuclear Power generation facility, duke energy and others. They will continue with their professionalism and bring those facilities back up as soon as possible. Reporter do we have any agreements in place with the private sector to distribute to folks in response and recovery, talking about costco, home depot, walmart, so we dont have to deplete the Disaster Relief fund . Public service. Mr. Bossert theres a partnership where private sector entities are built into our coordinating centers to understand what were doing and how to prioritize reopening facilities and the safe i have the safety of their workforce. Secondly, it is our absolutely baseline doctrine nowadays in the Emergency Management community that we would rather reopen the stores than continue providing food, water, temporary shelter to people. Its just not within the regular course of operating business, its not routine and its not something we can easily sustain. Its healthier, better, faster for us to reopen the stores as fast as possible. Reporter Previous Administration saw Climate Change. Harvey and irma could pose a problem. You could have fema budgets that cant keep up with the demand when you have powerful storms hitting the country. Is that something that you think this administration should take a look at . We know the president pulled out of the paris climate accord. Are these storms giving this administration some pause when it comes to the issue of Climate Change and Homeland Security . Mr. Bossert i was here in the 2004 cycles of hurricanes. Causality is outside of my ability to analyze right now. I will say we continue to take seriously the Climate Change, not the cause of it, but the things we observe. Rising floodwaters, one inch every 10 years in tampa. Things that would require prudent mitigation measures. What i said from the podium, what President Trump remains committed to, is making sure federal dollars arent used to rebuild things that will be in harms way later or wont be hardened against future predictable floods we see. That has to do with engineering analysis and changing conditions along eroding shorelines and inland water and Flood Control projects. Reporter just to follow up on that, when you see three category 4 hurricanes on the same map at the same time does the thought occur to you, maybe there is something to this Climate Change thing and its connection to powerful hurricanes . Could you or do you separate the two and say, theres a lot of big hurricanes coming our way. Mr. Bossert theres a cyclical nature of Hurricane Seasons. The scientists were dead on with their prediction that this would be a bigger Hurricane Season than usual. Reporter on the budget, youve got wildfires in the west, two major hurricane strikes, what effect on the federal governments budget have these had and how will we react to it . Will there be programs cut . Rebuilding the infrastructure will take several years. Mr. Bossert i think they started a bipartisan discussion on this point. I think right now we have plenty of resources to get through this. That was the nature of the appropriation that we saw and the second appropriation that we will see at the end of this month, subject to the regular course of order in the fiscal year. Well ask for a third, perhaps fourth, supplemental appropriation for the purpose of rebuilding. Well do it smartly to the previous question but in terms of pressure to the budget this is a Disaster Relief fund issue, funded a little bit differently and i have every belief this president will end up with proposals as he started his administration with. I cant get too far into how that works and the politics is outside my lane. Reporter at any point in time as youre taking a look at this issue is there any chance that fema, the e. P. A. And some of the places that were cut will see more money go into their budget . Mr. Bossert i think well put money in as money is needed to address needs. This is the same trend i alluded to earlier. In 2005 we had a large spike in Disaster Relief funding, but we had to elevate the cap on Flood Insurance. Well have to do that here. Youll see over the longer span of time even the Flood Insurance budget is red and black, red and black, based on claims and premiums. Well analyze it in that fashion. I dont have a prediction for you on that. Reporter i asked two weeks ago about harvey and you said, i asked you about house, i wanted to know if you have an update on the issue of housing since now we have harvey and what else is coming along the way . Can you get us an update as to locating housing for those who have been displaced. Mr. Bossert in texas . Reporter in texas or wherever. Mr. Bossert going back to texas, the governor is doing what we havent seen before, hes dealing with that, assigned someone to be in charge of the longterm recovery. Theres four or five housing programs in texas, but some are short lived. People can stay in their home, when the drywall is ripped out and repairs begin, they have to live someplace else temporarily. In some cases, fema issued a manufactured housing solution, theyll put a trailer on your property that you can live in while your home is being repaired, those are ideal solutions when theres enough acreage on your lot for that to sit. Florida is a wider scale problem. Whether we will apply creative solutions. Wehave the budget to do so will make sure people are taken care of. There is a concern about the mobile home and wound up having issues for formaldehyde. There is a big concern about mobile Home Communities just being in place after katrina. Is that out of the mindset or part of the mindset . Mr. Bossert what we do as a government is purchase available manufactured housing. We dont make it and we purchase it off the open market. I think the open market has improved. Their building practices and i think we have improved through that experience knowing who to buy from and who not to buy from. I understand problems with ambient air quality persist in our everyday lives. I dont know how much formaldehyde is in this room but i know its a carcinogen at any level. We take it very seriously and we message very seriously the importance of basically ventilation. But to my knowledge we buy off of a better market now and provide that solution in a more tailered and responsible manner. Reporter couple questions about the conditions in florida. First of all, floridians without power, usually a very local issue but this is a catastrophe of a much grander scale. When is your assessment people in florida can get their power back . Whats the federal governments role in making that happen . Mr. Bossert my number is somewhere north of five million. I dont know if that constitutes half the people in florida. Reporter households and businesses. Mr. Bossert its a significant number. To the extent a customer might have four people in the household youll see that number increase. The number of people will be four in the home, the number of customers would be one. Thats the difference. The idea is we have a joint role in this. Florida power and light, duke electric, others will be bringing forces to bear here. Federal government brings to bear a number of forces that are imperative to the restoration effort like pushing debris out of the road and clearing roadways. Yesterday what we saw was not just the reports of but the actual evidence of this will be the largest ever mobilization of line restoration workers in this country, period, end of story. They were already mobilized yesterday. They were at the daytona speedway. We will have line restoration workers from every company in this country from states all over the country but also from canada coming to florida to help restore the lines. So in florida, unlike in houston where theyre buried powerlines, in florida they are strung on poles. We have to restore the poles, restring the lines. They restore the plant and subplant, then line by line into each road and half by half. You cant hook up each half until the home is safe. Its literally a joint effort from federal clearing to public and private partnerships to line restoration that are partnered in the forprofit and regulated world all the way through the individual homeowners. Reporter how long will that take . Mr. Bossert i would say be patient between reentry and that process. We could have power down in homes for cometting weeks. Weeks. Now, i dont want to cause panic in florida. There are hospitals and Nursing Homes and other facilities that have generator power to provide services that are necessary. And there the concern is providing fuel to those generators should they run out. From that perspective the federal government provides a great deal of fuel, great deal of transport assistance and we give that fuel to the state and locals and they distribute to those wholesale and retail distribution. Thats the best analogy. They distribute to those facilities. Thats our role there. We expect that to happen seamlessly. Reporter is preventing price gouging in the state of florida a state responsibility . Mr. Bossert it can be both. Youll hear from the attorney general later and he will explain fraud. I think you already heard pam she is engaging in gouging. Both is the answer but i can tell you neither official, attorney general of the United States or attorney general attorneys general of the states are going to tolerate gouging. Thats something i think people ought to think twice about. Sir. Reporter there is a possibility of a third and fourth supplemental for Disaster Relief. Can you tell us how much the administration wants to be included in the supplemental and will you put language raising cap for Flood Insurance in that legislation as well . Mr. Bossert the first point, no. We are trying to make sure we have responsible estimates as opposed to making wild gases now. We will try to get through the response phase and as we transition into recovery figure out the damage, go up for another responsible request. If we got that wrong then we go for another. Its not necessarily wrong but if we estimate and find tules dont meet the estimates then well go and rectify. As far as Flood Insurance, we will see how many claims. They had 6. 8 billion available to it. If claims exceed we will ask for the cap to be raised. Reporter i was hoping you could drill down the efforts of evacuating americans in the caribbean. The state department had a task force. Theyre working round the clock. Can you assess those efforts and can you give a message to americans who are right now in dire straits in the caribbean who might be listening to this, what should the expectation be for an evacuation, how soon can the americans get the americans out . Mr. Bossert im preaching caution to make sure people understand this is an ongoing effort and still going to be long, painful days ahead. I am doubling down, this is the best integrated, fullscale response effort in our nations universities. That includes the u. S. Virgin islands and puerto rico and nonu. S. Islands where we helped americans during a window of operational safety between jose and irma. This has been a large event. You are going to see a lot of positive stories from it. Now, expectations. An island where we have to transport commodities, food, water, a long road to bring electric power online but we have assembled two of the most powerful naval flotillas in recent memory, a total of nine large ships. I am going to cut right to the the u. S. The abraham lincoln,y wowjeema, feragut. Thats an aircraft. Thats an operation for most americans you cant picture it has never been mobilized for this type of Emergency Response effort in our history. So to the extent i can assess it, i am proud of it. To the extent it meets the needs, i hope it does because we are saving thousands off of these islands. If the burn rate is not fast enough i would be surprised because we are mobilizing ourselves in ways we have never mobilized. The president of the United States and the governor of puerto rico were all very pleased in their phone calls today. I am in no better position from this podium than their to assess this. Reporter with so many people evacuated from the keys and given the level of destruction there, any time estimate on when people might be able to return to the keys . Mr. Bossert the keys are going to take a while. We have not assessed the Structural Integrity of the bridges there. There is reason to believe some of the draw bridges that were up may or may not have been bent. Restoring those will take some time. That route 1 is a large expansive bridge. Essentially all of the undergirding has to be assessed for Structural Integrity. I expect the keys will not be fit for reentry for weeks. If thats wrong and im wrong then fine. Let the local officials bring you in. I would set that expectation pretty broad right now and say for the people that chose to stay, they had every warning to leave, we hope they took that warning. Those that didnt we will get back down there as soon as we humanly can. We had three or four overflights today. I talked to the fema administrator and hes not certain yet that we had good overflight assessment of where all those people might be. Neither of us would be surprised if lives were lost but neither of us would be surprised if the responders will get down there aggressively. Were doing everything we can to help them. I am going to actually end on that if i could. End where i started. Today is the day of remembrance for 9 11. It is why i got into this business and its why i believe our government is now organized for the level of response that weve seen. It just goes to kind of show what we got. If we want to bring ourselves together in helping our fellow humans, under good leadership for President Trump, i think we put together a good effort. Please for the people of florida, continue to follow the instructions of your First Responders and local authorities. This isnt over yet and its going to be a painful, slightly frustrating if not very frustrating week or two ahead. Thank you all very much. Washington journal with news and policy issues that impact here. Tuesday morning, documentary filmmaker ken burns join us for their latest film called the vietnam war. California democratic congressman pete will talk about the future of the immigration program. Congressmanpublican need to prepare for storms like Hurricane Harvey and irma. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal live at 7 00 eastern on tuesday morning. Join the discussion. Imposing additional sanctions on north korea today. The House Foreign Affairs committee holds a hearing on the use of sanctions and diplomacy dealing with north korea. Watch at 10 00 eastern on cspan three. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies. It is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Today marks the 16th anniversary of the 9 11 terrorist attacks on the u. S