Welcome one and all. Great to see our witnesses. Great to be here with senator johnson, and well call this hearing to order. I appreciate the effort of all of you to get here today. Im glad were having the hearing today, and not tomorrow. If we were having it tomorrow we might not be having a hearing. Todays hearing, as you know, is focused on the costs of not being prepared for extreme weather events, and exploring the ways that our federal government can increase resiliency in our communities, and just to underbehind this, and save money. Save money in the long haul. We have deficits coming down, theyre still too much. Down from 1. 4 trillion, i think, four years ago, this year expected to be down to about 550 billion. Only 550 billion. Thats still way too much and we have to continue to look in every nook and cranny and figure out how do we save more money. Thats the focus of todays hearing. But, i will try to take about five minutes for my Opening Statement and yield to senator joh
With all of that in mind, the significance of the event in mind, its striking how little we really know months later about how exactly george floyd died. The official story line is clear, it couldnt be clearer. Establish a News Organization state it as a matter of factual certainty that floyd was in the words of nbc news and so many others murdered by Minneapolis Police officer. Politicians, both democrats and republicans, echoed that claim. Ideologues amplify it. According to filmmaker michael moore, floyd was lynched by a cops knee with a lynch mob of cops looking on. That is certainly a vivid image but does it reflect what actually happened . The short answer is we are still not precisely sure how george floyd died. The trial of the united Minneapolis Police officers has not started. We will know a lot more when it does. The media, in the meantime, arent that curious about gathering for their details and they are actively hostile to anyone who is. Ask too many inconvenient, unauthor
That is very clear at this point. With all of that in mind, the significance of the event in mind, its striking how little we really know months later about how exactly george floyd died. The official story line is clear, it couldnt be clearer. Establish a News Organization state it as a matter of factual certainty that floyd was in the words of nbc news and so many others murdered by Minneapolis Police officer. Politicians, both democrats and republicans, echoed that claim. Ideologues amplify it. According to filmmaker michael moore, floyd was lynched by a cops and he with a lynch mob of cops looking on. That is certainly a vivid image but doesnt reflect what actually happened . The short answer is we are still not precisely sure how george floyd died. The trial of the united Minneapolis Police officers has not started. We will know a lot more when it does. The media, in the meantime, arent that curious about gathering for their details and they are actively hostile to anyone who is.
Proactively preparing for potential disasters and readily responding to a situation as it occurs. Across the department, from fema, to mppd to science and technology, we work with a wide array of government, private and nonprofit faithbased organizations to build and foster resilience. Not as a concept, but as an applied reality. Fema is leading implementation of the National Preparedness system. My colleague here today will discuss our Critical Infrastructure, security and resilience programs, and in my office, the office of policy, we coordinate resilience initiatives and policy across the department and are working to create the framework that fosters resilience and gives a coherent baseline. Id like to share one example of some of the important work that weve been doing. Were creating a program called resilience star based on the energy star concept which you probably are familiar with for appliances in your own home. In this case, it will help ensure that homes will be built to vo
We stole him from san jose at the tender age of i think 29 or 30 to come all the way to the National Association of environmental control. If i had half the energy of this guy, i would be president and Vice President. Hes an amazing guy. Very proud of the work that you do. Thank you for joining us today. Our second witness is from a bigger state than ours New Hampshire, and kelly ayotte cant with be us. Dr. Paul is it kirshen . Dr. Kirshen, Research Professor at the university of New Hampshire. What is your mascot there . Wildcats. Wildcats, yes. Weve had some rough football saturdays against the wildcats and the blue hens. Were all the happy to welcome you here. I understand your research focuses on engineering and management as well as Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment adaptation, planning. Its a mouth full but were happy you could join us. Thanks so much for coming. Lindene patton, my mother was a patton, chief climate product officer for Zurich International group. In this ro