Transcripts For CSPAN3 FEMA 20240703

Her agency can help with recovery of various areas by. Live coverage of this hearing on cspan three cspan3. As a reminder, please email it to documentsti mail. House. Gov. I want to thank our witness, the honorable. Is it deeann or deanna . For being here today. We are focusing on the current state of femas readiness, response, and recovery. Core mission is to help people before, during, and after disasters. Unfortunately, fema has added layers and adopted political agendas. The Biden Administration is imposing an agenda focused on Climate Change and equity which is diverging away from femas core mission. On august 28, the committee was alerted that the Disaster Relief fund would move to immediate needs funding until additional funds are appropriated. Federal reimbursements, recognized tribes for longterm disaster cover, projects are halted. Instead, the remaining balance is reserved for any Immediate Response activities. First asked fema in february. It is a long time ago now what it was going to do to avoid the drf running out of money since femas own monthly reports indicated the drf was projected to be depleted by now in september where we are. Fema provided no. Despite increase since we were not notified of the supplemental request until it was submitted to congress in august. Last month. And the request was tied to ukraines pending. In the wake of one of the deadliest fires in United States history, a supplemental request for additional disaster funding comes with Strings Attached to ukraine. Think about that in the audience if you are watching us. The american tax payer, the people that are suffering from disasters and somehow could not be bothered to discuss getting the drf refunded until august and it is tied to ukraine. I cannot reconcile that. I have overarching concerns about decisions being made. Domestic response activities tied to ukraine. We see fema under the administrations, significantly expanding its mitigation programs and ways that no longer require projects to demonstrate that they will, in fact, reduce cost or save lives. All in the name of equity and Climate Change. Female resources. Despite, fema being understaffed and obviously, underfunded. The Homeland Security act prohibits assets, functions, or mission for the continuing use of any other ghs organization unless assignments do not reduce the capability of fema to performance missions. Your agencies cannot be followed that law. That is concerning to me. Fema has a capacity problem and every diversion of resources undermined stability perform core missions. Confirmed this capacity issue at a hearing earlier. We know in response to letters from chairman graves that the key fema personnel have been diverted by the secretary to assist with bringing people into the country illegally. Femas emergency food and Shelter Program originally created to help americans is now become a program to pay for illegal foreign nationals. Residing in our communities and in our cities. I may disagree with many of my colleagues on the role of the federal government and what it should play when it comes to disasters but regardless, fema should not be used to advanced partisan policy objectives in fema resources should not be diverted for other purposes unrelated to its mission. Ultimately, all of this impacts readiness and ability to respond to disasters happening across our country from the maui wildfires to hurricane natalia and multiple flooding events. We can debate the role of the federal government but at the very least, we need to ensure fema is focused on its core mission. That is the one thing that this congress and signed into law. I look forward to hearing from you today. I now recognize the Ranking Member for five minutes for an opening statement. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, administrator criswell for joining us today as we discussed femas ability to lead Disaster Response and recovery. Since her testimony to the last year, Climate Change and Severe Weather instances have continued to generate dire circumstances that your agencies have had to deal with. That Disaster Relief fund, as a result and serves as the backbone is nearing depletion. It is utmost important that congress feel the president s request for supplemental funding. We should do that free of any poison and try to impose social policy into this area. That is the only way that fema can continue to provide the necessary resources for ongoing Recovery Efforts like we are seeing and malley in florida. We are likely to see even more emerge in the near future as we are into hurricane season. I appreciate your steadfast leadership of fema during this difficult time. My home state of nevada has experienced some impacts of Climate Change. Take time to think fema people and Emergency Response managers in my state for their Rapid Response to the extreme weather that communities, especially in southern nevada. You do not think about having a hurricane in the desert but indeed, we saw that across Southern California and some of its impact into the southern part of nevada. We also had unrelenting heat and we know that heat is a threat like other Natural Disasters that need to be undressed and we had repeated flashed letting. A channel that can be tried for years and suddenly become a rushing river. Will cause the successors to get worse in the coming years. As we Work Together with about a communities, i think this demonstrates one of the priorities of the administration which is in all of government approach. In addition to all of government, we think equity is important. We think Solutions Must guarantee that all disaster survivors and communities are created in treated fairly by these programs and these programs are addressed regardless of the neighborhood. Natural disasters amplify existing disparities in our society. It should go without saying is here to address the needs. As we try to respond these kinds of crisis. The subcommittee has received considerable testimony from underserved communities about their frustration of how they seem to be ignored, how much time it takes, and they are not in a position to get additional funding and we need to be sure that fema addresses that. I know that you recognize these standing disparities and you have been working with us to try to address them. We appreciate your work to implement new laws and policies that will have these longterm benefits all across the board. I especially appreciate and value your public support for reforms. Congressman. This is the disaster provider fairness act. We passed out of the full committee unanimously earlier this year. I would like to see it come forward because it was unanimous. It was designed. More accessible to survivors. It can contribute to some of the problems at the chairman without making it more efficient and effective. It removes barriers by creating a universal application and it empowers the agency to assist home damage more fairly, more quickly, and more accurately. This should ease the burden on families applying for Disaster Assistance and we hope to see it pass because these are the worst times in their lives and that is the least there government can do. Administrator, i think you and your colleagues for the work youve done to sheppard fema in a positive direction. I think you have done that by acknowledging Climate Change, prioritizing equity which we think is important and investing in mitigation. We recognize the challenges you face and we want to do everything we can help you. We know that that fund needs to be replenished. Thank you for being here. Chair, we recognize the chairman of the full committee. Chairman graves for five minutes for his opening statement. Thank you, administrator for being here today. On a bipartisan basis, the committee and this subcommittee in particular have worked to improve fema and the federal governments Emergency Management system. I am proud to be one of the co chairs of team is preparedness month which helps the American People and what they can do to be prepared. Femas role is critical and we have had recent planning and tornadoes in my district and it is important for fema to work quickly and closely with the state Emergency Management agencies and local responders. Last month on august 4th, and ef 2 tornado ripped through the city of bearing in knox county, missouri in my district. Governor parson submitted a federal disaster declaration on september 6th. I hope that fema will work swiftly and efficiently to approve this declaration to the people of missouri can continue to recover. I also hope that many of the reforms we have passed in my time on the committee is going to help her move a lot of unnecessary bureaucratic lessees as we move through the recovery process. I look forward to hearing with the administrator has to say today and other Critical Issues as we prepare for and to respond to disasters all across this country. With that, german barry . Thank you. Recognize the full committee for his opening statement. Thank you. It will be an opportunity today to discuss the many challenges fema is facing due to a busy disaster season and strategies to overcome the challenges. Climate change is making disasters more frequent, intense, and costly. Noah announced a troubling new record this month that in 2023, the u. S. Is experiencing a Record Number of disaster events with losses exceeding 1 billion. 23 separate events with each of those events exceeding 1 billion. Disaster season is far from over so this figure is bound to grow. The intensity of this years disaster season is rapidly distributing the Disaster Relief fund. I am very concerned about the lack of funding available to fight these disasters and impact on femas authorized programs. In the wake of wildfires, fema announced implementation of immediate needs funding last month to save what little money fema has left. Obligating funds for direct aid to survivors and actions that immediately save life and property. The result is all of the recovery projects such as rebuilding roads, bridges, and schools are on hold indefinitely. Fema had to put out 1610 recovery and mitigation projects on hold impacting nearly every state in every community in our country. The current state of the Disaster Relief fund is not femas fault, however. To provide enough funding. If the Congress Works together in a bipartisan manner to replenish the drf as soon as possible so that fema can continue to fill its mission of helping people before, during, and after disasters. However, addressing the billiondollar disaster requires more than just adding money to the drf. Needs to adapt a strategy for an evolving world so it can provide an adequate response each time the disaster was declared. Deputy administrator hooks briefed us earlier this year on current efforts outlined in femas Strategic Plan to address that. I appreciate the time that regional administrator in 10 took with my staff in Washington State. The exercise was very informative and facilitated connections. It is something that i would encourage other members to do in the regions with their Regional Directors to better understand congresss role in responding to disasters. There is always more work to be done. With more than 50 increase in storms and disasters in the last 10 years, fema must use science to incorporate into all of its programs. In order to address modern, Natural Disasters, we need to expand mitigation and increase resilience. Overwhelming evidence shows that medications common sense, costeffective waves save life and property. Support expanding funding and access in these projects. And we need to leverage all the resilience funding provided by the bipartisan. This landmark legislation included a 7 Million Investment for Disaster Mitigation programs would make it possible for fema to support the largest notice of funding opportunities in the building resilience infrastructure and Communities Program. The largest dentistry and funded the new Storm Program. New authorities provided by legislation such as davids Community Disaster resilient zones act, we will also have the target funding to the communitys greatest need and highest risk, Natural Disasters. We have to ensure all minis have equal opportunities to access these vital funds. Simplifying the benefit cost analysis requirement. More needs to be done to ensure the nations readiness by incorporating to change productions in all of femas programs. To make access of predisaster. Administrator, you have a difficult job. I want to thank you for the work that you do and what your team does and what they have done under your leadership. Your dedication and service to communities throughout the country is well noted and we need to do our job in supporting femas efforts to ensure more equitable outcomes and boarding more resilient nations. I look forward to discussing how we can drive these reforms and help fema achieve its goals. Thank you for being here. Let forward to your testimony. Gentleman from washington, i would like to thank our witness and thank you for spending your time with us today. I know you are busy and we appreciate your presence. Briefly, i would like to take a moment to explain our system to you. There are three lights in front of you. Green means go, yellow means you are running out of time, and red means to conclude your remark. It actually means you shouldve already concluded your remark. I ask unanimous consent that the witnesses will statement be included in the record without objection so ordered. If your written testimony has been written made part of the official record, the subcommittee asks that you limit your oral remarks to five minutes, maam. With that, administrator criswell, you are recognized for five minutes for your testimony and statement. Thank you, chairman perry and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for this opportunity to discuss the state of fema. Fema has a powerful Mission Statement spelled out in just seven words. Helping people before, during, and after disasters. That Mission Statement is our northstar and it reflects a deep and abiding commitment of our workforce to public service. And i can say without hesitation that our mission that fema has become more challenging. We could no longer really speak of a disaster season from atmospheric rivers in january two tornadoes and wildfires in december, we now face intensified Natural Disasters throughout the year, often in places not used to experiencing that. In just the last several months alone, we have seen disasters ranging from record flooding in vermont to the deadliest wildfire in over a century on the island of maui to the first Tropical Cyclone to make landfall in california since 1938. It is therefore vital that fema be able to tap into a properly funded Disaster Relief fund. We strive to be vigilant stewards of the taxpayer dollar and we are careful in our budget addictions. However, there are times when disasters outpace our appropriated funds and we are in such a moment today. The administration has requested a package that includes 16 million for the Disaster Relief fund and i urge congressional approval of this request and the administrations as soon as possible. On august 29, fema implemented funding for the First Time Since 2017. Under inf, we are prioritizing lifesustaining Disaster Responses in delaying obligations for longerterm work. As a result, we have needed the pause obligations to over 1000 public assistance projects across the country worth over 1. 5 billion. You all have my commitment that fema will move quickly to resume obligations paused as soon as the drf is replenished and Congress Must act today without delaying. To be effective, fema requires not only funding but a well trained workforce ready to deploy at a moments notice. The vast majority of our 22,000 person workforce are resurfaced. I think this committee and congress for passing the crew act last year, which expended to job protections. This law is improving our intention efforts. Fema is constantly working to improve the technology our programs use. After Hurricane Ian impacted florida, we implemented a rapid debris task force that used a combination of satellite, flyover, and on the ground data to identify areas where the debris was particularly concentrated and cleared 19 million cubic yards of debris. Enough to fill more than 5800 olympic size swimming pools within six weeks across the hardest hit areas. This was months faster than we have been able to do previously. We are also using Remote Sensing technology in maui to match homes listed in our individual assistance program. The survivors case information is shared with our housing inspectors who can reach out to survivors without requiring their destroyed homes. You will continue to Leverage Technology such as this to achieve this kind of people first results. Fema is not only response and recovery agency. We work to mitigate the worst impacts of disasters before they occur. Essential weight to result across the country is hazard resilient building codes which have avoided at least 32 billion in losses from Natural Disasters since 2000, alone. I recently met with survivors in horseshoe beach, a Small Community and floridas bend which received the front of hurricane dahlias wind and storm surge recently. Where many buildings remained, largely unscathed, i talked with one homeowner who owns several such properties and he told me clearly i built to code and codes work. Two of the three communities in the u. S. Do not have uptodate billing codes and we are implementing a National Strategy to help incentivize their adoption. Another way in which fema is working to increase the resiliency of our nation is through our new safeguarding tomorrow regarding the loan Front Program which will give local governments another tool to finance projects to mitigate against Natural Disasters. I want to thank you for the significant investment in the Grant Program for which we have announced 4 billion for mitigation projects across the nation. Every day, i see the unwavering dedication of our fema workforce to help people before, during, and after disasters. To help you to ensure that our work force has the resources it needs for that mission. Thank you and i look forward to your questions. Thank you for your testimony. We will now turn to questions for the administrator. The chair now recognizes himself for five minutes for questions. Administrator criswell, probably no surprise to you i do not always agree with my colleagues on what the role the federal government should be in disasters but i do believe whatever the Government Role is should be efficient and actually help people. In which a Small Business contractor as we did months to be reimbursed for emergency work and i have heard of. Is how you plan on being able to pay her employees, grow your business, pay her taxes, pay your insurance, fire equipment, et cetera. How do we inspect private sector partners to step up following disasters if they cant count on your administration . That would be a guaranteed paycheck as long as you do the different to standard as required. If you are going to wait months and years to the point where this particular company is laying off its staff as it cannot be paid by you, how do you expect anybody to be willing to work for fema in a moment of crisis where you got to move quickly . You are in a hurry because everybody is suffering the effects of the disaster. What is your interest back . How does that get solved . German, i obviously do not have the specifics of the kind of the company that you are speaking up but we work through our state and with our local entities to reimburse the work that is being done as they rebuild after these storms. Part of our process is to make sure that we are collecting all of the appropriate documentation to the work and making sure that it is done in alignment. So if its done and all the paperwork is in this particular instance, i do not want to mischaracterize anything. I am not going to name that company but we can talk off line about it. Everybody is doing this. They went in and did the work, they relocated their people, they did the work, the disaster is over, everybody is happy and with the work. Yet they are millions and millions of dollars unpaid, now for years. Chairman, every situation is specific and unique to that situation. I would be happy to get with you offline and better understand the specifics of what you are talking about. Do you understand the other contractors that are watching that circumstance are going to be reluctant to respond in a similar circumstance is another not going to be paid for years in the tune of millions of dollars . Do you understand that . Chairman, i do not know the specifics of which when you are talking about. We reimbursed billions of dollars every year to communities in states to do the recovery and rebuilding work. It is unfortunate that there is one specific example that you are talking about but i am happy to work with you on resolving that. The devastation in maui draws concerning parallel to the campfire in california and the role in that fire. In fact, the wall street journal has reported that electric is seeking legal advice from pge in itself and how to deal with the consequences of their actions. The molly powers like the campfire and california appear to be result of your policy, diverting resources away from fire mitigation towards Renewable Energy. That is not on you, that is their decision. The victim of the wildfires of the victims of selfimposed irresponsible and deadly Climate Policy created disasters. It wasnt the consequences of co2. When hawaii became the first state in the nation to mandate a transition. Mandate, require. Renewable energy by 2045 and they said they will reach the benchmark five years at a schedule and retire two power plants in sought to replace them with 900 megawatts of renewable power. Same year after one of the worst wildfire seasons in maui today. Hawaiian electric secured the risk of wildfire to their system and the need to implement mitigation efforts. They identified it but then they prioritized Renewable Energy over fire mitigation. Little and no mitigation work has been completed. Instead they spent millions on this transition to Renewable Energy. This is a concerning trend policy and used wildfires and it raises a lot of questions about the opportunity of cost associated with rapidly transitioning under mandate. The under market, under mandate to unreliable technologies. A significant cost to the ratepayer and obviously, the advocate devastating consequences to homeowners. Make matters worse, i will go on a little bit and i will truncate my remarks on that. Let me ask you this. This has become the policy of many western states where wildfires are prevalent. Should the american taxpayer, through fema, should they be responsible for paying for Recovery Efforts if states are diverting money away from mitigation efforts from misguided net zero policies that actively exacerbate fire conditions and endanger the citizens of those states . Should the taxpayer be required to pay for that. We are seeing an increase in the number of wildfires across the u. S. I do not know if that is true but regardless, what i am talking about is what is causing that . Policies are calling the wildfires. People are losing their lives and their property. To the rest of america paying for that when that can all be avoided . That is the question. Femas role should always be to go in and support the response and recovery of communities that are impacted by any type of Severe Weather. Will carr this of management decisions that are life threatening. We also have several programs that help Communities Reduce the impact. That is a focus that we need to continue to work on together. Are you doing anything to reduce the impact of these zero policies . To reduce the impact of Severe Weather events. Are you doing anything to mitigate them so these peoples lives and homes can be saved . Are you doing anything in that arena . Our focus is to work with communities to reduce the impact of whatever the risk okay, answer would be no. I yield the general lady. Renewing wildfires. We know that the balance is down to 2. 4 million in the relief fund. That sounds like a lot but as we have more disasters, they last longer, they do more damage, more expensive. Saying that it should pass the house without any social policy attached to it. One area that hears much about it is certainly a partner of yours is the National Weather service. The National Weather service is one of the strongest partners we have for Emergency Managers. We rely on their Services Daily to connect what is going to happen. Forecasts, warnings, decisions, support. The National Weather service 200 million. I wonder if you can comment on how that will undermine some of the efforts or if you think that is a good idea . The National Weather service is such a great partner for us and all of the sister agencies that go with that. The National Water center, the National Hurricane center, all of those components, they bring us Critical Data and information as well as modeling to help us anticipate what threats are going to be. We can put the right measures in place to help protect them. As we are watching a storm develop and allow us to pre position in areas so we can perform lifesaving actions to predicting what the future might hold. Any reduction in the ability to get that valued information, data, and modeling will have a Significant Impact on the safety and security on the Community Across the mission. I will never. And more importantly, save lives. That would cause us to have an increase in the amount of money that we are spending on responding and recovering because we will have the accurate data. Tell us about what you think will be the result if we can get the disaster survivor fairness act that i have mentioned in my Opening Statements past. This seems to be supported by both parties. Seems to make us more efficient. Seems to be the way to speed things up, be more equitable. Unanimously. Talk a little bit about how you anticipate that might be a good idea . I am very excited and very appreciative of the support of this bipartisan legislation. I believe that the disaster survivor fairness act and there are a wide number of things that are covered in that but there are three that i really want to point out to the committee. First its going to give us the ability to do direct repair to homes. This is going to be quicker, more efficient, as well as more Cost Effective than the traditional programs that we use manufactured housing or units. Its going to give the ability to provide housing grants to states. Program over the last year to see how much quicker they can implement some of these programs, giving them the ability to give direct grants, we believe that will increase the efficiency and the ability for states to take care of their residence. Its going to give us the ability to streamline information sharing across our federal agencies. Many of our federal partners use our data to help influence how theyre going to implement their disaster programs. If we can streamline the sharing, it can make those programs quicker to get online. Thank you. We need your help advocating for this because i agree with you. I think it would make a big difference and we would like to see it pass. Something else im asking about are the fire fire grants that are sent next september. The matching grants for local fire departments. Can you address those . Is that your advocacy for renewing this programs . The reauthorization of our assistance to fire program is of critical importance because our firefighters on the back of our First Responders that are out there. This Grant Program allows us to continue to build capacity in our fire departments, both volunteered and paid departments across the nation and the ability to have this program in place. If we didnt have it, it would definitely jeopardize our First Responders across the nation. Many other functions as well. Lets not justify wildfires in the west. They had many other functions as well. All of our firefighters, as well as her agencies. A Critical Program to keep the capability efficient to support the needs that we are facing. Thank you. The chair now recognizes. We wouldve thought that chairman graves was going to be here. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you to administrator criswell. I appreciate you appearing in front of the committee that. At that time, we discussed the everchanging mission, although, fema has a mission. That mission has changed over the years. Most recently in a disaster is border that we are dealing with. Fema recently announced in june that new york city was set to receive 100 million from the shelter and Services Program to address the evergrowing migrant crisis. Since then, as i am sure you are well aware, the problem has only worsened and recently, mayor adams, just last month said this issue will destroy new york city. Agency may have to 50 from their budget. You served new york city probably for two years and i appreciate you eating the department of Emergency Management. 15 of the budgets of departments like sanitation, the fdny, the nypd, Emergency Management. Buildings, on and on and on. Has anyone from new york city been in contact with fema, requesting additional funds to address migrant crisis after already receiving 100 million . High, representative. We have been incumbent continuous communication with the city of new york. My regional administrator maintains close contact on a regular basis. It is the understanding of what their needs are and the department recently sent a team down there to do a deep dive with the mayor and his staff. With the Current Situation is in the needs that they have to have a better understanding. The funding that we have through the shelter and Services Program is a finite amount of funding. We do recognize that they came in with a much larger request than what we were able to appropriate to them. How much have they additionally ask for . I do not have a number in front of me but it was well above what we have the ability to give, given the amount of money that we had available. At someone and i appreciate all the time you spent in Emergency Management, as someone who has also spent his adult life in the Emergency Management world, we always ask ourselves are we better off today than they were the last time we dealt with this issue . I think i it is clear that mayor adams had no plan for being a section where he city and when asked by fema what are your needs and what you need from us . He does not have an answer because there is no plan. Obviously, it is concerning that new york city continues to face the significant challenges that it does. You never want to cure the mayor of one of the biggest cities in the world saying that we have an issue that we are facing that we cannot control that is going to destroy our city. How is fema evaluating the differences between new york city and other cities and the intended purposes of this program . Shelter and service program, again, was directed by congress and the first part of that funding went out through our Legacy Program, the emergency Shelter Program for humanitarian. As we moved into the shelter and Services Program, we evaluated the data as it relates to releases as well as destinations to make our determination. In the first part of the program, we had a heavier weight on releases. We had a higher focus on the destination cities. As we move into the next fiscal year of this Program Continues to be for funded, we are going to look at the more competitive Grant Program using more current data since the first delivery was based on existing data but we know that the dynamics of the situation are real and that the data changes on a daily basis and we want to make sure that we have a better understanding of impacts to communities as we go into the next. Making these decisions, you and your team have obviously gone through more data than anybody probably ever wants to look at. Do you believe that there is an Immigration Crisis facing us under the failed leadership of the president and secretary . Are we dealing with an immigration issue brought this country . Specifically in new york city which borders might congressional district. Representative, i am not an Immigration Agency what i can tell you is that my agency will continue to focus on supporting jurisdictions that are managing the care of immigrants through our shelter and Services Program. I appreciate that. I only have a few seconds so i will ask this way. Other resources that should be utilized in other areas of fema . Focusing on its original mission that are now being taken away because of issues that we are facing because of the failed policies of secretary. The only resources we are contributing to this mission right now is the delivery to our shelter and Services Program and providing reimbursement for some of the costs they are incurring. If we did not have this issue in place, we were utilizing the funding for other things in fema. Mr. Chair, my time is expired. I yield back. Thanks to the gentleman. The chair recognizes the Ranking Member of the full community. Thank you, mr. Chair. If you could just clarify that last answer, is the shelter and Services Program to bring dollars into that program . The shelter and Services Program with an additional allocation to our budget specifically for the program. You did not divert money from other programs . You did not. Speaking of which, other programs. Back to disaster as it really fun. I understand you are in permitting costsaving measures. There are quite a bit of a number of projects you noted. The number of being delayed, one of which is in walking county in my district. We can all talk about our district. For Washington State, that one program, funding delays, a little over 10 of the total and Washington State. How delaying projects that are funded in different programs cant be funded because of the delay. With the current help of the Disaster Relief fund, we have been watching this very closely throughout the year and made the determination to implement immediate needs funding because our focus and our priority needs to make sure that we always have the Resources Available to support life safety, lifesustaining activities. Their immediate needs funding, that is what we are able to do. What we do is delay the obligations for some of this other work. It does not mean that the work necessarily stops. It means that we cannot reimburse jurisdictions for the cost that they incur as a result of that until the drf is replenished. Is reimbursed out of the drf. Those dollars are spent down. Our Hazard Mitigation program as well as our building resilient infrastructure and Communities Program are both funded out of the Disaster Relief fund. Okay. And i think one of the things we will see is smaller jurisdictions that are not getting reimbursed for their projects. They are not going to be able to continue some of the work because of cash flow issues. They will need the reimbursement for these types of projects so they can continue the work. Even though we dont stop the work, it is really upon them to figure out how they can continue to manage the work being done until they can get reimbursed with the Disaster Relief fund. Other jurisdictions have are really excited about the ability that this program is going to do to help jurisdictions with their cost share portion of some of these very difficult so they can continue to spill resiliency in their communities. Can you talk a little bit about that because i think it is important to understand that all the challenges on Climate Change, challenges you have with the drf. Hoping to achieve the mitigation resilience. Hoping we turn the corner of what fema is all about. Larson, we are actually seeing an increase in the intensity of the severity. The length of the complexity of this type of Severe Weather events that are responding to. We are continuing to respond to these events but we have got to build resilience in these communities to reduce the impact from these events. The way we do that is through our mitigation program. Which is funded after a disaster where estate and jurisdiction have funding after disaster strikes. Our Brick Program which can provide funding for predisaster, helping them identify what types of projects are going to help make them more resilient. They all come with a cost share and many of our jurisdictions do not have the funding necessary to come up with that cost share. The Storm Program really makes a difference. I can help you jurisdiction through this Revolving Fund to be able to complete these projects and come up with their match or do other projects that are going to be funded under one of the per federal programs. It is a critical tool to help communities achieve the level of resilience that they are going to need to have as we face a future of climate related events. Thank you. Indulge me. In 2022, Washington State had 602 fires according to our state dnr. This year, to this date, Washington State is 1855 fires have responded to. At least for one state, wildfires are increasing. Chair, thanks to the gentleman of the chair. Recognizes. Thank you, mr. Chair. Mr. Graves well, thank you for joining us today. I really appreciate it. Before i was in office, i promised my voters i would focus on Flood Insurance and flood mapping. The issues that correctly affect my district in south mississippi. To combat the effects of active flooding, several of these counties were actively engaging in resilience. Accordingly, fema is planning to spend 3 billion this year on resilience of projects in addition to several other agencies across the federal government. Specifically, jackson county, which is my home county on the mississippi gulf coast is relying on many of these programs to plan and build projects to improve drainage, enhance our shorelines, protect our citizens from storms and flooding. Ideally, these advancements will provide protection for properties and help lower Flood Insurance rates. However, because fema refused to disclose the full algorithms used in risk rating 2. 0, the county leaders are unable to plan and target projects where they will have the greatest benefits to my constituents including lowering their insurance costs. My question this morning, our resiliency investments taken into account in the risk rating of 2. 0 algorithm . That representative the most important piece about 2. 0 is that it now bases Flood Insurance premiums on each homes unique flood risk. Which means it does take into account mitigation measures that have been put in place by the homeowner or the community. That is directly reflected in the rate that the homeowner sees. So it does . I will be submitting q frs. Congress has supported policies to include the program which is unaffordable and unattainable in several areas of my district. I would like to submit the attached letter. For the record, i wrote you in july on the top. I ask unanimous consent to submit the writer letter for the record. Without objection. The communitybased insurance. An approach that allows for customized coverage and empowers local decisionmaking rather than a onesizefitsall approach for the reducing the burden on fema are promoting self resiliency. I believe this approach could bring Financial Resiliency to lower and moderate income households often facing extreme flooding events and even save the taxpayers some money. Your commitment to exploring this approach to help better understand our state, county needs, counting leads, and individuals risks they face in extreme flooding cases. Does fema have the authority to use funding to support similar approaches . High, representative. You have my commitment to continue to work with you on helping homeowners understand their flood risk as well as ways we can help reduce their costs. We know that many of this is unaffordable which is why fema has put forth to congress and affordability framework to help everybody have the ability to obtain the necessary protection that they need to help protect their families. You have my commitment to continue to work on that. Thank you very much. Promoting resiliency is only half the equation with the rising cost of disasters, even most resilient communities still like Financial Resources to adequately respond to a disaster. Leaving leaders to take out large sums of credit to cover the immediate cost of recovery. Fema does provide assistance in reimbursing these events. Most must be done to expedite these Financial Burdens on these disasters. Can i get your commitment to looking at proposals such as fema Interest Payment relief act as a potential solution to mitigate this to my community . Yes. We have a number of programs that help amenities with their cash flow issues because we understand that that can be a challenge. You have my commitment to continue to find ways that we can improve upon that. We can help these communities rebuild and rebuild in a way that is going to make them more resilient. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, i yield back. The chair now recognizes representative. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Administrator, it looks like. Weve got a worsening Climate Crisis and without insufficient funds in the Disaster Relief fund. In my district, the district of columbia, 13 public assistant projects totaling 7 million have been put on pause as well as 150,000 im sorry, 190,000. It has a mitigation project also on pause. It is critical that we replenish the Disaster Relief fund as soon as possible. Could you speak to the impact on communities and disaster survivors if congress does not pass supplemental funding for the Disaster Relief fund . Represented norton, right now, we are mostly watching the draw on the Disaster Relief fund and want to ensure we always have enough funding to support Life Sustaining activities that need to happen. Is on hold. The largest impact on that is their ability to continue with new projects until they can get reimbursed for the work . One of the programs that i am very excited and proud of is we have had Great Success in supporting a number of community is across the nation to help them design and develop mitigation projects that are going to help. That have such a historic nature and we will be happy to work with you in better understanding some of the communities. That is a special program here in the nations capital. Finally, in the district of columbia, has seen extreme heat. Earlier this month, temperatures soared to at least 97 degrees for five straight days, breaking all historic records. How does fema help state and local governments respond to extreme heat . One of the best things that fema does to help communities battle the impacts of extreme heat is through repaired this as well as mitigation. I on preparedness, what we have done this year is launched our Summer Ready Campaign to help individuals and communities understand the things that they can do to help protect the families that are experiencing extreme heat. We also know that to help communities held resilient in the structure cooling centers to help reduce the heat inside buildings. We are adding green areas. Our mitigation programs can help to be used impact the extreme heat for the future events that we are going to see. Thank you very much and thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield back. Think you. The chair now recognizes jenna studer Jennifer Gonzales from puerto rico. Think you for bringing us together for this hearing. Thank you to the administrator for being here to answer my questions. We are still in the process of performing recovery awards for. The recovery is still mostly in the planning stages, which is one of the issues that i am most concerned with. There has been a historic funding there is a real fear that between cost increase, it will be immense opportunities and rewards that were promised and will not get done. To that end, i know that the fema recovery page indicates that between all the various disasters in the past few years, the public assistant as allocated 45 billion for puerto rico. Almost out of the Disaster Relief funds of which 19 million has been outplayed. The transfer from fema for the entities that will be responsible. In the other hand, fema announced 41 billion for public assistant project and the obligation was near 1. 9 million. Do not have cash on hand, to start working before reimbursement, established a working capital system providing 1. 2 billion for agencies and municipalities. However, yesterday in puerto rico, reports that three announced that as many as two thirds of those entities will have to return. Those advances will not be able to have evidence after a year. Fema is aware and will get a report on the specific. I would love to have a copy of that report but at least it has been saved that fema promises to have a report in relations to funds between fema and corn 3. My question, administrator, does your agency have your own record on how much has been dispersed to puerto rico . Representative, we are extremely committed in helping puerto rico recover and since i have taken this position, i have met many times with governor and my team is still embedded in puerto rico. Do you have the amount that is being dispersed . We absolutely have the amount. I have taken this position, we have funded over 10,600 projects that total 30 billion. This is 2800 projects and 1800 been completed prior to me coming into this position, there were only 81 projects. You can provide a Community Information of where we are with the latest update of those funds not just for municipalities. How many are right now, still pending for approval or disbursement from fema because we got the same issue with the local agencies. Another issue that is important is what the difference of sections 428 and 406 cost for many of those has come up . With funding in 2018, now maybe bigger. As an example, the hospital was organizing 59 million and now its 85 million. Have the full amount of resources the finish and that will happen on the island. I know my time is going to expire but i would like the committee to have the precise data regarding planning stages on the island, how much has been dispersed, when do you expect that we actually have some construction for delivery of local pencil island. One of the biggest issues. More than 11 billion ive not been used. That is not your fault. People of puerto rico have been waiting for 60 years and the local agency started telling you not to use power for week because we dont have enough power to cover the whole island. Having said that, i will provide as well with a list of questions regarding this and i will hope that the fema administrator can provide that. We will be happy to provide you answers for the record. I yield back. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from california. I think the chair, administrator criswell, i want to spend my time asking about something that is at the core of femas work. The question of who gets fema Disaster Relief and who does not. Let me first say that i am a big believer in the mission of your agency. I think its one of the great things that our federal government does to make sure that fema Disaster Relief is therefore stated communities no matter where they are, no matter what their politics are. I want to commend you and your colleagues for the dedication that you bring to this critical work. I represent the north bay in the north coast of california so i have seen firsthand what a difference that Disaster Relief can make for devastated communities. I have also seen what happens when there is a devastating Natural Disaster that does not quite trigger fema Disaster Relief. I have seen how inequitable that can be. My district includes a lot of Rural Communities as well. We have an equity problem when it comes to this mechanism. We leave a lot of Rural Communities behind and with the Climate Crisis bringing us more and bigger disasters, we really need to tackle this equity problem to get ahead of it. I told you a little bit about my district. We thought tsunamis, wildfires. It is the poster child for this problem. This threshold can leave devastated communities behind. Give me an example. The helena fire burned 72 homes and junction city. Trinity county, one of the smallest, poorest, Rural Counties in california. That took up 15 of the countys housing stock. 15 of a county that has modest homes so the Property Values were not high enough this is a struggling community. In december of 2022, 6. 4 magnitude earthquake struck the small town of rio dell in humble county. To got about 25 of the citys housing stock. Estimated 26 million in overall damage. A total of 35 million in damage to the county but again, this is a rural, struggling county. Did not meet the threshold. If you took the same disaster and it happened in an affluent place, pebble beach, any number of places. Took up a small fraction of the homes. You would have no problem triggering federal Disaster Relief but these communities were left without that support. The flipside of that, in 2011 there was a massive earthquake in japan that triggered a tsunami that wrecked the city harbor in my district. The damage was about 50 million. Again, just short of the threshold to get Disaster Relief but we got lucky because that same tsunami also had a harbor in santa cruz further south. Because those yachts enabled the tally to go a little higher, Crescent City did qualify federal Disaster Relief. We would have been left with nothing. Administered are criswell, it seems to me that this is fundamentally unfair and again, with more disasters coming, we really need to provide more flexible, equitable ways for devastating communities to qualify for. My staff will be presenting you with a letter today. Im asking you to work with us on this important issue. I believe you have existing authority that would let you do rulemaking to provide that flexibility we will get to work to make it happen. Let me leave it there and ask for your response. I am hoping to hear commitment on this critical issue. Were presented, you make some very good points. It really does show why one of my priorities has been equitably delivering our programs. When it comes to declaring a disaster, we have a number of factors that we take into consideration, whether the state has the capacity to support it. Not just the local jurisdictions. It can be very complex. The way we are delivering our programs but also better understanding the barriers that communities, just as you mentioned are. Think being able to get the assistance that they need in order to properly recover from these disasters. You have my to continue to find ways that we can improve the way we are delivering our programs and ensuring that everybody who is eligible for our programs has access to that assistance. Thank you. Yield back. Recognize the vice chair of the subcommittee from. Thank you, chairman. It is nice to meet you. I know we have not officially met but as any member of congress, i am that you are here today into the questions that we have. Given your background at fema, and in colorado. Im sure you have a unique and deep oppression of the devastation caused by wildfires. One of my highest priorities to find solutions to help oregonians address the challenges of wildfires. They began in august and lasted until november. According to the Oregon Department of Emergency Management they burned over 1 million acres. That is about the area of rhode island. It affected 20 counties, damaged over 5000 structures and resulted in over 600 million in damage across the state. Marion county was devastated and we work with that community to recover. This location was a required stop for my new staff. I had my staff go there to understand what was most important to me and to visit as we set up new offices. One specific area of frustration concerns an application to get unobligated funds for a Water Treatment plant. This has continued for 3 years after the fire. Detroit completed the paperwork and met the requirements, however, turnover at fema has forced the city to rejustify each aspect of the project multiple times. The applications for 5. 7 million. Completing the paperwork is hard enough, but how is it fair to require a Small Community to recomplete this over and over again for 3 years. My question to you is, can you offer any assurances today that fema will give this pending application full and fair consideration . Apps absolutely. I will follow up on this personally and ensure that this is reviewed and we give full and fair incineration based on the application that is submitted. Im happy to meet with you off line. I would like to open my office to get this work done. Oftentimes after testimony like this it does not happen. Im committed to getting this moved forward. Regarding the high turnover, what steps can you take to make sure that you can reduce the burden and get somebody up to speed on a new application . The majority of the personnel that we have are reservists. They are the backbone of what we do, which is why we are grateful to congress for the passing of the crew act that gives them detections and we have a broader pool of people we can recruit from. I talked to reservists firsthand about how they are benefiting from this piece of legislation, which is increasing the number of reservists that we can count on. Were also offering new incentives. We offer recruitment bonuses as well as administrative time off. These little steps are increasing the desire of the workforce to bring in new people but also helping them to understand we are there for them and we recognize the value that they bring and it makes them excited about the continued work in supporting survivors during and after disasters. The chair recognizes the gentleman from california. I thank you, mr. Chairman. You have a tough job. All around this nation there is some kind of the disaster going on all the time. Thank you. Thank you for your efforts and the work that you and your team do. All of us believe this to be extremely important. The recovery piece of it. There is always a problem. Some of these are in the scope of issues that you face that seem to be mundane. We had a covid crisis a couple of years ago. There were shutdowns and individual counties and Homeless People and house people in separation. One of those counties i happen to represent is waiting for reimbursement. For their program. The decision is contrary to your national guidance. We would like you to look into it and i will get you the specific information. It has to do its not a great amount of money in the scope of what you are facing, but important to contra costa county. If you would take a look at that , your guidance 29 region 9. Having said that, i will get you the specific information and if you could follow up, we would appreciate it. In the scope of the issues that you have, we will never be able to do with disasters unless we continue to press for mitigation. The mitigation is one of your tasks. There are a couple of mitigation programs that are of concern. Specifically the mitigation having to do with the Water Infrastructure. One of your programs does not seem to provide for firefighting Water Infrastructure. Maybe a tank or a water hydrant. Could you take a look at that. How do we do it without water and the Water Infrastructure . You have a program that can deal with that and we need to make sure that would be improved. We can get you specific concerns that we have in california about that. The final point is the Revolving Loan fund program. If it works, provides the state with money that they can then pass on to counties to get ahead of the problem like using that money to develop mitigation programs. However, youve awarded that to seven states and the district of columbia. You have about 100 million available. How about the other 50 million. Maybe you have as much as 200 million. How much is in this Revolving Loan program . Can you push the money out or is it being allocated for the Disaster Recovery . Please take a look at that. Obviously, other states who have spoken here today, what is the status . Can you push the rest of that out or does it depend upon the additional money that we must provide to fema . I would love to hear your comments if youre up on this issue. Representative, the Revolving Loan fund is such an incredible tool to help our communities build resilience in areas where perhaps they do not have the funding to front some of the costs or cover the costs for some projects. When we first when i first got the funding for this we wanted to make sure we got a portion out as quickly as possible. That is why we did a partial notice of funding opportunity for the initial 50 million that you mentioned. This requires, its the first of its kind program, and requires that state and local partners build capacity to administer such a program. While we did an initial notice of funding opportunity, weve been working with state and local partners to help them establish programs so they can administer this. As we continue to go forward with this program, we will be issuing the notice of funding opportunities for the full amount of this Program Going forward. My final comment is, i very much appreciate what youre doing in your extraordinary work. Some of us want to support you. Without, i will recognize the gentleman from california. Thank you, madam chairman. This is a very important topic. Thank you for your efforts with fema during difficult times. Tsunamis and earthquakes and wildfires and floods. In terms wildfires, my area was devastated. The camp fire was right in my backyard. The dixie fire in 2021, 1 million acres. The lord blesses us much rainfall so youre not feeling so much of the size and scope of the wildfires that we can use to lately. I wanted to speak with you about some of the practical matters. It is hard to get things out the door quickly and great work done by fema working with the local governments on other fires having to build from the ground up. We are having trouble on timing of things like whether it has been housing or trailers, i wanted to touch on what is called the north complex fire centered in each county california. You might well be familiar with this. One area was impacted including water for the community. The water system was wiped out. The district there, the Water District submitted several public assistance claims, but it took years for the submission and a denial and an appeal, a denial again to take place for that assistance. During that time what was there of the Water District that was the infrastructure was allowed to deteriorate more. Part of it may have been salvageable, but we could not get the teams record nation amongst everybody to look at the district and see what was going to be. Fema did not meet the required deadlines to respond on that. A lot of time and effort and invaluable infrastructure was lost. Especially in a small town like that, they are extremely impacted because they have a limited ability to apply for this or ask for grants. What i would ask you is if you can take at your level another look at the northern complex fire and see if you believe they got a fair shake. They absolutely need the assistance. So much time went by they are on the short end of it now. Overall, i would like to see if we can commit coronation with state folks more. So applicants can know what the resources can be more quickly and respond to that so theres less local suffering. Would your office be able to work with mine as was as well as california to compact these time lines and not have these unnecessary delays . Absolutely. We will certainly take a look at the case that you mentioned. I do not have the specifics on that here, but i will take a look at that. We have worked over the last two years to figure out ways that we can be better engaged with our customers and have more of a people first approach to the way we deliver our programs. Sometimes it takes that oneon one communication. You do have my commitment to make sure we do everything we can to work with communities within your district and across california and the rest of the country. It took a strong effort by my staff to say everybody come to one meeting one last one is we need to look at things that happened post wildfire mudslides these tie back to the cause. We need to have aftereffects taken into account so can we look at that process so that mudslides related to a fire can be part of that conversation . Is one of the concerns that we have after wildfire. And we have postwildfire Hazard Mitigation teams that will better understand what the cascading impacts might be and what type of mitigation projects we need to put in place to protect these committees. You have my commitment to work on that and i will provide a briefing on what we do. Prepositioning resources for wildfires would be a key component going forward. Thank you for your time. The chair will recognize mr. Carter from louisiana. Thank you. And thank you for being here with us today. There are five major army corps of engineers projects being held up in my district due to a funding gap. With the Disaster Recovery fund running low, what happens if this fund is not replenished by congress . Congressman, the project that you mentioned, the obligations are on hold because theyre not lifesaving and we want to reserve what is left of that for like hurricane idalia or the maui wildfire. As soon as it is replenished, you have my permission to reimburse these projects. And we will work around the clock to expedite those payments, but we cannot do so until the drf is replenished. If the 2. 4 billion storm to hit right now, and emptied the drf, what would happen if a subsequent disaster struck with the drf sitting on zero . We are monitoring the drf closely and we implemented the immediate needs funding. If we have another catastrophic event that happens at the same time, we will continue to prioritize the most critical lifesaving activities to ensure that we have the resources that can go to communities and save lives. Continue to delay the obligations for the recovery projects, and then, for some of those projects so we can focus on life safety. We know that these storms come harder and faster and cause more devastation in their path. We also know that there is a looming chance that the government could shut down. In the case of such a drastic act of shutting down the government or having a continuing resolution, what does it do to your agency and all the ongoing Natural Disasters you are currently facing . A lapse in appropriations occur, anything that would remain in our Disaster Relief fund, carryover balance would be moved forward, but given the current state would be insufficient to cover all of the ongoing lifesaving operations. And we would have to continue to reduce the scope of what it is we are supporting in our operations. We would be legally able to incur obligations for activities necessary for protection of human life, but we would have to further reduce those types of lifesaving operations that we are working on based on the amount of funding that we have available. Isnt it true that an act of shutting down the government would drastically impeach her ability to provide resources and would impact democrats, republicans, and independents throughout the country . It has an impact on everybody across this nation from our ability to do lifesaving actions in a number of places as well as ongoing recovery projects, regardless of where they are at. As result of Climate Change, deadly heat waves have gripped the nation from coast to coast. In my state alone, wildfires have been unprecedented, burning out of control. Share with us what measures youre taking . We see this happening more and more in places it has never happened before. People have never suffered these calamities are dealing with them. Share with us what actions your agency is taking. What you have described is this convergence of multiple climate related hazards coming together in ways weve not seen before where decades of drought combined with extreme heat creating unprecedented wildfires or heat domes in areas that are lasting longer than they ever have. The mitigation programs can help support communities to better understand the types of threats and risks that they face today but the risks they will face in the future, and how we can use the mitigation funds to mitigate and reduce the impact of these risks, whether it is creating green space to reduce the impact of heat or Hazard Mitigation to help reduce the spread of wildfires in communities that have that type of threat. Are mitigation programs are critical to helping communities across the country better understand what the risk is and how we can reduce the impact so they do not have these long, complex recoveries for most of us we can save lives. My time is up. I will and with this statement because i will never pass up an opportunity and i will continue to encourage that we put our heads together. Thank you for the time that youve spent in discussing back and forth this issue that is far yet resolved. I implore you to continue working with us in a bipartisan way to address the issue of risk rating 2. 0 that is devastating particularly for louisiana. The chair will recognize mr. Graves from louisiana. I want to thank my friend from louisiana for bringing up some local issues and pick up where he left off. Administrator, we had a chance to cover some ground in louisiana in the past and, in this case, i want to talk about where mr. Carter left off and that is risk rating 2. 0. Your part of the federal government combine comprised of hundreds of millions of citizens. The fact that fema has continued to hide behind this proprietary model of methodology for determining rates for risk rating 2. 0, mr. Carter and i are incapable of explaining to the people that we represent why rates have gone from 560 a year to 8000 or 9000 a year. It is not okay that we cannot explain it and its not okay that fema tries to hide behind his proprietary model. I want to ask you, would you make transparent the methodology and allow us to explain to our constituents wide rates are skyrocketing. Explained to constituents how levee protection and other features are benefiting them and in many cases property taxes and sales taxes and others are making them safer . Congressman, risk rating 2. 0 is one of the most important factors is that basis the Flood Insurance rates on a homes unique risk. Weve seen a significant amount of policy across the nation that has seen decreases, we know that now that we understand this, many the policies, the rates have gone up. That is not answering the question on transparency. I cannot explain to a constituent why the rates have tripled or quadrupled, or what have you. I cannot explain how the levy right behind the house provides them a level of protection if fema is refusing to be transparent. Your part of the federal government. This lack of transparency is not okay and in some places these people are outside the flood zone. It does not make sense. And if were going to talk common sense for just a minute. Homes are static structures in most cases. I understand we have elevated these under programs, but in reality, if people complied with the rules of the time they built their home and in some cases these homes video for hundreds of years and we are to suddenly change conditions and refused to provide any degree of transparency . I would like a commitment that you will be transparent and provides the methodology to the public, let people look at it and understand it and perfected. We continue to provide briefings to your staff and others on how we have i will take that as a no. There was a meeting held at the white house on may 11th of this year with the National Security council, talking about nfc stepping in and taking over coordination of disasters or emergencies. That is what congress charged you to do. Can you shed any light on what this is that the white house is coming in and taking this over . Can you share documents and help us understand this, since we are the ones that write the laws . Thank you for that question. Recovery is and will remain with the Core Functions that fema does and we are looking for ways that we can improve on how we deliver not just our programs that help coordinate for longterm recovery. Maui is a perfect example on how it set up a longterm recovery operation with the state using the leadership of our state and local leadership to drive the requirements. There is always room to improve. One of the things that we are working as result of hawaii with the nfc is bringing together cabinet secretaries to ensure that they have visibility of all the things that their programs and agencies are doing on the ground. That is the commitment that i have to continue to support communities like maui with these longterm recovery operations. Making sure that fema sustains their role of being that agency that has the ability to coordinate across federal agencies. You have a tough job. You do. And i appreciate your willingness to do it. Every time you step in its because there is a disaster. Is not an enviable position. I want to be clear that congress has charged you with that responsibility. If there is a proposed change, this committee deserves transparency to make sure that we believe it is consistent with the congressional intent and ask your commitment to provide transparency on this as well. Is that a commitment you are willing to provide . Yes, sir. Last thing. Duplication of benefits drives me crazy because i watch the federal government be incredibly inefficient. We have mitigation programs in the corps of engineers and hud and department of agriculture and many others. We have explicitly wrote a change in the law that said that duplication of benefits with corps of engineers programs does not exist. Meaning you can pay for it, but ive watched were fema has refused and said you could not provide funds to record project in the 7001 report. Yet you have had a situation where washington, d. C. , has funds from tree equity, and portland has gotten funds or similar programs. Why is it that if the Forest Service is going to fund urban treeplanting, fema will fund it . I do not have the specifics. I will be happy to follow up with you. The chair will recognize mr. Stanton from arizona for 5 minutes. Thank you for allowing me to participate in this subcommittee discussion. Communities along the southern border are on the front lines of an ongoing humanitarian crisis. Right now federal migrant Holding Facilities overcapacity. Last week dhs began to release migrants on the streets of small , rural arizona communities like nogales and douglas, arizona. Instead of providing the resources, the federal government has shifted federal assistance away from arizona to other states and made it harder for local governments to get reimbursed for costs incurred. Im a former mayor and i know how tight fiscal budgets are. Its insulting that the federal Government Forces them and to such a precarious financial decision. Im particularly concerned about femas lack of transparency and how these shelter and Services Program funds are allocated and why city disproportionately small amount of the overall funding has come to arizona. Fema stated that eligible applicant allegations were based on relief and destination data received from tcp and emergency food and Shelter Programs made in fiscal year 2023. No other information was provided for how these funds would be allocated. The Southern Arizona coalition that includes the city of tucson and Catholic Community services has a combined monthly cost of over 2 million per month this summer and costs are rising as dhs releases more than 1000 migrants every day. They were eligible to apply for 10. 9 million in assistance through the shelter and Services Program while new york received 10 times that. Im told the funds that Southern Arizona has received the last five months. It is simply not right. Why is there such an enormous disparity between the resources allocated to border communities compared to interior communities under this program . Shouldnt the needs of the arizona border communities and others be weighed more heavily when allocating these critical funds . Representative stanton, we know there is great need out there for these funds. And throw Legacy Program, with the direction of congress to establish new shelter and Services Program, we used the Legacy Program to administer the first portion of that funding, which highly favored border cities. As we implemented that we did begin to take integrator account destination data as we understand that communities across the country are incurring costs as they provide shelter and services for migrants. As we move into the next fiscal year, and if the Program Continues to be funded, we will base this on a Competitive Program to take into account the existing data and impact that communities are experiencing as to make future funding allocations. Are you saying that fema will make this move forward like the emergency food and Shelter Program . The emergency food and Shelter Program was not a competitive Grant Program compared to the traditional Grant Program. Shelter and Services Program will be more competitive. When that funding occurs, how we address the significant shortfall by arizona border communities . Even through our Legacy Program as well as the sheltering service Program Continues to be oversubscribed and anticipate it will be oversubscribed. We will use Data Collected to make those decisions, but we know that many communities will not get enough funding for the costs that they are incurring. Is far more restrictive in covering costs incurred by in governments. Why are they so much more restrictive than the funding received previously under the emergency food and Shelter Program . What was the rationale for capping hotel costs when it was not capped previously . I would have to go back with my team on how he made those decisions and requirements. This is a new program for fema. This is the first iteration. We continue to improve based on the Lessons Learned from the first allocation. Im happy to work with you and your staff on ways we can continue to improve. One final question. Extreme heat is another important issue. Are the eligible for a stafford act declaration . Or does it mean to be amended . It is not need to be amended to include extreme heat. With base decisions on a number of factors. Mostly on the capacity of the state and local jurisdictions. If it exceeds the capacity of state and local jurisdiction, theyre open to submit a disaster declaration request and we will consider it based on if it exceeds the capacity. The chair will recognize the representative from north carolina. Thank you, madam chair. As my friend and colleague, mr. Graves mentioned, there is no question you have a tough job. I will reiterate what he underscored in that the duplication of benefits is a big issue for a lot of us. We would love to see the administration stick with the intent of congress on that. It is a big issue for many of our disaster survivors. Speaking of disasters, we have a lot of hurricanes come through, obviously. My district is southeastern south carolina. We had Hurricane Matthew and in 2018 we have hurricane florence. It is quite common for residents who live in condominiums, Homeowners Associations, housing cooperatives, that when those Natural Disasters hit, they can get no assistance from fema. Just curious if you perceive that to continue to be the case or any internal discussion about modifying the regulations to where they would be eligible moving forward . Congressman, people who own their homes, whether its an individual home or a condo or whether they winter there, they are all eligible for the programs. Our decisions and whether they have actual damages to their homes and what we can repair. We provide things like rental assistance, which people are eligible for whether they are a homeowner or a renter. If theres something specific that you have an example of, im happy to work with your staff and better understand what that circumstance was. There is no factor that does not allow somebody who owns a condo to be eligible for programs. Historically fema has been very resistant. Many people have a Homeowners Association and they cannot get debris picked up and there are always municipalities to get reimbursed through public assistance for picking up debris, but they will not pick up debris in a Homeowners Association for that reason. I have legislation that will clarify this and make everybodys life a little easier. It is hr 3777. Im not so sure that where this is going could be addressed with simple rulemaking. I would love to visit with you more about that offline and i appreciate your attention to it. Thank you for that explanation and we would be happy to provide assistance on what you are working on. I yield back. With that, the chair recognizes mr. Ryan from new york. Thank you for allowing me to join. Thank you for your service to the nation and to new york. I believe you are aware and your team is aware, communities in Hudson Valley of new york were devastated in early july with over 8 inches of rain in a few hours. Absolutely overwhelming all of the systems and resources that the community had ever had to deal with or prepare for. We did lose one young woman through that flood and had hundreds displaced. Since the flood we have personally spoken with hundreds of affected residents, and each of their stories is just heartbreaking. One i cannot stop thinking about is a veteran in my community, 100 disability rating from the va suffered tbi and other injuries, still struggling to get any help to rebuild his home that was completely condemned, and despite all the work by you and your team and the declaration of a federal disaster and some of the public assistance, people like him and hundreds of others are still without any help or any relief. Almost none of them have Flood Insurance because of the topography of where they live and its almost impossible that the couldve experienced Something Like this. Tragically, they did. I want to thank you and the president of the ministration pushing to declare the disaster declaration, for working with the team on the ground to get public assistance flowing, but the number one question that i hear still in our offices is, why have we not received individual assistance declaration. The depth of the damage for several hundred families is just devastating. And the story assured is just one. We have children living in condemned homes because theres no option. I have invited you and i know you are very busy, but i would ask you or one of your Senior Leaders to commit to come and look those people in the eye with me and explain what is going on and brainstorm what we can do. Absolutely. I dont have the specifics on why we have not yet. Im happy to look into that, but you have my commitment if i cannot make it, one of my Senior Leaders can join you to understand the impacts of this community. Building on questions from some of my colleagues, specifically mr. Hoffman, can you explain why in the midst of a disaster like this it is so darn hard and complicated and opaque, which seems to be a theme that weve heard throughout questioning that we cannot just answer residents who are devastated why they are not getting individual assistance . And what can we do to change that and what all the local officials and the governor and counting leadership have all been working as a team. Can you help to explain that . There are a number of factors that we look at where we make a determination on whether to recommend a declaration for public assistance and individual assistance. A good portion of that falls on what the capacity of the local jurisdiction for what the state should be able to do to offer support. We understand when there are small Rural Communities that have large urban centers, it creates a greater capacity that the state should come in and provide a level of assistance. All of those are factors taking into consideration. How much the state should be able to support. I appreciate your commitment to look into this. I can tell you that on the ground while the state has contributed significantly, it is nowhere near meeting the need , specifically for those that do not qualify for the income thresholds, but had no Flood Insurance and are far beyond their means to repair devastating damage. We have to be able to figure out how to navigate this. And myself and my team will be available to you and your team. Thank you to those who have been on the ground, and we will certainly be persistent and following up with you on your Time Commitment today. I yield back. The chair is now in agreement with the Ranking Member that we will go for a second round. So the chair will recognize himself for beginning the second round of questions. I think you highlighted the correct in your testimony and numerous times regarding how to help the staffing shortages. In your responses to the letter from chairman graves, i would ask for unanimous consent ordered. On march 17th, and email of yours provided to the committee in response to these oversight letters showed that you emailed secretary that both you and region 3 administrator discussed on her observations. It is heavily redacted as you can see here. Expressed concerns committing to no longer than 30 days. On the following day, he received an email thanking you for supporting region 3 administrators dedicated to the border coordination with imax support for a 30 day period. The imat teams are a specialty. With disasters. Does that mean you and the secretary agree there is a disaster on the border and you sent one of these go ahead. Are incident management assistance teams are unique teams that are trained to deal with complex problems and the skill set that they bring specifically the team that our region 3 administrator leads is a team made up of collateral leaders across our agency designed to support a variety and for an incidence to help bring that level of collaboration, coordination, and communication, the skill set that our Emergency Managers bring all the problems that we saw. It is not about disaster. This was specifically about creating an organizational structure to help support our partners across the department establish a sound unified i guess by transposition, if it is not a disaster and it is to create this team, then we are saying that apparently, secretary marcus and department of Homeland Security does not have what it needs. Its not equipped to handle what is happening on the southern border because they are calling on you. Your resource challenged by your admission. You were even concerned for your email. Then in november, you emailed the secretary and indicated he had requested support again from your region 3 administrator on the border. I would remind you that region 3 covers pennsylvania and the district i am proud to represent. I am concerned about those folks in the district that are paying the taxes for fema to support them and to remind everybody that region 3, the district we are talking about, the region we are talking about, had three correction, 11 major disaster declarations not including covid during that period. I am concerned as you are. How many personnel . How many people did fema send to the border and what was the duration . Since i cannot find out from these emails. The pacific instance that you are talking about with our region 3 administrator is part of a imat team that is made up across our agency. Many from headquarters that is great. How many for how long . They have a handle of people. I do not know exactly how many from that team but that team is only 12 people. It would not be more than 12 . Would not be more than 12. And you do not know how long or how many instances at that point . That he was sent here in d. C. To work with our partners across the department to help them establish what is the southwest border coordination center. While they were here in d. C. Or at the southwest border, they were not focused on region 3 which is pennsylvania, which is what they were hired to do. That is their daily response ability, right . While we are having disasters in that region, they are focused on washington, d. C. And the border, particular. That is what i see here. The only person on the team from region 3 is the one person who is the lead. That is also the person in region 3 that the lead for region 3. The theme of made up a personal to support a variety. I get it. My point is that this person is not focused on the regions. It is having disaster because they are focused on the border and while we might disagree or agree while the border disaster is happening, i would agree that because the policies of this administration. The people in pennsylvania that are paying for their region administrator, they do not get the region administrator because the administration determines that that person is going to be on the southwest border. Let me ask you this final question. Who is paying for that . Who is paying for that . For the imat team, the region 3 coordinator, the person who is supposed to be in pennsylvania. Washington, d. C. , dealing with the southwest border. He was paying for that . Is a part of our appropriated fema is paying for that. Fema is paying for the border, right . When you pay your taxes and say oh, well that is all going to the department of Homeland Security. This portion is to secure the border, that is not true. The department of Homeland Security is now requiring fema to take some of their Disaster Relief people and send them somewhere to deal with the border. That is how we are also dealing with so it is costing double. Not only is Homeland Security, and by the way, i do not know what people realize this but you are not supposed to be duplicating services that are provided by another agency whether it is interior, for street, you are doing that with planting trees as well, by the way. That is another story. On this occasion, you are duplicate services that are supposed to be handled by the department of Homeland Security with fema dollars and fema is demanding and asking and maybe rightly so in many cases, for Disaster Assistance funding at the same time they are spending americas taxpaying dollars that are supposed to go to Disaster Relief on the southwest border in a disaster created by policy by this administration. I yelled and i recognize the lady from nevada, miss titus. Thank you. I want to talk about the inflation reduction act. One of the things that it did was authorize femas public assistance and Hazard Mitigation programs to provide reimbursements for low Carbon Materials and incorporate future climate projections into their Emergency Management plans. These Net Zero Energy as well. We talk about how that has been helpful . How you are leveraging that . How it fits into your overall recovery and replacement of rebuilding schemes . We are grateful for that added ability to reimburse jurisdictions that use this type of Construction Methodology to increase their resilience as we are rebuilding but also reduce the impact on our environment. This is a new program. These are the types of projects that take years to build. I am very excited to see how our jurisdictions across the country are now going to be able to build back in a way that not only makes them more resilient but makes them better for the environment as we go forward. With this build back better so we dont just the way it was before the disaster so an incident occurs again, we are faced with the same problem one more time . Absolutely. Our goal is to build back better so communities do not have to repeat the complex recoveries that they are facing today. In the long run, this is the use of taxpayer dollars and it would be cheaper as you amortize it out over future every dollar that we invest in mitigation saves six dollars in recovery. Thank you. Is that across all kinds of disasters . Whether it is fire, hurricane, whatever it is, just a general that is the current study. It shows that one dollar invested in mitigation saves six dollars in recovery. I am sure it varies slightly from type of event the type of event but that is the recent study that came out which shows how much mitigation saves our tech payers in and from recovering. This would be a good thing to save taxpayer dollars while also trying to save the planet. Absolutely. Thank you. I yield. Recognizes the gentleman from california. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Again, thank you for allowing me to sit in here and for a second round of questions today. I appreciate it. Ms. Criswell, thank you for your appearance and for the coordination we have been able to have with fema after the many disasters. In recovery from wildfires in my own district, without a lot of great strides. Some bureaucratic challenges of delayed progress and true recovery so that victims can get back to normal. Just removing hazardous trees to build housing, fix the road. Local jurisdiction must do. Every project within the recovery progress has a separate requirement which can take a year to produce and often times, things that are very basic and would not need. Especially already existing infrastructures. Not much has changed on the process. This is a pain for them. It really takes time and opportunities as dollars run out and permits other types who may expire. More conditions keep getting added on so i believe, many folks have weighed in with me. Couldnt we have one regional after, in this case, a wildfire for the burn scar and have that for all recovery and mitigation projects died to the disaster that was declared by the president. Wouldnt that seem like a commonsense way of doing it, having an areawide, in this case, burn scar wide nephi and do it as a catch on instead of duplication like this zone, that zone, this project. That is something that we can strive for, deeply . There are a number of policies out there when we are doing our environmental and historic reviews. It is one of those that are out there. There are tools in our toolbox that can do problem medical abuse but each instance is very different and we would have to work with each jurisdiction to better understand how we can apply broader application tools. We cannot do it in every area so i cant give you a general answer but im happy to continue to work with you on ways that we can streamline this process because we also recognize it is one of those pieces of this recovery and rebuilding effort that has some of the longer timelines as we have seen with it. Thank you. Indeed in the paradise area, we are going to be five years in in november. We are still chasing permits to remove hazardous trees. These are dead trees. They are not going to be a part of the landscape or a positive part. Maybe a handful for woodpeckers. It Insurance Companies are pulling out of california and pulling out of areas like this, even though what you would really look at is the risk has changed completely after that devastating fire. Such a complete fire. Once these trees are removed, it will be a more insurable area for folks and we have one lady, one anecdote and i will stop. I lady and her two kids were in their home. During a wind event, trees were falling over. Dead trees. You could hear them cracking. She finally decided she was going to have to get her family out of her home because she was in within reach of some of the trees and take a hotel down the hill in the town of chico, rather than stay in her home because we keep hanging on, hanging on with the inability to quickly and efficiently move, remove the hazardous trees that still exist there. We do not need to every little project. Does not teach you that much anyway. I do not even know if it reads the thing. At the end of the day. Is it going to affect a salamander . The work is going to get done. He needs to get done. Just a lot more pain. We need help as i mentioned a while ago and if in your conversations with the regulators on this, please emphasize that a broader approach would be very helpful for everybody. Im sure for your department, the people who are accurate victims. Thank you for that. Chair, thank you. Are there any further question for members of the subcommittee who have not been recognized . Seeing none. That concludes our hearing for today. I want to thank correction. A witness for her testimony in being here today, tough questions, tough job. We appreciate you. We thank you for coming and taking the heat. This hearing is adjourned