That had 333 recommendations for reform to the Grant Programs at fema. Howev however, only found four permanent changes in which these recommendations came forward. Despite reform over a fiveyear period, little in the way of reform appears to have occurred. We had a hearing on this in 2013 in which we went through some of the various forms of waste occurring at fema. Even since that hearing, we still continue to have problems. 280,000 was recently spent for a bear cat Armored Vehicle in dover. We complained of a 600,000 bear cat Armored Vehicle for keen. I guess New Hampshire is ready for the next invasion. We also found recently or the inspectors have found 1. 7 million for unused radios and generators and 174,000 for unused radios in d. C. This is since we last meant to talk about waste. Every dollar wasted makes a difference two taxpayers. Right now, fema is more than 20 billion in debt because of the Flood Insurance program. Disaster spending often far outpaces the annual Funding C
The 96 act said we want competition competition. Some places it has worked. Some places it hasnt. This is one place where it really hasnt. We think consumers would have more choices and lower prices if we got competition into that space. The first question is is there a market for set top boxes . The answer is really in terms of what is delivered over the cable network, no, because the box is actually a component of the network. Thats the most efficient way to design and deliver Cable Television service. Its the cheapest way to do it, most efficient way to do it. No market has developed. The companies would prefer a market if it was more fish to do it that way. Watch tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan 23. Our live coverage of the president ial race continues tuesday night for the new york state primary. Join us at 9 00 eastern for election results, candidate speeches and viewer reaction. Taking you on the road to the white house on cspan, cspan radio, and cspan do ot ork org. Live covera
Later, the Consumer Confidence number is released for september. We were originally speccing Housing Starts at 8 30 eastern today. Permits will hit the tape, but the government is delaying the starts and completions again. They are still blaming the shutdown for this. The Commerce Department now plans to share that information on december 18th. We go from the economy to earnings. This mornings horts include hormel, tiffanys, and barns noble. Also, other market related news, takeover premiums are shrink to go historic lows. The wall street journal reports more than 9300 deals and so far this year the average premium has only by 19 of a target the week before. That compares to a historic average of 30 . Among those factor tos are booming economy, a worry Interest Rates will rise. Market vaum is an issue. You have to look in two different places to figure out what that word might be. Beyond the market is the other top story, the severe storm threatening parts of the country. The big mess