Weather appears to be the new norm. Events like superstorm saturday which came to my shores and our shears in the mid atlantic a year or so ago, recent wildfires in ore parts of the country other parts of the country, dangerous tornadoes, historic droughts. They may well be just the tip of the iceberg of whats to come. And even today the east coast is preparing for yet another snowstorm while the west coast is experiencing a historic drought. And increased fire danger with no end in sight. I have a friend of mine who is from australia, and he tells me theyve had the hottest weather in their history, so go figure. Its just sort of a crazy world that we live in right now. For years, ive been working with a number of my colleagues, our colleagues to address the root causes and unfolding effects of what i believe is one of the Biggest Challenges of our generation. Thats Climate Change. According to the u. S. Global change research program, extreme weather events have increased in frequency over the last 50 years and are expected to become even more common, intense and costly. But let me just make a point and underline this if i could. Todays hearing is not intended to hash out climate science. Thats not what were trying to do. Instead, its about trying to find common ground. And as our country debates how to address the our changing climate and the extreme weather, our witnesses will deliver to us a clear message and that is, put simply, the increase in frequency and intensity of those extreme weather events are costing our country a boatload of money. And not just a cost thats measured in lives that are impacted, but in economic and financial costs as well. For example, the damage from a storm still fresh in many of our minds, Superstorm Sandy which impacted, again, my home state is estimated to have cost our economy 75 billion. Think about that, 75 billion in financial damages. Thats enough to run a number of departments of our federal government and have money left over. Thats just one storm. Were also hearing reports about the devastating effects of californias severe drought and how its impacting the wildfire season in that state and across the west. Not only are wildfires growing in frequency and severity, but were now seeing wildfire conditions in winter and spring, well beyond the traditional wildfire seasons of summer and early fall. These fires are enormously expensive to fight and recover from, and they pose be serious threats to to lives and property, damaging homes and businesses alike. According to a 2013 report by Insurance Company [inaudible] the nearly 40 wildfires last year of the United States cost our economy over a billion dollars. These economic damages can deliver a devastating blow to many local commitments, to states as well as to our own federal government. Fema, federal Emergency Management agency, alone has obligated, im told, over 80 billion in federal assistance for disasters declared in fiscal years 2004 through 2011. 80 billion. However, the cost to the federal government is not just limited to Disaster Relief. As an insurer of both property and crops, the Government Faces additional significant fiscal exposure. For example, since the creation of National FloodInsurance Program in 1968 through december 20 and, femas debt from insurance payments to that program have totaled approximately 24 billion. And even before Superstorm Sandy, total debt from payments through the national Insurance Program was almost 18 billion. The cost of these weather events keep going up at a time when were trying to bring our Government Spending down. That is one of the reasons why for the first time the gao, the Government Accountability office, last year listed Climate Change as one of the biggest fiscal risks facing our country in its high risk list report. Just to remind us all, every two years, beginning of every congress, gao gives us a high risk list. We use that as our to do list on this committee to get better results for less money, and were thankful for that to do list. But in response to this historic gao announcement, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman darrell issa stated, and this is a quote the comptroller general has made it very clear that weve not prepared properly, that the federal government has a financial risk that we have not properly mitigated. He said i think its a wakeup call to us all. I couldnt agree more. Gaos report is a call to action for both congress and the administration, warning us that our country must start thinking now about how to better prepare and adapt to a new climate reality. Today our witness, a witness from gao will further detail these Financial Risks to our communities, to our taxpayers and, hopefully, offer some comments and solutions that my colleagues and i can work to see implemented. Fortunately, this administration along with a number of state and local governments are starting to focus their efforts on preparing for the very real threats posed by extreme weather events and Climate Change. Last fall president obama issued an executive order on climate preparedness that incentivizes investments in more robust roads n buildings that may be more expensive but can hold up during more intense storms. I commend the president s approach and believe its very timely as rebuilding efforts continue from Superstorm Sandy and other recent Natural Disasters. I look forward to hearing more about the president s efforts, efforts by states like delaware and a bunch of other states to do a better job protecting our communities and our taxpayer dollars from these challenges. As we continue to debate how to reduce our deficits, i believe we cant afford to ignore the impacts these weather events are having. Low extra spending can go a long way. I believe this is a perfect example of that very wise maxim i used to hear from my grandmother all the time; an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Thanks again to our witnesses for being here. Were eager ohare your testimony. With that to hear your testimony. Im going to turn over not to our Ranking Member, senator mccain, but our acting Ranking Member senator johnson from thoughts that youd like to. Delighted youre here. Of course im mindful the reason im sitting in this chair is because dr. Coburn is not here. Hes in our thoughts and prayers. Sure is. Want to thank you, thank our witnesses, and looking forward to the testimony. The questions im going to be looking to have answered is, first and foremost, since ive been here and been looking into this issue, were really declaring federal disaster declarations much more frequent basis. Now, is that because we really have, you know, a higher instance of the types of disasters that require that, or are we just too quick to declare those disasters . Im afraid that if we have an overreliance on the federal government help, is that restraining the mitigation . The new word im hearing, resilience, in terms of, you know, how we prepare. Are we being penny wise and pound foolish by not spending the money up front to mitigate and, again, the overreliance on federal help when these disasters hit. Everybodys expecting the federal government to come in and pay for things as opposed to actually mitigating these risks ahead of time. And so from my standpoint coming from the private sector, i certainly understand that a private Insurance Market really is very, provides very strong discipline in terms of mitigating risk. You know, whether its fire risk in a plant. Basically, insurers come in there and say, listen, if you put in sprinkler heads every six feet apart versus 24 feet apart, youre going to mitigate that risk and lower your insurance price. So i really havent experienced that, the private sector Insurance Market. Is it is a very goodies palin to those discipline to those Risk Mitigation efforts, and those are the kinds of questions im asking in terms of how can we certainly utilize the government in the most efficient way. As you said, mr. Chairman, we dont have the money to do all these things. So, again, look forward to the testimony. Senator johnson, thanks, thanks so much. Been joined by a fellow from a little state, alaska [laughter] little state with a big population and a couple of great senators. There we go. Mark, would you like to say a word or two . A state with a big punch. But i would say at home in alaska i think last week we had green grass, so things are definitely changing. First, mr. Chairman, if i could just id like to read a statement for the record, and if thats okay, and i apologize, i wont be able to stay, but i want to make sure. This is a fairly important issue especially when you talk about extreme weather events and how to prepare for them. But first let me say, mr. Chairman, i want to thank you, and i appreciate you holding this hearing to examine what i consider the true cost of not being rared for impacts of extreme weather. Were about to feel it. As i drove in today, i drove across salt because theyre waiting for snow to fall to melt it. In alaska that would be unheard of, but thats, you know, the way it works. Now, the weather conditions will also change, and im sure well have you are Power Outages and many other things. We understand very extreme conditions in alaska. A normal winter day in fairbanks will get to below zero many times. And in some cases that would be extreme down in the lower 48, but not alaska. Alaska truly is on the front lines in terms of changing crime, the effects of extreme weather and existing challenges facing our communities in funding and including retreating sealines, rapidly e voiding shorelines, thawing perm a frost, impact on our economy on many different levels. This puts many communities at risk throughout our state. The army corps of engineers and the gao have both released reports identifying alaska villages imminently threatened by erosion. Many of these villages have experienced incredible extreme weather. Thirtyplus villages at risk of falling into the ocean or disappearing totally. Flooding wiped out a village called galena. We read about a lot of issues in the lower 48, we had a whole village wiped out by flooding and no place to evacuate. The closest place was 270 miles away. All had to be done by air in order to move these people out quickly, and now theyre able to rebuild in a very short time, and the winter sent in, and it was also very difficult. I know people get nervous. They want to debate the science. Im telling you, Climate Change is occurring. [laughter] my state is the example of it, of what the impacts are. And it is extreme. And we are seeing the impacts economically and from all levels. Our state has the longest coastline in the United States. Its got incredible beauty, but also economic value and has enormous absolutely vulnerabilities. Alaskas unique position as an arctic state presents a variety of advantages to leverage the challenges to overcome this extreme issue. You know, i have to tell you alaska is clearly on the front line with dealing with the issue of Climate Change. We have our own task force set up. We have been active in it. We have focused on what we can do to mitigate the issues and these extreme changes in weather patterns that are impacting us on a daytoday basis in alaska. Let me say that, you know, as the president s Climate Action plan moves forward and the state, local, tribal Leaders Task Force begins to to develop recommendations, im confident investing in mitigation is the right decision. We always spend the time, mr. Chairman, always after the fact. Picking up the pieces, and the costs are huge. You know . We had a hearing in alaska through the subcommittee that i chair here with fema, and the corps, talking about what we can do before these situations. We know theyre going to happen. We have 30some villages on the list. We know theyre going to fall into the ocean. We can do something now, or we can wait until something bad happens, and were going to be calling fema, and femas going to be writing checks. We can do this in a much better way. I know, mr. Mr. Chairman, you invited individual Mike Williams sr. Whos an iditarod musher but also an incredible leader who was going to be on the panel, but i know he could not attend, and if i could just ask the committee to insert his comments and his testimony into the record, if thats okay. Without objection. Let me just end and just say, mr. Chairman, as the chair of the subcommittee on Emergency Management that deals with Disaster Relief, emergency preparedness, first responders, mitigation in this committee, weve had several hearings on these issues. Ive sat here with insurance folks that talk about how theyre adjusting their risk analysis, how theyre making sure that theyre now seeing more Severe Weather patterns. They werent here to debate the science. What they were here to debate was risks are greater. Times are changing. Theyre more compacted and severe, so, therefore, the risk analysis goes into play and, therefore, the rates go up. I know this as the owner of commercial property because theyre analyzing the risk. I get that. But there is a risk that everyone is paying today for the lack of action in regards to mitigating these situations. So is i think and i want to, again, say to the chairman thank you for holding this hearing. Its a hard issue to grapple with because there are political views on Climate Change, but thats not the issue. The issue is, it is happening. We can argue over it all we want, but in my state we see it every single day. We have disaster after disaster, we have huge costs that are associated with it. And even though were far away, 5,000 miles away, small villages who literally their buildings and houses are falling into the ocean. This is not a hypothetical situation or theory, its real. So i really appreciate the work youre doing here, and i hope the committee continues to talk about this. I know and i agree that we cant bear all the costs. Thats just reality. But how we manage it from everything from our building codes all the way up to what we do here on the federal level is critical to understand how were going to manage this so we dont have these huge costs borne by the private sector, individuals or the government. Thank you very much. Were just glad that you could join, senator johnson and me. Thanks so much for coming, for your comments. Ron, when senator begich was speaking, i was reminded, of all people, senator mike enzi from wyoming. And i often times cite him. He may be here later today. He has his 80 20 rule that is one of his guiding principles, and the 80 20 rule is we agree on 80 of the stuff here in congress, we disagree on maybe 20 , lets just focus on the 80 we agree on. And today i think were going to focus on the 80 that we can agree on and to help chart a path for not just the congress, but for our country. One of the people whos not here yet, hell probably be here in a little bit, is the senator from arkansas, mark pryor. And they have a saying in arkansas whenever you see a friend and mark pryors said this to me about a million times, and hell say, hey, man. And your name is hayman. [laughter] and i was just hoping mark would get here so he could introduce you. Hey, man. But david heyman, were happy to see you, assistant secretary for policy at the department of Homeland Security. Mr. Heyman has the office that is responsible for strengthening our nations Homeland Security by developing programming, planning and strategies. Caitlin durkovich, assistant secretary for Infrastructure Protection at the department of Homeland Security. In this role she leads the departments efforts to strengthen the Public Private partnerships and coordinate programs to protect the nations Critical Infrastructure, assess and hit gate risk, build resill januaries and resilience and strengthen Incident Response and recoveries. Nice to see you again, welcome. And last i last i but not least, mark gaffigan. Government accountability offices environmental team, responsible for gaos assessments of federal efforts to manage our nations land and water resources, protect the environment, ensure food safety, manage agricultural programs, end sure a reliable and environmentallysound Energy Policy and address the u. S. National security and cleanup. Thats a lot to do for one person. Each of you will have about five minutes to read your opening statement. If you run a little bit over that, thats okay. If you go way over that, well have to rein you in. Full content of your written statement will be included in the record, and with that, were going to recognize mr. Heyman also known as, hey, man. [laughter] thank you. Quick aside, senator pryor has said that to me for now over 30 years [laughter] as i served as his Vice President when he was a Student Government leader in my high school. His political career [laughter] has gone, has skyrocketed because of my service to him. [laughter] thank you, chairman carper this story just keeps getting better. [laughter] thank you, chairman carper, senator johnson and distinguished members of the committee, and my best wishes to senator coburn and his famil