that half of the day is important to remember. >> then a visit to fort worth stockyards historic district which was once the location of the largest livestock industry in texas. watch c-span cities tour, fort worth texas, saturday at noon eastern on c-span 2's book tv and sunday at 2:00 p.m. on american history tv on c-span 3. working with our cable affiliates as we explore america. next fema administrator was the on how his agency is preparing for future disasters. he reflected on some of the lessons learned following the federal response to 2017 hurricanes. and discussed granting authority to allocate housing resources to the states. held by the senate homeland security committee, this is an hour and a half.

i can see that most of our audience is on the house side with mr. zuckerberg. i want to welcome administrator from fema. ask unanimous consent that my written statement be entered in the record. i have a couple of opening comments here. first of all, i think it's without doubt particularly when you take a look at the massive problem you had to deal with, within days of being confirmed with three hurricanes and the wildfires out in california, that there's been some pretty dramatic improvement made within fema's administration of handling of these disasters since katrina. it's a very good thing. no doubt about you never achieve perfection and there's always opportunity for additional

continued improvement and that's what this hearing is all about is take a look at, you know, what could have been improved upon and what do we need to do moving forward and i know administrator long will talk about his strategic plan. i notice in your strategic plan, kind of a watch word is disasters should be federally supported, state mandated, locally executed. the only bone i would pick with that, i would change the order of that. state managed, locally executed, federally supported. the reason i point that out is, and we can put up our chart, when you take a look at the number of federal disaster declarations over almost, we're not a century, but over the last 70 years or so, there's been a dramatic increase over the last three or four decades. it is interesting to note that

the high water marks are the year before a presidential re-election. don't know if there's a correlation. as local alibi state governments look to the federal government. the federal government has to when you a have these massive disasters. if local governments look to fema and get addicted to fema they are less inclined to produce that culture of emergency preparedness that you talk about in your strategic plan. i would like you to address a little bit of that potential moral hazard in fema doing an even better job. what we want is state and local governments be completely prepared so that it really can be state managed, locally executed, federally supported. with that i'll turn it over to

my ranking member. >> thank you, mr. chairman and thank you, mr. long for being here today. i too want to start with the positive and recognize the progress that's been made since katrina. we've all witnessed a much more efficient and much more effective fema from the lessons learned in katrina and other catastrophes. however i can't get through this hearing as you might well imagine without talking about some of the problems that we continue to see. especially on contracting. i'm sure you're familiar with the report we issued this week or last week on emergency tarps and cheating contract. it was really problematic. fema approved this contract without vetting, 73 million to

two contractors with no relevant past performance, one of which had only existed for two months. did not take appropriate steps to assess the capabilities and ultimately had to cancel contracts with both companies due to their failure to deliver. it's not the only serious contracting problem we had in the aftermath of our hurricanes last hurricane season. $156 million contract to deliver meals to the people of puerto rico. fema contracted with a company in atlanta that had one full time employee. and a history of contract cancelations. all someone would have had to do is check and do some basic due diligence to see that this company had had serious contracting issues with the federal government in the past, and i don't know how you give $156 million contract to a company with one employee. i don't know how that happens.

obviously that contract also had to be cancelled at a cost -- all of these contract at a cost to the federal government and obviously a painful cost to the people who needed tarps and meals. we are already had tornadoes in southeast missouri this year. we have extensive flooding in michigan, ohio, wisconsin and our hurricane season begins in two months. i would love to -- we'll spend some time talking about what steps you've taken particularly on the contracting front. we got to obviously now expect that you might get slammed with three hurricanes. because you all were dealing with texas, florida and puerto rico simultaneously. and i understand the stress that puts on the contracting system. but you got to prepare for that. that's what this is all about. i mean we now know that very easily could happen and clearly we got to anticipate it. i also would like you to address the 2019 budget proposal that

the president put forward in february. the proposed budget was stunning to me. the president wanting to cut funding for counterterrorism grants, eliminate training and exercise programs that give state and local emergency responders the skills they need for natural disasters. would slash the pre-disaster mitigation grants and federal flood mapping programs that obviously are very important for our preparation for future natural disasters. it does not build the culture of prepareness that i know you embrace and i am, want to have a frank discussion about how we move forward. and, obviously, i do want to in my opening comments by complimenting the federal workforce and the national guard who appropriately are always on the front line for natural disaster response and i know how proud i am of missouri's national guard and the work they do and the training that they have to deal with natural

disasters. i hope that they are not especially as we get in the hurricane season and get into the tourist season that they are not in anyway depleted in term of their ability to respond to these natural disasters because of a political pulling to the border. thank you, mr. chairman. >> it's the tradition of this committee to swear in witnesses so if you will stand and raise your right hand. do you swear the testimony you'll give before this committee is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god? >> i do. >> be seated. the senator did beat me to the punch in wanting to extend this committee's gratitude to the entire federal workforce. i want you to mention that in your opening statement as well, the operation center wasn't just fema employees or dhs employees. these were individuals from around the federal government, different agencies that came and manned that operation center 24/7 for, you know, a couple of months at least.

if you could mention that i appreciate that. we want to also thank you for your service. you started and you were hit with something that this nation quite honestly has never seen in terms of disaster management. we want to thank you for that. our witness is the honorable brock long. in his role he leads fema's workforce to fill its position to respond to natural disasters. including the hurricanes in 2017 and the california wildfires. administrator long. >> chairman johnson, senators, thank you so much for allowing me to be here. today i guess this marks the fifth time i've been before congress in nine months since coming on board and i want to stop and thank you as well because, as you alluded to, chairman, emergency management and disaster response recovery requires the whole community. requires all of us being unified and for us to get better and be a better resilient nation.

thank you with the three supplementals and not only the three supplementals but the authorities that were provided to me in and around the challenges that we faced with the deferred maintenance issues, with puerto rico. they are much needed to be able to build a stronger, more resilient puerto rico going forward. and i look forward to continuing to ask you for your support on several different authorities that i believe we need as a nation to push forward and make a better prepared nation. you know, to wrap the magnitude and put the numbers around the magnitude of what we went through we estimate now about 47 million americans or 15% of the population was in some way, shape or form impacted by the events from just harvey, irma, marie and the california wildfires. we registered approximately 4.8 million, one 5 million people in our individual assistance system

to kick start recovery. but to put that into context, more than half of the survivors that fema has registered over the past ten years were put into our system within the last nine months. that's an extraordinary number. we also, again, all of these numbers are moving targets because we're putting more and more money down every day and putting more and more people in different places. as of april 10 fema has provided approximately $22 billion to the three hurricanes and three california wildfires. 11 billion has gone to the commonwealth of puerto rico alone. in addition and i appreciate the thanks towards my staff. these guys don't get credit for what they do. they are working disasters in 35 states and territories this year. 35. they work around the clock. they sacrifice their personal lives to take care of others.

it's an honor to lead these guys every day. major lessons learned. stifle and redundant communication is something we have to tackle with private vendors. we can't lose communication. we have to have the ability to operate and communicate and we lose that. we need all hazards communications capabilities. we have to streamline a fragmented recovery process. recovery comes from 17 different federal agencies and too difficult to understand what you're entitled to and how to put it to work. i need greater granting authority. i want to reset the button on disaster housing. it's not the federal electricity management. i need greater granting authority to do housing more effectively and efficiently and to allow governors greater ability to control their own destiny. training emergency managers all over the country at all levels is the most important thing we need. nothing is more important than a

well train emergency manager. we need to increase state management cost to allow them to be able to hire labor or consulting firms to augment their staff as well which would require some legislative changes. obviously, no brainer. more investment in pre-disaster mitigation than after the fact will reduce disaster costs. i have some other ideas we can change about why do we repair public facilities that could be covered by private insurance? if you want to reduce disaster costs maybe we should look at things like that. going forward, yes, we put forward a new strategic plan i'm not just asking my staff to embrace but the whole community and all of to you embrace. we took 2300 comments from our constituents. we're taking lessons learned from the 2017, we do analysis, we arrive at three major goals supported by four subset goals. build a true culture of preparedness which we don't have. we got to increase the access to

tangible training to our citizens for doing cpr. one in four of us will do cpr during our lifetime. we have to financially get them ready. asset poverty is get in the way. too many people are letting mortgages lapse as we saw in the california wildfires to have extra money in their retirement so therefore puts more drain on fema. we have to cover the insurance gaps. insurance is the first line of defense. not fema assistance. we got to incentivize. the key is at the local level. land use planning. building codes. we should incentivize that as a country to make sure local leaders are doing that. fema cannot create a resilient community on its own. red jay the nation for catastrophic disasters. the catastrophic earthquake in

california because there's too much of a gap on depending on fema to do things such as life-saving, life sustaining commodities. ranking member in your report it correctly point out we have to do more pre-approve contracts. we need to make sure state leaders and local leaders are putting contracts in place that i would be happily reimbursing once they reactivate. if we have a no notice event like a large earthquake in california it will take some time for us to mobilize our forces to get there if we can even get in. goal three reduce the complexity of fema. i'm the agency's worse critic when it comes to doing things better. there are policies we can stream line but we have to stream line specifically the disaster survivor experience, we have to stream line the grantee experience.

and i am empowering my staff to help me and my constituents to help me understand where to make those changes. we had perform 2.4 million home inspections this year. physically deploy people to look at almost 2.5 million homes. that's an arduous, bureaucratic process when we have technology that says yes it's damaged. it puts me in a tough spot because we have to protect the tax paying $against fraud but have to move at lightning speed. finally in closing, there's a misunderstanding that recovery hasn't started in puerto rico. that's not the case. what we were able to do this week and i was in puerto rico last week, met with the governor and as well as my staff. we're pushing forward on 428. we signed an agreement. the guidelines to move forward to do large scale sector based resilient work. the 428, the section 428 will force us all to think what is

the recovery outcome that we're all striving for so that we can put tax paying money against that to strife for a collective vision to make sure we don't walk through this whole situation again when hurricanes are obviously going to hit in the future. i look forward to the dialogue today and the constant improvement. thank you. >> thank you, administrator long. i'll be brief. i did want you to detail a bit more the 428 authority and how important that is rather than thousands of individual grants, create a larger grant bucket so, again, you stream line that possibility or recruitment for those types of things. spend more time talking about that, if you would. >> the 428 program allows for more alternative procedures. it makes no sense if we put tax paying dollars let's fix the jurisdiction back to pre-disaster condition only to go through this again and again.

the other thing is 428 is the way business is done in america every day. if i give you a budget and tell you to, you know, reach these x amount of milestones you have to reach those milestones against that budget so that we are calculated on how we move forward and push forward. then if you manage it well, for example, if 428 is managed well in puerto rico then what's left over in that budget they can keep to do other things like pre-disaster mitigation. there's incentive built in. the old way of doing business, for example, there were thousands of roadway breaches into the system, thousands of issues in the water system, thousands of problems with the schools, you know, many problems in the hospital system. instead of writing a single project worksheet to fix this roadway breach and that roadway breach that can be reversioned for the next ten, 15 years over and over again, this says let's do one project worksheet to fix the infrastructure called roads or the infrastructure called

schools, the infrastructure called hospitals, and we collectively push forward. >> spend more time explaining how long certainly in the past and maybe currently requires fema to build -- just to rebuild. full replacement as opposed to -- let's be smart about this. let's build something far more resilient. talk a little bit about your constraints that still exist. >> so take the power grid, for example. one, the power grid in puerto rico is one of the oldest on the globe. nearly four decades old. there are serious problems when it comes to just power generation in general in the way it's done. so the emergency process that we go through to make sure that people can have power is the emergency process of just guesting the lights back on. the 428 process will allow the commonwealth if they so choose and as we are pushing to do things such as replace wooden

poles with composite poles that will be there for much longer and harder to blow down in the future or wind resistant and making improvements in changes through alternative procedures to better the system. i look at 428 and also i met with the governor from the virgin islands yesterday. this is an opportunity to bolster -- this is the way forward. this is the way forward to build resilience which will bolster their economic capabilities so that they don't have gaps when they lose hotels and roadway systems and power systems that are not consistent. >> i get the sense 428 is an exception to the rule and the rule is rebuild to what it was. >> right. >> which is somewhat insane from my standpoint. how much of what fema is rebuilding is done just as a complete replacement versus upgrading the standard? >> well, under the emergency work it's a fraction of what needs to be done on the

permanent side and i think that we have to remember that you don't just build -- expanding a lane out here in d.c. on a major highway takes years. there's a lot of work ahead of us. some of the initial estimates and these numbers will change is anywhere between $40 and $50 billion when we encroach on this. it's important, chairman, that 428 is not a new program. just that we haven't educated -- we haven't educated governors and emergency managers on how this process works. there are projects that were being used in louisiana as a result of the flooding there. it was used in sandy. the greatest concern that the covers have is hopefully we hit that estimate right on the first go around when we enter into the agreement to fix the hospitals and the schools and the way forward. ate much more efficient process that allows for mitigation to be

incorporated as we go forward. >> thank you. should we require puerto rico to put up the composite poles with the money that we give them >> that's a question for the legislature. i do not have the authority to require a governor to do anything when it comes to being resilient. this is -- >> it just seems weird to me because the governors, you know -- i mean there's way too much thought around this place and around everybody in elective office that they are worried about the next election cycle and maybe not enough concern about long term. and it just seems to me i'm not big on the federal government dictating to localities but if it's federal money, and we're the ones on the hook for more federal money if they put back up the wooden poles that blow over again, that seems that we ought to incentivize it maybe, that you get 10% more. >> right.

>> if you show a resiliency in your plans. maybe we do this with the carrot and not the stick and maybe that would be easier on the whole friction between state and -- between local control and federal control. i just throw that out there. the contracting thing, i am not going to put you through the painful process of acknowledging how bad these contracts were. i think you know how bad they were, particularly the tributes contract proposal. i don't know if you had a chance to read it. >> no, ma'am. but what i can say on the contracts and i realize we got work. here again -- >> pretty obvious. >> i was in office two months before harvey hit. but the facts are we had 59 contracts in place before harvey hit as i under it. and that's based on historical, you know, need over the past ten years or so. obviously it wasn't enough going into what we saw.

we led an additional 1973 contracts after harvey hit. out of that only three that i'm aware of were cancelled. >> that's not true. your folks are giving you the wrong numbers. there's at least 14 that were cancelled. >> okay. >> the three that were so egregious they made the press. you need your staff to do a better job. you testified to that previous. the record shows 14 hurricane response contracts were cancelled and frankly at least seven of those cancellations appear to be due to failures, vendors failure to be able to meet the requirements. >> there's one problem across the federal government -- >> by the way, how many there were does not necessarily show how impactful they were. obviously it was 50 million, 30 million meals supposed to be delivered. 30 million meals and they get

delivered 50,000 before everybody figured out it was a joke. >> so here again we try to build in redundancredundancy. brown star had two contracts. one was more blue tarp, one for plastic sheeting. we cancelled that. we also had four or five other vendors providing blue tarps. at the end of the day these were back filling -- we pre-stage. we tried to get as much on the island as possible and back filling the logistics pipeline. there was never a stop gap on blue sheeting or tarp or food. the thing about food wasn't that we couldn't get food to the island. we purchased around dollars 2 billion worth of commodities which ranks as fema's most expense jennifer disasters in history alone and commodities getting to puerto rico. it was messaging because the communication system was put down. so tribute, one of the things

that i want to make sure that everybody is aware of is tribute had problems in the legislative branch of government and it was never put on our radar screen to be able to see it in the executive branch. so the systems that we use to initially, so they did work for the gpo or the government publishing office or prirnti pr office. the gpo sends out an alert and doesn't translate to the executive branch. the executive and judicial branches are using different systems to say stay away. had that translated to the executive branch we would have seen it and never even thought twice about touching it. >> i think there were contracts cancelled that were in the executive branch by this company. i don't think this was a legislative -- we don't do that much contracting in the legislative branch. the contracting is by and large

all done in the executive branch. so i'm not saying that the databases are perfect. i'm not saying -- i am saying that, you know, due diligence and common sense beyond just checking three databases for a red flag is going to reacquired here. the reason i ask you if you read the tribute contract proposal because i think if you read it you will be startled. it reads like an internet scam. you should take the time, honestly, administrator, to read that contract proposal. when you do your common sense, you would go wait a minute. this doesn't look real. >> fair enough. >> shouldn't you know, you know -- and on the tarps. let's talk about the tarps. we looked at your pre-position contracts on tarps and obviously you know you'll need sheeting and tarps in any kind of hurricane disaster. so we looked at your pre-position contracts and looked at the contracts issued after all the 2017 hurricanes, and only 3.5% of the total

amount awarded for tarps and sheetings went to pre-position contracts. so i think this is something you got to drill down on. >> sure. >> because clearly we're not using, in this instance, the pre-position contracts were not even being used and secondly clearly we didn't have enough pre-position contracts to deal with the kinds of challenges that you were facing. so do you have any answers as to why only 3% of the pre-position contracts would have been used on tarps and sheeting, how we would have been in a position to hire somebody who clearly had been in existence for two months? >> so, listen, i agree. bottom line is we can always get better on the pre-position contracting but not solely the responsibility of fema. this has to be the responsibility of state agencies as well as local emergency management which is something

that we're pushing fema integration teams out. i'm getting my people out of my regional offices and headquarters. i'm starting to embed them. i want to embed them on a permanent bay swiss our state agencies to set up their own contracts. >> can we do something to help that? can we begin to make a requirement, for example, we do a lot of grants to states for emergency preparedness. can we make a condition of those grants that they pre-position contracts for disaster, for things like sheeting, tarps, food, water. >> sure. >> is that something -- i don't think that needs legislation, does it. >> i'm all for incentivizing good behavior like pre-position mitigation planning, building codes, putting forward contracts. some states have it. too many of them don't. and, you know, we've got to push forward on how we get them to set up and exactly what they

need. what we also experienced in 2017 was a drain on resources. right now you can't find enough construction materials to get to the virgin islands and puerto rico. we saw a drain on resources every where. when it comes to almost 2,000 contracts that we let, there's very little time to do the due diligence as if this was a blue sky day and we had plenty of time to think about it. we have to look at contractors that performed extremely well and are performing well to make sure they are part of our pre-event cadre going forward. >> this committee and i'm confident the chairman would agree with me, whatever we can do to help incentivize states to be better prepared to handle some of this we can then confidently reimburse the state officials that have found the right contractors to deliver. in the long run it will be so much less expensive when they've located people locally to provide this anyway. >> right.

>> so it's better for the states. you build up that, that base of contracting capability in the states. so i look forward to working with you on that. thank you very much for your time here. >> we obviously would love the input from fema in terms of which states have the pre-position contracts and i'm happy to work with you to develop requirements. i would also just quick ask the constraint in terms of number of workers. >> sure. >> in terms of disaster relief. i know the head of the former congressman, head of the roofing association, called him looking for 20,000 roofers and he's short 20,000 roofers. >> yes, sir. so let's talk about that too. i mean at what point -- here again the numbers are so huge in what we're dealing with. it's hard to say here's what we were spending today. at one point we were spending

close to $300 million a day. that's fema. the federal government. putting that down to help others. when i was state director of alabama emergency management agency, i bet my general fund budget was somewhere close to 6 million. so basically fema is spending every hour or two hours the general fund budget set aside for a state emergency management agency. what 2017 has taught not only us -- there's plenty ever lessons learned for fema to get better. but it's a call to the state legislators and local elected officials to make sure that their emergency management agencies at the state level and their local emergency managers are well staffed and well budgeted and we cannot ignore the fact that disasters seem to be getting worse. >> senator peters. >> thank you mr. chairman. mr. long good to see you.

you've bean very busy man. i appreciate your attendance here. i'm encouraged by the comments made about reducing the complexity of fema. we must do and i appreciate your focus on that. and using taxpayer dollars much more efficiently than they have been done in the past. one of those programs in particular is the public assistance alternative procedure 428 which you've already spoken about in relation to puerto rico which will be using those monies. but i've also heard some concerns from folks that this new program could shift cost to puerto rico without ultimately saving total funds on recovery efforts especially if anyone foreseen challenges should emerge. i would imagine that certainly members on this committee would also have concerns about accepting estimates from the federal government without input or without at least significant input into those estimates.

so i have just a yes or no question to start and i got some other questions afterwards. this is simply yes or no. did anyone in those meetings held after the storm in the white house, you, the president, mr. mulvaney, or anyone else either implicitly or explicitly suggest to the governor or his leadership team that federal funding or support for permanent work in puerto rico would be withheld, altered or limited unless he requested to use the 428 program as modified by the text found in the amended declaration. >> no. the bottom line is the governor is not a governor that can be strong armed. i've yet to meet a governor that can be strong armed. that's not the approach we take with fema. >> as the chairman noted costs associated with disasters continue to rise all the time. you're well aware of that as well. ensuring accountability and efficient use of taxpayer dollars must always be our top priority. in puerto rico the federal

assistance they stand to receive exceeds their entire annual budget over many times actually. in late november the governor held a press conference that indicated fema will have unprecedented authority and approval on the use of the money. can you describe this authority and what specifically the commonwealth must do to provide to fema prior to being able to draw down any funds. >> here again we had to implement a manual draw down process for puerto rico because of the liquidity issues. look, this is going to sound harsh to puerto rico and that's not the case. i'm not trying to be harsh but the bottom line is that the commonwealth had not been able to demonstrate the fact that they were going to be able to manage this amount of money wisely and it's my due diligence to protect the tax paying dollars. initially when we put hands in the commonwealth too much money was beginning to be drawn down

at a quick rate that did not make sense to us so we put a stop on it. we implemented the 270 process where it's a manual draw down process to ensure the someone going where it needs be and in thoughtful process. the governor and i spoke about this last week. we continue to put forward and my demand -- my conversation to the governor was listen, if you want us to relax the manual draw down process then i need to understand specifically what the commonwealth's plan is to manage money and how this is going to be done. and he and mike my cfo are working the best way forward. a manual process slows things down. i'm caught between a rock and a hard place all the time move at the speed of light protect the tax paying dollar. the governor and i had very productive conversations which is why we're able to move

forward now. >> economic analysis on the sheltering and temporary and central power the step program during hurricane sandy response indicated that the program could save the government upwards of $170,000 per household when compared to the traditional individual assistance options. i'm encouraged. we all should be encouraged by the innovative nature of this program. i hope with can prioritize cost savings in recovery. my understanding is that the program, those is slow to deploy in texas and most people had already found alternative housing or taking advantage of the shelters or tsa program presumably at much higher cost to the federal government since housing assistance is paid for at 100% cost share. so my question is how can fema through incentives in the emergency grant programs or through guidance from fema ensure that states are prepared to leverage these cost saving programs and successfully manage the very complex web of housing

assistance with real case management that oftentimes seems to be lacking. >> that's an excellent question and if i can take a minute i'm ready to hit the reset button on housing. i think the entire program is wasteful. i'm just being honor nefr-- hon. in need granting authorities. i hope this committee can lead the way forward for us to redo disaster housing. what we did with texas we knew because of the multitude of homes that were impacted the traditional way of doing business was not going to work. when people say house is moving slowly compared to what mission moved quickly in housing in history i don't know where one moved quickly. but the bottom line is we opened up more options on the table for texas through direct construction, through the step program, through temporary repairs that were made and then we also allowed the governor to be able to purchase through agreements purchase manufactured

homes and travel trailers. but the problem is, if i go through an interservice agreement to the governor who boldly stepped up, only one of the governors that has truly done this he has to follow my procurement rules and not the state's. what i need specifically is granting authority to do housing to where i can grant the funding to the governor, and the governor can control whether or not he or she would like to do the step program, direct construction to the house, or to buy travel trailers off the lot. the most frustrating thing to me in texas is when you're driving out of town and there are not enough manufactured homes in this country based on the way that i have to purchase them to be able to get to texas, but i drive past private rv lots filled with travel trailers that i can't touch. it makes no sense. if you give me the granting authority to push down to a governor they can go buy what they need and i reimburse them

and it's much quicker. governors know their people better than fema. and they know how the housing solutions will work. and the fact of the matter is a housing plan in texas is not going to work for what we saw in california. it's not going to work in puerto rico as well. so it's got to be granting authority that allow as governor a multitude of options based on how -- whether it was a flood, a wind event or catastrophic fire. what we're good at, sir, we're good at mission signing, army corps of engineers do blue roofs. we're good at supporting shelter efforts. we sheltered over 1.1 million americans in 2017. at one point there was close to 300,000 americans in shelters overnight. we're good at doing that. we're pretty good at getting money to the citizen who needs to repair their home. but after that i'm not a housing construction expert.

it needs go to the governor. the governor needs to be empowered to be able to do what they want to do for more permanent housing construction. when it gets too difficult for both fema and the governor, and the damage to the house is greater than 50% this is where hud needs to step in. this is where funding needs to come in for hud to deal with the hard case that we're not designed to manage. >> i appreciate that answer. i would love to have a chance to work you as we sort that through. i'm out of time. i have a number very detailed type much questions that i want to present to you. there will be other opportunities for us to work together to achieve the goal which you want to achieve which is stream line fema as well as make it more responsive in terms of taxpayer money. >> yes, sir. >> you just confirmed why you're optimal disaster response tag line special needs to be re-order to state managed, locally executed, federally supported.

so this is to do number two, the grants on one side and then in terms of housing assistance as well. let's work together with your agency to give the authority you need. senator harris. >> administrator long, i want to thank you for the work you have done as a priority for you as a leader for fema and went and women from fema have done in california in response to fires and mudslides. that work has been on time and very helpful. thank you for that. i would also like to submit a letter for the record from the california emergency services concerning the administration as fy-'19 budget request for if he marks in particular the letter outlines california's concerns that the fema budget has reduced -- the administration's budget has reduced federal funding for education, training and exercises by 47%. and reduced federal funding for pre-disaster mitigation grants by 61%. mr. chairman, i would like to

submit that for the record, please. >> without objection. >> mr. long, i appreciate that in your testimony this morning you said, and i think i'm quoting you directly, we cannot ignore the fact that disasters seem to be getting worse. i couldn't agree more. however, in contrast, i'm concerned that fema has removed references to climate change from its strategic plan. the previous plan which was covered 2014 through 2018 specifically mentioned climate and climate change seven times and devoted an entire section to how climate change impacts the risks that communities face. what concerns me is that the current strategic plan does not mention climate let alone climate change not even once. in response fema's public affairs director stated it is quote evident that the strategic plan fully incorporates future

risks from all hazards regardless of cause. i'll tell you specifically what i'm concerned about with that. climate change itself does not cause natural disasters. but rather access of force multiplier it exas pperates this like wildfires. so when it comes to natural disasters we can't plan for the future i believe without acknowledging, understanding and incorporating the impacts of climate change. so my question to you is how can fema adequately prepare for future disasters without acknowledging, recognizing and in fact even removing acknowledgement? >> so i really appreciate the question, senator. and, look, i believe climate is changing. i believe that the ocean is rising about one inch every

decade. but i also believe there's other cycles that increase and decrease activity such as thermal circulation. how the oceans flow around this earth-like a river. it increase, pumps warm water and cold water in and out of hurricane basins. for 20, 30 year purposes. okay. i believe in la nina and el nino and cycles that take place. el nino mean less hurricanes, frequent snowstorms and tornadoes where they don't get them. implications for wildfires in california. the strategic plan also doesn't mention earthquakes, it doesn't mention school shootings, it doesn't mention anything specifically because we're an all hazard agency regardless of calls or frequency. what i can do, i can't solve climate change. that would be similar to me saying let's stop earthquakes. >> i appreciate your point.

we don't have to belabor this. i only have a few minutes left. all i would ask you is that we not play politics with issues like this because as you and i both know those folks who are devastated by these tragic events are not thinking of themselves as democrats or republicans. they are thinking of themselves as american citizens who need help and need their government to be honest about what is causing and what is exas pperatg their lives. in your on statement you mentioned it a couple of times. according to the usgs survey there's a 72% chance that a large 6.7 magnitude earthquake will strike the bay area in california within the next 30 years. the last time fema responded to a major earthquake in california was a quarter of a century ago.

my question is with the potential for major earthquake to happen at any time it's obviously imperative fema be prepared to deal with this. how are you ensuring that fema is ready to respond to the next catastrophic earthquake and using all that is available in terms of the resources and technology that did not exist a quarter of a century ago. what is happening and also in light of the fact that there's now reduced support for your agency in terms of training in the budget that has been submitted by the administration? >> senator, going back to the strategic plan, goal number is readying the nation for catastrophic disasters. that keeps me up at night the no notice event whether a nation state threat or earthquake. the bottom line is that we've got to -- i got to move my staff out to do better integrated planning with the state of

california for for example. i want to make sure we under the gaps fully and california's ability to rapidly respond. if a major earthquake strikes one of the cities, san francisco, for example, we may not be able to get supplies in very quickly very quickly in the roadway structure isn't there. and i relieds thalize that. and we have to make sure the state bolsters themselves and we are incentivizing themselves to do that. and going back to the original question, and on top of that, nothing is more effective than premitigation. we need to make sure that when people are building and populating areas that are vulnerable to earthquakes or vulnerable to hurricanes, that they are doing so in a mitigated manner. and the way we address mitigation in this country is regressive. >> i agree with you. >> you have to have it. >> we have to do a better job. can you provide us please with a time line when you, and what

your plan is for making sure that fema is prepared for california's earthquakes? and what you might need from california state government? can you please provide me with a follow up to this conversation. >> i would be happy. >> finally a question concerning the usvi and puerto rico, you probably know that seven months after the hurk a lot of the folks in puerto rico, for example, cannot access disaster aide because some of them cannot provide official documentation, that they own their property. this is one of the issues that contrast the states like california with the territories. and in fact in puerto rico they have a history widespread history of informal land ownership. and that makes it difficult for them to obviously provide this information, which means they cannot then access to the aide that you otherwise would provide. >> sure. >> can you tell me what your systems are for verifying proof of ownership so they can have access to that aide? and what your plan is for the future? knowing that they have this

informal system of land ownership. >> sure. i so i think what's best is i acknowledge, senator, you are right. old way of doing business was not ready to handle this cultural problem that we have when it comes to owner ship. and what happens is that the actual homeowner may live in the continental united states, it could be a grandfather or aunt or ankle, and something we are trying to work with to try to locate who actually owns the home. because we may be bound by the stafford act hard to get around that. so i would like to work with my team these are the fixes that we are temporarily putting into place. >> can you give aus time line when you ex'experiment that understanding and that system within fema to be established? >> sure. absolutely. >> thank you. earlier in the hearing i used the term moral hazard, and i think we should point out one of the major reasons the increasing

cost to the disasters is very high priced development occurred during the decades during these disaster prone areas. again that's moral hazard somebody else takes care of the cost, and continue to do that t how many people do rebuild in flood zone? so i think it's a real problem. senator heitkamp. >> thank you. we have watched very closely since your confirmation hearing and understand and appreciate that your experience with katrina may have helped inform. but i'm very concerned about what's happening in puerto rico, very concerned about the ongoing challenges that puerto rico experiences. and i think just because it's not on the front page of the news, i want to acknowledge that the whole country should be helping to help puerto rico recover. as a state, like north dakota where we had a whole city taken out, we had exactly the same problems. people couldn't access paperwork.

we have to figure it out. and we have to be engaged and reengaged in puerto rico. but i want to talk about something that's probably near lan dear and dearer to my heart which is communication sti communication systems and to have nav gatable communication systems during a disaster. in response to one of my questions for the record, in a previous hearing, you noted that agencies must pro-actively develop plans and mitigate destruction, disrupts and overload of communication ability. i couldn't agree with you more. >> sure. >> that this has to be integrated and this isn't something that you build from the top down. we build from the bottom up. to date wharks steps have agencies taken to develop those community plans? and what role are you playing in the development of those plans? i think this has to be one of our highest priorities. >> right. so actually improving continuity and resilience of communication capability is goal 2.4.

and we are putting a lot of effort into reviving continuity of operation, continuity of communications. the problem that we may run into is i don't know how much of the local and state governments that they have control over to influence how the private sector builds a resilient back bone into the communications system. >> can you explain that for me? >> so, for example, in puerto rico, for example, a lot of the communication systems that we're dependent on are owned by private companies. they aren't owned by the state governments. so the private company has to come in and fix. and what they'll tell you, and probably right fully so, is that the technology changes so rapidly that to invest in a mitigated system is costly. because the technology constantly has to be changed and systems have to be upgraded to keep up with the way the technology unfolds.

>> obviously google camp in and stood up their communication system and a lot of things were tested. so it's not just about what in infrastructure is there and whether that infrastructure is adaptable to what you are doing. but what have you learned from puerto rico in terms of communications? and what should we be investing in to be better prepared? i agree with the chairman we want to mitigate and look at how we can avoid the moral hazard of continuing to do the same old thing. but this is back bone emergency 101. >> sure. >> we will always need this no matter. we will need this no matter whether we even have a disaster. we have to have this capability. >> sure. so, senator, we learned a lot of lessons, particularly from hurricane maria. so after katrina and 9/11, we learned that we need to be inter operable, which means we have to be multiple agencies being able to talk to each other. after maria hit we count communicate period. so changes the way we did

everything. and for example, we get hit on, there wasn't enough food and water in puerto rico. that's correct. there was food and water to puerto rico it was messaging to the people to go to the hubs or community leaders where to go to get it. so we had to adopt not only that communication, but we also had to call in military what they call case teams to where we are putting speakers on helicopters and flying over the commonwealth to say go here, do these things, and putting out public awareness message. fema, unfortunately a lot of fema individual assistance program was moving to a digital platform that forced us to go back by navigating by stars and pencil and paper to register people into our systems. so i think that we are too dependent on the communications back bone. the integrated public alert warning system that we use for nation state threats. we are kind of at the mercy of

how the private companies are we utilize to get the message out. >> that's exactly my point. >> that's exactly it. >> so what i'm trying to get at is how are we reaching out to private entities? maybe better understanding, better capability, better understanding of what we can do. obviously, puerto rico is a discreet area. i mean, piit's an island. so it's not like it was nationwide. that gives us a great little test ground for where we can, in fact, deploy different forms of communication. and i want to make sure that this is -- like you said, a top priority. but we are not creating something that can't be integrated in the communication system that we have. and if it can't, that we are providing redone danty that is totally separate from the private sector. >> sure. redundancy. >> and i can respond to you in

writing. i would like to go back to my continuity staff to talk about the dialogue they are starting. but part of this problem is greater than fema. we need to get others involved. and what is the standard that we are striving for. because we are becoming more and more dependent on digital technology. >> but we also have more and more sophisticated technologies that are more micro. they are not -- if you look at a grid, you think, okay, you are going to stand up a kind of generation to transmission grid. that's pretty fragile by weather or terrorism. what are we doing to make sure we can reestablish micro communications, micro energy power distribution? all of these things, this is what i want to see in the follow on report from puerto rico. i want to know how we are going to be more resilient and more redundant both on power and on communications. >> sure. so i think the fair question to

ask is to ask the private vendors. i'm not the expert when it comes to communications. i can tell you what fema is doing. but as far as private -- >> but you can't do it without the private. >> you are right. we can't. >> so it's two sides of the same coin. what i'm saying is this has to be a priority. because i don't want to see what happened in puerto rico happen again. thank you, mr. chairman. >> yes, ma'am. >> senator langford. >> thank you, mr. chairman. let me add onto that conversation. a big gain that we can have from this is lessons learned and things that can change in the future. you already mentioned with some of those dealing with housing and how that needs to be managed grants back to states, what the federal government and states should have so we can do what we do well. they can do what they do well. and local entities. is there a pending report that's coming out at some point that's kind of a lessons learned from 2017? here's what fema is going to change and the things that we are doing that we see that were wrong but we have the authority to do. here's what needs to change but we don't have the authority. we need legislative changes on these. if you can help us with

statutes. and here's what private industry needs to be able to do that they have to do in the free market but they want to make them aware. and quite frankly stock hold tears aware tlees are some gaps in the system. will something like that come out? >> yes, sir. so early on, what we did is we embedded what we call learning teams in jfo and within the agency. and we were very pro-active in saying we need to capture what's going on. so as a result we are currently working 0en an internal after action report i'd be ha p i to share with the committee once completed. >> especially area that fema has areas what they need to do right now, but what you don't have the authority to do. don't worry about jurisdiction, we are your committee of jurisdiction. we can help get the information out to the different committees. but if we just knew what it is that you need that's changing that's inhibiting you from doing the work, and classic example your comment about housing, that's something there is some prohibition in statutes that you can do. we need to find a way to debate

that and fix that or change your authorities whatever it may. those are things that we need to fix for you to be more productive. >> and senator, one thing that's important to point out. it's just not fema that's in this game. >> that's right. >> we coordinate roughly over 30 different agencies and the fire power of 30 different agencies down. one of the goals about reducing the complexity is how do we streamline all of the funding? how do i go tell your governor that this is what you are entitled to from these different agencies to fix the community and how do we get them to move in an expedited manner? for example hud funding is a fantastic piece of funding much needed by a community. but what happens is from the announcement, then there has to it be a six month period to write the federal register, three month period to write the action plan on how you are going to use that funding, then there is another month on top of that to make sure that we all agree. then the money doesn't hit for a

year. >> wow. two years later. >> so there is a lot of -- so it makes it very difficult for a governor to understand well i have to use fema money for this this in these projects here's on cash flow, and i have to wait for this hud funding to hit. then there is federal highway funding. there is it spa funding. >> so where do we go to get the overview of that? how do we get to? >> start with my agency and let me point you in the right direction. >> that would be helpful to get. again, there sa big fight typically on committees of jurisdiction who has that and who doesn't. what we need to have is members, and all of us are members of multiple committees, what we need to have the ability to see these are the issues and get them to the right committees to make the decisions, rather than worry about them sorry write ago report. that doesn't work well and solve the problem. so if you can give us a big picture and know from our

perspective, tell your folks to not worry about you can't write about that because that's someone else's agency. i've had the ongoing conversations on wild fires. wild fires in california, so many structures involved you are involved. if it a wildfire fire in western oklahoma and cattle and sheds then fsa does it. if fema does it they'll get a response back 30, 45 days. rapid to turn around a check. if fsa does it under usda, it will be a year to two years to get relief. both had a fire, two different systems on it. so we have to be able to figure out a way to solve that. >> i agree, senator. and the problem with the national disaster recovery framework is it may be a plan without authorities given to the agencies that are truly in charge of things like power or housing. we can ceremonial put hud in charge of housing or doe in charge of energy.

but where the problem comes in is do they really have the authority and the funding mechanism to be the lead? or are we just coordinating -- does fema end up being the lead for all of it? and a lot of it that we are experts for, excuse me, that we are told to lead, we are not the experts for. >> mr. brock, you'll have to help us with that. let me mention ha couple of other things. i do appreciate fema and how you continue to partner with not only for profit industries for contracting but nonprofits that are out there, church groups, faith based groups, whatever it may be, you are coordinating whoever is coming to help to help. oklahoma disaster relief during what was happening in houston delivering 20,000 meals a day working with the red cross and getting it done. we had multiple of our power companies they picked up folks gone to puerto rico. in fact we had another group from oklahoma came back a few weeks ago. continuing to send folks down there. thanks for coordinate and not

say you have to be in this box, but you are working through who is coming to help in trying to work with all those groups so i appreciate that. >> yes, sir. on the nongovernmental agecies and faith base community are a tremendous asset and one of the greatest assets in this country to help us overcome. we can't do it without them. >> there has been a fear in government i'm not sure about that. we need to continue to it be able to use those faith based to partner with them. >> you're right. and what's beautiful about utilizing these agencies is they don't have to adhere to my bureaucratic laws. they can do things that i can't do. >> and rapidly. >> what i want to figure out is how do we get the ngos on the front end of predisaster mitigation to help people before disaster strikes rather than seeing on the back end as well. so how do we shift the mindset of maybe they can start installing hurricane clips for areas. a lot of things that we can do. >> let me mention just a couple

other things. i want to give you another thank you how you are working through houses of worship which has been completely confusing to me for years. why a nonprofit there is hit with the disaster or for profit business or a house, they are treated one way. but house of worship regardless of your religious affiliation you are treated completely separately. thank you for trying to draw the two together. we have followed up with statute to make sure that stays permanent. but that's been a lingering issue with fema for a long time. with the list that we come back, whenever you bring that back, things i'm going to watch for, electric grid, what's been durable and what's nondurable, what have we learned. i've talked with corps of engineers and it's my understanding when you are actually talked about power coming back on, and what actually is producing power, there are lessons to be learned about lines, and about the polls, but also lessons about the power generation as well. what worked, what didn't work, what is your viefd disasters, what didn't. the flood insurance is still a big issue for me and for you i'm

quite confident. but that's learning how we can solve the multi repetitive claims issues and any recommendations that you have. as you know, this committee and others are dealing with the flood insurance issue for a while. and we are going to -- would hope we get into duplication of coordination as you already mentioned in your reports that you can give to us on that would be very helpful. and then we'll try to follow-through in the days ahead to resolve it so thank you very much. >> be happy to provide ideas. thank you. >> senator hassan. >> thank you very much chair, and ranking member mccaskill. good morning, director long, it is good to see you. it is fair to say, and i know that you have heard it already this morning, that many of us in the senate were unsatisfied with the rate of recovery in puerto rico after hurricane maria hit the island. you were quoted last week saying that rebuilding puerto rico would cost $50 billion and that puerto rico was running out of time before the next hurricane season, which starts on june 1st. certainly the recent announcement that the u.s.

department of housing and urban development will provide the island with $18.5 billion in developmental assistance is a huge step in the right direction. however, other reports suggests that just under 20% of the island is still without power, including more than 100,000 residents. so why after six months does puerto rico still, quote, have a long way to go, as you have said? certainly, it's infrastructure challenges play a role, i understand that. and i know you spoke earlier about getting 428 authority. however, i want to know what specific steps fema and the u.s. government will take in the coming months to help the island so that when you appear before this committee again in six months we are not hearing about the same infrastructure obstacles we have been dealing with since the storm. >> sure. one, rebuilding the infrastructure, i this i we all have to back up and remember that a lot of the infrastructure was not functional, including major portions of the power

infrastructure. >> i understand that. i've heard you give that explanation before. i understand the challenges. what i want to know is what it is the united states of america and fema are doing understanding those challenges, so that we can make as much progress as possible? what specific action items do you have? >> sure. so bottom line is we have over 4,000 employees there. i'm getting ready to be one of the largest employers in puerto rico. we've hired close to 1,500 ricans that were trained to be the commonwealth and municipal emergency management arm. we are doing a train the trainer and making sure they understand our systems as well. in readiness for hurricane season, we are rewriting plans all 78 levels of government that didn't exist. we are rewriting the commonwealth plans on their behalf and working with them. making sure that leadership is being put into place. but also getting ready to go through a set of culminating training and exercise.

so i believe on june 14th full scale exercise with the commonwealth and with the municipalities to actually run through physical movements such as commodities. and so we have tremendously increased the amount of warehouse space that we had on the island and stocked it in some cases for water. i think the last number we saw, and we can get you specifics, 7 followed increase of water being prepositioned on the island. 7 fold. choik then on the june 14th exercises it's my understanding we'll be running the commodities and demonstrating how the new plans will work. and the municipalities participate in the exercise will be able to keep the commodities to be able to store for future disasters. there is a lot we are doing to ready the commonwealth. >> i would love it if your team would follow up with us and give us the kind of full sense of plan here. because, again, i understand the problems you are dealing with, but what makes you all fema and what makes the united states the

united states is that we don't look backwards. we look forward. >> sure. >> and we respond on the ground to make sure that our people have what they need in the face of disaster. i also just wanted to touch with you on the fema strategic plan. you and your team argue in that plan for simplifying the process by which fema administers assistance. i think we would all support the elimination of unnecessary red tape. in my state, it appears that bureaucratic disorganization has contributed to lengthy response times for fema. for instance, in one town in new hampshire that was hit by a storm last july, fema sent 2 two people on different occasions to assess and reassess the same damaged roads. the frustrated fire chief of that town who has managed the towns recovery, i have to tell you he's been manage tg recoveries for a long time and is a smart able businessman when he's not being fire chief, he's

told us several of the fema personnel had to be shown how to use a tape measure and how to calculate the costs. fema has yet to release any funds to the town. with that said, you have highlighted how emergency response requires interacting with multiple levels of government and in many cases interacting with several different agencies within each level of government. something i certainly appreciate as a former governor. therefore, fema's assistance and coordination system, it's complex by design, because you are supposed to coordinate here, but how are you going to address this necessarily complex system and attempt to cut out steps or simplify this process? >> so in regards to the specific issue that you raise, i'm not aware of that. i would be happy to personally call the director in your state to follow up on that issue. >> okay. >> here's what we ran into, and what i learned about staffing patterns and the way the system is set up.

we had roughly, i don't know the exact number, we had too many people dispersed across the people working disasters that were pretty small, in my opinion. now, catastrophic the term catastrophic lies in the eye of the beholder. you lose your house, uninsured i understand that. >> small town and volunteer fire department. >> so if i remember correctly there is a report that says roughly 80% of the disasters that fema has to work with are less than $41 million when it comes to putting out public assistance funding. my question is how do we get to the point where we become almost a granting agency to push the funding out, the public assistance funding through the governor to where they have the trained staff, we simplify the systems to where they can put the money in in the infrastructure back to work without me having to roll my staff even to your state. and so we are having to

constantly break down the policies. and one of the problems that we have is inspection prosz cecess. it's not fema that does inspection. it could be federal highway and dot. number of inspections that take place. but when comes to dealing with the disaster survive or, how doe do one inspection covers across the bit. we are not there yet. i don't have the answer. here again, we are trying to kick start the effort to reduce frustration. >> and i appreciate that. and i also know mr. chair that i'm out of time. one thing i would ask you to think about, because this is something that small states run into a lot, is that the federal government tends to look at comparables and they say, well, this disaster is only a million dollar disaster, doesn't really need people. in my state that's a huge disaster. and we don't have the people or infrastructure necessarily to receive those dollars from the

feds without help because of our scale. and so i just would ask that you guys consider the state's scale, not just where the state falls in the federal size. does that make sense? >> here's where this committee can help. we need to increase state management costs. right now it's 3.34%. it should be roughly 12%. okay. so that when there is a smaller disaster, if there is a $10 million, $20 million disaster, they can take 12% of what we'll potentially obligate to hire labor consulting firms to augment their capability to it be able to do it. that's the direction we need to go. because i cannot continue to send staff out to do every disaster for a $2 million to what i'm facing. the nation needs me to be ready to go for the marias and harvey and irmas. >> and i understand that. tan and i think the people in my state would say with respect if

there is flexibility and targeted ways we can do that, that's great. but they pay taxes too and need fema to be there for them. >> sure. >> because their disasters are as devastating to them as any disaster. so i would look forward to working with you on that. i think we just got to get the balance right. thank you. thank you mr. chair for letting me go over. >> senator daines. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. long, thanks for coming here today. good to see you again. i know you've been administrator for less than a year and already had to help navigate our country through very difficult times. thank you. i know it's been long, long hours. however, always room for improvement. i appreciate you making steps to learn from last year's lessons. critical to do things better. as you know people as lives are at stake. in montana we experienced historic drought. seemed last year too much water or not enough water. and we were on not enough water

side. we had 22 wild fires burning 1 million acres. i want to thank you you took a call when we were battling a fire for your assistance on getting additional funding. your rural roots helped us with our conventional formulas don't help. with the significant snowfall we are getting in montana, early forecasts said we will have above fire potential. that was a fire prediction i didn't like to hear. as you mention in your testimony we need to ensure we are not just ready for catastrophic hurricanes but other natural disasters in montana and while

fives. fema eight grants in montana last year wild fires. i understand with these grants there must be a fire threshold before eligible for reimbursement. but in a state like montana where we can have thousands of wild fires put out before they contribute to a major disaster, these smaller costs still add up and deplete state and local funds. furthermore, clear guidance for frontier counties, and their eligibility for fire management assistance grants is sometimes lacking. and i agree with your plan of making emergency response federally supported, state managed, and locally executed. a little breathe of federalism is always refreshing here in these massive bureaucracies here in washington d.c. moving forward, my question is, how can fema and states like montana with rural communities, better work together to utilize federal grant programs to

mitigate the damage done by wild fires? >> so, senator, excellent question. i've had very spirited conversations with senator bullock going forward. and i understand your state has been totally ravaged by almost like a death by 1,000 cuts when it comes to the number of fires. the problem is is that how do you -- do you declare a fire season? and if id declare fire season, then do i have to declare severe weather in another state? it's difficult. and it's my understanding in the om na business recently fixed there are fixes with department of interior and agriculture to offset some of the costs that i can't cover through the program. but i think what we are having to do inside fema is reset the bar internally within the regions to say the purpose of

this grant funds something prevent a fire from becoming a major disaster declaration. and we have to increase the dialogue with our state partners to make sure we are all on top of it and helping to do all we can to suppress that fire before it gets way out of hand. but the issue at hand is, we look at each fire as an individual fire. i don't know if i actually have the authority to look at the multitude of fires and declare one season. because you get into this complexity about incident period. and was it the same drought that's causing, or was tt same weather system that caused all of the flooding, for example. do we declare that whole period or incident as one disaster? and so with the fires, it's something that we have to work through. and i'd be happy to continue the dialogue, but it's also continuing the dialogue and where fema begins and ends, where doi and department of agricultural also support as well. >> well, thank you.

and that dialogue will be helpful. and it's also worth noting we also have to get better at preventing and reducing the risk of these and severity of these wild fires through better force management and that's something else i'm working on aggressively. because as these combustibles begin to build in our forest, they either burn or they are harvested. there really isn't an option. there is not a choice c multiple choice equation. so we have to do better job as well as managing our forests chts because i've said before either we will manage our forests or they will manage us. so we have to fight kind after two front war here. switching gears, i've introduced a bill homeland security for children act that would simply ensure dhss under secretary for strategy policy and plans including representing children when sew litting stake holder feedback. i say that as a dad of four kids

myself. further technical expert at fema authorized to lead as external collaboration to integrate the need of children in activities to prepare for and respond to disasters. the bill is already passed out of this committee and the reauthorization also includes at its language. mr. long, as administrator of fema, how would this help? >> senator, we do have programs that are geared towards helping children specifically cope with disaster aftermath as far as mitigating impact to disasters i would have to look into that. let me go back to my staff and we can provide that. >> we are trying to give you another vehicle there to help in that regard both preparation for and after the fact. lastly, i know puerto rico came up. as we saw in puerto rico following hurricane maria, establishing communications is critically important to

federally respond to a catastrophic event. i spent over a decade in the tech sector in cloud computering and well aware of the reliable connectivity. mr. long, how is fema leveraging technology to improve communications following a natural disaster? >> well, we have a long way to go. and in some cases i want to move away from manual processes to incorporate more technology to help tus rapidly assess and approve assistance that goes forward. for example, as i quoted earlier, we had to do 2.4 million home inspections. why can we not use technology and imagery to say yes these houses are damaged. 8 feet of water in this house therefore it's approved rather than to have to come and go through the cumbersome process of sending people out to verify damages. but we have to be careful to protect against fraud and abuse, which i don't think disaster survivors are trying to do. but we have to protect the tax

paying dollars. so it's the right mix of technology as well as the manual process that we have to keep to ensure that the dollars are being right. the other thing on technology is we have had a very healthy discussion ton redundant resilient communications. and in regards to wild fires as we were talking early the communications were blown out by maria. well they were burned up in california. so a lot of this is outside of how do i help the private sector or how does the senate engage the private sector on mitigating these communication back bones to where we don't lose them for all hazards. because if they are gone, you know, for example with the california wild fires, we lose our ability to communicate alert and public warning to sit sense. and so we have a long way to go. and i think there is a lot of work we can do to be more innovative in incorporating technology. >> i'm out of time. i want to tell you, mr. long, i know in your job you usually only getting criticized and rarely affirmed. i think you are doing a great

job. you have had a tough job. >> thank you, sir. >> you want to engage us when we are in times of need. tan keep up the good work. >> thank you, sir. >> senator jones. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and mr. long, welcome, and thank you for your service. i want to echo about your job but also thank you for your service to alabama and my state. you worked tirelessly for the folks. and in alabama we have our share. every year it seems between tornados or hurricanes, we set up in the spring waiting for the next tornado to hit, and late fall is hurricane going to hit the gulf of mexico. so 20 years ago this week, i think i was united states attorney and toured the f 5 tornado that went through elk grove and areas where my serious had deep roots both in their homes and churches.

the damage that can cause, and i would urge colleagues if something hits their state to go see. you can't appreciate it on television like you can. it will take your breathe away. recently we had another tornado storm that hit the northeast section of alabama that did significant amount of damages in a number of counties including damage to jackson state university, a number of their buildings. fortunately it hit during spring break and none of the students or very few were on campus. can you give me any update about fema's interactions with our state authorities? i want to make sure that everybody is doing everything that they can to make sure that we have the appropriate documentation to maybe get some help. >> yeah. senator, absolutely. i'll follow up with you in regards to what specifically is taking place or the process when it comes to the damage assessments that are being done in alabama. tornados are typically tough

particularly on rural communities. because a lot of what they impact is typically insured. like jacksonville state hopefully a lot of those buildings are insured which cuts against the numeric indicator that would suggest that disaster declaration support is needed from the federal government which is the way insurance should work. but one of the things i'll do is go back and make sure that we respond to you on where we are in that process. and if there is any issues i'd be ha p i to. >> great. it's my understanding from some information we got from the state yesterday that they are preparing a package that the uninsured costs now probably top $35 million which is pretty horrible. so if you could keep my office updated ton that. and if there is anything that we can do to help with that i'd appreciate it. alabama, you know, last year we had hurricane irma, and it's my understanding as of april the state completed their paperwork and closed that out. and in record time. so we are good stewards of the fema money.

second thing i want to talk about is really in alabama we have a training center, center for domestic preparedness which is a training facility for state and local leaders all over the country that come there every year. the president's fy 19 request for the center for domestic preparedness would be reduced despite the fact that the impacts of the 2017 natural disaster show that resources, in my view, that resources for cdp should actually be increased. in order to respond to the 2017 hurricanes and wild fires, the cdp activated personnel mobilization center at its facility in andeston and processed some 5,000 responders through that facility. unfortunately when they did so, they had to shut down the regular training for over two

months, which cost training that had been scheduled for some 2,400 students from across the country that just could not go and will get delayed. so i guess my question is, if we are trying to create a cul toor of preparedness that you state, and i think everyone would agree with, it's important that we educate and train our state and local emergency managers. and what can we do to find ways to accommodate both training at the cdp and mobilization needs should those come up during the course of the year? and should we not priority toiz resources? >> senator, i think p as, as i earlier in my testimony, money is tight. and the bottom line is with grants and training, i agree, there is nothing more important than the trained emergency manager. the fy 2019 budget doesn't reflect, it was basically put together before what we just

went through in the 2017 season, which is something that i think we all understand as well. but when it comes to training at the local and state level, it can't just be on fema's shoulders to do so. and i think it's time for the state legislature of alabama and other states to consider whether or not lt alabama emergency management agency has its own robust training capability and dollars as well. and this is it a shared responsibility. preparedness is everybody's responsibility from every citizen all the way up to my office. and, you know, we are getting to a point where how much can the federal emergency management agency continue to sup plant across this country for all the mu multitude of programs? at some point it's go got to give. i wish i had more money but it's

not a reality. cdp incredible asset, i have great people down there. that is the disaster lab that i hope to better incorporate on how we utilize entire training network. it's great. >> well, thank you very much. and i appreciate that. and i also understand and know from your experience in alabama this is not the first time you advocated for state training and legislatures in alabama to step up and do the right thing. so i appreciate that comment. i agree with you 100%. we'll do what we can from our standpoint. and i'll be happy to go with you to talk to the alabama leg laying tour so they step up. >> thank you. >> thanks for being here. >> thanks, mr. jones. i had two and a half minutes on my first round of questions. let me quick ask two follow up questions. first of all, as it relates to insurance, from my standpoint preparedness part of that equation is really being adequately insured. and i mentioned moral hazard earlier.

do you believe that because of the federal government, let's face it, we have been spending billions of dollars, do you think the federal government's involvement has actually incentivized people not to carry adequate insurance? and to what extent? >> when it comes to sit sense there is this myth that fema is all encompassing insurance agency to put your life back together. and that's not the case. if you look at harris county, some of the initial numbers, and numbers will change as more policies put in place, fema's average payout typically an individual assistance is like four to six,000 versus those who were insured through the nicp i think the average payout was over $100,000. so insurance first line of defense. now when it kwoms to governments if we truly want to have a conversation about reducing disaster cost, in addition to doing predisaster mitigation,

then let's look at the categories of permanent work that fema performs under the stafford act. one is category e which is public buildings and content. cities and counties that seven sure their buildings or basically don't have insurance for their buildings, fema is it on t on -- is on the hook to fix. is that an opportunity for insurance companies to step up a and insure that? >> my question, are you seeing up tick in the self insurance? in other words, having no insurance? >> well, in citizens, the unfortunate thing is that what we just saw in california was unfortunately people who were struggling in retirement payoff their house, let their insurance lapse. their fire insurance lapse. then their house burned up. and they ultimately let it lapse to have a couple extra hundred

dollars a moment in their paycheck. that's a big problem in education. budgeting problem. >> again, are you seeing data that is actually growing? >> we can get do that. >> i'd appreciate that. >> be happy to. >> secondly, i was struck by your testimony about the fact that you couldn't prove ownership. is that something completely unique to puerto rico or are you seeing that in other areas of the country? >> the volume within puerto rico is very unique, yes. >> but around the rest of the country? >> not typically a major problem around the rest of the counts surrey. in some cases what we run into is people claiming ownership when they don't. it's more fraud than anything. but puerto rico is just the sheer volume. >> again, those are my only two questions. senator mccaskill. >> i have some for the record. >> administrative long, thank you, i don't envy you your task. i do believe you have the

appreciation and i think the respect and quite honestly the confidence of this committee so we do appreciate that. and please convey the appreciation to all the men and women of the agency. so we truly appreciate that. with that the hearing record will remain open 15 days until april 26, 5:00 p.m. for statements into the record. this hearing is adjourned.

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ya civilization education, we would be teaming up into little bands and troops defending ourselves against animals and other bapds of troops, because that is what our actual nature is. that is the point of lord of the flies. in lort of the flilord of the f have kids from british boarding school, and once you put them back, they kill each other antique each other. that's humanity. >> watch afterwards, sunday night 9:00 p.m. eastern c-span2 book tv. >> next, community leaders historians and policy makers gather for the discussion on 50th anniversary of the federal housing act and its aim too prevent discrimination. they spoke about