comparemela.com



impact of three hurricanes, it became clear that in many parts of the country, it was simply impossible to achieve those goals. we reported to our congress that the destruction caused by the hurricanes, although not totally overcome, achieved the figure of some $10 billion, which is tantamount to 20% of our gdp. in other words, the worth of everything we have produced and made during the course of last year. and, for those reasons, the political bureau, in deciding which would be the venue for this meeting and praising the city of havana wade what was achieved beyond the first months of the year under more or less normal circumstances, and especially it weighed the efforts of the various promises first to face the weather problems with the smallest possible loss of human lives and human-resources and especially the work to rebuild those provinces. and, holquin has had a tremendous load on its shoulders. it is a very large province with more than 1 million people and with a tremendous impact on our nation's economy because of the industry of nickel. it is the third largest city visited by tourists and because of other productive activities. and, this is a reward for the work and the effort that has been carried out here. we congratulate the men and women of holquin. [applause] first secretary of the party in this province during the difficult times, and also in previous years that four years of great work. we also congratulate comrade ramos from the students. a province that was also hit very hard by hurricane ike and hoose sense was selected to head the party of holquin, has shown that he has been very enthusiastic and hard-working. we also congratulate outstanding provinces and recognize the work done by all of them. we congratulate our compatriot and in the island of youth in the western part of cuba, who faced extremely large damages and also the people from camaguey and other cities, and especially those who live in santa cruz, towns that worked very hard, even though they were almost destroyed by these hurricanes. i have just mentioned a few of the places that suffered from the greatest devastation. these have been difficult months during which people have worked very hard from one end of cuba to the other. in local country, we have seen the ability of people to resist, to organize and express solidarity. there are more and more examples as to how to work during these hard times, and that was what the great majority of cubans in this province did when hurricane ike came through and during subsequent months. the same thing happen everywhere else. many, rats have remained mobilized far away from their families, even when many of those families were suffering from serious limitations, sometimes because they have lost their homes in fall or in part. they trusted in the revolution, and they didn't the work assigned to them, aware of the importance of that work, ensured that their loved ones would not be abandoned. the human quality of our people has been seen in the way they will come neighbors, whose homes were not safe anymore. and that is an attitude that has become a daily one in the face of various adversities. those are the values that have been taught to our people. they have been taught the genuine solidarity. they share things with their brethren, bead the cuban or from other lands. it is not what they have, because we have nothing in excess in this country except problems. [applause] and the cuban people are grateful for the help, the generosity and support received from many corners of this world. i would like to avail myself of this opportunity to recognize the good work carried echoed by a the injure religious foundation, pastors for peace. [applause] headed by its leader, the reverend lucius walker, and the members of the 20th caravan of friendship between the united states and cuba. [applause] i also grieve the venceremos brigade that is celebrating its 40th anniversary. [applause] and, they are represented here by some of their members at this important event. damage to homes are a very serious matter. just in the province of holquin, almost 125,000 homes were hit and of those, approximately -1/2 have been rebuilt. throughout the country, and if you aggregate the houses damaged by the three hurricanes, plus those that still had to be rebuilt because of problems in the early 21st century because of similar hurricanes, the total of those homes by the end of 2008 amounted to over $600,000. and that is why i said the time would be needed to radically improve that situation. in fact, an effort that is worthy of recognition has been carried out by labor groups, by collective organizations and by neighbors stem cells. it is significant that through 20 july, 43% of homes that had been hurt or damaged have been fixed. in other words more than 260,000 homes. nevertheless, much remains to be done. in addition, it is necessary to avoid an accumulation in the future of numbers that large, since as a result of climate change in the world, it has been forecast by many scientists that hurricanes might become more intense even and oakar much more frequently. likewise, we are working to prevent and to face the impact of the current periods of drought. that are becoming longer and more acute. by a number of measures, including shipment of water from one province to another in certain cases. during the three years of drought from the beginning of the century until 2005, it was necessary for the country to carry water by train and by other types of vehicles and containers to some 3.5 million cubans. [applause] and that is why we are building these channels that are strategic to water that will make it possible for us to move that fight a liquid from one province to another. as you know, this gigantic job started here in holquin come up for you have the paradox of having this province next to a province where it rains most around the province of guantanamo, next to this one, which is one of the dryest provinces which in danger water supplies to this large city. in the near future, and we were going to do this after this event, but for the reasons that i gave you the beginning of my speech, we will do this during the course of the month of august. we will officially inaugurate the first stage of the east/west transshipment. [applause] which includes the dam on the river in in municipality, the dam, not near the city, which is further north but closer to the city of holquin, to the east of us. in other words, it would be from their downstream, the water will move to the dam which is farther north and from there, from the colorado dam it will move backwards towards the north through a channel that has already been built, and it will carry some 11, 12 million cubic meters and frequently that the channel is completely dry, and that will go as far is the tourist town of guadalajara where we have serious problems during the drought period some years ago, where some hotels have to be close. is expensive job is just the beginning. and it would provide stable water supplies through the area north of che gueva, including the city of holquin itself. after the project, there is the construction of the so-called mello this that is moving ahead quite a bit and to be more accurate, i propose that it be renamed because of the river that flows through it, and it's retaining wall, the retaining wall of the dam, which is the only one in its time built entirely in cuba with this technology, and that retaining wall will be finished in the year 2011. but, it will start collecting water starting next year, 2010. that was first built 25 years ago and could not carry 130 million cubic meters fully. at the conclusion of the first stage that i have just described to you, i am talking about the east/west channels, television will be broadcasting a full report about this enormous project that is of great size and relevance, and it will explain the theory is transshipment between providence that is being carried out. this is a program for the present, but especially for the future. win water will become a more and more scarce resources, especially in an island that is narrow, where water is lost because it quickly goes into the ocean. i have only mentioned one stage of this program, which will cover most of the country, from the center of the island all the way to guantanamo. in guantanamo province, during the first six months of next year, and specifically in the fertile valley, they will be getting water as their result of gravity from tunnels going through mountains, in this case that were built by the armed forces, and this means that there will be significant savings in fuel by not having to use palms anymore. we are also working on rehabilitating water supply aqueducts and sewer systems,. [inaudible] in the city of holquin, they have built 114,000 kilometers of networks with 21,000 connections to homes and thus, been a fitting some 86,400 people. with the arrival of new teams in the next few months, there will be an increase in the speed of which this work is being done in the holquin, where we already have one of the three factories that manufactures different types of different sizes. as you know, we are also carrying out an expensive investment that will solve once and for all the provision of water to the city of santiago, which will conclude in 2010. in 2011, the aqueducts will be completed in that municipality that is santiago, and which is also studying the one in. moving done to yet another topic of the few that i intend to discuss this morning on july 26 of 2007, i talked about the pressing need to turn towards the land, to get land to be more productive, and almost half of the land that could be cultivated was idle or not fully productive. and then, we appealed for people without improvisations to take advantage of the experiences of the more productive farmers in the state in the farmers sector and to stimulate their hard work and to solve once and for all the problem of lack of payments to the sector by the states. the delivery of land for use by the peasants are moving along, although there are still deficiencies in certain municipalities more than others. the 110,000 applications for land, that were received up until now, around 82,000 have been approved and they cover some 690,000 acres. at in other words, 39% of i don't lance. i consider that that is not enough, but we can't run off and start distributing land without control. we want to work more efficiently in a more organized fashion, and that is a matter of the highest priority and of strategic importance. one of the earlier speakers this morning said that this was a matter of national security, to produce what you can grow in this country and where we spend hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars, and i am not exaggerating, to buy from other countries. diland this year, the cubans are here. let's see if we can work or not, whether we produce are not, whether we meet our word or not. it is not a matter of yelling of country or debt with imperialism. >> blocaded cityness. while this land-- well the land sits idle, waiting for our sweat well here it is increasingly hot. there is no other way. we have got to get the land to produce. i think we all agree. [applause] when i fly in a helicopter over our country, i sometimes ask the pilot to get away from his route and to look at a town or a city. i can assure you that, in most of the towns and cities there is plenty of land, good quality land right next to the homes lying idle, and that is why we are developing a plan to go ahead with intensive cultivation, with the irrigation to be installed were ever possible, as long as this water and resources can move. its some day fueled this appears in this country, that is so crazy in changing, let us have our food nearby, even if we have to carry it in a horse-drawn or oxen drawn carts, but let's grow with ourselves. [applause] of the land that has been turned over, many acres have been declared as free of different places in some 225,000 hectares have been planted. in other words, about a third of the land. we cannot rest, at least as long as there is a single hectare of land that is not use fully worked on and with people willing to develop that land and grow crops on it. land that cannot be used to produce food should be used to plant trees, which is another great source of wealth. i am myself have, for many years, especially in recent times, planted little forests and i have had the pleasure it and the satisfaction of seeing those little trees grow and depending on the kind of tree, sometimes after five years you can have a small forest with several hundred adult trees of different types. but, each time we talk about this, officials from the ministry of agriculture appeared from this ministry and all the other ministries in our history. i am talking about ministries of agriculture, and they give me in an interminable list of millions and billions of pesos worth or dollars worth that they need for different jobs, and if you don't have a little beg, they say you can't plant. i don't know what their grandparents did, for heaven's sakes. and now we have the trees and we are eating mangoes from manga the trees planted by our grandparents. we have to teach children the love for trees. let them plant a few trees in i don't lands while they go to elementary school, middle school, secondary school, pre-universities studies. there are people here who represents youths that are listening to me now. planting trees is something that young seniors like i can do. it is not something only for young people. [applause] [speaking spanish] >> translator: the results in the collection of milk have been very satisfactory. the collection of milk has increased by over 100 million liters every year. we went from 272 million in 2006 to 403 million in 2008, and this year we expect the increase to be even higher. since i discussed this matter on a day like today in 2007, i have talked very briefly about two important aspects having to do with food production which is of the greatest importance in the import substitutions, as i said before, and in reducing our expenditures of foreign currency. the progress we have seen, even though there is a lack of material and financial resources, while not sufficient, confirms the great potential that remains to be exploited in the field of agriculture and in all other sectors of the economy. dismal results ratified once again the great optimism and confidence that yes we can, and our people of heroes can overcome all difficulties, no matter how big. [applause] undoubtedly, it is an enormous challenge in the midst of the economic-- and other aggressions concede to hinder the development of cuba. our people have never failed to return and appeal to the country. it is always said we are ready ever since the troops, the general who fought in three wars, with the star on his forehead and who committed suicide before falling into the hands of the enemy. he was the son of a hero and he faced thousands of soldiers with weapons that were much better than what he had, and the largest army that spain ever sent to the americas. and, with that liberating army, the people supported stoically the tremendous limitations caused by the war, and the cruel repression on the part of colonial authorities. that is our spirit. that is our background, and we will continue to be faithful to its legacy. [applause] with our monolithic unity as its most powerful weapon, that has been developed on the battlefield under the leadership of the head of the revolution, fidel castro-- [applause] no matter how great the difficulties and the dangers, we will continue at head-- the head. flory to the murders of our country. lung live fidel. long live free cuba. [applause] .. publicly funded. >> and donations, i have no idea can and government. >> c-span gets its funding to the taxes. >> federal funding. >> if public funding. >> how is c-span abundant? america's cable companies traded c-span as a public service, in private business initiative coming of government mandate, no government money. >> topics in today's did the department briefing included the political situation in honduras and the latest aman's from north korea. spokesman ian kelly talks to reporters for about 15 minutes. >> afternoon, let me start off by kind of updating where we are today $0.1 in the u.s. china strategic and economic dialogue which you on love started today, the secretary hosts a dinner last night for chinese a counselor. they discuss the agenda for today. who and as you know, this dialogue is being co hosted with the department of treasury. this morning, there were a number of presentations and the first session including presentations on developments and clean energy. the they have now broken for lunch and when we convene this afternoon into their component sections, strategic section will meet at the state department, they arrive here at three, and economic parts of the program will remain in at the rig in building. of the secretary will hold a private meeting with a state councilor tonight's following the conclusion of today, the first day of and the s and ed, and this meeting and will allow them to review who the day's discussions, today's discussions and look ahead to the work to our own. i think is you also know we are going to arrange a conference call with a few officials from state and treasury. that will be at 4:45 p.m., i think he has gotten the details on how to sign on and participate in the call. the call i believe is on background. >> a point of order here, that chinese officials were briefing on the record in the. which country is more open and transparent? [laughter] >> i thank you are considering us on board and i will test. >> i hope you do because i think we should be embarrassed i chile. >> i don't know if we are embarrassed but i do take the concerns very seriously and with that one i will answer your question seriously. >> honduras, president zelaya and not very have been whether, as secretary clinton made on friday saying that his move was reckless and is asking for the administration to put in its sanctions on numerous people have perished in what is your reaction to that crisis. >> well, we are continuing to urge president zelaya and to allow this political process to play out their account these negotiations that are being spearheaded by toaster rican president harry s.. we are urging all sides to refrain from actions one that would not further this process and we see him this attempt to enter honduras absenting can a political agreement between the two sides that would allow for him is not helpful and what happens on friday as you heard and this going right up to the border point in even crossing over the border points the secretary turned i think quite rightly reckless and i think that all sides have to focus on coming to a peaceful political resolution of this can access your position hasn't changed at all since last week given presidents -- president zelaya actions? >> we are focused very much on the process. we are trying and we are hoping will lead to a peaceful resolution and we're doing all we can to support the president can and do you still believe that the return of democratic rule requires the restoration of the president zelaya as president cripes. >> our policy remains the same, that we want the restoration of democratic order and that includes members the return home by mutual agreement of the democratically elected presidents and that is president zelaya a. >> now, the current leader of what you call the de facto regime wrote in an opinion piece in "the wall street journal" today which he says again that if president zelaya does return he has to be tried in. what is your position on that? >> well, we are going to let the two sides work this out. we wanted this as i said this process to have a chance to work we think that the president has presented a good plan, and let's have led to this negotiating process work is without. >> are there any plans for the secretary to speak with president zelaya by telephone are any plans for president zelaya to come here to the u.s. again? >> regarding the former, i'm not aware of a telephone call that is planned. should it president zelaya come to washington, of course, we would be happy to meet with them. >> if anyone has been in touch with president zelaya, while he has been down there, according to the border, is anybody in touch? >> and a senior state department officials have been in contact with them. >> people down there? >> i believe assistant secretary shannon has been in contact him at any detail on his planned trip to washington this week? >> we know that he has expressed an interest in coming to washington but we don't have any firm plans, any set time for a meeting or any set time for him to,. >> is there any sense of when the time span for these talks and allow them to play out and when other measures might be considered? >> i think, as i said before, we think that president presented a good plan, a good for a foreign that we think in a to a presidential -- a resolution to the conflict and a restoration of the democratic order. in and we are content to let that process play out, we are not wise to put any artificial deadline on that though. >> different topic in the region. on cuba's you have anything to say about your decision to have the intersection and drives. >> as i and a san the news ticker was turned off in june. we believe that the billboard and was really not attractive as a means to delivering information to the cuban people. it was evident with the cuban people weren't even able to read the billboard because of some obstructions that were put in front event. we think that's some of the measures that president announced on april 13 to increase the free flow of information to the people of cuba will ultimately be more effective. in trying to promote the free flow of information. in. >> the kids ask specifically about the meetings that took place and was in this kind of a sign of goodwill? >> well, i will now to that the cubans for their part to did dismantle who a few very negative billboards and graffiti around the u.s. interest intersection which reduce the as a positive gesture, and whether or not this was specifically raised in the talks i just don't know. >> would you interpret this as a goodwill gesture by the u.s. towards cuba or is so late not attractive? >> i think what we are trying to do here is we are trying to do all we can to promote the free flow of reformation between the u.s. and cuba, that's why the president announced these measures. we are looking for ways that we can do that in the best way possible and we just held that the is it doing, disparaging, this is billboards if you will was not serving the interests of promoting a more productive relationship. >> so is a silly u.s. decision not prompted or requested? >> i'm not sure, i'm sure it was requested but not 100 percent sure. on. >> does the general question on u.s. strategic dialogues across the board, which you been able to really cut a fact sheet in which countries and the u.s. has had these kinds of dialogue and to what purpose? >> i think we can, the short answer is we can. i think that's one of the structure is different in each one in the level of engagement is different. when we have a number of strategic talks that are subcabinet level. a i think if you are talking about the cabinet level obviously the dialogue with china when we just announced dialogues, the one in russia is now called a strategic dialogue but it is an equivalent called a dynamic division and last week occurs and nasa strategic dialogue with ndf but we also have a number of dialogues that are on him with a formal ongoing basis and with other countries as well but that is a good question and i will see if we get a fact sheet or some sort of background information on these various dialogues. >> what is the reaction in to p'yongyang talks of dialogue with the united states which appears to be a request for bilateral talks? >> i thank you know for a longstanding policy, are long standing policy is that we are open and to a bilateral dialogue but only in the context of the six party talks, only in a multilateral context and you heard with the secretary said yesterday. she said that we are not going to reward him the north koreans by agreeing to me without the specific action that they have to take in the know exactly what those actions are, in a solid out in black and white wine toç the 2005 joint statement to. if they take those actions, take some concrete steps we are willing and to meet in the six party context within that context we could have a bilateral discussions with them can i just following up here, does that statement today reassure you that they do want dialogue after some in a provocative actions? >> well, i'm not going to characterize it as positive or negative, i am not going to the respondents to prestigious frankly coming out of of the dprk. what we are going to do. >> is not just press, what you mean by that? >> we want concrete steps to be taken. we want them to pull their commitments and as i said those commitments are laid out very specifically and a strong statement that they signed, was a this are doing that and agree to talks in a sixth party context and then we can start talking about some movement toward a per right now i don't see him. >> two follow-up on that, have you received any requests from the north koreans to have a direct talked? have you been talking with north koreans about that? >> we have a number of ways thought that we communicate with north korea in firmly, firmly and in public statements, but i'm not going to get into a the substance of any kind of diplomatic exchanges that we may or may not have had with north korea. >> thank you. [inaudible conversations] now a hearing on improving their response to catastrophic disasters. fema director craig fugate testifies before a house subcommittee on the federal government's role in what committees can do to prepare for such emergencies. >> i apologize that i was detained because of this is a hearing at some considerable importance with subcommittee, it is not about any disaster that we have seen except 9/11, and katrina. so it looks to the future in that way a that perhaps we should have done before katrina excess packaging it was such an unimaginable event that it did not occur to anyone in. i believe and what to think of such a gargantuan matter hinn, but today's hearing will address a very important new and unresolved questions. that hurricane could she never raised for our country for the first time. what is a catastrophic disaster? note that word -- catastrophic disaster. think of as a new invention now, we have used that word before. what is the role of the federal government before, during and after these events? is additional authority needed in to address response and recovery from these events? which cannot sit by and merely hope that outsize and disasters such as hurricane katrina and 9/11 will never occur again. our obligation to the public requires investigation by the subcommittee to prepare us for the possibility of these contingencies. wrecking katrina make landfall august 29th 2005 and prove to be the most costly natural disaster in american history. on congress and particularly the subcommittee have spent the nearly four years since katrina looking at the action of the federal current as well as state and local governments, voluntary agencies as citizens themselves from response to recovery. which continues to this day. on the golf course -- on the gulf coast. today's hearing focuses on next that the. of what it did we learn from hurricane katrina as well as other disasters in the united states and the air around the world practice concerning what should be done to respond to a catastrophic disasters and to facilitate recovery most important, what steps should all concerned be taking out cracksman into prepare for in mitigate the risks the lives and property from these events? the robert t. stafford and disaster relief and emergency assistance act where stafford act which was signed into law november 23rd, 1988 but is not clear and that congress contemplated gargantuan disasters with recovering proceeding for years. they -- authorized by our committee is the federal government's primary authority for addressing major disasters from all hazards and dividends and for the most part of this authority has proven sufficient to address all types of disasters and emergencies, but it is an open question whether the stafford act is sufficient when measured against the background hurricane katrina now provides. the stafford and denominations rich as a management system are grounded in our federal system of government that recognizes how that the primary responsibility to address the sasser's an emergency use resides with states and communities, not the federal government. as a result, the assistance provided after a disaster is as the stafford act provides to and i am quoting here, supplement, supplemented their efforts and a valuable resources of states, local governments and disaster relief organizations and quote. unwilling, however, it is already clear that one characteristic that distinguishes catastrophic disasters in from other disasters is that the magnitude of a huge disaster who often has national impacts, national impacts, impact beyond the seat of the disaster. homes rather than of expletive to a particular state or community. we must therefore reevaluated the role of the federal government as well as the fema's authorities, policies and regulations that presume federal assistance is always supplemental. regardless of the disaster. the safra and to existing authority and systems where the russians use and disasters that the country will face is are so detailed and time proven that this landmark statute provides necessary base for additions or revisions if needed to however defined it is treated teaches that capistrano disasters are complex, unusually large and a fax, hard to predict and expensive. moreover there are distinguishable because had they require months rather than days or weeks were coming months in the and probably years and will rather than days or weeks to move from a response to recovery inevitably there for the subcommittee cannot avoid the question of whether new extraordinary authority should be given to the presidents of the united states in advance and whether congress should provide an wamp for the recovery from catastrophic disasters that is specific and targeted to the size of these unusually large and pervasive events. the subcommittee looks for to hearing the testimony of today's witnesses to help us address how we can prepare for these catastrophic events. we particularly welcome if administrator craig fugate has taken office and is testifying before this committee for the first time. i am pleased to ask, ranking member mr. dsos balart if he has any opening remarks. >> thank you read much madam chairman and actually i want to thank you for holding this important hearing. obviously for the witnesses as always for their contributions and their expert testimony, is good to see usurp. i also want to welcome a madam chair administrator administrator fugate in his first hearing before this committee in his new position now. hill lien he has been doing this kind of thing before at a different level and it's going to, i excited he is a way that the federal level. after hurricane katrina, congressman made it clear we needed a fema administrator who knows what he is doing and has authority to get the job done and the precedents i think found the best person in the country. with a person who knows what he is doing and who has unfortunately a lot of experience dealing with the large and small in emergencies and again i have tremendous confidence in it administrator fugate and i really looking for to continuing to work with him and hopefully he will not be too busy, that's something we are hoping for. i also need to a balanced the tremendous work that congressman balckout has done to speed the recovery finding in louisiana. we still have issues after the storm. he has held several rounds tables with fema acid and local officials and members of congress. i've been involved in some of them and frankly he has held to free up hundreds of millions of dollars for those stricken by katrina here he has also been working closely with the experts such as the witness today as mccarthy of the congressional research service on possible changes and recommendations to the stafford act. i believe money of the options will be presented to that committee for informing the stafford act and a direct result of congressman average spent and i thank him for his aggressive involvement with this committee and a semper and issues. now, obviously as the chairman said pitching it was a horrible huge devastating hurricane. unfortunately as we know it is very unlikely that will be the largest on the hits us where the most large as catastrophe and damaging one that hits our country, category five hurricane in south florida could come at any moment were unwilling and 18.0 earthquake in california or pandemic food and we keep hearing about that right now are all those possibilities that could hit us at the time so what disasters obviously got large, would stress to the entire emergency management system but i want to focus on a few import areas i think are the most concern there needs to be obviously a clear federal chain of command. week and that is essential head during a catastrophic disaster and they can be a critical point of failure and as we saw during katrina. i have mentioned this before and i mentioned earlier as well, congress changed the law to assure the nation has a qualified, qualified as fema administrator who does what he is doing who could coordinate the federal response on behalf of the president. now unfortunately the president has yet to to obtain the presidential directive on incident management which is below age as nga and to reflect this change in dhs has built a duplicative incident management organization outside of fema. and congress continuously tries to defund the and i will do get into that later so as i recall the entire reason fema has to be within dhs when so that if we could use fema to manage the response dhs and the government could use fema to manage the response to a terrorist attack. and yet for the last three years dhs has built a parallel incident command structure that bypasses fema. again, it makes no sense. as a result, it is frankly not clear to me or to some of the witnesses of our witnesses who will be in charge, those who will be in charge and to coordinate the federal response if the secretary decides to appoint a principal federal officers known as a plo during the disaster. who would be in charge? fema or this outside the plo? this confusion is a recipe for failure and also another thing madam chair the department needs to follow the law and you even have written letters to the president on this. another critical issue i hope we can address is the role of the department of defense. during a mega disaster department of defense forces will be needed quickly in and i understand there is an effort to thwart, first obviously what is the effort of dod, they need to be quickly and we saw how well how they responded during katrina. and i have to be well coordinated with fema and a half to be a supporting role to the states, this is when they run out of resources is when you need dod to come in and if it is a big disaster to come in big red anderson that debarment is recommending a change when responding to disaster and have heard that the change and potential change has caused frantic considerable concern among a number of governors and i have to admit that i share many of the governors' concerns. so i hope we can talk about that. another critical failure something the chairman has brought up many times and never had a hearing in south florida and when you brought that up to do with the housing issue. what to do with the 500,000 or so over a million families force out of their homes by one of these horrible catastrophic disasters. despite the release of national disaster housing strategy, there is still no clear solution to addressing the housing issue at that scale. i do need to commend it fema forum i read that there are looking at other options outside the box even looking at the possibility of some cases using homes and that may be under foreclosure so i commend fema for thinking outside the box but again we need to make sure that we have a strategy before the big storm or the big advance may come. mitigation and preparation are issues that must be examined and clearly improved and earlier this year i introduced them to visit a public alert and warning system modernization act along with chairwoman norton and rep. guthrie and graves of the subcommittee. i also introduce a safe building code and both of these bills and are intended to prepare for a big storm and to mitigate against disasters. in providing incentives for states to deny to building codes is friendly and very attentive common-sense way to minimize damage and loss of life that a catastrophic disaster could entail and we've seen that it does work. in developing into integrated public alert warning system is critical to saving lives. now, in with countless methods of communication available today twitter in facebook, e-mail etc. we are still using in 1950's model which is that people here on our tvs and radios and that is frankly not enough because there are more raise we can communicate and do that. so the issue i have raised in past disasters of all sizes but the big one, the catastrophic disasters magnify obviously their significance and importance of its support for as to determine if the current supreme court is out acquits for a catastrophic disaster or should there be some are capabilities and flexibility in, so i hope we will hear from witnesses today on these and other issues analysis thank you madam chair for convening the meeting began, one of the issues that is a lot to all of us and for those of us who live in seis pros to disasters, thank you. >> thank you very much, you raise some of the questions that have been before us. mr. kaul, and you have any opening statement? >> thank you madam chair, first of all i would like to on behalf of my constituents think the chairman and ranking member for holding this important hearing today and for their sustained when attention to how the recovery of the board parishes and i also appreciate their recognizing and a significant challenges to recovery presented by certain aspects of the stafford act and what we are talking about the stafford act one of the questions that we are is whether we should freeze and the act in a separate incidents level and for a catastrophic events and to help us clarify what these terms may imply an ally to tell you what katrina, many of the political institutions like charity hospital and basically the entire health care infrastructures in the heart of the early as these have never reopened and other basic services like police and fire and rescue, libraries and schools were wiped away by the flood waters and are simply today path shells for buildings. in the immediate area around orleans 80 percent of the buildings and 40% of a them were damaged in some way of. who in my mind hearing in the mind of my constituents was pitching in to the gulf coast and to orleans and generous and parishes was without doubt to a catastrophe after katrina whom would i spend a significant amount of time talking to my constituents and also to federal officials with administrator administrator fugate, mr. mccarthy about what changes need to remain to this effort act, we are taking a comprehensive free look at the saturn aga and the recollection supported and i was secure supports madam chair mr. ranking member in these efforts. this navidad is currently setup to provide recovery dollars on a project by project basis. her for the gulf coast dates that were hit by hurricane katrina and rita, this is not optimal due to the extent of distractions. that i that we're nearly four years for these events and the states and fema are still arguing over doorknobs of whether a building that was flooded that is and falling down was more or less than 50 percent damage to demonstrates this. link in catastrophic cormack disasters the states and localities maintain the flexibility to rethink and replant the recovery and have other mitigation plan. they need to have a flexibility to decide whether rebuilding in the pre disaster for a. is the best solution for the committee's long term. what are some of the fixes that i hope you look at? in regards to this stafford act? us -- legislative regrading a level for catastrophes or mega disasters are rich in holistic look at the community's needs to be taken, this is the feasibility of lump-sum settlements and mega disasters like that which was then decided to respond to the disaster of september 11th. shifting more responsibilities to end their by incentivizing states and localities to prepare better for disaster is so, for example building codes to another recovery dollars ultimately provided by the federal government, this is something that the ranking member has been working on the legislation and i am proud to support this. will revise and the management structure and other agencies to shift decisionmaking from the upper level management where bottlenecks occurred to the staff that is on the ground and meeting with local governments representatives on a daily basis. in the course of my conversations and with the tough part is, it has become abundantly clear to me that fema employees have been almost indoctrinated to believe that they are handcuffed by the sack and therefore i can't come up with out of the box solutions. when you have a major disasters like hurricane katrina we made a free thinking, but fema employees are allowing themselves to be admired in red tape causing them to retreat from a difficult questions and prieta solutions by hiding behind in the stafford act and what it does is not allowed. um my reading of the stafford act and is that there is incredibly flexible piece of legislation that was always in this is to provide a framework, the real problem is for decades fema has been putting what regulations on top of each other which is what is hampering fema employees. fema has restricted its up with an consistent recollection of the summer so that they can't be a partner in communities recovery which is what they ought to be part of what i am hopeful that secretary of pilots, in administrator administrator fugate will have the same sort of a sudden awakening about the restrictions to fema and that they will fundamentally reworked the recollections tampering performance. however, i want to make it clear that if we don't see real progress in freeing of the creativity and private thinking of employees we will draft legislation that requires you to do some. with that i'm looking for into your testimony in the i hope and to work with you further in the future to look and an stafford act and how we can improve the cooperation of fema with the state and local employees. thank you very much, madam chair. >> with thank you. we are very pleased them to welcome our colleague, was of iowa who has a remark and testimony and his own him and, please, receive them at this time. >> well, i went to think chairman norman, ranking member, members of the subcommittee for giving me the opportunity to testify today. i'm not the experts, i am just a congressman from the second district of iowa an area where we have essentially our own katrina in june of 2008 and is really this was wonderful for me and at the outset here to listen to my colleagues. and i really appreciate what you have to say because well in new orleans is that the soda and of the line if you will as far as mississippi river is concerned, and we're way of north there are a lot of things when what i think we have in common in terms of our thoughts about how to do this differently and i do what two say at the outset i think fema did a good job in iowa. and has done a good job but there are a lot of things that obviously can be changed so i'm looking for to working with you in the future as to how we can change things and i want to say at the outset that i said three out with this first happened in iowa in june of 2008 there is nothing partisan about catastrophes. there doesn't matter whether republican or democrat, you'll get hit by a catastrophe in working together i think in a bipartisan way is really an absolutely critical and so i am looking for to in this as well. are flooding in iowa was to a 500 year flood, 85 of the 99 counties were presidentially declared disaster areas and represented 85% of the entire state. to some of the hardest-hit areas in my district cedar rapids, iowa city, all built, carl bildt, estimated that cedar rapids alone has nearly $5.6 billion in recovery knees, one city of 120,000 in iowa, $5.6 billion in recovery means. with this in mind and consider that about 3 billion has been allocated to the entire state of disaster recovery which includes a large amount of states funds even though damage statewide was estimated at about $10 billion. when considering what constitutes a catastrophic disaster one indicator was maybe useful to consider it would be the damage relative to income is your state budgets in this city by what had receipts for f509 of $6.9 billion. compared to the estimated 10 billion is a wide damage. in the city of cedar rapids have a budget for at y09 of nearly 380 million in keep that in mind and think about the high price $6 billion in needs. that further bring the magnitude of this disaster in perspective and calculating as with a damaged cruise be that public assistance program at the i was a range as the fifth largest disaster in u.s. history. and if you take away nothing from my testimony, will be size of a large to lob significance of a widespread attitude of the disaster i will have accomplished something here is my job to keep this in the forefront of your minds and the american people. fema was not our only source of assistance. many federal programs and agencies or mobilize and utilized during and after our disaster. fema agreed to lower the cost share to 10% from our public assistance categories and waive the cost share completely for others because we have to get waivers and exchanges and changes to the current law we have to work to put in place and this was one example. an additional application for the individual assistance disaster of assistance and public assistance were extended and numerous other waivers were granted to federal departments or agencies. i also work with my colleagues in the last congress to pass a supplemental disaster relief appropriations bills and the largest of these allocated to i was $800 million comes from the committee to develop a block grant from hud. it's my understanding that the right to use of the funds after hurricane katrina continues to be an issue as well and as to was made of housing. a with the funds are not traditionally used as you all know for disaster relief. and therefore they're not ideally suited to be flexible and that commendable and now this is something i heard from you folks, then the printable this if you will to lead to immediate post disaster recovery needs of cities and communities. how secretary dog said it during a visit that the state of iowa in cedar rapids are models for officially utilizing the funds for disaster recovery. i am proud of that decision by to have to wonder why at this point the federal government is still looking for models of efficiency. i know it has of an easy journey from my district and the journey is far from over but as city rapids and i want to provide examples of best practices for the future, then i look for to working with secretary john evans to all of you on this committee to those who are about to testify to mr. huang administrator fugate and so we can deal more offensively and more officially with these issues when they arrive in a catastrophic disaster is. and perhaps i think maybe we should be and with a simple assumption, that we are going to be faced with catastrophes in the future. of we have to simply accept that fact. i know that in the past we said that we knew that but i think all of us who have been through these catastrophes or other it in france we really believe there are going to happen again because we need to be better prepared and said thank you very much for allowing me to testify and i appreciate this opportunity and will turn it over to the experts and i'm looking for to hearing what they have to say reading their testimony. no continuing to work with our relevance administrators at the federal levels of thank you reminds her that opportunity to testify today. >> thank you, you have introduce a new element, one that i am not sure is a unit is really very much worth looking at, the costs of of events versus one budget although that is the annual budget of the state so that is a matter we should look into as another element in savings has been considered before. other any questions? >> thank you come in a brief comment, it's interesting you say that, those of us who have gone through it become aware of its, of those catastrophes and you are right about making sure that we continue to remind people that this is going to happen and it's not wise to happen only in one part of the country but anywhere at a time. your observation about the incidents on nonpartisan is a shrewd as well as i'm proud in particular of this committee the response of congress in particular this committee has also been non-partisan but it is important to always remember in places like florida where is been a fierce sense hit by the big one into which was not as big as what we thought. it was huge but a worse one could come. you get complacent so it is important to keep reminding us to not do that so i thank you for bring that up again. thank you, sir. >> thank you very much, mr. kyle who. >> if that was a standard it would one be of the budget of the state of louisiana for decades fred. and that maybe what in quote we intend to end the pain because of the nature of the disaster, thank you very much. we are pleased now to well, our first witness was coming administrator nine davis live away from administrator administrator fugate who, of course, one is in the new administrator of the federal emergency management agency itself for his first appearance before a subcommittee. well, administrator fugate and. >> when thank you hajj madam chair, a ranking member and other members of the committee. it's an honor to be here before your committee and talking about catastrophic disasters. so what is a catastrophic disaster, by one definition to use? the framework we define as a natural man many incidents including terrorism and the results sex or near levels of mass casualties, damage or disruption of severely of i to population infrastructure m -- zero economy and national morale of government functions. fifteen minutes town of 100,000 and have a catastrophic event in may have been catastrophic to the overall system so i often think we talked cast of a particularly at level of fema, looking at the events that have national impacts forces of those that may be very localized that we can still respond with our normal process and resources to get in there quickly. solarize talk about catastrophic we're talking about those events that are magnitude is take on significance of impacting our national ability to respond with, recover and remove on from those. in particular i was interested in a conversation about stafford act in the opening statements and questions as to that stafford act, one is extremely flexible document and quite capable of doing anything as yet one else to need to do to make it more responsive. madam chair, and to lay out how i'm approaching this in my confirmation process and the two months i've been there. i believe i'm taking in three tiered approach because until i have guidance from congress on which way you are wanting to receive the most immediate thing we can do is look at our policy internally. and then just aphorist. that is our first up, i have directed the two look at our guidance to adjust the issues that are being brought up on a are we doing that, limiting what we are able to do in the disasters. the second use of looking at the roles, the federal register receipt of our 44 which governs the rulemaking of the rules we have administered in a separate act and then look at this effort and as a whole but i think interfirst have to really look at what we have is bit one make sure it is not for scribing or preventing from using the tools and the stafford act to s. wayne we talked about catastrophic and think again we oftentimes look in the past and i am looking into the future and looking as some of the scenarios we still faces a nation, not only those that occurred but the other types of events we could face, when california earthquake to a major hurricane and the gulf coast and florida hurricane that strikes hawaii and looking and developing plans a base around what the impacts are. i then one of the challenges we had oftentimes will plan to our capabilities and hope that disaster is not any bigger beer foam was and what i have found in history is if you don't plan for the potential impacts and look at how your system is applied one who with a false sense religion you are able to manage the evidence at the point of failure to have a catastrophic failure and not just a system that need to expand. i believe in partnerships one of the things i want to make clear is and we talk about disaster response particularly with catastrophic and fema is not a team, fema is part of the team under the federal system. we have the leverage and work as partners with our local states, federal agencies, private sector, volunteer, community-based and the public to build a team that can respond to these very large scale events, some of which may reach the point i national level and the catastrophic. so to summarize what stafford act has a lot of tools in it but we must first in a look at our policy guidance which we are doing to determine what we can do within the scope of it stafford act to address the concerns raised in previous disasters and the ones facing. building 18 based upon whom the consequences we are facing in some of these events and building that capability by leveraging all of the resources of the country, not just looking and fema. and third and finally, the understanding in catastrophic disasters we must not continue to look at the public as a liability but look at them as a resource that we incorporated into our planning to oftentimes i run into challenges where we have in many cases road plans for what i, the easy part of population and able-bodied adults to understand and have and that means to take care of themselves in the impact of a disaster. that is not the communities we live in. r committee's chairman of children, the above frail elderly and made up of people with disabilities in our tendency is to look of those folks after we wrote the basic plan to address the challenges. i think if you're going to be successful in any disaster including catastrophic you have to design plans that address the needs of the committee not just those posts that are easy to help. with that, madam chair, i will conclude my remarks and malcolm questions. >> thank you very much administrator fugate. when would you describe for us you're own background and an emergency management, john a. began and how you rose to your present position? a lot. >> i started out in 1987 as a lead tenant with a al-awja county fire rescue determine, was to permit prayer frederick, i was asked to come in and work on the counties disaster plans in the -- >> where was this located? >> gainesville, florida. i began working in 1987 that february a career that took me for the next 10 years working at the county level as the bridges to manager. i had several large scale chemical incidents that we dealt with as well as numerous other storms, floods in advance but fortunately with tarkanian to hitting the candy was not directly impacted although we hosted evacuees from south florida. in 1997i was offered the opportunity to go to state and to serve as the bureau chief for premise response, i joined the team of late governor chiles and again looking at the lessons of hurricane andrew and what happens to address the concerns the say had i join asean that was working hard with the florida legislature to continue building and improve upon that. we found out in 1990 how much we were able to foreign and that have over 200 days of your activity well fires, floods and hurricane george. the situation was such it was the first time on the east coast with accurate is an entire county during wild fires because of the threats. 2001 was as i go there bush to serve as the director of emergency management and that october serving in that capacity the 2004 hurricane season where we have for land falling hurricanes, between 2004 and 2005 we had with a total of eight hurricanes hit the state of florida. five of which are major hurricanes and in addition to that immediate aftermath of hurricane katrina at the request of state of mississippi, we provided emergency management the sissons compact and ends up with 7,000 responders and spending $80 million in funds and running everything from search and rescue teams and communications and just about anything else that we could provide it to those local governments at the request of the governor. we also the state said resources to the state of louisiana but we ended that because of the proximity of the road systems and the fact we lost the rich focus of mississippi to brad the assistance. when governor bush stepped down and governor chris was elected, we appointed one month into his administration had intended to operate with 21 fatalities this summer where and to this spring and was asked by the presidents serving his administration and confirmed in may and have been serving as fema administrator for the last two months. >> he had to lay out the history because it is very important to the subcommittee. id has been the view of the subcommittee with that particular lane who are unforeseen disaster someone but even for the run-of-the-mill disaster at the federal level the way to respect what your testimony in the case with my opening testimony, my own opening statement says about responsibility as someone who has been there and done that and who has very deep and wide experience emergency management, we are pleased to lay that on the record because the president has appointed somebody who has what appears to be with experience in democratic and republican administrations, that is important for us and the record to show because i'm going to ask you a question about this agency. it has been a thorn in the subcommittee cited and congress itself, it seemed to fall apart after hurricane katrina. nobody expected somehow people to rush in there like a knight in shining armor and rescue louisiana, but it did seem to know which side was up, lobs having saved by the coast guard and people from various states such as your own. who and the result was now pending legislation that would even take fema out of the department of homeland security so compromised and one of the first things i'd like you to tell this committee bowater is about the independence of the agency within the department of the homeland security. when while fema was a nimble agency before that got on the ground quickly, that somehow would it became admired as a superstructure of the department of homeland security and that's why all of the decisions had to go from hawaii the administrator bruce simon you paygo bureaucracy that we ourselves have created in setting up the department to the detriment of fema. we passed -- we laughed, we passed legislation making it clear that homeland security was not to compromise in the ability of this agency to move toward. i want some indication from you whether or not will fema it is today who as independent as anybody of would expect warm water given the fact that it is still in the department of homeland security, that goes to have the reporting dose, you are equipped and authorized to make decisions and give as to ask several bureaucracies before the decision is made in washington are made in louisiana -- any to know what the chain of command is in your own agency before we get down to the states having to then ask you something. how independence is this agency within the bureaucracy today? >> madam chair, i refer to the secretary, the secretary reports to the president. >> there are no officials between you and the secretary? .. in when we put fema in the department of homeland security bigot can you make most of the decisions you have to make on your own or do you have to say this is what i want to do, madam secretary, do i have your sign off? >> there are some things because of procurement issues were others assigned to secretary but by and large -- >> with this being a disaster procurement matters in a disaster, would you then -- would you have sign-off, procurement sign off of matters of a disaster within our budgetary authority? >> madam chairman, yes. >> thank you, sir. we understood that the bureaucracy has declared some of your actions. that is not the case? >> madame chair, secretary napolitano, having served as a governor, obviously understands the role and responsibilities we have been supporting governors. there are many moving pieces with and homeland security but within a disaster itself we are able to move forward and take the actions we need to take. >> virtually as if he were an independent agency or not? i don't want to put words in your mouth. >> under my reporting relationship with the secretary we are able to perform or function. >> report is one thing permission is another. if we get into permission matters, the super sized disaster we are talking about will be supervised -- super sized repeated. what is the operations coordinations -- [inaudible] these names. [laughter] the average person really lose this comprehension once we get into the oc -- what is the office of coordination, when was it created, by whom and what is its function? >> i defer back to homeland security. that was created and has been a standing element prior to me joining dhs and fema. we have the national response coordination senter record night with nasa operations center, other components within dhs cord need with operations center which gives the secretary visibility on a variety of issues including things such as border matters, coastal issues, other activities that occur within the department under her perfume as other components. >> now, yes dhs has created this office of coordination at dhs. now, as we look at statutory role of fema, we see conflicts with the role and many of the statutory plan mandated functions of fema itself. and the agency appears to be relying on -- and this really does get the commission upset. sorry, the committee upset. because it appears to be relying on these outdated administrative documents. here's some more initials for everybody. hspd-5. now, this is exactly what we had in mind when we passed the katrina act and overruled these administrative documents. can you explain therefore in light of the post-katrina act why hspd-5 is still an outstanding administrative document and the role of the so-called office of operations coordination can prepare for in responding to disasters. does this have a role and function and why in the world are you relaunching or does the agency appeared to be relying on administrative documents that have been overruled, overruled by statute? >> as part of the executive branch the prerogative and executive orders, and looking at those issued in previous administrations carried forward in this administration many of these are still under review. as to the -- with the post-katrina emergency management for mad speaks to and what may be potentially in conflict with hspd-5 or homeland security recognition number 55 aware of these issues but have been more focused on our role and responsibilities in administering our part of the program. >> i am pleased to learn these matters are under review because you don't want to get congress twice revisiting, then you get us really mad and lose authority because we have the same problem with principal, federal officer. in fact, we have real problems with that one because we did revisit that one apart from the post-katrina act. we revisited it more than once because of what we had witnessed on the ground we had tight red tape after katrina. now the so-called principle federal officer, everybody who thinks the substance matter will have to pardon me while i get through these bureaucratic names that they paced on to functions where sometimes a function disappears or is in conflict with the statutory mandate. but here goes. it is called by dhs the principal federal officer, pfo, conflicts directly with the statutory created federal coordinating officer so that something happens on the ground, no matter who comes, whoever is in charge stands up. this is a war when there is a natural disaster just like there is a war when there is in fact war. it got to know who is in charge. that is one thing katrina taught us to clean up. these duplicative functions were cited as a primary cause of the field response of the hurricane katrina. that's why we have some exasperation concerning this officer. now, i need to ask you whether dhs in fact seeks the repeal of the statutory mandate put in place to avoid duplication, and whether the agency is continuing to rely on administrative documents that have been overruled by statutes, and you have said that is under review and for that matter the national response framework to attempt to regard these or disregard these statutory provisions. we need to know now because if we need further clarification when an agency simply is in contempt what we revisit again and we need to know what about these p.f.o. and f.c.o. -- by the way, we are joined in this inquiry by the other committee of which i served, the committee on homeland security, which has the same problem, cosigned with us on letters and co-sponsored with us, the statutory repeal. so, could i have your answer? >> madam chair, i will have to defer some of that to the department, but as far as the f.c.o. goes it is clear to me the way the statute is written that the f.c.o. under the stafford act either emergency or major residential -- >> say that again please. >> it is my interpretation of the stafford act post-katrina emergency management form that clearly states when the president declares an emergency or mazar to become major declaration the federal coordinating officer has the authority to execute the stafford act. >> who has the authority, the federal coordinating officer? >> yes, ma'am. >> -- federal officer, highly paid official doing on the ground, and how am i to know if i come from out of state who is in charge? >> under the stafford act declaration that will be the federal coordinating officer authorized by the president to support the federal response on behalf of the request of that governor. >> say that again. i'm sorry. >> the federal court needing officer on behalf of the president is authorized under the stafford act to coordinate -- >> how do you make this distinction to state officials, to ordinary citizens on the ground, and why does the -- if in fact the president of the united states has confidence in the federal coordinating officer, why would it be necessary to pay somebody else? to be on the ground the to report to the department of homeland security? >> madam chair, i will defer back to the agency. my focus is, again, i authorities with the federal coordinating officer is appointed by the president when there is a declaration. that is clear that they have the authority on behalf of president record made federal response as well as administer the stafford act. >> after the koln chris patches a statute, search? >> i'm not disputing that. i am stating under my purview i appoint or make the recommendations of the who the president will appoint as a federal court in an unlawful search under the stafford act be read the principal federal official program is not something that fema -- is not something we administrate. >> well, let me indicate that the appropriations committee supports our view, particularly -- it would support it many times over now that we don't have money to spend on another top lawyer, beside the top layer that's already there. we've never had a satisfactory answer to why there should be to people on the ground particularly after hurricane katrina and that gave the disaster and we don't intend to tolerate any longer, and if we find that such an officer is funded we will ask the appropriation committee to be funded, and we would expect this administration to abide by the mandate of congress. i'm going to go to mr. kyl and ask if he has any questions before i proceed further. >> thank you. mr. fugate, i appreciate in your testimony that you mentioned team work, that fema is a 18 but part of a team. i've noticed that after katrina there was a lack of teamwork among the different federal agencies. i am not sure what kind of steps you have initiated in order to better coordinate between your office and the other federal offices and agencies. >> rett now, congressman, my greatest challenge is the next disaster working closely with several partners such as department of defense, north koln, working with national guard bureau, working with other elements. but i think some of the other parts of the team work hopefully we are starting to see some daylight in the state of louisiana. we've worked with the state. secretary napolitano has obviously been there. predecessor nancy ward made some significant personnel changes to begin moving forward, to begin that process that often times was seen as state and federal and local government as not being able to move forward. we've been working in our part to get projects committed to move the money and begin the rebuilding of the project that hadn't been in dispute. we've been working aggressively to address those challenges. but i think part of the discussion i have heard that as a state i was very much aware of it is often times in a large scale disaster, catastrophic disaster there are other programs beside the stafford act that can be brought to bear. it works best when it's done looking at what the stafford act can do and other programs such as community block development dollars to address issues. when you look back and say what was with her can katrina in many cases we didn't play good job of looking at all the other federal programs matching those with the needs of the community and oftentimes looking at only one or two programs and not really having the ability to reach out across the federal family of programs that could meet those challenges or supports the needs of those communities. i will give you an example of children. we look at the plans and oftentimes right plants and forget the children can be 20% more than the population but if you look at children negative use there's not much of the stafford act other than talking about facilities as some things that get to that and i am not sure we are the experts on that. there are other federal programs that have funds that go to local communities to support daycare and other issues. we should be looking how we partner with these sources and build that team so that in a disaster fema is not having to recreate a system that already exists. we are part of a team that can leverage that and provide assistance and work with those federal agencies that do this every day in the community so that we can meet the needs and that is what i think as far as building a team, going back and creating a new program if we already have one but making sure we are leveraging those programs that fema has with programs that exist every day and when disaster strikes making sure of the federal side we are working on a team to address the astrologist. >> one of the biggest problems i saw after katrina is the lack of time line and lack of coordination between the different agencies. let's take the issue of health care for example. is one issue simply to rebuild the hospitals and clinics that it is another issue to basically provide an area with housing the, economic development, all of those issues come into play. how do you see the fema for instance as a partnership in that recovery process, and is there -- should there be a point agency that possibly what have the power in order to coordinate and provide a time line for the different federal agencies to see who is responsible for what, when they would have to do it in order to provide at least the area with a very clear path towards recovery? >> congressman, i believe so. i'm often asked this question what does long-term recovery look like if we are successful. people can describe pieces of that but it often times seems to be hinged upon so many different aspects i think you're right. there is no one single federal agency that has all the answers. knowing from the perspective of fema and tools we have we obviously need to be a better partner. with that long term recovery mission resides within fema or other federal agency i think we all have to look at as you pointed out some of the things that have to occur to say we can afford is addressing housing. if you look a specific's housing programs their sheltered programs. if we don't have long-term affordable housing solution at the end of 18 to 24 months we are keeping people and what should have been made shorter timeframe sheltering operations that we end up now three, four, five years later. we have got about 2400 folks in temporary housing units. these are sheltered programs that should have had an outcome that said at the end we had an affordable housing on board to make that transition of the sheltering program and when it didn't occur we were still keeping people in what should have been a much shorter time frame but we didn't have that follow one. that i think is where we have to do a better job both at the state federal families describing the outcome and then going back on the federal side and identify who has already bought existing authority capabilities and oftentimes we look at some the mechanisms as not necessarily just funding the stafford act but looking at the other federal programs that would make more sense to provide the capability to than in the disaster response they have the programs that could actually deal with longer-term solutions versus many of fema's progress based upon a short-term response like activity or rebuilding activities based on damages and directors or storm. >> i have one last question to ask, madam share, if you don't mind. mr. fugate, after speaking to different people more or less, and we come to the agreement that the stafford act does not prevent fema from reaching a lump sum settlement to speed up the recovery process. i know that recent law allows for fema to initiate a process but then the arbitration process in and of itself is a project by project arbitration which at the same time isn't at least in my view speed up and allow the state and local municipalities with flexibility to coordinate the recovery process. are you in the process of looking at ways that we could try to settle, allow states or a city agency to settle with fema in a lump sum amount and then from there to allow the state and local governments the flexibility to have them initiate a recovery plan as they would see fit for their own communities? >> there's two options. one is to design a program that looks like block grants. we do an estimate, write a check and we are done. the problem is oftentimes disasters are so complex we don't know enough initially and oftentimes keep going back. i think a better option let's take a school system, the jefferson school system and instead of writing each building as a project what if we wrote the district as a project for the campus as a project and gave him more flexibility within those structures? i think the tendency to look at every item, every building has a separate project worksheet is not something that necessarily lends itself to the flexibility door asking for our staff has to go back and look at is do we have the tools, can we with the stafford act to things that allow us to write projects based upon a function not necessarily each piece of that function. an example you raised was police station fire stations. we treated those as individual component but what if we step back and say let's look at the fire department for the city of new orleans as it is a project. to we have the ability to step back and not recreate station by station because that may not be the need given the change in population within the overall framework of what was impacted, what is eligible and how do we move forward. so we are asking the questions what is the best way to approach that and then look at if we cannot get there with our authorities we have under the stafford or see a far that would warrant discussions back to look at the concourse would like to provide additional guidance in stafford. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. cao. with a new administration i think it is fair to ask our view, mr. fugate, in light of the of broad sight criticisms of fema center can katrina and recognizing statutory changes and improvements in the agency board and a wholesale overhaul of the agency be in order at this time to assure that it is a nimble functioning agency? >> madam chairman that is definitely the part of the contras. my caution would be -- >> i'm talking about administrative overhaul. not anything the statute would say. i'm talking about the kind of things, chris expected to happen afterwards based on the administrative arm it had in place or do you think that administrative harm is now functioning to the level that is required and does not need to have a look at its functions in every department and aspect of the new administration. no change we can believe in? >> madame chair that is what we are doing. i've been here two months and able to bring a lot of folks back in that bring in state and local experience and i will be looking forward to my deputy coming on board. the senate will confirm the recommendation of the president that will have a person with city experience. we have people that have worked in state government and we are building our leadership ranks of donner people that have done this had been in the field and have been customers of fema. the other thing is if you have ever seen our chart is far past any reasonable control and doesn't resemble what we do. and i've always believed firmly -- >> what does it resemble -- >> it looks like a spider. everybody reports to the boss and nobody seems to be able to figure out what we do. if you look at the chart i doubt anybody could understand what fema does behind firm believer that form should follow function. we should be organized by what we do and these are the steps we are currently going through as we build that team to look at how we've been doing things and putting emphasis on outcomes, not process. the other thing we've instituted is there is a tendency to think that you are going to know when the next disaster is going to be which we know is it true and i believe the best way to prove my point and to demonstrate our competencies' is no notice exercises that take us to the point of failure and to assure ourselves we are learning the lessons of previous disasters and applying them to both of those threats we are familiar with and threats many people have never thought about. i just recently left the space weather prediction center in boulder colorado that deals with geomagnetic storms and looking at the potential impact of a major geomagnetic storm across the infrastructure. these are natural hazards that nobody has addressed the because more trouble than people realize. so this is approach based on -- >> what is the approach again, what are you calling them, please? >> we have within the national weather service an office in boulder, colorado that does nothing but mom to the sun for solar flares and geomagnetic radiation. in certain events, those storms can be so powerful as the impact, which of the part of the globe is facing the sun, power outages across most of the united states simultaneously. >> anything example of? >> there have been storms so powerful in the northern tears in the country including canada there have been power outages with the damage to infrastructure. there is a historical record even to 1859 that it occurred today would result in about 90% black out of the power system of a better part of the globe is facing the sun when it strikes. >> how about the ice storms we had in the midwest just this past winter? is that a smaller version of when you're talking about? >> no, ma'am, ice storms are a feature of the atmosphere that is probably better understood. the weather that occurs or what they refer to as whether the sun's activity, we are currently sitting right now entering into what is called the next sola maximus of activity for solar flare, sunspots and potential for geomagnetic storms. the defense based on a or vulnerabilities with dependency upon satellite technology for communications navigation as well as dependency upon the power grid or the top of hazards that we have to expose to the team through exercises and training because, again, we know a lot about hurricanes. we don't know a lot about the next disaster that's going to strike or when it's going to strike and we are going to get there by giving exercising to learn about hazards but also to make sure the team we are building both within dhs, within the federal family and state and local governments are faced with challenges that pushed us to the point where we are not just building a disaster response team for the things we are capable of. we are building it for the types of things that could impact this country. >> i'm going to get -- i'm going to ask ms. diaz dollar -- diaz-balart. these are climate change? >> no, these are just the sun. we become more dependable on satellites and to geomagnetic storms. >> who is studying that, sir? >> the national weather service, as part of the space with their production service has been doing this. it it's one of those programs that is up and is not well known but the impact definitely within the industry are well known particularly in the sali industry. it is something when we send our satellites we played for. in fact, the space station is one of the prime customers because during certain radiation storms astronauts have to move into a safe location on the satellite to be protected during these storms. >> and of course we have had outages that took out great parts of mr. diaz-balart. >> thank you, madame chair. i had to step out for a phone call i had to take. thank you so much. >> you already touched on this in general terms, but i just want to make sure i understand this. if we were to get hit by the great miami hurricane again and what dhs, as far as you know, send a p.f.o. team to florida, would the p.f.o. or the f.c.o. be in charge of coordinating the federal response? again and would that p.f.o. report to you or to the secretary of dhs? >> as i understand it, there would be a federal coordinating officer appointed and we would coordinate the response through the stafford act. as to the federal coordinating officer, if you remember back to hurricane andrew the president made a decision to appoint a cabinet official in that capacity to be the federal coordinating officer. so oftentimes it will depend upon the skill and expertise of the disaster as to whether or not would be a staff member that is routinely does it need to go out on disasters. it could be a regional administrator. i could find myself in that position but it is the president's call as to who he points his federal court needed officers, but those authorities under the act and the katrina management for that would be vested in the federal court in an officer that managed that response and service and point of contact with that governor in supporting the governor's request for assistance from the federal government. >> and i understand that. there are different circumstances that could take place. but again, and it's just -- let's just assume that it's been, you know, a storm, regular storm, not quite as big peaden like maybe 37 you have to deal with the last couple of years in florida. [laughter] if eight p.f.o.% with a report to you or the secretary? and again will there be a p.f.o.? congress has an issue with that but -- >> congressman, under the stafford act and post-katrina act is clear there be a federal coordinating officer that would coordinate on behalf of the federal government. the official program doesn't reside within fema so i cannot speak to that. my understanding is the federal coordinating officer will be the point of contact and would be the principal implementation for stafford act and would serve on behalf of the president, to coordinate federal requests for assistance from the cover. .. and the president on emergency management. congressman, you know when i did in florida, the team rebuild and i think that is the thing i want to focus on is an individual is less important than building a team. i think a lot of these issues become secondary to our response but if we don't have a good team and our operating as separate entities trying to assist the state issues of them become things we have to deal with. >> and hopefully we can do with them before that happens. on this same vein and try to understand it really how it works, obviously another are a lot of stuff taken now to prepare for a possible resurgence, and the pandemic, was so hhs for managing the medical crisis we understand that. dhs is responsible for managing the consequences. now, would the dhs or they send a p.f.o. team our various p.f.o. teams to by pass fema and with a again reports to you as the secretary crags i go back to the same issue but specifically if that were to happen, how that or? >> if we are outside this piece is the secretary is under on behalf of the president coordinating thinness of the family and support of hhs in dealing with issues we are not under stafford act declaration, that is a real potential here with this age one in one. if it does not reach the severity that would want a separate act declaration, you want to have the ability which is not vested in fema but the secretary to coordinate on behalf of the president and those types of non stafford act events. this goes back to other questions such as dealing with things like national, the national conventions are dealing with g8 summons for you don't have a disaster or declaration, having that ability to provide a coordination across the federal family is one of the mechanisms and one of the tools that exists under number five. >> is there anything preventing the secretary from using fema outside of it stafford act? continue fema outside of the declaration? >> absolutely imperative one of the components work actively on the issues every resources to the table, in fact, there are capabilities when is a federal response not requiring on behalf of governor where fema serves as a coordination role supporting federal agencies such as hhs would but can you look at what resources we bring to bear, how we apply that and again our primary capabilities are coordinating on behalf of the governor's request to resources of federal government, administering the stafford act. we look as fema our response capabilities other than for the nation is limited because we use other federal agency private sector in non impacted states and local governments as a the responders and a disaster. >> so the question as we now because of precisely that why not use fema it is available and again and this is again i am trying to and asking the questions and your obviously giving direct answers as you always do, but let me tell you what my concern is we have basically two separate structures now commencing disasters. we have fema and dhs separate structure. are you going to be looking and those structures as you are looking at the rules and regulations, are you going to have the opportunity to look of those two stretchers and come up with recommendations to see again if there is a problem how we can streamline and make sure there is no confusion where state and local officials and we know there already is because we have heard that from them and maybe you were one of the ones on the state level giving some of those complaints, but there is clearly confusion right now. are you going to have the opportunity to look for is that something you will be able to look at and continued to push the secretary on? >> to be fair fema is part of the agency's planning for h1n1, we are not sitting outside, we are part of the team and the second thing you need to understand is that this tip of the transition at the new administration coming in the decision was made to go for the with the existing structures because when the first wave hits many athletes team had yet come on board and we were using their existing plants to do for prices. as we have come to that we're looking at a second wave and continuing to examine how we're doing things within the p.f.o. -- dhs and that is a process in which to the secretary is aware of the challenges we face to better integrate all of our resources together so to be fair we are part of the h1n1 planning and it h1n1 stock at the very beginning of the new administration with a dozen have many other staff on board so they went and made i think a wise decision to utilize the existing planning documents and the concept of operation and they have since been looking at how to improve those as we go for the so as i have always worn it planning is a process, not an outcome that you necessarily get down and i think we are very much working on the process of how the best coordinate across a variety of france when there may be different agencies with leadership roles that won't fall into the purview of a stafford act declaration. >> i understand and i think this may seem like a great logical topic for cluster in your review of the department and again as to have her this is something is non-partisan, madam chair has actually gone to the point of writing the president and we want to make sure that there is no confusion that there obviously is right now because some states and local officials have told us there is so i again what i would like from you, sir, is if it is also the that will be looked at is something we need to be pushed on are in and it is of the love dad them feel it would make me feel more at ease but is obviously something that has to be looked at to make sure there is no confusion in that chain of command. >> anger san at. >> thank you, madam chair. >> thank you very much, mr. diaz-balart. a this is one of we have looked at right munch companies to have a nail put right into so that it doesn't have to be brought up again and i appreciate your response. let me be clear, we are not objecting to anything that the secretary would do in the non stafford act events so long as it's not a federal home office coordinating officer appointed. we are objecting -- remember who appoints the federal of cordoning office is a secretary as far as i know so it is in her power to appoint somebody who knows how to deal in with being on the ground and not unusual in the federal system for agencies like let's take agencies like hhs who has very many secretaries and these people have learned how to relate to the secretary at the same time that they fulfill the statutory obligation and the committee is objecting to being ignored, having to adapt to the appropriations committee and the same we have asked for it to be defined and gave permission was of the secretary wanted is funded and we don't care what she gets funded so long as that is not a stafford act notion and as long as she takes that caveat we are on the same page and if we are not then it was site of the last administration continues in this administration is not a waste of time. is too many things we have to do. among them the three points talking about leftover from last administration, was to give the committee a report on one of the sense of size up to the wall and we've learned as we were dealing with the stimulus there was $3.4 billion in outstanding but disappears between assayed at louisiana and that the fema lead to an outside ny response from the senator from louisiana to have it the president's appointed arbitrators, that is just how bad it has become. we were very embarrassed by it frankly it added time when most jurisdictions are begging for the kind of money that fema had not even gotten to the appeal. problem was at the point of decision and nobody has sat down to look at the various ways of its federal government and others have salas such disputes so we would like to know what at the status of the super $4 billion disputes has any evidence in dispersed and how much is left out of that amount? >> madam chair, i can give you some of those numbers and some are like this have to have a because it's an evolving process. i asked when i was originally agreed on a 3.4 billion assets -- and i was asked what are these projects. they said this probably unwise is my based upon a concern that's current projects being written and will end up being appealed so how much is really being appealed right now? that number is roughly half of what is in the appeal process. many of those are working through the system through a group that we set up with a state of louisiana that were senior policy, very experienced looking at stafford act and many are being sent back down to the staff which two guide it to move toward on, with the 3.4 billion and asking for show me which projects are in the process it is what i have heard it was this was based upon outstanding projects work yet to be completed that the concern was there may be appeals there. but we have currently in house of the state of louisiana through their local sub grantees that are appealing is right and have a billion and the others may yet be to come and go to the project. >> and les 3 billion in dispute? end of the notion that we even discussed with fema things like people who upon agreement with part is for the procedures used with then it brings to this so that the state of louisiana -- by the weather was a similar amount not as high outstanding in mississippi could get on with it. this is one dead and lock in that we need to say broken right away at a time when the economy is on its knees every where including louisiana and mississippi. >> i understand the. >> what is being done to break the deadlock between fema and the state of louisiana on $3 billion still in dispute? >> madam chair, as we go through the outstanding projects that are being written, we have set up a team with a state in baton rouge that is a very high level. >> that consists of the party is. >> our staff and their staff that are working to max out as i explained to you when you pager courtesy visits committees have these parties have a structural problems and i'm going to lay this on the record so everybody knows what our concern is -- this is a structural problem. you're mandate is two keep louisiana and mississippi from getting too much money. the mandate of the state of louisiana and mississippi is to get as much from the federal government as they can. there analyze the deadlock so as long as you have people with a structural problem still at one another and i am not convinced that he will break the deadlock and what is your objection to having all parties agree upon a procedure like for example several states have agreed upon to solve a similar medicated issues involving much more money. what is your objection after both parties would have us say, a final say as to what the procedure will be forgetting the others to break this deadlock considering you are keeping $3 billion from the citizens of that louisiana and this is very slow progress. made in the six months since we discovered this outstanding amount, most before you came here but guess what, administrator fugate, it is going to be your $3 billion of as you can give a timetable to get the $3 billion moving to the system and then if we see his lips and the appeal system then we're going to want to know why in the world can't the appeals be settled. problem is to get people money to get on the ground down when the state needs a more than ever because of a combination of a katrina and the worst economy since the great depression. we need to know what you are doing with a $3 billion to break the structural impasse. >> as i said, madam chair, we are working within the tools i have and am looking forward to the ability that bringing a panel in to give final adjudication of those disputes with the saint -- >> would that be an independent panel both parties agreed upon? >> yes, m'aam. >> thank you very much for trying to do that. i thank you to the structural problem and there is no way to argue that we can ease up on louisiana and mississippi because after all we have been at this long and there's no way to do that with integrity and there's no way with any integrity for the governor of louisiana and mississippi to the greatest impasse possible for every dime they can get expressly and there was even more that could have gone if they would have solved that two years ago when the economy is not as bad as the day. we are frustrated with agency announcing the structure of the facts and without asking you want, we are saying that we would like to know what procedure you will be using it with some kind of third-party was with the procedures both parties have agreed to use if any party can use it than it is not on the table. was set of actors if not in this, we are asking fema to advance of in the federal government has never done, we are impatient as other agencies with from our money have found ways to break impasses rather than lead to the money congress has appropriated if i may say so and years ago. it is unconscionable and within 30 days we would like to see what is the procedure, what is the name of the group or panel, when will it be operated, when our is best minds, and similar light what is the appeals procedure unborn, the benchmarks for appeals procedure as well. my impatience reflects the amount still outstanding. you have, indeed, moved guess so much for a big has a lease using knowledge that there is a structural problem and we couldn't even get the prior administrations reg knowledge the structural problem. of that is what send -- the senator from louisiana went to the president and said this is what you will do, said that an arbitration panel and watch out for her because the next move to give a certain number of days was to set of the arbitration panel so we'd go to work this out, we can with the new administration and everybody and think intelligently understanding what the problem is. would you give us some guidance, first of all, let me say i appreciate what you said -- is just the kind of breaking fuel of a bureaucracy when you talk about what we are putting in your staff to a hong. people have to understand what this acid do in order to break this impasse here and it's got to say as we look at this structure which by the way the state may not have looked at in decades. we must ascertain how much of this is due to lack of repair and how much to his can it go through this storm. i present to you administrator, that is an impossible task. but to come up with a figure is to come up with an imaginary figure in a figure that everybody can agree on, not a figure with a basis, in fact,, one would have to go back into the kinds of networking, mw small kinds of calculations that ultimately nobody will have confidence in so when you say that as you are bringing to the table a kind of different vision, that is what we are looking for for the agency to do as difficult as it is where you say look at the project. and if you could just, you mentioned in passing in one of your answers, if you've just say something further about that it was very refreshing to hear because it means and when you hear the problem and see a problem ec id may be structural and was put fresh eyes on it to become a giant with a pilot project, but don't just keep going and it's a path is if you keep doing the same thing the same way you will get a different response. it would you lay that out of bed, the project, the notion persists the present notion you are considering at least? >> absolutely madam chair and one of those challenges is on not interested in getting man -- minded dentist a poet the project is. if you have a fire station that is destroyed by disaster, the uninsured elements which are eligible under stafford act for replacement, which you are essentially doing is you are rebuilding a fire station. the fact that in his records which may have been destroyed in the original disaster and the plant there is no fire station is what is on to drive the project, we are going to replace the fire station if that is, indeed, -- >> what about the fact the state may have responsibility? >> madam chair, if that project is eligible the state has the responsibility as a grantee supporting him that local government through the grants process, but we should not be added to the burden on issues that two not get us back to the original project which was of the station was a government function and eligible for assistance in there are uninsured losses than in this type of event we should be looking at what it will take to rebuild a fire station person is looking for things such as maintenance records which didn't exist because there were destroyed as part of the disaster can i thank you, and have said it. if you are moving in that direction we would be very pleased. let me ask the ranking member before i go for the if he has any further questions. >> actually, thank you, madam chair, i really don't but i want to reemphasize that i think the president found the best person in the country in the entire country for this job and that is why i am so insistent on a future that we have a clear line of command and that the person who knows what he is doing is the right man at the right time is the best in the country. if we get hit by another catastrophe we don't learn it then and that he does not have is a the resources or the right chain of command and there is confusion because we do have the right person right now in that agency as i think is very evident in the time that the american people have had the opportunity to meet him. >> thank you very much, mr. diaz-balart. he has gotten his disaster after disaster and we are seeing evidence of that experience in response we are getting today and let me ask you about the last war complex that all of us have to a certain extent. and that is some complaints that fema has overcompensated fighting the last war when it sees another disaster it before its and that its doing but you expected to do, kind of lean forward and try not to have happen what happens last time. what we had testimony before this subcommittee, for example louisiana was the drowning in ice. we had indicated some word that florida has to ask the secretary of homer and security to stop sending aid it, that this did have not asked for. would you speak to us about over compensation by fema? has it occurred and what did you intend to do while preparing, while meeting foreign in the event of a new disaster? >> madam chair, having been probably one of the folks that was concerned about how we were approaching the aftermath of a katrina in some cases i think supplanting the role of local and state government and there is a danger. yes, the government can do more into a lot of that. the problem is local and state governments are not full partners in doing anything before requesting assistance in a large scale disaster there may not be enough if the only player in town is federal government. behind me is a lot of that team both local and state governments and i think to avoid this over compensation nature you have to build a team that trusts of unintended to work effectively as a team and not second guess. i don't want to leave it david maxwell hanging in if he has a request i haven't thought about but i should not be second-guessing him in responding outside of working with him as a team. team members don't do that, they were together. we are talking, working as a team but not supplanting is other. we may be anticipating a very you see something coming so that when that request comes in vienna delayed in getting that help but a real scene doesn't second-guess and fell in line with another team and their. >> and feel free to ask the department not to send info requested matters will answer in a resource to this date, is that right prices. >> yes man in some quarters taken i was in federal and the reaction was i think probably. >> the taxpayers of davis is thank you. >> was looking pragmatically, states are going through tough times, it's the federal government is stepping up to the plate every disaster in states are less inclined to fund the programs and they should be funding, we will for the deluded are capabilities to deal with very complex disasters and people forget most of the resources that actually responded the to hurricane katrina were not federal resources, their national guard and local and state law-enforcement fire departments, paramedics and other responders across the nation. if we continue not to leverage the capabilities of state and local government we won't have the resources the next time there is a disaster because we have built everything upon the government doing everything at such low levels that wednesday's increase in the high budget choices it's easy to go somewhere else will take care of us is that of taking the steps that many states do in the face of adverse budgets. to build and maintain the capability to respond to their citizens with our role supporting that announce a plan to end up our responsibility the governors have in their states during disaster. we don't believe in the domino theory or each level has to fill before the next kicks in, but we do believe we have to be 18 and that means everybody puts into the games we play as a team cannot depend on that one part of government to make sure we can meet the needs when disaster strikes. >> i just have a few more questions, about every couple months the national press all over the united states using a story war on let us call them the last most vulnerable victims of katrina who are still in trailers. would you give us a status reports on where these last, where we are placing these last victims who have before us are you came into office, hud, fema, they testified they have housing for each and every one of the victims of katrina. neither hide nor fema has broken down who we were talking about, how close they were whether they were disabled people, whether they were people waiting to build their homes, just to they were in the first place and so they have it all went together by the press. how many are there, how many are left? your predecessor in just before leaving office promised nobody would be put out in the street to a chorus the committee does not object to that. recently announcing that to violate the stafford act and keep people receiving federal funds in perpetuity but we would like to wipe the slate clean of the last victims of katrina knowing that they are now some place and that is a appropriate for them. >> yes madam chair, right now there is approximately little under 2400 families that are still in fema housing. we have been working aggressively. >> otherwise known as taylor's? >> some are table -- trailers and some are mobile homes began working to do case work and we were working with the state of louisiana, we are able to enlist one of the other partners in the vast it was like to do this as part of the team to help in that transition. but i think that you're point is well taken, there is an end to the program's. the fema program for shelter programs or in design to be long term so we have to add to the make sure that we're doing the case or to identify the resources of mastaba the needs of the families but we have to bring conclusion to the process and i face is in florida were again many of the challenges had to be worth one on one in in some cases is literally took the final notice that there was no wonder federal assistance to make decisions to move on forces those people that two not have the option and needed to be moved into other programs providing dissolution the case or is there is an one-size-fits-all has to be based upon where the family is, will they get back in the home running other options but there is a point where you have to have a closure to what the options will been and in some point where people have said i refuse and assistance we have to be able to close the problem. >> is because you don't have a a right thing to be where you were before want to be close to where all that brings our ship but not hardships to keep you on federal funding forever. and i understand from sat as you have seven and a breakdown, we will look to that break down and continue to work with do. this large question i posed do with their deep experience we felt we could pose this question to you about a catastrophe or a catastrophic disaster. a lot and i am going to ask this question because we need to know whether it stafford act that we have relied on since 88, 20 years reliance on was that to come a very broadly framed it would seem to encompass everything you could think of, whether or not in light of the experience after katrina in light of the experience after 9/11, a terribly catastrophic even though it involved a relatively less area and even fewer people when you consider katrina, when in light of that experience we don't want to be taught in the notion where nobody knows with a catastrophe is and maybe we do, we have no opinion at this point. but we really don't want people running to us and saying, see, we've got a whole lot of people to and let us count them for use so we need to get all of the that extra help lead to a game to louisiana and mississippi. they will duets. you heard perhaps with rep. and looks judge give us a whole new standard option based on the budget or this city and the state. that is fine two have been that when people see what in patois we had to do on in katrina, we had to pass a post katrina and to and even had to pass a bill was never death of the senate's which may be violating the stafford act to try to a given some additional assistance to louisiana and mississippi. it ultimately i think that we did give them and, of course, that have been through statutes, we will aim to the state we'd match, but the other parts of it to the that were in this act that didn't get past came as a result of testimony from people from the area and the testimony was given on the basis that we are talking about one time only to train a stop where you find it that what the residents or the stage or the city cannot move, cannot act because fema is not sure why what is authorized him to give in this kind of situation. we want to ask you, should congress began to look toward describing what a catastrophe is, by definition it some kind of definition of our guidance, whether that is warranted in, should we look toward the kind of consequences of an objective and benchmarks that would guide to all concerned. does the president needed authority? that would send from the top the notion this is an extraordinary events? have you given any thought to that or do think we should be giving thought to it at this time? >> madam chair, usually when i hear these discussions and having been and is a long time i break into two things, and i looking at cost sharing go to 100%. >> that was the only one of the things. >> that would be one way to look at it and the other way to look at if you look better system we tend to reward, we don't reward states that do more, our cost share sunset 25 percent state and local and no less than seven represent federal share and we have the option to go up to 100% heretofore is our best and is what triggers the next level. rees said per capita impact to go to 1910 and obviously katrina was off the scale and made sense but oftentimes i find that we don't look at it from the standpoint of not only the consequences of how much more is the state doing with their own money that is offsetting the cost to the federal government and only going to see the cost shared go up when is it reaches a certain per capita were in a very tight narrow part of that disaster so i am looking at how the cost sharing not only ones because of the size of the disaster by how you use it as a capability of encouraging state and local governments to a better job of managing disasters? i got acid this by the wise man, one of this as the directors of fema and asked me is there anything if they could reimburse the state and i said not much propound and said that as part one and the second part of those is one of you wish to have only one program to administer in a cast of a disaster to take care of everything in ms. case you need to expand this be systematically or do we want to look at the existing federal programs already there's such as community block grant dollars and and how we build a system that takes greater advantage of existing structures and existing authorities and make a better plan to integrate stafford act and other federal organizations including in many cases usda from the programs in the rural states and parts of states so that rather than creating new structures and mechanisms and the disaster we get what we are have. >> with those before not the temporary assistance but for ongoing assistance? >> yes, ma'am in many cases take hud, most of d.c. with the fema programs are short-term to buy time to get it there is not find to be housing at the end of the fema programs we are unable to get out of whatever programs they've got to recognize early in a disaster that the housing that will be available at the end of the fema program would not be sufficient to provide the solution. >> so we hands of responsibility and pass a temporary to another federal agency to decide what role and was funds are appropriate, is that once you are advocating? >> yes madam chair, i was safe to approach of the sampling you want stafford act to be all these things the program is to grow and raise judges' that usually will be implemented until disaster. >> to reconsider this, administrator fugate, i suppose an administrator of fema could decide that on his own and say at this point the agriculture department to should be responsible for this or it hud, do you think we need authority within fema so that there would be no doubt or bickering or exchanges about who really should now takeover among agencies? >> madam chair, before i commit to fema would be the most logical place, i think you're correct in looking at in those programs that go beyond it stafford act that go across a variety of federal agencies, should there be vested in coordinating role and would be best to do that. you look at what we have been charged with fema and a long-term recovery components into in those plans, one of the things i'm trying to drive is not only does that look like in every simplistic definition to make my points re-signed the tax base to what it was our less than within a five-year. the swiss are driving a process that looks at not just try to get summer by throwing the programs and pieces together to define where we are going in there with that local officials understand and can start looking at how we try programs to establish a tax base that we rebuild a fire station where there is no tax base to support the pri and how we change the outcome so it goes by too i cannot get there and i don't have long-term housing solutions which is now what it does and i can get there and haven't been able to rebuild the job base and if we are in a transitional economy with a johnson and navidad jobs in recovering what i have not changed the outcome. it is a perfect example in florida city home said, we spend millions of dollars in recovery trying to rebuild an economy that julie did not recover until the building boom pushed to the part of the county. that many of the communities or not recovering the jobs in the aerospace and not come back in that economy had not made a significant recovery until the accounting growth caught up with that infrastructure. >> in light of this kind of a futuristic look we are giving, we are seeing stafford act and non stafford act scenarios and, of course, stafford act assumes you something called the disaster has occurred in, what but i give you in this is why the president may need to get into this, this occurred very early in the swine flu in the administration. i don't know for the life of me to bureaucratically should be in charge but i know this much, they put the cdc up there because nobody wanted to hear from everybody else except someone with expertise in the flu. now, your scenario might well apply, logistics, who does what and so forth. as one of the things we are looking at not only the stafford act where for that matter hamas security act. remember cdc comes it under hhs and timing play if it were a stafford act matter fema has a huge coordinating role, but when you get into subsections of with that matter whole cabinet agencies that is where you get into who should be stepping up to do something. ultimately of course, if you get an up bureaucracy you go to the man in the white house and he will straighten out. we would like to have a someone at stafford act on out depending upon one's your notions of conscience but what is happening here, who the public will have confidence in then let others come into play there often very critical supportive roles, but somebody needs to step up and what happened in the swine flu episode is somebody stood up because the white house had a good event to say swine flu we have no vaccine. that we have potential panic. several agencies could be involved. two her credit the secretary stood up and restored, it is because she was one of the two cabinet officers who had been appointed, but to show you how sanguine in the administration was as it saw how the matter was developing and realize that notwithstanding the enormous credibility the secretary had to have somebody up there and call upon because it was early in the administration and getting people through, they had to call upon the bush administration official as i recall from the cdc. he was a professional and therefore he spoke in ways that people could understand it is awfully important and he spoke with the background and expertise and the secretary handed it to him and everything was moving. we expect some sort of situation like that to develop perhaps with some further guidance here and we want to thank you very much. we have put before use some of its ultimate questions facing us. we have been very pleased to hear how deeply you think about these matters and we think it requires very deep and new thinking. i suspect that when it comes to this cause agency coordination we probably ought to have somebody look at its beyond our particular agencies and that's something we want to give some thought to following this hearing to hear what joe thoughts might be on that notion about the presidential authority to say that the lead agency for example there might be a point where even the stafford act matter, but what happens in katrina. in order to have any betty spates credibly given how few resources were in place, the commander which is of a service invented the rescuing, the coast guard, had to stand up and speak out and did may change at various points. we don't care who is in charge, we just care that everybody understands who was in charge and that there is no bickering about it, no duplication and that we continue to move toward a, i see that clean thinking from you and i appreciate your testimony in the corn to hearing from you again kim and thank you madam chair. >> we want to call the next panel. jane bullock, former fema chief of staff now with but france's and mccarthy, a congressional research service, federalism and elections said the emergency management section. michele norris, professor of urban policy and planning and nyu. donald dunbar, n.j. in general -- a set of wisconsin who is testifying today and perhaps of the national governors' association. david maxwell, vice president of the national emergency management association. rest in decker, emergency management senior vice president of disaster service of america red cross and i am going to just go across as i indicated it starting with the miss jane bullock who was the former fema chief of staff under what administration? >> [inaudible] >> you were a chief of staff under which administration press directly to the administration. madame chair, my testimony today is based on my 22 year career as federal emergency management agency, many as chief of staff to james lee witt trend the clinton and administration and also drawing on the past eight years when i work with communities and nonprofits in disaster management. free of the 1990's we work with communities to respond and recover from almost 300 presidential disasters. although we have any significant disasters none of them became catastrophes. this year a crevice of the level of damage of these disasters could have made catastrophes. for example, there was more in infrastructure damage from the northridge earthquake and hurricane katrina, there was more a geographic and tanks from hurricane floyd then there was katrina. they were not contested is because we build a strong partnership with state and local managers and that we have a federal response plan that was agreed to buy a federal agency including dod and executed under the direction of the fema director and we had leadership from the president on down committed to cutting red tape, being innovative and not bring about the price tag. it is within this context out line to provide the thoughts and suggestions. in the immediate aftermath of any disaster with individuals in committees of the most is to get back to normal. this return to normalcy and abuse of the committees of rigid to rebuild safer and more environmentally and economically sound. over the more inflexibility and regulations on the part of the federal government program can it reinforced returning an agency to previous states. it is in the government's best economic and social injustice apparent expeditious recovery in rebuilding sam recommends the use. i was his as the president should have flexibility to request congress authority to a regulations and statutory requirements in the aftermath of a catastrophic disaster such as allowing for innovation in application, scope and cost of him is the disaster loan program. the cdl is an essential lifeline for communities to continue their administration legal functions after a disaster. when a tax base has been lost. i was suggests allowing match requirements for other programs and assistance of individuals and house of france and mitigation grant programs. this is out this impasse is will not have the funds. in the context of mitigation committing their son the public are most likely to embrace mitigation in the aftermath of disaster and to take iran's of the public's willingness the federal government can provide the incentive by waving across share. in katrina this was not done. and we also the problems people and communities are having into a elevations. rapid recovery of its committees infrastructure is critical to economic recovery in the current public assistance program is cumbersome and highly bureaucratic. after the northridge earthquake experts had fun in to jump-start the recovering in a similar approach my block grant approach that removes the issues of a pre-existing conditions as we talked about earlier will be absolutely necessary after catastrophic disaster second federal reports for long-term recovery is confusing and scattered. congress should request a federal road map for communities as to what the federal government can do to help them recover. where did i was suggests establishing a pilot program that would allow certain high risk of disaster prone communities to receive funding to do pre disaster recovery plans and strategies which will significantly enhance approval of projects and use an economic recovery the private sector is of the key to recovery in many to bring to the red tape to allow businesses greater access after is acid to make a finding a projects in assets possible and to provide more support to small businesses. we need to relive the approach to disaster housing and the program shows promise but will work? we don't know. illini use disaster housing resources to foster innovation, osher corrine billings and take a managed a successful nonprofit programs like social service testing database available housing units in real time. and perhaps hud and fema to work together to do inventory of some standard housing before the disaster. finally i continue to be concerned about fema being a part of the department of common security. i firmly believe that this organization will impede its ability to not only responded by certainly respond once a recovery in. i commend them for credibly qualified individuals in to fema such as administrator fugate, jason mack damares, bill caldwell and beth zimmerman and another will fall it well but the president doesn't begin to the issues that remain there. dhs is a law enforcement agency with a federal top-down approach and fema, on the other hand, works in partnership with state and local governments in the private sector to help individuals institutions and communities become social and economic is on a ferry ride to programs in mitigation prepared as a recovery. these very divergent missions require different set of capabilities and certainly different mindset. the post into them reform act was intended to strengthen fema, put a fence and resources and missions, however, it has been mentioned version of after passage this dhs coronation was created and given functions that duplicate that of fema's. i would encourage of the committee to request dhs explain how the dhs of this operation for the initial function in mcadam savages times as the fema center in another area is of concern is their numerous incidents of the council over really decisions made by the fema council in spite of the fact of the rulings made it made by experience lawyers and based on a fema allyson disaster president. since dhs centralize the general counsel function there have been many concerns that should a catastrophic disaster occur interpretations of the lobbies of disaster precedents and day in the flexibility of the stafford act will be overruled by lesson from and dhs lawyers and consideration should be given to allowing the fema and ms. j to add his independent counsel. we are discussing the issue of principle federal officials, i don't think that this is an issue that has been closed. i believe there is intense use the plo and we should continue to live two questions relative to that as the issue of katrina was who is in charge and frankly if we really want to address this issue of reducing bureaucracy for response and recovery in the next and a sovereign disaster in answer is to remove fema, make independent agency, reestablished federal response plan, not a famine, and creating national recovery plan. hurricane katrina was the villa of leadership at all levels but despite of the failure fema staff would have made decisions and take in ashes to correct the problems but they cannot because the this is an approval process was at dhs. while i recognize the obama administration is seven from the previous one and committed to providing service and the american public i still wonder and am concerned that there a few things have changed and of the process will work more smoothly as long as fema has to answer to that the primitive, security and as long as the fema administrator is no longer in a peer to peer situation with other cabinet secretaries and is to be extremely important one requesting needed resources from other agencies. a thank you, i will be happy to answer questions. >> thank you very much, frances mccarthy, congressional research service, the division a procession of federalism and emergency management. mr. mccarthy. >> thank you madam chair, good afternoon. is an honor to appear before you today. i work as crs and my previous 25 years at fema have been in areas directly related to the issues we're discussing today. several issues arising have to cut the red tape and a separate federal assistance. maybe the first question with respect the rules of the executive and legislative branches in traditionally both have been a key role. obviously the executive branch particularly fema and the stafford act, congress has authorized the sad to particularly in the subcommittee is amended to the years. also congress has both supplemental appropriations funded this fema and stafford act recovery programs and edition provided funds to other departments and agencies to meet specific deeds. oftentimes this has been ineffective in complementary in timber and punish him to address a complicated problems falling in large disaster that of assisted or several says. but within context of the discussions some have suggested for castoff against the legislation and discretionary authority to create block grant payments is needed and is no authority such as cross share waivers to speed up the process. some argue that while discretion to is as it means a disaster and catastrophic event to be by the president and might be more reliable approach to have a trigger is an amount estimated damage. the creation of a threshold and other exceptional procedures may be a critical part of the debate. current thoughts, share a clear but the standards are under pressure from states seeking a waiver of costs as a chair pointed out that many say is considered their disaster catastrophic at this time occurring so for that reason perhaps have a trigger when how to distinguish in the realm of a catastrophic disaster. an additional consideration might be in the threshold for expanded assistance has been reached to continue the president's notification to congress of the use of catastrophic authority is similar to the procedures currently for emergency spending. the notification to serve as a vehicle to engage in the congress with potential funding requirements and suggested legislation that the move through response and recovery. i have discussed in the alternative funding proposals to my written testimony. one question would be how to determine and should the amount of block grants meets the needs of the right to area and is important to note that while assistance to individuals and also mitigation grants are caps there is no cap on the amount that may be spent for eligible projects swell the block grant is appealing particularly for speed and clarity it would also likely be in amount certain of the amounts under section 406 contained and a crew based on the actual repair or replacement work and one option might be to use the initial blogger and as incremental down payment on public disaster costs fell in the initial block grant the process could then be used to ensure an ability and complete the funding. one other consideration is all the ideas for up-front funding underlined the need for quality damage assessments banking give a clear indication of the scope and extent of the damaged. in discussion of approaches the proposals assume such would be available under catastrophic warming disaster and by investing the authorities before he and is arguably would permit this of this flexible action without the necessity of authorities legislated as disaster unfold. however providing such discretion to leadership by provide the possibility of an effective action. the me briefly summarize some of the options as mentioned in my testimony. number one provide within and to invoke authorities including block granting to send note localities and provide a comprehensive recovery appear in a to install it jigger that a priest was set in motion a catastrophic increase and fuss of assistance and also jigger notification of potential needs and resources and authority. to replace a listing of program changes that would take an eye toward catastrophic event including cost shares for specific programs and other news and has a mitigation assistance. it clearly defined the role and that of other agencies and departments and state and local governments and work. and for interactive fema recovery from are similar to the response remark but with an emphasis on long-term needs of this could include alternative housing scenarios when large numbers of displaced and define the relationship and disaster housing. consider other agency authorities as to be triggered by caddis having events such as the block grant program as was mentioned here to continue to have, alleges that a recovery package across the government to address the needs of is a killer catastrophic events and finally considering establishing a reporting framework so that all disaster spending including but not limited to the disaster late fund is captured and summarize for congressional review for a catastrophic events. i appreciate the opportunity to appear before you and welcome any questions you might have.

Related Keywords

Honduras ,Louisiana ,United States ,China ,Cedar Rapids ,Iowa ,California ,Russia ,Camaguey ,Camagü ,Cuba ,Washington ,District Of Columbia ,New Orleans ,Iowa City ,Santiago ,Regióetropolitana ,Chile ,Florida City ,Florida ,Havana ,Ciudad De La Habana ,Point Is ,Midi Pyrées ,France ,Vienna ,Wien ,Austria ,Switzerland ,Spain ,Gainesville ,Miami ,Canada ,Pyongyang ,P Yongyang Si ,North Korea ,Mississippi River ,Iran ,Wisconsin ,Mississippi ,Jefferson School ,Colorado ,Boulder ,Guadalajara ,Jalisco ,Mexico ,Hawaii ,America ,Chinese ,North Koreans ,Cubans ,Spanish ,Swiss ,Russians ,American ,Cuban ,John Evans ,Craig Fugate ,Frances Mccarthy ,Carl Bildt ,David Maxwell ,Fema Allyson ,Michele Norris ,Bruce Simon ,Sola Maximus ,Donald Dunbar ,Ian Kelly ,Robert T Stafford ,James Lee Witt ,Lucius Walker ,Jason Mack ,Beth Zimmerman ,Fidel Castro ,

© 2025 Vimarsana

comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.