The 96 act said we want competition competition. Some places it has worked. Some places it hasnt. This is one place where it really hasnt. We think consumers would have more choices and lower prices if we got competition into that space. The first question is is there a market for set top boxes . The answer is really in terms of what is delivered over the cable network, no, because the box is actually a component of the network. Thats the most efficient way to design and deliver Cable Television service. Its the cheapest way to do it, most efficient way to do it. No market has developed. The companies would prefer a market if it was more fish to do it that way. Watch tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan 23. Our live coverage of the president ial race continues tuesday night for the new york state primary. Join us at 9 00 eastern for election results, candidate speeches and viewer reaction. Taking you on the road to the white house on cspan, cspan radio, and cspan do ot ork org. Live coverage begins tonight at 7 00 eastern on cspan 2. Cspan brings you live coverage from the white house Correspondents Dinner saturday april 309. The dinner includes a guest list of major celebrities, remarks from president obama and this years featured comedian larry wilmore, host of the nightly show. Now a hearing on fema preparedness with officials from the department of Homeland Security, the department of transportation, the Government Accountability office, and fema. Topics include proposed budget cuts, First Responders, fema training, and the transportation of Hazardous Materials. This is an hour and 15 minutes. I call this hearing to order. Good afternoon, welcome to the panel. Thank you for joining us today. This committee is charged with oversight of all federal spending, which we accomplish through hearings like this one and through regular reports that are provided by various agencies that also help to us oversee government and its spending. Today were examining spending at the federal Emergency Management agency and the need to make reforms in that spending. Given that our government borrows about a Million Dollars every minute and has a 19 trillion debt we cant afford to allow waste to persist in government. Waste in fema has been described in dial by senator coburn, the gao, the Inspector General. One of our witnesses today, Inspector General roth found in a report issued today that maryland bought 70,000 worth of computer equipment that it did nothing with for nearly a year and a half. In 2012, senator coburn reviewed one fema Grant Program and conclude the program is struggling to demonstrate now it is making u. S. Cities less vulnerable to attack and more prepared if one were to occur despite receiving over 7 million in federal fund. After ten years, a clear danger for the urban Area Security initiative Grant Program is that it would be transform from a Risk Based Program identifying security gaps into a Entitlement Program for states and cities. I think that risk still exists and many states are is up planting some typical expenditures they would typically pay for themselves with this money. I dont think to this date we have adequately corrected the deficiencies that dr. Coburn unto. Just last month Inspector General roth released a report that had 333 recommendations for reform to the Grant Programs at fema. However, only found that four permanent changes have been made to fema during the time in which these recommendations had come forward. Despite recommendation force a reform over five year period little in the way of reform appears to have occurred. We had a hearing on this in 2013 in which we went through some of the various forms of waste that were occurring at fema. But even since that hearing, we still continue to have problems. 280,000 was recently spent for a bearcat Armored Vehicle in dover. The also time we were around we complained of a 600,000 armored bear cat vehicle for cain. I guess New Hampshire is ready for the next invasion. We also found recently, or the inspectors have found 1. 7 million for unused radios and generators in hawaii. And 174,000 for unused radios in d. C. This is since we last met to talk about waste. Every dollar wasted makes a difference to taxpayers. Right now, fema is more than 20 billion in debt because of the Flood Insurance program. Disaster spending far out paces the annual Funding Congress provides leading to the need for supplemental funding every year or so. Fema has provided 40 billion in preparedness grants since 2001. These grants flow primarily to state and local agencies who all too often seem to be using the funds for things they would never purchase with their own money, such as snow cone machines bought by some michigan counties. Local communities love federal grants because they dont have to tax local constituents to pay for the spending. The federal government hides the grants in the massive 19 trillion debt. For this reason we must be diligent in insisting that local communities needs be largely paid for by local taxes. A significant amount of this spending is also duplicative of grants available from other departments. Such as the 650 million handed out to local police by the department of justice last year. I expect general roth, Inspector General roth will give much more insight into some of the problems today. I in my office hear a lot about fema from our constituents. The most frequent flaints complaints are about flood maps. A neighbor of mine has a house out at the local lake. His house is about 60 feet above the level of the dam. Yet fema as map has him in the flood plan and he has to pay extra money on insurance even though its inconceivable that his house is going to flood in the even of a dam break. I hear that it takes too flong to counties to receive reimbursements for Disaster Recovery work. Perhaps if we werent buying bear cart Armored Vehicles for local Police Forces we might have more money to take care of some of these problems of the im eager to hear what our witnesses have to say. But i would welcome comments from our ranking senator member baldwin. Thank you for working with me to hold the important hearing to examine the federal Emergency Management agencys efforts to assist states for preparing for terrorism and natural disasters. I would like to also thank our witnesses for being here today. We have learned from the attacks in brussels and paris and San Bernardino that we face critical and evolving threats as a nation. Not only do we face new risks of terrorism. We also face ongoing threats of natural disasters, including floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes. Fema is charged with the Critical Role of ensuring that our First Responders have the tools and resources they need to prevent, prepare for, and respond to all hazards. For nearly 40 years, fema has implemented robust programs to increase states capabilities to protect against disasters. Notably, fema provides critical federal preparedness Grant Funding as wohl as real Time Training and exercises for First Responders. I think all of our states, and indeed the country, have benefitted from this critical assistance. However, as i have said in previous subcommittee hearings, we must continually assess and evaluate our programs to ensure that we are addressing our nations priorities in the most efficient and effective manner possible. So thank you again for being here mr. Manning, to discuss ways that fema can continue to prepare First Responders for new and emerging threats as well as increase oversight of its programs. One area of particular importance to me and my home state of wisconsin, and certainly many other states across the country, is the significant increase in the transportation of crude oil by rail. At a higher rate than ever before, we are seeing this volatile substance traveling in rail cars past homes, schools, and businesses. With increased volume comes increased risk and last november two trains carrying Hazardous Materials derailed in the state of wisconsin, spilling hundreds of gallons of crude noil one case and thousands of gallons of ethanol in another. Fortunately nothing caught fire and nobody was hurt. However, in one of the instances, 35 families were evacuated from their homes. We have seen other derailments across the country, including in illinois, west virginia, north dakota, alabama, and virginia just in the past year. These instances pose an immense threat to communities, people, and the environment. For example, this past weekend a train derailed in wawatosa, wisconsin. No one was hurt. And these train cars were not carrying Hazardous Material. But its not enough to rely on luck. And we have to have sufficient plans in place to respond to derailments, including the worst case scenarios. Now im proud to have included a number of provisions in the recently passed highway bill to improve First Responder access to information about these trai trains. And its really critical that the department of transportation implement the reforms as soon as possible. However, we must do more to address the significant security concern. And its by i requested that the Inspector General audit whether the department of Homeland Security has established sufficient plans and coordination efforts to effectively respond to and recover from Railway Accidents involving Hazardous Materials. I look forward to the results of that audit and to hearing from our witnesses about what moore we can do to respond to this emerging threat. I am also concerned by a recent deputy of Homeland Security office of Inspector General report that found that fema has not adequately analyzed recurring oig recommendations to implement permanent changes to improve oversight of Homeland SecurityGrant Program. Specifically, the ig found that while fema tracks specific audit recommendations on a state by state basis, fema has not proactively annized its audits to discover trends, engage in root cause analysis, and implement corrective action over the entire program. Like the ig, i am concerned that states could be repeating the same mistakes that that we run the risk of money being spent for its intended purpose. Similarly, i am concerned about a gao report that found fema does not comprehensively collect or monitor the status of corrective actions made by federal departments that participate in National Level exercises. While fema has made progress in addressing this issue, more needs to be done to track corrective action to ensure that fema has an up to date outlook of National Preparedness. I look forward to hearing from you, mr. Manning on how fema plans to improve oversight of the Homeland SecurityGrant Program and track the status of corrective actions made by federal departments. And i want to again thank chairman paul for providing us this opportunity to discuss these important issues. And our witnesses for taking part in the discussion. Its my hope that when we leave here today we have concrete ways to improve preparedness efforts for First Responders, strengthen oversight of the fema programs and deliver our nations priorities in the most efficient and effective ways possible. Thank you. Thank you. Our first witness today will be mr. Timothy manning from fema. Mr. Manning is the deputy administrator for fema for protection and National Preparedness. Before his confirmation he was head of the new Mexico Department of Homeland Security. And prior to that worked in a number of other Emergency Management and First Responder capacity at the state and local level. Mr. Manning, thank you for your testimony today. Thank you mr. Chairman. Ranking member baldwin, medicals of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today about how fema supports states in preparing for terrorism and natural disasters. As a former First Responder at the local and state level i can assure you that we at fema remain committed to ensuring that our citizens and First Responders have the tools they need to be prepared for if full range of threats and hazards. In the past year alone, the u. S. Has experienced historic drought, malicious cyber attacks, extensive flooding, widespread wildland fires. Mass shootings, alone with numerous other events. The tragic events recently in paris and brussels show how important it is for us as a nation to be ready to prevent, protect against respond to and recover from complex coordinated terrorist attacks. With such a wide ranging array of threats and hazards we must Work Together to leverage all of our collective resources at every level of government in order to achieve our goal of a secure and resilient nation. With that in mind, id like to tell you about some of the things we are doing to address these challenges. Fema is working with every state and large urban air to identify their specific risks set outcome based targets and assess their capabilities. They identify remaining gaps in their capability which then drive investments across their jurisdiction in grants. But in local resources and in mutual aid planning. This ensures femas grant funds go to the most critical priority areas. In 2015, fema pride 176 billion in preparedness grant funds to address priority capability gaps. We annized state information alongside risk and capability data to ensure funds are being used efficiently. In addition, helps to fulfill capability gaps through our training and Technical Assistance programs in 2015 alone, achieved over 2 million course completions across all of our Training Programs which include the center for domestic preparedness in alabama the Emergency Management institute and the National Fire academy in maryland. The center for Homeland Defense and security and the Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium in kentucky. We provide courses ranging from online introductory level to highly specialized hands on training for fire and other medical disciplines including the only fed really chartered weapons of mass destruction training in the nation. As risks and threats continue to evolve we must adapt our programs to meet those most pressing needs. Fema continues to prepare for complex coordinated terrorist attacks working with state and local jurisdictions the fbi and private sector partners to assist communities through a series of counterterrorism awareness workshops where participants from multiple disciplines discuss and analyze capabilities required to respond to an attack involveding a coordinated assault against multiple targets. They work through scenarios to identify gaps in their current plans and capabilities and develop mitigation strategies. Today we have held 23 workshops most recently in st. Louis, missouri. Another example of how femas preparedness prepares adapt to address emerging threats relates to the exponential increase to the domestic shipment of crude oil since 2008 which has resulted in an increased threat of spills, explosions and other incidents. Fema collaborated with the 48 contig use states, the epa and department of homeland to define the biggest capability gaps related to crude oil incidents. This allowed us to target to our most critical needs. Threw partnership with the Transportation Technology center, in colorado as well as training on the information, materials from the center for domestic preparedness in aniston. Fema also worked with the u. S. Dot, the coast guard and epa to design and deliver an exercise series known as Operation Safe deliverly specifically addressing crude oil incidents. In total nearly 1500 responders from across the country participated in either training or exercise relating to crude oil incident in 2015. We recognize past events are not an accurate way to assess future risks. Fema uses a capability approach to target resources so that jurisdictions around the country will be able to handle a wide range of incidents. Were analyzing the 2015 risk and capability data gathered from our state partners and will use that to guide future decisions ensuring we are effectively using our resources to target the highest priority needs. We look forward to working with you all t