In 1989 to 80 during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. In recent years, significant disaster aid was provided outside the fema Disaster Assistance programs. These charts show how aid programs outside fema have grown. In fact, for Hurricane Sandy, there was less fema assistance from the department of housing and urban development or the department of transportation. We found these additional disaster aid programs dont have the same requirements and restrictions as the fema assistance. Fema assistance is tied to actual disaster damage and is for individuals, governmental entities or certain nonprofits performing governmentlike functions. Fema only spends money on eligible items for eligible applicants, no matter how much money fema receives. Fema mitigation funds must be used on cost and official projects to ensure the federal investment is a wise one. Fema makes every effort to get money in the hands of applicants as fast as possible to enable rapid recovery from disaster impacts. From the sandy Program Management office from march, 2016, it appears these agencies have been slow in awarding and especially paying out funds. Based on this data, only onethird of the cdbg dr funds have been dispursed and 13 of the fta funds have been paid out. Now, this may be worth looking into in greater detail and certainly shows why a comp sensitive look into disaster spending as well as cost and loss is needed. In an era of growing government debt, we need to ensure federal spending is necessary and Cost Effective. Right after i became a member of congress in 2011, my own district was hit hard by hurricane irene and Tropical Storm lee. A family stayed in their home to try to move their possessions to an upper floor. The Fishing Creek rose too quickly. The house next to theirs was knocked from their foundation. Water started rushing through their windows as they called for help. They had to be saved by a helicopter. The woman told me she could never live in that home again. I will never forget that. Preparing for a Natural Disaster is about more than the loss of possessions. Friends and neighbors lives could be at stake if we do not plan in advance. As we were rebuilding, i was amazed at much of the federal assistance was to rebuild in the same place, in the same way, leaving people vol nesulnerablee next storm. The federal government has a responsibility to respond but a duty to be good stuarts. I look forward to the conversations we have today, the ideas we are going to hear about and taking the next steps to reduce the cost of the disasters. I thank you all for being here. I ask you newunanimous members questions. With that, i now call on Ranking Member of the subcommittee, mr. Canson for a brief Opening Statement. Thank you, chairman. Great words. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to todays hearing. While we have several prominent witnesses today, i would like to welcome a fellow hoosier, mr. Mickey. He is the director of the institute at indiana university, Purdue University in indianapolis. Hes the new chair of the Multihazard Mitigation Council of Building Sciences. I look forward to my colleagues learning about the work being done in the great hoosier state, particularly in indianapolis to address rising disaster costs and losses and the report from the multihazard counsel. His leadership and local work are terrific examples of what indianapolis is doing in the field of university management. I yield back. Thank you, Ranking Member carson. We will have two panels. The first is Carlos Curbelo from florida. Someone from south florida, he knows all too well the risks posed by natural hazards, the rising costs of disasters and the efforts proven successful in florida to incentivize. Congressman curbelo has been a leader in this area and a advocate for constituents in florida. The second panel joined by joseph. The debty administrate eor of f working on ways to reduce the cost of disasters and build resilience. Sally clark, commissioner of el paso county, colorado, she is here in her capacity as the president of the National Association of counties. Brian coomb from the National EmergencyManagement Association is here to talk with us about his experience as well as help us see things from a state perspective. Mr. Eric nelson, Vice President of strategy and analysis for the Travelers Company incorporated rep sending the build Strong Coalition. Kevin mickey, chair of the National Institute of Building Sciences. I ask unanimous consent their statements be included in the record without objection as so ordered. We hope chief David Paulson would be able to join us, but he had other commitments. I have a written statement for the record from him. I thank him and the build Strong Coalition for the input on these topics and ask consent that this statement be included. For the witnesses here, since your written testimony is made a part of the record, the subcommittee requests you limit your oral testimony to five minutes. Congressman curbelo, you may proceed. Ranking member carson, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. This is my first time testifying before congress and im glad to do it here at the transportation subcommittee on Economic Development to discuss the important topic of disaster mitigation. Im honored to serve with all of you. I would like to take the opportunity to share thoughts on controlling the rising costs of the federal government when responding to disasters. Im a native of south florida. My good friend who is working with me on this issue is from new jersey. We both have a deep and personal understanding of the devastating impacts of Natural Disasters on families and communities and have seen firsthand what happens when homes, schools and businesses arent built to withstand the forces of nature. My family and i lived through hurricane andrew back in 1992. Fortunately in my part of town, the damage was not extreme. A few miles south, where some of my family members lived, the devastation was horrifying. Being from florida, i know that we have pretty strong state Building Codes already on the books. At the National Level, it is time to fix the broken federal system that is riddled with red tape, waste, fraud and abuse. There is some great work being done in the field of predisaster mitigation. I would like to thank chairman barletta for being a strong leader on the issue. Over the last 30 years, we have seen a significant increase in federally declared Natural Disasters. Instead of taking additional steps to focus more on preparing for the disasters with enhanced Building Codes to make communities safer, the federal government typically waits until after a disaster occurs to react. This is incredibly dangerous and costly, especially with the increase in extreme weather events. According to the weather channel, this Hurricane Season is supposed to be the most active since 2012. So, this hearing and these issues are of the utmost importance on very timely. For these reasons, my friend, from siers who knows firsthand how costly clean up is after a disaster introduced legislation to work tw toward stronger Building Codes introducing hr5177, the national mitt indication investment act of 2016. This legislation works to alleviate losses to resident and commercial property following a Natural Disaster through preventive measures. Out would provide incentives and enforcing state Building Codes. We do this allowing them to increase mitigation following a National Disaster by 4 based on the price of clean up, only if the state is enforcing Building Codes. This incentive can encourage states to be proactive in future building and save a lot of funds in the long run. The bill would create a Pilot Program to award grants to state and local governments to encourage the adoption and enforcement of nationally recognized Building Codes. The goals are to reduce Disaster Response and recovery increasing resilience of buildings and reducing the amount of damage that occurs due to disaster and chronic flooding. Grant awardees will give nonmatching federal funds, no less than 25 and fema required to provide reports back to congress on the success of the program. Mr. Chairman, the residents of both florida and new jersey have had to rebuild communities after the devastating effects of catastrophic Natural Disasters. Returning to a life of normalcy is tremendously difficult and can take many years. Furthermore, chronic tidal flooding poses a threat to real estate along the waterfront communities. This undoubtedly affects insurance rates, property values, clean Water Supplies and general public welfare. We believe that through preemptive methods of insent vising local states and governments to adhere to stronger Building Codes, we alleviate the costs after a Natural Disaster. I thank my friend for working with me on this legislation and look forward to hearing from other expects on the next panel. This is a topic that requires diverse, geographical locations and multiple industries. I appreciate being able to discuss my bill today. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. Thank you for your testimony, congressman curbelo. I will begin the first round of questions, limited to five minutes. If there are additional questions, we will have an additional round of questions. Why we usually do in the have questions for members of congress, we have an original cosponsor of mr. Curbelos legislation and has a few questions. I really thank you mr. Chairman. Im not going to ask mr. Curbelo questions because we have been working on this for a while. I do want to thank you. We have firsthand experience in how devastating some of these catastrophes are, how it impacts life, the community and the economy. I really want to thank you for taking a strong lead on this. You and i, new jersey got hit hard, florida has been hit hard. I want you to know that i think this is the way to go. You know, investigating in mitigation at a National Level where we put real strong codes, its always been on my mind for years. I want to thank you for your hard work. I look forward to continue and proud to work with you on this legislation. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you. Any questions . Mr. Costello . No. Ranking member carson . No, sir. If not, we thank you very much for your testimony. Your comments have been helpful to todays discussion. We will now call the second panel, i remind you of the subcommittees request to your oral testimony to five minutes. Well give everyone a chance to be seated. Thank you very much. Deputy administrator you may proceed. Good morning, chairman, Ranking Member carson and members of the committee. Im with the federal Emergency Management agency. Thank you for the opportunity to testify about the efforts fema is taking to reduce the costs of disasters. With the trend toward urbanization, large cities located in high risk areas and the increasing severity of weather events, the nation faces the ever increasing costs in responding to and recovering from disaster. Femas primary goal is to support the survivors. Fema has procedures in place, one of the most effective ways to reduce disaster costs is to invest in Community Resilience before disaster strikes. Therefore reducing the physical and financial and particularly the human impacts of the event. Preparedness investments made before a disaster strikes significantly lessen the financial impacts on communities, states and the nation. One of the most effective mitigation tools is establishing astringent Building Codes and standards, ensuring the property is built to insurable levels. Let me repeat. Standards that ensure it is built to insurable levels. A savings of 4 is achieved. Mitigation programs reduce cost to the American Public by an estimated 3. 4 billion annually. I have to move off my prepared comments to thank this committee and congress for taking actions such as the post sandy legislation where we were able to move the recovery costs forward based on assessments but add the mitigation costs at that time so the building is better and reduces the future potential. Fema has made significant strides in the past few years bringing the larger Emergency Management committee together around a National Preparedness system. It provides a common approach to managing the risks and provides community information, tools and funding they need to make informed data driven decisions. This is one step fema takes in promoting resilience. The Flood Insurance program serves as a foundation to the efforts to reduce loss of property from floods, the most costly and frequent disaster in the United States. The program identifies areas at risk for flooding and makes Flood Insurance available. Within the Community Rating system initiatives, communities who implement floodplain Management Practices offering lower nfip insurance premiums to participating communities. Fema provides Hazard Mitigation assistance through predisaster mitigation, Flood Disaster mitigation and flood prarms providing funding to communities for measures pre and post disasters. They invest in Community Resilience before the disaster strikes. I strongly, this year, fema went a step further with a disaster deductible concept. States, tribal and territoryial investment in programs. I strongly believe this program will be critical to any effort to reduce disaster costs in a significant way. As you indicated, congressman bar leto, they have indicated the federal cost of disasters continue to rise. The solution does not reduce the cost of potential disasters. With the disaster deductible concept, states reach a financial committee, similar to an insurance deductible to get federal funds to rebuild. Additionally fema provides credits for those states such as adopting the building enhanced codes or funding the mitigation project. Using the credits, a states deductible could be reduced, ensuring they have an incentive for investing in resilience. Fema received 150 responses we are evaluating those to provide input from the advanced notice we are making to develop a proposed yule. Efforts help e deuce the cost in many areas, we continue to acknowledge the demographic patterns are not something to easily influence, but we can take steps to account for the patterns, improving Building Codes, promoting preparedness. Fema strives to invest in the nations resilience being good stewards of the taxpayers dollars. Innovative ways for Risk Reduction and mitigation planning. Efficiently the recovery programs to reduce the risks and costs to the american taxpayer. Thank you for the opportunity today to testify. I look forward to questions the subcommittee may have. Thank you for your testimony. Commissioner clark you may proceed. Thank you, chairman bar llet. Im sally clark, a county commissioner from el paso county, colorado and serve as the president of National Association of counties which represent all of americas 369 county governments. All parts of government play a role in disz asters, counties are the first line of defense when disaster strikes. Whether its our Emergency Managers or sheriffs or 911 call centers, county hospitals or Public Health departments or the fact we own the majority of the nations infrastructure like roads, bridges and airports, federal policy decisions regarding disasters have a major impact on counties. My county is no stranger of disasters and the topic of this hearing is personal for me. El paso county and our surrounding areas have been devastated by wildfires and flash floods that up ended our residents lives, strained the local economy and caused enough damage to prompt four president ial disaster declarations over a tleeryear period. Our county, long ago inspired kathryn lee baits to write accou america the beautiful is home to charred hillsides and the vegetation that once protected the area disappeared, paving the way for dangerous flash floods. We have been working diligently to help the Community Recover and become more resilient in the future. Today, i respectfully submit three things for consideration and you discuss federal