Transcripts For CSPAN2 FEMA 20240703

Some committee on economic public buildings in Emergency Management will come to order. I asked that your consent that the chairman be authorized to declare a recess at any time in todays hearing. Without objection so ordered. Consent that members not on the subcommittee be permitted to sit with the subcommittee at todays hearing and ask questions without objection so ordered. Members wish to insert document into the amendment email it to documents ti at mail. House. Love. Recognizing himself with the purposes of an Opening Statement for five minutes. I want to thank our witness, is it deeann . The administrator of the federal Emergency Management agency for being here today. We are focusing on the current state of the readiness response and recovery. The core mission is to help people before during and afterng disasters. Unfortunately, they have added layers of bureaucracy and adopted political agendas which have impacted how it delivers on its core mission. The Biden Administration is imposing an agenda focused on Climate Change and equity which is diverting away from femas core mission. On august 28 the committee was alerted that the disaster, we will consider that the drf at this point, would move to immediate needs funding until additional firms were appropriated. Under inf, federal reimbursements estates territories and federally recognized tribes for longterm Disaster Recovery projects are halted. Instead remaining imbalances reserved for any immediate lifesaving response activities. To meet staff, first asked fema back in february, a long time ago now what it was going to do to avoid the drf running out of money since femas own monthly reports indicated that it was projected to be depleted by now in september where we are. Fema provided no Real Solutions or answers. Despite ongoing inquiries in the weeks and months since we were not notified of a supplemental work best until it was officially submitted to congress in august. And the request was tied to ukraine spending. Bill wake up one of the deadliest fires United States history, a supplemental request for additional disaster funding comes with strength. You just think about that in the audience if youre watching this the american taxpayer, people that are suffering and somehow bother to discuss getting the drf refunded until august and it is tied to ukraine. I cannot reconcile that. I have overarching concerns about decisions being made that waste taxpayer dollars and reduce our readiness. We see fema funding request to support domestic Disaster Response activities tied with ukraine. N we see fema under the administration to significantly expand its mitigation programs in ways that no longer require projects to demonstrate that they will in fact reduce cost or actually save lives. N the name of equity and Climate Change. We also see fema resources diverted for other purposes such as the border crisis. Despite fema reportedly being understaffed. Obviously under responded. The Homeland Security act prohibits the diversion of fema assets functions or missions for the continued use of any other oudhs organization unless such assignments do not reduce the capability of fema to perform its missions. Yes, and yet your agencies cannot be bothered to follow that law. That is concerningy to me. They have a significant capacity problem. Every diversion undermines its ability to perform Core Missions they confirm the capacity issue. Wepr know response from lettersf the full committee to fema that the key fema personnel have been diverted by the secretary to assist with bringing people into the country illegally. The emergency food and Shelter Program to help homeless americans has become a program for foreignun nationals residing in our communities and in our cities. I know that i may disagree with any of my colleagues on the role of the federal government and what it should play when it comes to disasters, but regardless, fema should not be used to advance objectives and fema resources, taxpayer resources should not be diverted for other purposes unrelated to its mission. Ultimately, all of this impacts the readiness and ability to respond to disasters happening across our country from mauis wildfires to hurricane idalia and multiple flooding events. We can debate the role of the federal government, but at the very least, we need to ensure that fema is focused on its core mission because that is the oneh thing that this congress or a congress andbu the president agreed to an assigned to law. I look forward to hearing from you today administrator criswel and i now recognize the Ranking Member, representative titus for 10 minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you administrator criswell for joining us today. We just ask the ability to lead Disaster Response recovery. Since your testimony last year, climate continuing to generate dire circumstances that your agencies had to deal with. That Disaster Relief fund as a result which serves as the backbone for the program nearing depletion. It is of utmost importance that they fulfill the president s request for supplemental funding and we should do that free of any poison pills to try to impose social policy into this area. That is the only way that fema can continue to provide the necessary resources for ongoing Recovery Efforts like we are seeing in maui in florida and likely to see even more emerge in the near future as we are into Hurricane Season. I appreciate yourr steadfast leadership of fema during this difficult time. My home state of nevada has also experienced some terrifying impacts of Climate Change. Time to thank the fema people in the Emergency Response managers in my state for their Rapid Response to the extreme weather that threatens communities, especially in southern nevada. You do not think about having a hurricane in the desert but indeed we saw that across Southern California and some of its impact into the southern part of nevada. We also had unrelenting heat and we know that heat is a threat just like other Natural Disasters that need to be addressed and we had repeated flash flooding. A channel that can be drafted for years and suddenly becomes a rushing river. We have a drought in the west that has been ongoing and likely will cause some of these disasters to get worse in the coming years. So, as we Work Together with nevada communities, i think that this demonstrates one of the priorities of the administration which is in all of government s approach and that is the only way we can deal with it. In addition to all of government we think equity is important. We think that solutions, all disaster survivors and communities are created and treated fairly by these programs and these programs are addressed fairly regardless of the neighborhood. Natural disasters amplify existing disparities in our societyy. It should go without saying that government is scared to address the needs of every american equally, not just the more affluent neighborhoods that should be rebuilt as we try to respond to these kind of crises. The sub community has received considerable testimony from underserved communities about their frustration of how they seem to be ignored. How much time it takes and they are not in a position to get additional funding and we need to be sure that fema addresses that. I know that you do. I know that you recognize the disparities. You have been working with us to try to address this. We appreciate your work to implement new laws and policies that will have these longterm benefits and improve the wellbeing of victims all across the board. I especially appreciated value your public support for reforms in a bill introduced by myself. Congressman troy carter and jennifer gonzales, this is the disasters survivor fairness act. We passed that out of the full committee unanimously earlier this year. I would like to see it come forward because it was unanimous bipartisan. It was designed to make federal disaster aid more acceptable to survivors. Contributing to some of the problems that the chairman has pointed out about making his board efficient. It removes barriers by creating an application and it empowers the agencyen to assist damage me fairly, more quickly and more accurately. This could ease thend burden on families applying for Disaster Assistance and we hope to see it pass because these are the worst antimes in their lives. At least this is what their governor can do. I think you and your colleagues for the work you have been shepherding in aei positive direction. I think that you have done that by acknowledging and addressing the impacts of Climate Change, prioritizing equity which we think is important and investing in mitigation and resilience so we do builds back that are geared we recognize the challenges that you face and we want to do everything we can to help you and we know that that needs to be replenished. Thank you for being here and i yield back. Thank you. The chair now recognizes the chairman of the full committee. Chairman gray for five minutes for his Opening Statement. Thank you for being here. On a bipartisan basis this subcommittee in particular has worked to improve fema and the federal government Emergency Management. I am proud to begin. National security this month. Helping to educate the American People on what they can do to be prepared. Femas role is critical. We have recent flooding in my district. Working quickly and closely with the agencies and local response. Last month on august 4 antif2 tornado ripped through the city in knox county missouri, in my district. Governor parsons submitted a federal disaster declaration on september 6. I hope that fema will work swiftly and efficiently to approve this declaration so that people in missouri can continue to recover. I also hope that many of the reforms that we have passed in my time on the committee will help remove a lot of unnecessary bread tape and bureaucratic policies asof we move through ts process. I look forward to hearing what the administrator, what you have sto say today. Critical issues as we prepare for and to respond to disasters all across this country. With that, chairman perry, i yield back. The chair now recognizes the Ranking Member of the committee for five minutes for his Opening Statement. Thank you. Thank you for calling todays hearing. It will be an opportunity today to discuss the many challenges we are facing due to a busy disaster season and the strategies to overcome those challenges. Climate change is making disasters more frequent and intense and costly. Noah announced a troubling new record this month that in 2023 the u. S. Has experienced a Record Number of disaster events with losses exceeding 1 billion twentythree separate events with each of those events exceeding 1 billion. This figure is bound to grow. The intensity of the season is depleting the agencies Disaster Relief fund. I am very concerned about the lack of funding available to fight these disasters and the impact on the program spirit malleys wildfires in anticipation of hurricane, announcing the implementation of immediate needs funding to save what little money fema has left. I understand they are only obligated funds for direct aid for disaster survivorsrs and actions that immediately save life and property. The result is rebuilding roads, bridges and schools on hold indefinitely. Fema has had to put about 1610 recovery and mitigation projects on hold impacting nearly every state in every community in our country. The state of disaster is not femas fault it is Congress Responsibility to provide enough funding. It is imperative that congress Work Together in a bipartisan manner to replenish as soon as possible so that fema can continue to build it mission moving forward during and after disaster. Adjusting the Record Number of billiondollar disasters is more than just adding more money to the drf they need to adapt for an evolving world so it can provide an adequate response aneach time the disaster is declared. Deputy administrator briefed us earlier this year on current efforts outlined in the Strategic Plan to address that. I appreciate the time that that regional administrator and his team took to run a disaster tabletop exercise with my staff in Washington State. The exercise was very informative and facilitated several important connections in fact it is something that i would encourage other members to do and their reasons with their fema Regional Directors to better understand Congress Role in responding to disasters. There is always more work to be done. 50 increase iner storms and disasters in the last 10 years. They must use science to incorporate projections into all of its programs. Inwi order to address these disasters we need to expand mitigation and increase resilience. Overwhelming evidence shows mitigation common sense costeffective way save lives and property. The supporting of the inxs for mitigation in theseev projects. We need to leverage all the resilience funding. Palandmark legislation included seven billiondollar investment for predisaster legislation. They support the largest notice of funding opportunity in the building resilience infrastructure and communities project program. The brickk program. The largest inrt his history. And funding the new Storm Revolving Loan Fund program. New authorities provided by legislation such as representative david will also help the agency target funding for communities with the greatest need and highest risk of Natural Disasters. We have to ensure all communities have equal opportunity to access these divital funds. Systems to underserved applicants and thewe benefit cot analysis requirement. More needs to be done to ensure for Climate Change reductions in all programs and to make access, make access predisaster grants. Administrator, you have a difficult job. I want to thank you for the work that you do and that your team does and that they have done under your leadership. Your dedication and service to communities throughout the country as well noted and we need to do our job in supporting femas efforts to ensure more equitable outcomes of building a comore resilient nation. I look forward to discussing how we can Work Together to drive new reforms and help fema achieve its goals. Thank you for being here. I look forward to your testimony i yield back. I would like to again welcome our witness and thank you forle spending your time here with us today. I know that you are busy and we appreciate your presence. I would like to take a moment to explain our lighting system to you. Three lights in front of you. Green means go. Yellow means you are running out of time. Red means to conclude your remark. It actually means you probably shouldve already concluded your remarks. I asked unanimous consent that the full statement be included in the record without objections awarded. Your written testimony has been made part of the official record the subcommittee asked that you limit your remarks to five minutes. With that, administratorde criswell, you are recognized for five minutes for your testimony. Thank you, chairman perry and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for this opportunity to discuss estate of fema. Fema has a powerful Mission Statement spelled out in just seven words. Helping people before, during and after disaster. That Mission Statement, it is our northstar and it reflects a deep and abiding commitment of our workforce to public service. I can say without hesitation that our mission app fema has become more challenging. We can no longer really speak of a disaster season. From atmospheric rivers in january to tornadoes and wildfires in december, we now face intensified Natural Disasters throughout the year. Often in place is not used to experiencing them. In just the last several months alone, we have seen disasters ranging from record funding in vermont to the deadliest wildfire in over a century on the island of maui to the first Tropical Cyclone to make landfall in california since 1938. It is therefore vital that fema be ablee to tap into a properly funded Disaster Relief fund. We strive to be vigilant stewards of the taxpayer dollar. We are careful in our budget prediction. There are times when disasters outpace our appropriated funds. The administration has requested a supplemental funding package that includes 16 billion for the Disaster Relief fund. I urge congressional approval of this request in the administration specifically year 2024 budget request as soon as possible. As a result of this on august 29 fema implemented immediate needs funding for the First Time Since 2017. Under inf, we are prioritizing lifesaving and lifesustaining Disaster Response in delaying obligations for longerterm work as a result, we have needed to pause obligations to over 1000 public assistance projects across the country where it is over 1. 5 billion. You all have my commitment that fema will move quickly to resume obligations as soon the drf is replenished but again, Congress Must act today without delay. Of course to be effective, fema requires not only funding, but a welltrained workforce ready to deploy at a moments notice. The vast majority of our 22,000 work force our reservists. I think this committee and Congress Passing the act last year which extended to our reservists. This law is already improving our recruitment and our retention efforts. Fema is also working to constantly improve the technology our programs use. After Hurricane Ian impacted florida, we implemented a unique rapid debris removal task force that used a combination of satellite flyover and on the ground data to identify areas where it was particularly concentrated and cleared 19 million cubic yards of debris , enough to fill olympic size swimming pools within six weeks across the hardest hit areas. This was months faster than weve been able to do previously we are also using Remote Sensing technology in maui to match homes listed in our individual Assistance Program with detailed map images. When a match is made, the survivors case information is shared with our housing inspectors who can then reach out to survivors without requiring them to be present at their destroyed home. We will continue to leveragen technology such as this to achieve this kind of people first result. Fema is not only a response and recovery agency. We work to mitigate the worst impacts of disasters before they occur. Essential ways to build resilience across our country is through an option of hazard resilience which have avoided at least 32 billion in losses from Natural Disasters since 2000 alone. And i recently met with survivors and porsche shoe bees each. Itur received the brunt of hurricane wind and storm surge recently. Largely unscathed. I talked with one homeowner who owned several such properties and he told me clearly i built to code. However, two out of three communities in the u. S. Do not yet have uptodate building codes. We are implementing a National Strategy to help incentivize rktheir adoptions. Another way in which fema is working to increase the resiliency of our nation istr through our new safeguarding tomorrow loan program which will give local governments another tool to finance projects mitigate against Natural Disasters and i want to thank you for the significant investment in the bricks Grant Program for which we have announced nearly 4 billion for mitigation projects acrosss the nation. Every day i see the unwavering dedication of our fema workforce helping people before during and after disasters. I ask you to ensure that our workforce has the resources that we need for that mission. Thank you and i look forward to your questions. Thank you for your testimon. We will now turn to questions for the administrator. The chair now recognizes himself or questions. Administrator criswell, no surprise to you, i do not sometimes agree with my colleaguesze on what the role of the federal government should be in disasters. Overnment should be in disasters but i do believe whatever the Government Role is should be efficient and actually some contractors literally waiting years. Its how you plan on being able to pay employees and grow your business and pay taxes and insurance and by equipment and etc. How do we expect private sector partners to step up following disasters of the cap count on your administration . But imagine if you think youre working for the federal government, that would be a guaranteed paycheck as long as you do thet work, the standard s required but if you wait months and years with this company is layoff staff because they cant be paid by you, how do you expect anybody to be willing to work for fema in a moment ofan crisis are you have to move quickly, everybody is in a hurry because people are suffering the disaster, how does that get solved . I obviously dont have the specifics of the company you are speaking up but we work through our state and local entities to reimburse for the work being done. Part of our process is make sure we are collecting appropriate documentation to make sure there is alignment all the paperwork is in i want to mischaracterize anything so not going to name that we could talk offline about it, everybody is doing this. They relocated the work and the disaster is over yet there are millions of dollars unpaid for years. Every situation unique to that situation, i would be happy to get with you offline and better understand specifics of what you are talking about. Do you understandev contracts watchingd that circumstance wil will be reluctant to respond and they know they will not be paid for to the tunes of millions . I dont know the specifics to which are talking about, we reimbursed williams every year to immunities and states rebuilding work. Its unfortunate but im happy to work with you on resolving that. The devastation concerning parallels the campfireat and pge the wall street journal reported electric is seeking legal advice from pge on how to deal with the consequences of their actions. The campfire in california appeared to be net zero. Resources away from mitigation toward Renewable Energy. Thats not on you, that the decision. The victim of wildfires are victims of selfimposed is responsible now that the Climate Policy created disaster. Because of the consequence of co2, the consequent policies destroyed their policy and in the 100 lives. The madness charted in 2015 in hawaii, the first state in the nation to mandate transition, require transition in the Renewable Energy by 2025 and they said they would reach that five years ahead of schedule. With 900aced them megawatts of renewable power. Same year after one of the worst wildfire seasons in maui, hawaii electric identified significant risk of wildfire in the system and need to mitigation efforts in the identified and prioritized Renewable Energy over mitigation. Little or no mitigation testing completed. They spent millions on this transition to Renewable Energy, a concerning trend of policy and raises a lot of questions about opportunity and costs associated with rapidly transitioning under mandate, not under market but under mandate to Unreliable Technology and significant cost to the ratepayer and devastating consequences to homeowners. To make matters worse, ill go here and truncate my remarks let me ask you this is the policy not only here but western states, should the american taxpayer fema, should the american taxpayer responsible for paying for Recovery Efforts as states divert money away from mitigation efforts to misguide not policy guidelines that exacerbate and endanger citizens of those states should the taxpayer be required to pay for that . An increase in the number of wildfires across the u. S. I dont know if thats true but what im talking about is whats causing them. Policies are causing wildfires, people are losing their lives and property. Should the rest of america pay for that when that can be avoided . Mysterious role should always be a community impacted by anyg te of Severe Weather event. Regardless of make poor management decisions . They help invest in mitigation and reduce impact mental focus we need to continue to work on together. Are you doing anything to reduce the impact of these . Reduce policies. Are you doing anything to mitigate them so peoples lives and homes can be saved . Our focus is to work with whatever risk. The answer would be no. I yield to the gentle lady. Im still trying to figure out Renewable Energy and wildfires. Anyway, we know the balance is down 2. 4 billion cannot consummate disasters to do more damage and more expensive and they have been vocal about supplemental funding saying it should pass the house without social policy. One area that is a partner years, the National Weather service and we have Emergency Managers and they predict what would happen and they propose slashing the National Weather service, i wonder if you could comment on its a good idea. The National Weather service is a great service. The Hurricane Center and all of those components. They came from Critical Data and information. And anticipate wht they are going to be so we can put right measures in place of the as we watch a storm develop so wet can perform flexing actin predict the future might hold. Any reduction to get that data has impact on the safety and security. This is sabine, is that right . Calls an increase in the amount of funding because we wont have accurate data. I would ask your opinion he could get thehe disaster act passed. The morepa equitable and passed down, could you talk about how you anticipate that . I am excited and appreciative of the support of this bipartisan legislation. I believe that is going to make a difference in our ability to help community and they are covered with their three i really want to show. First, it will give us the authority and this is going to be quicker, moree efficient and costeffective than traditional programs of manufactured housing or temporary housing units. Second, thei ability for housing grant in the program over the last year and implement these programs giving them the ability and increase efficiency and abilityy to better take care and finally, its going to give the ability to streamline information across our federal agency and federal partners use data to influence how they implement the Disaster Program and streamlined that to make the programs quicker. Thank you. Well, we need your help advocating. I really think it would make a big difference. These grants for the fire department, can you address those for renewing these . This is important because it is the backbone of our First Responders out there and it allows us to build capacity and to have this program in place and it would jeopardize First Respondersb. Its not just wildfires the west, but many. It is our volunteer agencies and critical programs protect disability to support. Thank you and i will back. The chair recognizes representative sorry, we got chairman would be here. You have five minutes. Thank you, i appreciate you appearing before the committee i chair. At that time, we discussed the changing and that has changed over the years the border we are dealing with, fema recently announced new york city was set to receive 100 billion in the program to address the evergrowing migrant crisis. Since then, as im sure you are well aware, the problem has only worsened. Recently mayor adams this last month said this issue will destroyed new york city. They 15 and you served proudly for two years appreciate you leaving the department. Has anyone from new york city been in contact with you are requesting additional funds to address the migrant crisis after receiving 100 million . We have been in communication with newqu york and might have been straighter packs on a regular basis understanding their needs and the departmentyo sent to the woodland staff in the Current Situation to have a better understanding and funding this program and the planet amount of funding so we recognize those us and we were able to appropriate to them. How much have they additionally had . It was well of what he has the ability. Part of the problem is, and i appreciate your Emergency Management, or better off today than the last time we met . I think is clear mayor adams had ouno plan and asked what you ned for us . There is no plan so obviously it is concerning new york city continues to face challenges, you never want to hear the mayor of one of the biggest cities in the world say we have an issue we are facing and we cant control and it will destroy our city. How is fema evaluating the difference between new york city and other cities and the intended purposes of the program . It was directed by congress and the first part of the program for humanitarian moved into the shelter and Service Program and evaluated data as it relates to this. We have a heavier weight in this program and the entire focus on the destination. As you move w into the next fisl year, we are going to look at the competitive Grant Program and we know the dynamics of the situation a real in the data changes. You and your team have gonen through more data than anybody. Do you believe there is an Immigration Crisis facing us under failed leadership . New york city boersma district. I can tell you my agency will continue to focus on jurisdictions that are managing the care of immigrants. I onlyis have a few seconds d i will ask this, other resources should be utilized in other areas of fema focusing on its mission not taken away because of issues of failed policy . The only resources we are inhibiting to our children servicesca program. If we can have this issue in place, he would use allies that for other funding . My time has expired and i will back. Chair now recognizes the gentleman and Ranking Member of the full committee. Thank you. Our budget specifically for tha program. Disaster relief fund, i understand the measures the disaster funding, a number of rsprojects being delayed, one is in my district and the one problem and the delay is a little over 10 so can you elaborate on supplementing funding programs can be funded because of delays. The current hubble Disaster Relief fund watching closely throughout the year and made the determination to implement. Funding because of focus and priority should always have Resources Available and what we do is delay obligations for the work and it just means we cannot reimburse jurisdictions and the cost incurred as a result. Is that reimburse . That dollars are funding this agency . It is a Community Funding and one of the things lucy is jurisdictions that are being reimbursed for their projects and they are not going to be able to because of the cash flow issue and they will need enforcementan they can continue theee work. It isei upon them to continue to manage the work being done. This challenge still have sitting around and they are waiting on 359. My guess is its probably rural, a range of community will and recently announced will and the program, announced the first 50, is that right . We issued the first in the Revolving Loan fund and jurisdictions. We are excited about the ability the program will do to help with cost share portion of these so they can continue any talk a bit about these challenges you have on Climate Change and mitigation and resilience . And the new money we put in place to achieve this medication turned the corner on what fema is about. We are absolutely seeing an increase in severity and length of recovery and other events we are going to and we will continue to respond but we have got to build resilience in the way is through the mitigation programs and it is funded after a disaster for our funding for predisaster and identify and make them more but they can be expensive and they are jurisdictions and do not have the funding in this Program Makes a difference to be able to complete a project onto other projects and its a critical tool that they will need to have in the future of climate related events. In 2022, 662es, this year Washington State is 1,081,505 in these resources so one state wildfires are increasing and i yield back. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from mississippi, thank you. Thank you for calling us today. Before ours sworn into office, i focus on flood mapping and issues and flooding in several of these counties are engaging in resiliency and they plan to send and in addition across the federal government. Jackson county which is my home county is relying on any of these programs and projects that improve to enhance our shoreline and protect us from storms and flooding. Better protection for property. Full algorithms making our plan and projects for they have greatest benefit for constituents including lowering their interest. The rate of 2. 0. Most important piece is that it now facesal Flood Insurance premium on each home blood risk which means it does take into account mitigation measures put in place either by the homeowner or the community reflected in the rate of the homeowners. Thank you, i will submit more on this and i will move on. Improving the Flood Insurance program which is unaffordable in my district and i would like to submit for the record, i wrote to you. In accordance, i ask a letter to submit the record. Without objection. Communitybased catastrophe and innovative approach that allows for coverage and empowers local decisionmaking further reducing fema promoting resilience and i believe this resiliency could lower income households and extreme flooding and save taxpayer money. This approach to better county needs to juuls and extreme flooding case and using funding to support similar approaches. You absolutely have my commitment and better understand blood risk as well as ways to reduce costs and any of this is unaffordable and fema put affordable framework never really has the ability to have necessary productions needed the you have my commitment. Promoting resiliency is only half the equation with the rise in cost of disasters and lack Financial Resources and adequately respond to a disaster meeting to the immediate cost of recovery. Fema provides assistance and it must be done to expedite financial burdens, can i get your commit on the Payment Relief act to mitigate burdens placed on my community . We have a number of programs we understand can be a challenge so you have my commitment and we will continue to find ways to improve so we can help communities rebuild. Thank you, i yield back. Chair now recognizes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. It looks like we have a double problem, we got insufficient funds in the Disaster Relief funds rate and client district, district of columbia, 13 public assistant projects totaling 7 million have been put on pause as well as 150,000 im sorry, 190,000 as a litigation project also. It is critical we replenish Disaster Relief fund, could you speak to the Impact Communities disasteri survivors that congres does not pass . Supplemental funding for the Disaster Relief fund . Right now we are watching the Disaster Relief fund and we have funding to support those activities which means the projects described are obligation and the largest impact is their ability to continue until they can be reimbursed and will delay their ability to recover. This means they are that much further behind with what is recommended and further delay our ability to continue these projects in the months ahead. You emphasize a need for uptodate Disaster Relief assistance building code. This concerns residents of my district which hosts a number of historic buildings. In what ways can fema aid Disaster Mitigation and resiliency . One of the programs i am excited and proud of the program we are doing billing infrastructure and communities. We are hoping to envision the projects they and helping them what they may be have not thought of before and a number of kennedys across the nation and help them develop projects that will help protect their communities and we will be happy understand immunities you feel would need this and we can try to offer that. I would appreciate that. In the district of columbia and extreme heat earlier this month, temperatures were 97 degrees for five Straight Days breaking all stored record, how does fema help state and local government respond to extreme heat . One of the best things to help unities battle impacts of extreme heat partners and mitigation. We have launched the Brady Campaign to help individuals and communities understand to help protect the families expanding this and we know we have to help communities support that whether its making sure they have generators or reduce the heat inside or adding green areas and can be used to help mitigate for future events. Thank you and i feel blessed. Chair recognizes. Thank you for bringing this hearing together. We are still in the process of getting through many others. There has been historic funding and a real fear from a this was promised but it will not get done and i know this indicates between all the various factors this has allocated 45 billion, almost all funds 90 billion in these iniquities and on the other hand, fema announced 31 billion in the project and. 9 billion but do not have cash on hand and start work enforcement. Provide 1. 2 trillion of these instances. However, as many as two thirds will have to return for those who are not able to have evidencer and will get a report. We will have a copy of the report and fema promised to report and there is oversight for the report. My question, does your agency have a phone record on how much is actually disbursed . We are extremely committed to help rico recover and since i have taken this position, i have met many times with governor in 19 is so embedded. Do you have it now . We actually have the amount we have funded over 10000 hundred product that totaled 30 billion. 2800 projects has begun construction in 1800 completed member only 81 products and tremendous increased. A lot ofi freedom in these entities. Information about where we are in this update and how many rightte now are still pending approval because we got the same issue which is a different process. Another issue that is important, section 428 and inflation and the ending in 2018 now, it was 59 million and now its 85 million so we have many who may not have the full amount of resources that will happen in the know my time has expired but i would like precise data regarding on the island how much is being dispersed and when you expect construction delivery and one of the biggest issues congress did approve 7 billion, that is not your fault but people have been waiting for years and now they tell you we dont have enough so i will provide questions regarding this and iag hope you can read that. I will provide answers for the record. The gentleman from california. I want to spend my time asking about something that ispr at the core of the most work and that is a question of get fema Disaster Relief and who doesnt. Let me first say i am a believer of the agency and one of the great things are federal government does to make sure fema Disaster Relief devastates communities the matter where they are and no matter their politics and i want to commend yourth dedication and i represet the north bay so i have seen firsthand what is this different that Disaster Relief can make but i have also seen what happens when there is a devastating Natural Disaster that doesnt quite trigger the disaster leave and i have seen how that can be. A less affluent community as well and we have an equity problem when it comes to this mechanism. We leave a lot of less affluent communities behind and with the climate crisis, we really need to tackle this problem not to get ahead of it. I told you a bit about my district, who got tsunamis and wildfires, it is a poster child for this problem because fema arbitrary financial damage threshold can leave devastated communities behind. Inin 2017 a fire burned 72 homes in trinity county, one of the smallest and poorest Rural Counties in california. It took out 15 of the countys Housing Stock, 15 of counties that have modest homes so Property Values are not high enough to reach the threshold and county government lacks resource and community so they get the fema Disaster Relief in december 2022 real dell in humble county and took out 25 of the citys Housing Stock and estimated 26 million in overall damage, a total of 35 million and damage to the county and it didnt see the threshold. If you took the same disaster and happened in an affluent place, baby took out a small fraction of the homes, you have nof problem triggering Disaster Relief but these were left without. The flip side in 2011, there was an earthquake in japan that triggered a tsunami that wrecked the city in my district. The damage was about 50 million, just short of the threshold Disaster Relief but we got lucky because the same tsunami further south where yachts were parked in because thet yachts damaged to go a little higher, the city did qualify for Disaster Relief but imagine some of those had not been parked in the harbor at that time left with nothing. So it seems to me this is fundamentally unfair and more disastrous coming, we really need to provide more flexible and a little ways for devastated communities to qualify for federal Disaster Relief from ima and i staff will present a letter today. Im asking you to work with us on this important issue. I believe you have existing authority for overall rulemaking to provide that equity if you need new authority an additional 30, please let us know and we will get the work to make it happen. Let me leave it there and asked for your response and work with me onll this critical issue. You made some very good points and one of my priorities has been equitably delivering our programs and when it comes to this, we have a number of factors whether the state has the capacity to support it but also the amount of insurance and damage and it can be very complex and thats likely continue to work to improve the way we deliver our programs but better understand the barriers you mentioned, being able to get what they need to properly recover. You have my commitment to improve the way we deliver our programs and ensure everybody eligible has access to this. The chair recognizes the vice chair of the subcommittee from oregon. Thank you, nice to meet you. I know we have not officially met we are here today to answer the questions we have given your background and in colorado im sure you have a unique appreciation for the devastating wildfires. One of my highest priorities is to find solutions to help oregonians wildfires. One of my Top Priorities is to properly equip our firefighters and get the wildfires under control and prevent them from getting out of hand in the first place. So far, nine legislative ways to tackle these important issues and i will continue to focus on this. In 2020, oregon excuses devastating water and it began in august. The department of Emergency Management wildfires burn 1 million acres in rhode island. Will it affect the 20 counties and destroyed or damaged 5000 structures resulted in 600 million city of detroit will husband devastated by the buyers my uncle used to work with the city to help, i will go to oregon and understand what is important and set up new offices. James water continues has continued for three years. Detroit completed the paperwork in the engineering requirement. It has forced the state justify the federal paper will over and over again my question, can you offer any assurance that fema will give application full and fair absolutely i will follow up on this personally and ensure this is reviewed and i am happy to meet with you and do it work done. We have to move the ball down the field and after testimony, and often times doesnt have an uncommitted to get this moved forward regarding high turnover, what steps can be to retain basic knowledge when someone leaves . Can we use the retention and recruitment of workforce the majority we have with service and they are the backbone of life in a broader pool of people and i have talked to them now benefiting inflation. Offering recruitment as well as ministry will steps are increasing the desire of our workforce to bring in new people and also help them understand we are there for themhe and recogne the value they bring and get them excited about their continued work. I seek my time is going to expire. Chair now recognizes the gentleman from california. Thank you, mr. Chairman. You have a tough job, he really do. All around this nation, there is some sort of disaster going on all the time. Thank you. Thank you for your efforts and for the work you and your team do. Obviously the work is extremely important. There is alwayss a problem, soe of the problems are the issues you face and seem to be mundane. We had covid crisis a couple of years ago shut down a house Homeless People and they might not infect the community. One of his awaiting reimbursement for that program. Making the decision that they wouldnt be paid from the appears to be contrary to europe and we are likely to look into it and look at the information. In the scope of what you are facing but nonetheless, important costs. I aligned guidance with this and termination to not. Having said that, who will get you the specific if you will follow up with that, the decision isap that but we will never be able to deal with disasters unless we will there are a couple of programs that are. Mitigation here with infrastructure and seem to work order infrastructure. If you will, how . You have a program that can deal with that you specific concerns we have. Your loan fund program, works with money they can pass on to counties and get ahead of the problem by using the money for programs. However, the 50 million in seven states and 400 million available, how about the other 15 million, it is not exactly clear how much money is in this involving this program. Can you push the money out or is it allocated for the Disaster Recovery . Obviously california and other states and representatives have, can you push the rest of that money out or will it depend on the additional money . Nt if you are, id love to your comments. If not, we will get back. The storm is an incredible tool and areas where they dont have the funding to from the cost, we are very excited about this program. I got the authorization and funding, we wanted to make sure we get a portion out as quickly as possible so we did a partial opportunity for 50 million you mentioned. This is the first of its kind program and requires state and local partners build capacity to administer such a program so while we did initial opportunity, we have been working with state and local partners to establish programs and as we go forward, we will issue opportunities for the full amount of the Program Going forward and we continue to build capacity. I very much appreciate the task and your extraordinary purpose. Thank you. With that, i will recognize the gentleman from california for five minutes. Thank you for allowing me today, appreciate it. An importanthi topic. Thank you for your efforts in these difficult times and tsunami and earthquake and wildfire floods, pretty much all that may be even volcanic eruption. Among the roma possibilities. In terms of wildfires, you mentioned the campfire in my backyard, lahaina, the loss of life, incredible. Dixie fire in 2021, the lord has blessed us with rainfall, we are not feeling the size and scope ofof wildfire but wants to speak with you about practical matters, it is hard to get things out the door quickly, great work with local governments having to build from the ground up of wildfires in every area fema had so we are still having trouble on the timing of things in the housing and trailers and i want to touch on the north fire and you might be a millionaire with this. The north complex buyer, very impacted including water delivery system. The water system was wiped out so the district there, they submitted several publicte assistance claims but it took years, a denial and appeal, denial and for the assistance. During thatt time the infrastructure was allowed to deteriorate even more. Amongst everybody to look at the district and see what it would be and at what level. Fema didnt meet the required deadlines to respond so a lot of time and effort and evaluate what was lost so especially a small town like that, extremely impacted and the ability to apply for that so what i ask is if you could take another at the fire in Northern California and leave we got a fair shake. We need the assistance and so much time that they are just on the short end of it now. Overall, id like to see if we commit coordination so our applicants can no what resources can quickly respond to that so would your office work with mine and cut and californias entities to find a way to contact these timelines . Absolutely. We will certainly take a look at the case you mentioned. It just takes the oneonone communication. You do have my commitment to make sure were doing everything we can to work with the communities within your district but across california the rest of your country a better understand that. Brexit took strong effort by my staff to finally say everybody come to one meeting and meet on this. It didt happen but it was quitea long time after the fire, the deterioration. One last one, we need to look at things that happened post wildfire theyre not necessarily the fire directly but the mudslides us talk about that. Mud slide issues that tied directly back to the cause being the wildfires. We need to have aftereffects taken into accountef two. Do you think we can look at that process soap mudslides directly related to a sleep fire could be part of that conversation . Whats is definitely one of the concerns we always have after a wildfire. We do have post wildfire Hazard Mitigation assessment teams will go into communities better understand what the impacts might be what types of mitigation projects we need to put in place now to help protect the communities for you have my commitment to continue working on that. We are happy to provide your staff a briefing on what that work does. Thanks very much. I will mention five seconds up repositioning resources for wildfires we are key component as well going forward. Madame chairman thank you for the time i yield back. Thank you. The chart will recognize mr. Carter from louisiana for five minutes. Thank you madam chair. Thank you administrator griswold for being herek today. There are at least five major army corps of engineers project been held up in my district currently due to funding gap. I and f having been implemented and the drf Disaster Recovery fund running low, what happens if this fund is not replenished by congress . Lexa congressman the projects you mentioned the obligations are on hold they are not lifesustaining projects they want to continue to reserve to support those efforts for things like we saw and hurricane is the malate wildfires. As soon as it drf is replenishing of my commitment to begin reimbursing these projects on a first in first out basis. We will work around the clock seven days a week to expedite those payments. But we cannot do so until the drs is replenished. We know the timeframe we have a sling on its Hurricane Season is dramatically extending yearoveryear. 2. 4 billion to armor to hit right now and emptied the drf, what would happen if a w subsequent disaster struck with the Disaster Recovery fund sitting at zero . We are monitoring our Disaster Relief fund very closely. The implement of the immediate needs funding. If we have another catastrophic event that happens at the same time we will continue to prioritize those most critical lifesaving activities to ensure that we have the resources that can go into communities and save lives. Continue to delay the obligations for the recovery projects and then perhaps if needed for some of those places student projects are happening we can focus our efforts on lifesaving. We know the storms come harder, come faster, stayed star and have more devastation in their path. We also know there is a looming chance the government can shutdown or even have a continued resolution. In the case of such a drastic act of shutting down the government for having a continuing resolution that freezes funding what does that do to your agency and all of the ongoing Natural Disasters you are currently facing . Should a lapse in appropriation occur, then anything that would remain in our Disaster Relief fund tecarryover balance would be moe forward. But given our current state it would be insufficient to cover all of her ongoing lifesaving operations. We would again have to reduce the scope of what it is we are supporting in our operations. Ou we would be legally able to incur obligations for activities necessary for lifesaving and protection of human life. But again we had to further reduce those types of lifesaving operations that we are working on based on the amount of funding that we have available. Isnt it true that if such an action of shutting down the government are having a continuing resolution that drastically impedes her ability to provide resources impacts the democrats, republicans, independents and the like throughout our country . A lapse in appropriation for fema Disaster Relief and have an impact on everybody across this nation from again our ability to do lifesaving actions in a number of places as well as ongoing recovery projects. Regardless of where they are at. As a result of Climate Change deadly heat waves have gripped our nation fromip coasttocoas. What step is to mitigate heat hazards in the community in my state alone wildfires have an unprecedented in louisiana. Burning out of control. Stir with us what measures your take . We see this happening more andyo more in places that have never happeneda before. The never suffered are now dealing withs them. Representative what you have described is the convergence of multiple climate related hazards that come together in communities in ways we have not seen before. Unprecedented wildfires and heat domes in areas that are lasting longer and definite support communities to understand theti threats risks they face in the future mitigate reduce the impact of thesese risks bring space to reduce the impact Hazard Mitigation help spread wildfires. Our mitigation programs to help across this country better understand what that risk is and how to we dont have these long complex recoveries. But most of all we can save lives projects thank you very much my time is up. Wending your presence in the devastation that it has discussing backandforth the issue i continue working with us in au bipartisan way to address the 2. 0 that is devastating. Particularly for louisiana. Thank you mama yelled back. Thank you mr. Carter. I want to thank my friend from louisiana went to pick up where he left off. In this case i want to talk about where mr. Carter left off. Unders and minds of citizens who i think thrived on transparency and accountability. The factf fema continues to hide behind this a proprietary model and the methodology they are incapable of exploiting to the people we represents to 8000 or 9000 a year. Hide behind the criteria model. Would you make transparent the methodology and allow us to explain to our constituents why the rates are skyrocketing. Explain to our constituents are benefiting them in many cases have been able to secure and are making them safer. Thats one of the most important actorsan on a homes unique risk we have had policies across the nation with decreases we also know now that we understand the homes unique risk many of which are in louisiana that rates have gone up. Quickset is not answer the question on transparency. The question is transparency but i cannot explain to a constituent why their rates of double, triple, quadrupled or what have you wernick next went to a constituent of the levy thats right behind their house provides them a level of protection if fema is reviewing to be transparent for your part of the federal government. This lack of transparency something we talked common sense for just a minute homes are static structures in many, i understand and elevated them under icc and other programs. But in reality if people complied at the time they build their home. In some cases they have been here for years. All this and were going to come in and change conditions on them i would like a commitment that you are going to be transparent and provide the methodology let people look at it, understand it. We continue tow provide pucks i will take that as a note. [inaudible] talk about lack of transparency able to talk about something else. With fema and others talk about nsc stepping in and taking over effectively the coordination of disasters or emergency. That is what congress is charge you to do. At the white house is coming in and taken this over . Can you share documents to understand this better since were the ones recovery is remains when the Core Functions fema does and how we deliver withdrawal long term recovery. Mao is a great example of how we have set up a longterm recovery operation help drive the requirements. One of things we are working as a result of hawaii is bringing together the cabinet secretaries iras the equipment i have to continue to support committees like a maui with root longterm operations. Making sure fema sustains their role of a being that agency to coordinate across all federal agencies. Admit a straighter look, youve got a tough talk job, you do. I appreciate you doingr it evey time you step in its because there is a disaster thats on enviable position. I want to be clear congress is charge you with that responsibility. Two we believe its consistent with the congressional content i want to ask your commitment to provide his transparency on this asli well. Is that a commitment youre willing to provide . Yes, sir. Next thing i will be quick here, duplication of benefit drives me crazy i watch our federal government be incredibly inefficient. We have resiliency programs and mitigation programs and interior and department of agriculture and know what and many, many others. We explicitly wrote a change in the law in 18 duplication of benefits with court engineer program does not exist for it you can pay for it. Yet, i have worked for fema has refused and said you could not provide funds to the 7001 report does not mean its funded washington d. C. Has gottenn funs i dont know what that is. His gotten moneyun for tree equy meanwhile through similar programs. Why is it that if Forest Service is going to fund urban Tree Planting how come fema will fund it as wealth or brick . Wiesenthal duplication benefit . I dont have the specific. Im happy to followup with you on that. Sorry for going over. A period correct a charitable record is mr. Stanton from arizona for five minutes per. Thank you very much madame chair for liming to participate in the subcommittee on great importance and urgency of my home state in arizona. Administrator, community along the southern border are on the front lines of an ongoing humanitarian crisis. Right now federal migrant Holding Facilities are well overcapacity. Last week dhs began release of migrants on the streets of small rural arizona communities like a busy bee, and douglas, arizona. Instead provide the necessary resources to support the border communitiesea and housing, feeding, transporting vulnerable migrants, the federal government has shifted federal assistance away from arizona to other states had made it much harder for local governments to get reimbursed for costs incurred. Im a former mayor. I know how tight musical budgets are. Etits insulting the federal government is forcing them into such a precarious financial position. Administrator, particular concern about femas complete lack of transparency in how the shelter and Services Program funds are allocated. And why such a disproportionately of the overall funding has come to arizonas overwhelmed border communities . This june guidance fema said eligible applicant allocations or quote based on release and destination data received from cbp and emergency food and Shelter Program humanitarian request madesh in fiscal year 2023. No other information was provided for how these funds would be allocated. Southern Arizona Coalition includes santa cruz counties the city of tucson and Catholic Committee services has a combined monthly costs at average more than 2 million a month this summer. There costs are steadily rising. Dhs releases more than 1000 migrants on average everyry day. Theyre eligible to apply for just 10. 9 million in assistance through the shelter and Services Program. While new york, 2000 miles away received 10 times that. I have been told Southern Arizona has onlye last about fe months thats due in part to deep cuts the local governments and nonprofits that were forced to make in other areas. It is simply not right. Why is there such an honest disparity between the resources allocated to border communities compared to interior committees under this program . Should the needs of arizona border communities and those in other border states be weighed more heavily when allocating these critical funds . Representatives stanton, we know there is great need out there for these funds. Through our Legacy Program legam emergency food and Shelter Program humanitarian with the direction of we used our Legacy Program to administer the first portion of that funding. Which highly favored our border cities. We implement the Shelter Services program we did begin to take into greater account released data but also destination data as we understand communities across the country are incurring costs as they are providing shelter and services for ther migrants. As we move into the next fiscal year end if the Program Continues to beis funded we will be basing this on a Competitive Program to take into account existing data they are experiences as we make decisions on future funding allocations for. As fema will make this moving forward a competitive Grant Program like emergency food and Shelter Program to disperse funds . Emergency food and Shelter Program was not a competitive Grant Program as compared to our traditional granted program. Shelter and Services Together it will be more of a competitive a program similar to other Grant Programs for. Unhappiness additional rounds of funding. When that funding occurs how will you address a significant t shortfall by arizona border communities in responding to the increased number of asylumseekers being released by dhs . This a program even to the Legacy Program but is well as the shelter and Service Program continues to be oversubscribed. I anticipate it will be oversubscribed. Willie is Data Collected from cdp to help make those decisions. But again, we dont many communities will not get enough funding or the costs they are incurring. And is far more restrictive in covering costs incurred by local governments and ngos. Why are sst funds so much more restricted than the funding received previously under the emergency food and Shelter Service program . What was the route rationale for hotel costs now when it previously is not capped . I have to go back with my team on some specifics on how we made those decisions of those requirements within our program. But again, this program is a new program for fema. Ro the first generation of the Shelter Service program we will continue to improve based on Lessons Learned on the allocation of those funds but happy to continue to work with you and your staff on ways we can continue to improve progress madame chair one quick question if i might spread to the with the extreme other important to arizona for extreme heat declarations eligible for an declaration or as a staffer act have to be amended to include extreme heat conditions . The stanford act does not need to be amended to include extreme heat. We base our decisions on a number of factors mostly on does it exceed the capacity of the state and local jurisdiction . If the response to extreme heat incident exceeds the capacity of state local jurisdiction they are very open to submit a disaster declaration request we will consider that based on whether or not it exceeds our capacity for. Thank you yelled back too. Thank you. The chart will recognize North Carolina for five minutes. Thank you for being here. Asmy friend graves pardon me i know a grigsby somewhere else. As my colleague is a question of a tough job. I will reiterate what he underscored and the duplication of benefits is a big issue for a lot of us. We would love to see the administration stick with the intent of congress on that. Thats a big big issue for many of our disaster survivors. We have a lot of hurricanes come my district is North Carolina 2016 bit hurricane matthew, had a lot of funding with that. 2018 bit hurricane floor its aa tremendous amount of flooding with that. It is quite common for residents who live in condominiums, Homeowners Associations housing cooperativeses when does Natural Disasters hit they can get no assistance from fema. Just curious if you see that will be the case or if theres any internal discussion about modifying the rules and regulations to her they would be eligibleul . Congressman, people who own their homes whether it be an individual home whether it be a condo or a rancher in one of those homes. They are all eligible for our program. Our decision is based on a number of factors. What is most certainly the amount of insurance they have and what insurance covers. And why that have actual damages to their home and what we can repair for those homes but we provide thingss like rental assistance was people are eligible regardless whether they are a homeowner or a renter. If there something specific that you have an example of i would be happy to work with your staff to look at it and better understand what that circumstance was. There was no factor that does not allow someone who does not own a condo to be elible for our program. Historically fema has been very resistant to those who are technically classified as a homeowner association. Many people live in neighborhoods big and small that have a Homeowners Association. Therefore they cant get debris picked up. Municipalities get reimbursed through picking up debris et cetera. They wont pick up debris and a Homeowners Association for that reason. I have some legislation that will help clarify this and make makeeveryones life a little ea. Hr3 777 which the Disaster Assistance fairness act. I am not so sure whats included in the legislation could not be addressed with the simple rulemaking very much femas work drink Disaster Recovery. I would love to visit with you more and appreciate your attention to it. Thank you for the further explanation will be happy to provide Technical Assistance on what you are working on for. Thank you very much i yield back. Brexit that the chart recognizes mr. Ryan from new york for five minutes. Thank you for allowing me too join but look for your service to our nation but also for your service and your previous roles. As i believe you are aware and certainly your team is aware at several communities and might district and hudson valley, new york and west point were absolutely devastated in early july with unprecedented over 8 inches of rain in just a few hours. Absolutely overwhelming of the processes and resources that community has ever had to deal with or prepare for. We did lose one young woman she was at flood. We have had hundreds of displaced. Since the flood my team and i have personally spoken with hundreds of affected residents as is always the case and you know this as well each of their stories is just heartbreaking. One i cannot stop thinking about as a veteran in my Community One had a disability rating from the va. And other serious injuries. Still fighting and struggling to get any help to rebuild this home that was completely condemned and despite the declaration of a federal disaster in public assistance folks like him and hundreds of others are still without any help in any relief. Almost none of them have Flood Insurance because of the topography of where they live. Its almost impossible they becauseof experience and think l this. But tragically they did. So i want to commend you and think the present administration for pushing to declare disaster declaration foras working with a good team on the ground to start to get the public assistance flowing. The number one question i hear is why have we not received an individual assistance declaration . Several hundred families is just devastating. Kids living in condemned homes they have no other option seniors withoutes homes. I havee invited you to come i know you are very busy. Unless you are one of your Senior Leaders look in the eye with me. Lets brainstorm what we can do to help them. Can we count on you to do that customer happy to look into that personally. You have my commitment if i cannot make it. I appreciate it. Building on questions from several colleagues specificallye mr. Hoffman can you explain why in the midst of a disaster like this it is so darn hard and complicatedte and opaque which seems to be a theme that we cannot answer residents who were devastated what they are not getting individual assistance and what we can do toin change that. What my team and fight with the local officials, our governor our county leadership have all been working as a team. Can you help explain that . There are a number of factors. What we are making a determination whether to an individual assistance. A good portion of that. How does the capacity of the local jurisdiction to also support. We understand when theres Community Small have large urban centers that it creates to come in and provide a level of assistance. Theyre taking into consideration who they should be able to support rick wicks appreciate youre commitment to personally look into this. They can significantly it is nowhere near meeting the need the do not qualify for the income thresholds. Of note Flood Insurance far beyond our means to repair devastating damage. We have to as americans anywhere you and your team so thank you to your folks that have been on the ground helping. We will certainly be persistent following up with you. So thank you i yield back madam chair. The chair thanks the gentleman. The chair is now in agreement and Ranking Member the going for a secondt round. With the second round and question. Print administrator, i think you highlighted in your testimony verbally numerous times regarding how to help the staffing shortages. Yet in your letter and your response have been diverted to help deal with the border crisis. I would ask unanimous consent to have these emails admitted to the record. Without objection so ordered. In march 17 and email of yours provides a committee in response to these oversight letters you emailed secretary Alejandro Mayorkas you and region three administrator had based on her observations. Everything he said is unclear its heavily redacted as you can see here. But what i can see is to express concerns committing her to no longer than 30 days. And on the following debt march 18 he received an email from the secretary thanking you for supporting femur region three administrators with the border coordination with support free 30 dayow period now, the teams or specialties as i understand that deal disasters. You and the secretary agree theres a disaster of the border . Or hade maam. Or incident management assistant teams are unique teams that are trained to deal with complex problems. Thesed skill set they bring specifically the team our region free administrator lease is a team made up of collateral leaders across our agency. Designed to support a variety of different incidents that help bring the level of collaboration, communication that all the proms resolve precooked is not about disaster. Its about creating an organizational structure to help support our partners across the departmentsha establish a sound unified. By transposition if its not caa disaster it its a team. We are saying apparently secretary mayorkas and department of Homeland Security does not have what it needs. Is not equipped to handle whats on the southern border they are calling on you. Your resource challenged by your admission. You were even concerned for your email. And of every email the secretary indicated he had requested support again from your region threebe administratr of the border. I would remind you region three covers pennsylvania in the district i am proud to represent. Im concerned about those folks the district paying taxes for fema to support them and remind everybody region three, and we are talking about has three, correction 11 major disaster declarations not including covered during that period i am concerned as you are how many personnel . How many people did fema send to the border . At what was the duration sincei cannot find out for these emails . The specific instance youre talking about with region three regionalw administrator is agan part of it team made up of collateral personnel from across our agencies. Many from headquarters. Thats great how many for how long . They have a handful of people. I dont know exactly how it from that team. But that team is like 12 people per. It wouldnt be more than 12 . It would not be more than 12. If you dont know how long her home the instances at this point . Quickset team was sent here in d. C. To work with our partners across in a prompt to help them establish what is now the southwest borderwo coordination center. N while they were here in d. C. At the southwest where they were not focused on region three which is pennsylvania which is they are hired to do. That is her daily responsibility, right . We have disasters in that region they are focused on washington d. C. And the board in particular but that is what i see here. The only person on that team from region three is the one person who is the lead. Quickset is also the person at region three thats the lead for legion three. Quickset is collateral personnel to come help support a variety. I get it. My point is this person is not focused on thed region having disaster because a focus on the border. What we might disagree or agree will the border disaster is happening i would contend its happening because the policies of this administration. The people in pennsylvania are paying for theiran region administered dont get the region administrator. The administration determines me ask this vital question who is paying for that . Who is paying for that . Or region three . For the team for the region three coordinator, for the person ist supposed to be in pennsylvania thats in washington d. C. Dealing with the southwest border. Who is paying for that . Is a part of our appropriate. Soap fema is paying for the border. When you pay your taxes and site thats all going to the department affluent security, that is not true. The department of Homeland Security is now requiring fema to take some of their Disaster Relief people and send them some work to deal the border. Yo that is how we are also dealing with its wisconsin double. Not only is Homeland Security by the way i dont people realize this but youre not supposed be duplicatingew services that are provided by another agency. Whether its interior, whether its forrester, your drug of planting trees as well by the way thats another story. But on this occasion your duplicating services that are supposed to be handled by the department of Homeland Security with fema dollars. And yet fema is demanding and asking and may be rightly so in some cases for ace Disaster Assistancecc funding at the same time they are spending americas taxpaying dollars that are supposed to go to Disaster Relief on the southwest border in a disaster created by policy by thisnc administration. With that i yield and recognize a gentle lady from nevada. Thank you. Lets go back and talk about the inflation reduction act. Its the greatest investment environmental policy. One of the things that did was authorize fema public assistance and Hazard Mitigation programs to provide reimbursements for the use of low carbon materials. In the climate into their Emergency Management plans. Use Net Zero Energy as well. Would you talk about how that has been helpful . How you are leveragingem that. How it fits into your overall recovery at replacement and rebuilding scheme . We are grateful for that added ability to reimburse jurisdictions that use this type of methodology to increase the resilience as we are rebuilding and the impact on the environment. This is a new program for these are the types of projects that take years to build. I am very excited to see how our jurisdictions across the country are now able to build back in a way that not only makes them a resilient but makes them better for the environment as we go forward. When this kind of event build build back better so we dont build back the way it was before the disaster. So the incident occurs again we are faced with the whole problem one more time per. Absolutely print our goal is to build back better so communities do not have to repeat a complex recovery they are facing today. In the long run this to be a more efficient use of taxpayer dollars and would probably be cheaper and amortize over the future. Every dollarci invested desiccation is 6 in recovery. Is that across all kinds of disasters whether its a fire or hurricane or whatever . Or is it just general . The Current Study showed dollar invested mitigation pays 6 in recovery. Im sure it very slightly from the type of event to type of events. That is the recent side that came out per joes how much mitigation does save our taxpayers in the end from recovering. Of this to be a good thing to save taxpayer dollars were also trying to save the planet. Thank you annealed back. Next year, thanks he gentle into the chair recognize a gentleman from california. Think it mr. Chairman. Again thank you for allowing me too sit in here. And go for a second round of questions today, i appreciate it. Again thank you for your appearance and for the coordination we been able to have with fema and Northern California after the many disasters. From that wildfires in my own district i may own strides present bureaucratic challenges not in your department. His delayed progress. And so victims can get back to normal. Suggest removing hazardous trees ato build housing, fix a road local jurisdiction, every project of than the Recovery Process has a separate requirement which can take a year to produce. And often times i think that a very basic. He would not need fullblown for eschanging especially already existing infrastructure. So not much has changed on the process. So it might constituents says this is such a pain for them. They can take more times and sometimes as grant dollars run out and permits and other types of permits may expire. Or more conditions keep getting added on. So i believe in many folks have laid in with me one original in this case wildfire for the whole burn scar . How that applicable for all mitigation projects tied to a disaster declared by the president. Wouldnt that seemed like a commonsense way of doing that . Having an areawide in this case fern scar wide and do it as a catchall incentive so much duplication like this on, that some, this project. Is that something and strive for equally . Quick there are number policies out there. What we are doing our environmental it is certainly one of those that are out there but there are tools in our toolbox new programmatic review of each instance is different but we have to work with each jurisdiction to better understand how we can apply broader application of our tools which we have done in some areas. But we cannot do it in every area because they are specific but i cannot give you a general answer but happy to continue to work with you on ways we can streamline this process. We also recognize its one of those pieces of this recovery and rebuildinger effort that haa longer time is associated with it. Thank you and indeed the paradise area at the campfire we are going to be five years in in november. We are still chasing permits to remove hazardous trees. These are dead trees that are not going to be a part of the landscape are not positive. Maybe a handful for woodpeckers but not the exhibitors acres and acres and this keeps a dark cloud over recovery, overbuilding and indeed getting insurance again for the area. The Insurance Companies are pulling out of california im pulling out of areas like this. Even though you really look at the risk has changed completely after such a complete fire. Once the treeslo are removed hel be a much more insurable area for folks. One lady, one anecdote and then i will stop. A lady and her two kids were in their home. During a wind event trees were falling over, dead trees you could hear them cracking they had fault yet but she cant say shes going have to get her family out of home because she was in reach of some of the trees and take a hotel down the hill in the town of chico rather than stay in her home because we keep hanging on, hangingal on wh an inability to quickly and efficiently remove the hazardous trees that still exist there. We do not need to do it to death every project we need a coordination of projects into one. Doesnt teach you that much better if they read the thing. At the end of the day is it going to affect yellow tote toadsalamander or what have you . The work is going to get done it needs to get done. We need help on that lake thing that was mentioned a while if in your conversations with the regulators on this, please emphasizene a broader approach a burn scar approach would be very helpful for everybody i am sure for your department and the actual victim so thank you for that and i will yield back mr. Chairman. Is chair thanks a gentleman. The judgment yield back ready for the questions. Any members of the subcommittee who have not been recognized. Seeing none that concludes our hearing today like to think the witness testimony in being here today tough question, tough job but we appreciate you and thank you for coming and taking the heat. This hearing is adjourned. [background noises] [background noises] [background noises] cspan is your unfiltered view of government. Funded by these Television Companies and more including charter communications. charter is proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers we are just getting started. Building 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it most. Expert along with these other television providers. Giving it a front row seat to democracy. And eight First Lady Jill Biden meets with leaders of the Smithsonian Library of congress the National Park service and the National Archives to discuss preserving historical president ial sites. Watch that live at 7 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan2 comments he spent now our free mobile video app or online at cspan. Org. Tonight watch cspans new series in partnership with the library of Congress Books that shaped america. We will feature the federalist, a compilation of essays written in 1787 and 1788 by alexander hamilton, james mattis and jon jay urgent for the ratification of the newly drafted u. S. Constitution. Judge gregory max u. S. Court of appeals for the armed forces calling director for graduate studies, school o and economic thought at Arizona State university will be our guest to discuss why those essays are considered one of the most important references for interpreting and understanding understatingthe original intente constitution. Watch a books that shaped america featuring the federal tonight at 9 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan, see spent now the free mobile app or online cspan. Org. Also be sure to scan the qr code to listen to our companion podcast you can learn more about the