at 12:15 p.m. eastern on c-span. c-span where history unfolds daily. in 1979 c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies and today we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court and public policy events in washington d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. federal and state emergency management officials testified on the 2018 hurricane season including preparedness and response efforts from a house transportation and infrastructure subcommittee, this is about one hour 50 minutes. >> committee will come to

order. without objection the chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time before. we begin i ask unanimous consent that members not on the subcommittee be permitted to sit with the subcommittee at today's hearing and ask questions without objections. so ordered. from hurricanes to floods and wildfires, no region of our country was immune from the impacts of last year's disasters. last year we saw 10 hurricanes in the atlanta region alone including hurricanes harvey, irma and maria which devastated parts of texas, florida, puerto rico and the u.s. virgian islands. we also had one of the worst wildfire seasons on record with over 66,000 wildfires that burned nearly 10 million acres of land. disasters caused an estimated $370 billion in damages in 2017. the purpose of today's hearing is to determine where we are in recovering from these

devastating disasters including challenges to recovery and suggestions on how we can overcome those challenges. we also want to understand state, local and federal efforts to prepare for and respond to the 2018 hurricane season which began on june 1st. d additionally, we will discuss real estate forms that are needed to incentivize -- reforms that are needed to incentivize and encourage revitalization in disaster loss across the country. the 2017 disaster season not only devastated many communities, but also highlighted challenges in how we respond to and recover from disasters. ci we have a always ly in puto go rebuilding, especially in puerto rico and the u.s. virgian islands and it is critical we do what we can to help communities rebuild smarter and better. in november this committee came together to craft bipartisan legislation, the disaster

recovery reform act, which would allow communities to rebuild in a way that would minimize future disaster costs and save lives. this legislation includes reforms that will change fema's disaster recovery programs to make them more effective and efficient and encourage and facilitate mitigation projects that reduce disaster risks and increase resiliency against disasters. overwhelmingly -- haw overwhelmingly passed the house twice. this legislation has now overwhelmingly passed the house twice including an hr4, the faa reauthorization act, which has yet to be taken up by the senate. there are communities impacted by the 2017 disasters and preparing for future disasters that would benefit today from the reforms in drra. some reforms were signed into law as part of the bipartisan budget act of 2018. those reforms allow fema to create incentives for state and

local governments to implement mitigation, but we need the other critical reforms including key wildfire mitigation provisions and additional resources to state and local governments for cost effective mitigation projects. various studies by federal agencies, academia and the private sector have shown that for every $1 of federal investment in mitigation there is 4 to $8 return in avoided disaster damages. mitigation practices are a wise mitigation projects, particularly predisaster, are a wise investment in federal dollars and the only way we as a nation will be able to change the direction of rising disaster costs and losses. it makes no sense for us to continue to rebuild the same way disaster after disaster. i look forward to hearing from our witnesses today on where we are in a recovery from 2017 disaster season, where we are in preparing for the 2018

hurricane season and the recommendations for changes that need to be made to make our communities stronger and better able to recover from disasters of any kind. thank you all for being here. i now recognize the ranking member of the full committee, mr. de blasio. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thanks for holding this important hearing on recovery efforts from 2017 and looking forward to the 2018 season. we already have fires burning in the west and it's going to be another bad fire year and we don't know what will happen with hurricanes. on friday we finally got fema's after action report on 2017. th on w that t report in as what everyone knew. the agency's response was inadequate to put it mildly and in the case of puerto rico and the virgin islands outrageously inadequate.

they admit that they did not preposition enough commodities such as food, water, generators before irma and maria struck the virgin islands and puerto rico. they acknowledge they experienced delays in delivering supplies to territories despite the fact that in 2014 they led a national level exercise indicating that delays could be a problem during disaster and should be addressed. that's three years before these disasters. president trump living in a different reality ignored the obvious failures and the response efforts occurring on the ground. he called it fake news and then he went to puerto rico and bragged about what a great job they'd done and threw paper towels at paper. he put lives at risk and people died after his visit who should have been receiving assistance. g her w his boorish behavior went on er

attacking a mayor of san juan who was representing her people who were suffering horribly and then the fema administrator, to his discredit, brock long, did the same thing, although later he admitted that that was inappropriate. trump never did admit that. fema acknowledged its failures, but it was also, as it was acknowledging its failures, had other people on staff busy eradicating any trace of any consideration of climate change in its strategic planning. now that's going to work out real well, isn't it? so we've got to pay attention to things that are important. also needs o then fema found, you know, that it also needs to collaborate more with state, tribal, territorial local governments, but president trump proposed cutting five preparedness grants in his budget by $471 million or 29% and proposed

reducing funding for education, training exercises by $129 million or 47%. what's going on here? th ut are we going to thetake aftth seriously or not? and throughout the after action report fema discussed the need to make the nation more resilient to disasters. however, the administration again rescinded an existing executive order, because obama did it, establishing a federal flood risk management standard. , ie, we're not going to build any federally funded facility in a flood prone area or if we do build in those areas, special structure techniques would be used to protect the structure, contents and personnel. now that has been eliminated. we're not going to consider those sort of things because we don't believe in climate change and i guess we don't even believe in nsaer disasters 100 year -- natural disasters, 100

year floods anymore. fema also mentioned the importance of predisaster mitigation while the president cut funds by 61% down from an inadequate 100 million to an absolutely pathetic $39 million which could probably be spent in any one potentially targeted city in terms of hurricanes very well and mitigate a lot of lives. so while fema's after action report identifies specific improvements needed including the need for more preparedness mitigation, resilient rebuilding, the president in his budget says no, none of that. we don't want that. so we here in congress have responsibility to move forward and as the chairman mentioned, we have in a bipartisan way. ws at we're moving forward eal within that deal with disasters and potential disasters more thoughtfully. we took up a bill in the house this week. i was a co-sponsor of it to say we are not going to rebuild someone's house 20 or 30 times. e

it's a very small percentage of the buildings out there cost 4% of -- cost 25%. is it 4% i think or is it 2%? never mind. anyway, a very small percentage, costs about a 1/4 of fema's budget and fema, of course, our flood insurance program is bankrupt. so we passed a bill to get a study to see if entering into agreements with people in structures that have been repeatedly destroyed to agree to pay them full market value the next time it's destroyed and reducing their flood insurance risk program will save money. i think it's a no brainer. it will. some people have been rebuilt multiple, multiple times. so we need to do better. we need to act smarter. we need to do actually all these things that have been enumerated and congress is the only hope we have of delivering on that reality.

>> thank you. right now i recognize the ranking member of the subcommittee, miss titus, for an opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and i apologize for keeping you and the committee and our witnesses waiting. i won't make a habit of that, i assure you. i also thank you for holding this important hearing. as you've heard, the hurricane season began on june the 1st and already we've had two hurricanes form in the atlantic ocean. hurricane beryl was downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it hit the u.s. virgin islands and puerto rico where they were pummeled with strong winds and rain and even at that point it was no longer considered a hurricane, tropical storm beryl caused 40,000 homes and businesses to temporarily lose power in puerto rico which highlights the fra engine state of recovery. also in the midst of hurricane season we see -- fragile state

of recovery. also in the midst of the hurricane season we see in puerto rico and the virgin islands roofs that still have tarps caused by last year's hurricane. the intended lifespan of these tarps are 30 days, so you can imagine the condition they're. in the territories aren't the only ones in the midst of recovery from the 2017 disasters and much work remains to be done to solve those problems as well as prepare for 2018. so in addition to the ongoing recovery issues and preparedness, right in the middle of all this fema has released it's 2017 hurricane season after action report. in it they noted several failures, as you have heard mentioned in, their preparedness efforts for 2017 including inadequate staffing, lack of sufficient commodities in place and logistical failures. at least they recognize what some of the problems are. no in this after action report fema noted it had exhausted its predisaster contracts for

commodities such as food, water and generators which should have been in place to give fema a head start on its disaster response efforts. that ha the post katrina emergency c management reform onact tracreq that fema have contracts in place for recurring disaster response requirements before the disaster strikes, yet over the years fema has failed to procure new contracts or renew existing contracts for such commodities in advance of the disaster, therefore, contributing to the state of unreadiness. last fall the puerto rican electric power authority entered into two separate contracts, one with white fish energy holdings and the other with cobra acquisitions. entered on both contracts contained terms . that limited proper federal oversight. although fema denies these claims, both contractors indicated that fema approved the contract terms. the o of that t the office of

inspector general is investigating these contracts to determine the accuracy of the allegations, but i want to be clear fema should never approve contracts that purport to limit any oversight over disaster funds. now by oversight let's be clear what oversight means. it doesn't mean exercise undue influence. for example, just last may prpa entered into a new $900 million contract with cobra acquisitions to complete restoration of electrical transmission systems. now we have heard since then a potential enter injection interj -- interjection by fema. it does not mean fema should improperly interfere in the local contracting process including the selection of the winning bidders. fema's after action report also

notes shortage of staff that hindered the response to disasters. fema needs to address this and the other problems listed in the report in a comprehensive manner and i look forward to hearing about your plans. finally, fema acknowledges the need to invest in mitigation and better prepare for future disasters, yet in its 2018 to 2022 strategic plan you remove all references to climate change. as long as fema engages in this type of contradictory behavior, the nation and fema will fall behind in its preparedness efforts. so as we talk about natural disasters, i think we have to be realistic. finally i would just mention that pets are something that are missing from our report and from our plans and i would like to see some discussion of the pet emergency transparency and accountability act that we have introduced because if you take care of pets, that often makes it easier to take care of the people who are engaged. so i thank you, mr. chairman.

i look forward to this discussion. >> thank you, miss titus. today we are joined by mr. jeffrey beyer, associate administrator, office of response and recovery, federal emergency management agency, director alexander, chief of the office of homeland security, u.s. army corps of engineers. mr. patrick sheehan, director of tennessee emergency management agency, testifying on behalf of the national emergency management association which represents state emergency managers, misty gardner, emergency management coordinator, city of richardson, texas, testifying on behalf of local emergency managers and the u.s. council of the international association of emergency managers and the honorable dave paulson who served as fema administrator from 2005 until january, 2009, testifying on behalf of the build strong coalition.

an i ask unanimous consent imous c our witnesses' full statements be included in the record. without objection so ordered. for our witnesses, since your written testimony has been made a part of the record, the subcommittee would request that you limit your oral testimony to five minutes. mr. beyer, you may proceed. tite subcommittee, good morning. i am the associate chairman, ranking members and members of the subcommittee, good morning. i'm the associate administrator for the office of response and recovery for fema. on behalf of secretary nelson and administrator long, thank you for the opportunity to discuss lessons learned from the 2017 historic hurricane season and our ongoing progress made under one fema strategic plan and two, our preparations for the current 2018 hurricane season. irma, as mentioned, hurricanes harvey, irma, maria devastated the nation at a time when fema was already supporting dozens of openly federally declared disasters across our country. during the response to three

catastrophic hurricanes fema responded to four wildfires in california, an estimated 47 million americans were affected by last year's hurricanes and wildfires, approximately 15% of the entire u.s. population. following the 2017 hurricanes we have reviewed preparations for the immediate response and initial recovery operations with the goal of identifying lessons learned with lessons learned which collectively benefit future emergency management operations at all levels, both local, state, federal, nonprofit and the private sector. last week we released our 2017 hurricane season after action report. the report examines the agency's performance during the record breaking season and captures transformative insights that will help fema, the emergency management community and the nation chart a path into the future. the report identified key findings across five areas and offered targeted recommendations for us to improve. a hard look at as well as broader lessons for partners throughout the

emergency management community. we took a hard look at ourselves. we pointed our finger at ourselves and released that report. we hear terms like failure, admission. we look at that as leadership. that not only helps our agency, it helps director sheehan, director gardner and many others and the minute we stop looking at ours because of what we may fear others may say, we've lost the ball. we've lost the leadership. aligned with key focus areas in the after action report fema's strategic plan builds on existing best practices, identifies new initiatives geared towards achieving three overarching goals. the three main goals to our strategic plan are to build a culture of preparedness, ready the nation for catastrophic disasters and reduce the complexity of fema. these three goals are overarching. they're not applied to a specific hazard or specific cause. they're how we react and how we stabilize our country in the event something bad may happen. as part of the initiative to

ready the nation for catastrophic disasters, we are emphasizing stabilization of critical lifelines and coordination across critical infrastructure sectors. this is a new terminology in emergency management as we've always focused on state and local and continue to focus on state and local we have to broaden our horizon and bring more people under our tent. lifelines provide indispensable services that enable the continuous operation of critical business and government functions and if not properly restored, they risk level and safety and also can risk national economic security. solutions is to stabilize lifelines as we found out in 2017 did not fit in a single construct like our existing emergency support functions. so we must provide cross-sector coordination to effectively stabilize critical life lines. for example, the critical lifeline of food, water and sheltering crosses many agencies, community partners and emergency support functions. we must address holistically in order to support the community,

focus in on lifeline and related impact to allow decisionmakers to move rapidly and allow better utilization of limited resources towards restoration of critical infrastructure. as we look at 2017, we're taking immediate steps in 2018. for example, we've updated our plans and procedures, made logistical improvements specifically in the commonwealth and our island states and territories. we've increased from thousands of bottles of water to millions, thousands of mras to millions. where we had one warehouse in the commonwealth, we now have five. we've redefined our tactical long haul disaster communications. we've had coordinated exercises and training with many multiple partners to include the commonwealth and territory and we're modernizing our housing inspection. i would like to take a moment to highlight one of our initiatives. what we clearly learned is we have to increase our stocks hourly. that gives us better time to coordinate with the private sector when we have limited shipping, limited air and

limited receiving capabilities. what we now know is we can coordinate better with the private sector when we have that. so establishing larger footprints in the caribbean will allow us days and not hours to establish that and better serve our citizens. i am pleased to be here today to the the dedicated men and women of fee -- represent the dedicated men and women of fema and represent the partners on this panel and take any questions the committee may have. >> thank you for your testimony. mr. alexander, please proceed. >> chairman, ranking member titus, distinguished members of the subcommittee, good morning. i'm honored to testify before you today and discuss the authorities and responsibilities of the u.s. army corps of engineers during disaster response and recovery operations. lessons learned from the 2017 storm season and actions taken to insure readiness for 2018. the corps conducts its emergency response and recovery activities under two basic authorities, the stafford act and public law 8499.

under the stafford act and the national response framework that the corps works under the direction of fema serving as the lead federal coordinating agency for emergency support function 3, public works engineering. for recovery missions the corps serves as the lead coordinating agency for the infrastructure systems, recovery support function under the national recovery framework. public law 99 provides a separate source of authority for the corps to prepare for and respond to floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters. under these authorities the corps maintains more than 50 specially trained response teams supported by emergency and preawarded contracts to perform the wide range of public works and engineering- related missions. the 2017 hurricane season was historic and we continue to identify lessons learned in an effort to sustain and improve our performance. the extraordinary impacts of hurricanes harvey, irma and maria resulted in this

unprecedented response. for harvey fema issued the corps 23 mission assignments totaling over $140 million. at its peak nearly 1,000 corps employees deployed and 40 remain engaged today supporting 11 active recovery mission assignments. in response to hurricanes irma and rya, fema issued 40 -- maria, fema issued $40 billion. we deployed thousands of personnel and today 369 corps employees remain engaged executing recovery operations. additionally, we received 43 mission assignments in florida and georgia totaling approximately $45 million. detailed in my written testimony, mission assignments encompassed a range of activities including removal of debris, installation of generators to provide temporary emergency power and the construction of temporary blue roofs which enable impacted residents to move out of emergency shelters and back to their home. in response to irma and maria,

the corps was tasked to assist and repair of segments of the puerto rican power grid. the collaboration of responders which includes the corps and federal agency partners, the utility industry and puerto rico electric power authority have now restored over 99.9% of the nearly 1.5 million customers who had power before the storms including these three major hurricanes, the corresponding in total to 32 events in 2017. among these disasters was the october, 2017 wildfires across northern california. d seven min assignments na fema issued seven gementmission assignments totaling $1.2 billion for debris management and technical assistance. additional wildfires in late december of '17 in ventura and santa barbara counties precipitated into deadly mudslides. in response fema had two

additional responses totaling 110 million for the removal of mudslide, debris from 11 basins and natural channels. other events in 2017 including the central u.s. blizzard, the bighorn river ice jam, numerous flooding and other severe weather events. the bipartisan budget act of 2018 appropriated over $17 billion for the corps to repair and rehabilitate projects across the nation damaged by natural disasters, to construct flood and storm damage reduction projects and to complete food and coastal storm damage reduction studies. we recently identified specific projects that will receive these funds and are working as quickly as possible to complete this work. combining the lessons learned and best practices from 2017 we've taken immediate actions to prepare for 2018. we completed several hurricane exercises with federal, state, local territory partners, the gulf and east coast as well as puerto rico this week and the u.s. virgin islands. we participated in fema's

intergovernmental and national level exercise and we have updated our hurricane plans and standard operating procedures. based on lessons learned we've worked with fema to update and defined 34 prescripted mission assignments which include new cells for logistics support, command and control integration and planning. we are developing an acquisition center of excellence to create a robust and agile contracting capability to support large and complex missions that involve debris, temporary power and roofing as contingency support requirements emerge. in addition to our involvement in these and future response recovery missions, the corps remains fully committed and capable of executing our other civil works activities across the nation. this concludes my testimony. i look forward to answering any questions you may have. thank you. >> thank you for your testimony president bush alexander. mr. sheehan, you may pro -- mr. alexander. mr. sheehan, you may proceed. >> thank you. in my statement for the record i explain in detail the hard

work of my agency and our partners in tennessee during the 2016 response to wildfires and the drought extended across the state and ultimately destroyed thousands of acres, 2,600 buildings, injured more than 134 and resulted in 14 deaths. these fires were merely a precursor to a year in which the nation saw tremendous damage in losses from doubt, wildfires and, of course -- drought, wildfires and, of course, the incredible destruction from hurricanes, the costliest disaster year in our history. emergency managers constantly review our actions and work towards making continuous improvements, building learning organizations and diffusing knowledge is incredibly important to our enterprise. we must remember that all the various policies, processes and programs of emergency management are interwoven with

each other and extend far beyond what we see happening at fema or in the headlines every day. the nation happens n much e of what happens to prepare the nation happens in the states, counties and cities of our nation. for example, beyond any of the federally declared disasters in 2017 state emergency managers handled an additional 22,552 events. local governments managed another 12,557 events. fema is not a first responders during disasters or otherwise. so without a thriving state and local emergency management system, many of these 35,109 events likely would not have received the type of response they needed. a culture of preparedness and timely response capabilities are vitally important to states and local communities. we create this thriving emergency management system by fostering a culture of

preparedness to address threats and risks, building capacity and capabilities and creating the basis by which states are empowered to assist one another. beyond specific preparedness programs that may strengthen people or policies, mitigation strengthens our infrastructure. the subcommittee has taken bold steps towards fostering a culture of preparedness. the national public infrastructure predisaster hazard mitigation program included in the disaster recovery format will fundamentally change how we prioritize and manage mitigation in this nation. the ability to utilize 6% of the total disaster costs in a year to put toward mitigation projects will fundamentally shift the preparedness paradigm and drive down future disaster costs. studies continue to show the value of investment mitigation and the alleviation of potential suffering is apparent. we are also pleased to support

the drr provision in the amount overall for management costs. the increase from 3% to 12% will allow states and local governments to assume more responsibility in this emerging environment of collaborative disaster management. any increase, however, must be tied to the flexible to roll over these costs from one disaster to the next. nima and iem developed a proposal explaining this concept which has been submitted to fema and was submitted for the record with my testimony. one of the other ways in which emergency managers build capacity is through programs such as empg which is a federal and state partnership. for every local dollar matched at least that much is matched by state and local governments. nema and iam every year voluntarily submit a report to congress on empg's return on investments. this report shows the hard work that goes into supporting these 35,109 events i mentioned earlier. yet despite the continued

growth of disasters across the nation, empg funding has remained stagnant since 2012. that's why we call on congress to approve a 5% inflationary increase in the program in the 2018 omnibus and while we were not successful in 2018 we repeat that question again for the 2019 omnibus and trust congress will find a way to prioritize this program. the effects of programs like empg and efforts to increase management costs can be multiplied several times over when states are empowered to assist one another. the best way we do this is through the emergency management assistance compact. a total of 19,196 personnel deplayed through emac. capacity built throughout the system is able to be shared across the country and the national guard is a vital part of that capability. emergency managers and our partners continue to work on improving speed and availability of this system. as we examine the 2017 disaster year and look ahead to the rest of 2018, remember even when

fema is not actively responding to a disaster, state and local emergency managers are still recovering from the last event and conducting the planning, building the capacity and setting the stage for the next storm to approach all while working diligently to implement and manage sometimes complicated federal programs. chairman and ranking member titus and distinguished members, thank you for your continued support and keeping attention on needed capabilities and policy discussions that need to be had. your leadership and consistent support are appreciated. i'm happy too take any of your question -- to take any of your questions. >> thank you. ms. gardner, you may proceed. >> good morning, chairman, ranking member titus and members of the subcommittee. thank you for this opportunity to testify on lessons learned from the historic 2017 hurricane season. i've worked in public safety for 23 years and 10 of which i've been a certified emergency manager. i appear before you today as a

representative of the u.s. council of international association of emergency managers, an advocacy organization for the profession dedicated to protecting america's local communities from all hazards and threats. local governments serve as our nation's first line of defense. when disaster strikes and immediately following a disaster, emergency managers play a role in coordinating local response and recovery efforts working to mitigate further damage from the disaster. appens before the disaster. we wake up thinking about but the most work actually happens before the disaster. emergency managers wake up thinking about, planning for and mitigating for all types of emergencies because we don't have the benefit knowing what may occur next, a public health emergency, hurricane, tornado, active shooter. the list goes on and unfortunately most of those things happen with little to no warning. every day emergency managers are hard at work behind the scenes at all levels of government coordinating with

partners from all sectors of the nation helping our communities become better prepared. mr. chairman, with the 2018 hurricane season already upon us and numerous disasters have already struck our nation this year, i want to look back at lessons learned from last year's unprecedented disaster impacts by sharing these observations. i hope to contribute to the discussions congress and fema are having about reforming our nation's disaster recovery systems. ultimately it is the hope congress will pass the disaster recovery reform act as a demonstration of your commitment to supporting predisaster mitigation and helping to develop a culture of preparedness in which we are all more resilient to the impacts of disaster. from august through october of 2017 i worked on three deployments in response to hurricane harvey. first i served as the emergency operations center manager for the city of dallas. in an effort to shelter more than 5,000 texas citizens. from there i was called to work in the state operation center

to help coordinate public works resources statewide. finally i was deployed as part of a reserve team. as a matter of practice, emergency managers continually evaluate what works well while actively seeking opportunities to improve future response and recovery efforts. our success hinges on having the courage to make the changes associated with these lessons learned. in my written testimony submitted to the subcommittee i outlined some of the lessons learned during hurricane harvey experiences. i would like to highlight a few of those key points for your consideration. first information sharing challenges were an issue yet again. simply emergency managers cannot adequately communicate with the public and coordinate an effective recovery if we do not have access to key information, that the nonprofit and federal partners we invite in to assist have. the right to know must

specifically include emergency managers through federal policy. second, the lack of available personnel resources sufficiently trained in recovery and mitigation processes challenge impacted jurisdictions greatly. thirdly, we lack adequate shelter capacity to meet the needs. revising the stafford act to allow utilization of space is not considered congregate shelters would have a tremendous impact, but allowing locals to partner and utilize predisaster mitigation funds to build shelters closer to their communities even though the cost benefit analysis may not meet the current thresholds, that builds resiliency. as the funding with the most potential to make exponential strides towards resiliency, we must allow for inclusion of multiple factors when determining project eligibility. lastly, i urge congress to show its commitment to disaster readiness and resiliency by

authorizing more predisaster mitigation funding. to compare, in 2017 predisaster mitigation for the entire nation was $90 million, but for harvey alone the state of texas has been allocated $1 billion. doesn't it make more sense to invest in predisaster mitigation efforts working to avoid such massive post disaster expenses? on behalf of all local government emergency management professionals across the country, i sincerely appreciate this opportunity to share my hurricane harvey experiences. i hope my testimony fosters further discussion as we strive to improve the way we as a nation frame disaster resiliency. use the opportunities in 2017, those lessons learned, helped us build a generation of americans who anticipate needs and resolve to take action before disaster empowering themselves to be more resilient to disasters in the future. thank you, chairman. i look forward to any questions the members of the subcommittee

have for me. >> thank you. administrator paulson, you may proceed. members of the subcommittee, thank you for holding this hearing today. ro >> i want to thank und the you holding this important hearing today. as communities around the nation continue to recover through the wake of devastating catastrophes, i remain grateful for the leadership demonstrated by this committee and the opportunity to show my expertise on the committee on behalf of the bill strong coalition. the bill strong coalition is a group of firefighters, emergency responders, insurers, engineers, architects, contractors and manufacturers as well as consumer organizations, code specialists and many others committing to build a more resilient america. during my 40 years dealing with natural disasters at the federal, state and local levels i've gained deep appreciation for the tremendous service our nation's first responders and emergency management officials. in my career which began in 1971 as a rescue firefighter, i

served as administrator of fema from 2005 to 2009, administrator of the u.s. fire administration from 2001 to 2005, director of preparedness for fema from 2003 to 2004 and fire chief of miami-dade fire rescue department from '92 to 2001. maybe it looks like i can't hold a job. responding to many major hurricanes including hurricane andrew in 1992 and katrina in 2005 has provided me with a unique understanding how we can better position fema to respond when disaster strikes. last year was a particularly devastating one for disasters with 17 storms . these are ad unsoing and horrifying numbers and -- astounding and horrifying numbers. having sat in this chair, i know well the challenge faced. while we help those in need it's beyond time to give serious consideration to why we

continue to leave lives, homes, communities vulnerable. the evidence is overwhelming. better land use, modern construction standards and increased mitigation can dramatically reduce the devastation brought by these disasters. we must incentivize and reward communities who have stronger building codes. we must insist the nonflammable and seismic standards are gotten right the first time and enforced. the cost share provision included in the bipartisan budget reform act signed by president trump earlier this year as part of the disaster recovery format passed by this very committee represents a major step forward creating these incentives and the work of this subcommittee including you, mr. chairman, as well as the work of other leaders deserve a tremendous amount of credit. thank you. with another busier than expected hurricane season

ahead, it is more urgent than ever congress send the entire disaster recovery format back to the president's desk. one provision that would dramatically boost the size of the mitigation account arming communities all over the nation with new tools against the risk of flooding, wind damage and wildfires. also before us is fema's task in implementing the cost sharing reduction passed in the law. i applaud fema for embracing this task and would like to offer four specific recommendations i believe will help insure the incentive as implemented get underway to protect homes and lives from future storms. first the cost share incentive should be established as a fema pilot program to insure maximum coverage. second, a maximum standard should be enhanced. a state must have a statewide billing code with a strong enforcement mechanism. third, the state must have a

working mitigation plan with the steps taken to reduce vulnerabilities. in order to receive any funding, states must implement action identified in this plan. finally it would be critical to push for incentives offered to the state mitigation plans and building codes that can achieve significant impact. this would mean the adoption of the most recent recommended code and maintain a model code no older than six years and implementing changes to state and local billing codes that address key vulnerabilities. as the 2018 atlantic hurricane season gets underway, the time is now to put predisaster mitigation at the forefront and protect our communities from the next storm. there is a critical piece of unfinished business from the disaster legislation passed by this committee in the house of representatives this year. a key provision puts a 6% of all annual disaster spending on the budget for predisaster mitigation. in is critical and must be

passed by congress. without preventive spending people are losing their lives. thank you for holding this hearing. i look forward to hearing your questions. >> thank you. i will now begin the first round of questions limited to five minutes for each member. if there are additional questions following the first round, we will have additional rounds of questions as needed. first i was glad to hear ranking member titus mention the importance of the needs of pets during our disaster, a topic of great importance to me. we included a very important provision in a drra that authorizes fema to set up a veterinarian pilot program that will help communities get the help they need in setting up shelters that include facilities for pets. thank you for bringing that up.

i will begin. twice this congress, the house has overwhelmingly passed the disaster recovery reform act which includes speed disaster recovery and mitigate disaster risks. the legislation changes in authorities in drra will save lives. property and taxpayer dollars in the senate has yet to act on this important legislation. heo an to t do you tall witnesses, how do you think it is congress enact the provisions contained in the disaster recovery reform act? mr. beyer, you may start. >> yes, sir. we appreciate the committee's commitment to improve in our nation's resilience in response to disasters. the drra will incentivize that very similar to what the administrator just laid out.

building a nation and culture of resilience is one of the administrator's top strategic goals. thank you. >> the corps of engineers certainly supports any effort to increase the resilience of the nation's infrastructure and to promote life, health safety measures. we also support investments in mitigation up front. we're working on the mitigation function leadership group with our federal agency partners on the development of a national mitigation strategy. if you look at the dollar amounts associated with the supplementals of storms since hurricane katrina. if you took a fraction of that and invested it in mitigation, perhaps we would be able to mitigate the damages we see today in our response and recovery operations. thank you. >> the national emergency management association supports this legislation remains active in helping work towards its

passage. the key provisions most important for us are the national public infrastructure, prehazard mitigation that, provision to take 50% of disaster funding and make it available for predisaster mitigation is i think a game changer in terms of our nation's resilience, support also for the management costs, the ability to change that current level of funding from 3.4% to 12% split 7% to the state, 5% to local governments. if that happens, if we're ever able to implement that administrator long division of fema for the emergency management enterprise and the nation creating a more collaborative disaster management process, that allows us to fund that capability and build a more collaborative emergency management system. the national emergency management association opposes the duplication of benefits provision there. we think the ability to waive some of these things could lead

to other agencies trying to reach into the disaster relief fund and that that could create potential problems in funding streams for funding the nation's disaster readiness. discussion, be the international association of emergency managers also supports , and we urge everyone to remember that this policy s >> we also support avand urge es everyone to remember that this policy, it is policy and it's written, but it saves lives and if it's not saving a life, it's impacting quality of life and for those of you less willing to look at passing such legislation, remember it may be your family that's dealing with this legislation and policy in the future and make sure that you can live with whatever that comes up to be. incentives for states and locals are imperative. it helps us to continue to

drive mitigation as a culture in our own communities so that we can teach that culture to citizens that live in our communities, but consider the possibilities of additionally adding the benefit and incentives to the local citizen, the private sector partners we have, the nonprofits and the other nongovernmental agencies within those jurisdictions. how can those incentives also be directly applied so that the culture can be continued to be built? listening, and you see tt almost every a >> as you're gencysitting here listening and you see that almost every agency that responds to disasters recognizes very clearly that predisaster mitigation works. it does save lives. it saves property. we saw after hurricane andrew we made significant changes in our building code. you saw hurricane irma go through the keys. the houses that were built to the new code are still there,

doing fine. some of them didn't even lose their roof tiles. it went across the top of my house in south florida and no damage at all. if you look at last year's disaster spending, over $200 billion spent on disasters, taking 6% of that and applying to predisaster mitigation, can you imagine the impact this will have across this entire country as far as building resiliency in our system? back to you, i know you're over your five minutes, but the question that you asked, will it have an impact? of course, it would, a very, very positive impact and i think it's extremely important that we push this very hard to get it not only through here, but also through the senate. thank you for the question. >> the chair now recognizes miss titus for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. afa disaster is contracting a big part of recovery after a disaster is contracting with

the private sector to get assistance with some of the efforts. i'd like to ask you about some disaster contracting with fema. in october of 2016 the puerto rico electric power authority awarded a small company with just two full-time employees located in montana, the white fish energy holdings company, a $300 million contract to restore electricity on the island in the aftermath of hurricane maria. according to the washington post, before whitefish received the $300 million contract the only thing that they had done was a small effort in arizona to repair a 4.8-mile transmission line for a $1.3 million deal. now they've eventually canceled their contract with whitefish, but so far they received a

payment of over $30 million to work in puerto rico and whitefish claims puerto rico owes them an additional $100 million. i'd like to ask you what role fema played in the awarding of that contract. did they request any guidance from you before making the award? are you planning to reimburse them for their expenses related to the contract? i wonder if you're cooperating with the probe. i understand the department of homeland security office of the inspector general is conducting that and can you provide to the subcommittee kind of a detailed justification or the project work sheets for what was actually done to merit this kind of payment of taxpayer dollars? we have to look at thet of where we w ma'am. rk. we have to look at the context of where we were. we have a devastating disaster

i believe in october of 2017 when prpa who is the legal responsible entity to restore power for the commonwealth, just as most of our coops, cooperate ever its around our nation, just as our private electric providers are around our nation, prpa was -- cooperatives around our nation, just as our private electric providers are around our nation, prpa was responsible to provide electricity to the commonwealth. as with many storms and different disasters prior to that, standard practice within the industry is mutual aid crews will come in to assist. that did not occur at that time. so prpa elected to do a contract. fema does not get involved in the contracts between legal applicants necessarily and who they contract with. we have federal procurement rules and regulations that are required to be followed in order to get reimbursement for contracts at large. the public assistance program does give the ability for fema

to reimburse eligible applicants for eligible work. so my reimbursement dob under the -- any reimbursement done under the white fish contract or any other contract that's gone through the eligibility requirements set forth in the stafford act for reimbursement and you had a list of questions, so i'm going to kind of give an overview of how that works. so at the time we had to make some very quick and crisis action planning decisions on the ground, some of which we've not been faced with in any disaster. for example, the generation of the distribution power of the commonwealth was devastated. in most terms and cases we turn to the corps of engineers which is a vital partner to what we do for emergency power restoration and that's generally done through generators. at this time we knew we had to have more than that. so we asked the corps to step up. >> i'm not interested in the corps. i want to get back to the

whitefish arrangement. >> sure. ma'am, as far as the whitefish, that's a prpa question. we would reimburse eligible applicants across the nation for eligible work done. >> do you not think fema should have in place greater checks on contracts that are issued before you just pay out this kind of money to the company that you -- even i and i'm certainly not an expert in this area, would have some reservations about contracting with for such a major job and over time it's shown that they weren't up to the job? >> right. >> you don't think that's your responsibility? >> no, ma'am, i don't. i think the responsibility is always best if it's locally executed, states managed and federally supported. as you heard the esteemed colleagues on the panel, all disasters begin and end locally. what are we asking fema to do? do we support the locals on one hand and then manage, oversee and dictate how they contract on the other. >> i'm not asking you to dictate. i'm asking you to provide some

oversight for the amounts of money of $30 million of the taxpayers. >> i believe the total bill was over 300 million. so i feel very serb we -- certain we have very strict oversight on what the taxpayers' dollars are going to. there are oversight measures in place with white fish and any other contract. >> is that part of your after disaster report, to have greater oversight on these kind of contracts and you don't think it should be? >> no, ma'am, i never said i to the think it should be. i said we have current -- don't think it should be. i said we have current oversight and procedures in place to make sure federal dollars are spent wisely and spent for the allocations set forth in the stafford act. we also have contract teams that will go out and assist local governments. three done that in texas, -- they've done that in texas, florida and others. so i believe we have adequate oversight in place. >> the chair now recognize ms. crawford for five minutes. >> thank you. mr. beyer, are you aware what

percentage of homes flooded by hurricane harvey had flood insurance policies? >> sir, i don't know the percentage. i can get that back to the committee. i would late to guesstimate. >> i'm looking at a washington post report on an analysis of fema data this shows only 17% of homeowners in the eight most affected counties have flood insurance. does that sound accurate to you? >> you know, sir, i don't want to judge the accuracy of the post, but what i will say is insurance is the first and best line of defense. so if 17% is what they had, i would say that would be low in that area. >> let me ask you this. were you aware fema is legally required to assess the accuracy and need to update a flood map recovering the area every five years? >> what i can do is get you information on the national flood insurance program. it's not under my purview. >> it's not?

>> no, sir. i'm under response recovery. i handle stafford act programs, but i can definitely get you information and will be happy to provide anything and everything on the national flood insurance program. i don't want to overspeak. i would hate to do that to you and the committee. >> that said probably the line of questioning i have is probably better directed for somebody else in your agency. you don't have any issues with flood control or flood mapping per se? >> no, sir. it's not under my responsibility as laid out by the administrator, but we'll be happy to work with you. i don't want to come across like i'm dodging the question. >> sure, i understand. do you have any knowledge of that five year requirement, though? is that accurate you have to update every five years? >> our state and locals may have a better understanding of the mapping requirements. i don't want to put them on the

spot. >> let me ask ms. garner because i think you were in the area affected, correct? you were not? >> i actually am in north texas. i have concerns about the accuracy of fema flood mapping and how current they are. i'm just wondering if you could opine on whether you think fema is the best agency to engage in flood mapping. >> i will give you my opinion based on my experience that be a lot of speculation. i have not looked at the flood maps for hat impacted you my opinion based on my experience but that would be speculation. >> i have not looked at the flood maps for that affected area. that's another piece that i'm not aware of. >> i will tell you that fema has played an active role and

they engage actively other partners such as the national weather service and other partners that deal with flooding on a regular basis and because they are used to doing that, i don't see a reason to change that process because we have seen it and it's worked in our communities. we do not flood in the city of richardson because of mitigation efforts that we have taken in the past. not to say that we never will. we do not see the same flooding issues and we used those maps. >> let me ask you, mr. paulson, because you have been a former fema administrator, correct? >> yes, sir. >> would you be able to speak to whether, regulatorily, you had to update the flood maps. >> i can't speak to the five years, when i was administrator, we started in the eastern part of the united states. north carolina was one effort states where we started. i'm not sure how far they have

gotten so far but i know that fema has gotten that process. >> i appreciate you being here every day and i have to submit my questions for the record for someone else in your agency to answer. thank you. >> thank you. >> the chair recognizes mr. diphase by five minutes. >> just back to the questioning by the subcommittee ranking member. i had asked the questions earlier. we had a contradiction here. the two contractors claimed that fema reviewed the contract and there was oversight. that was denied by fema twice.

the inspector general will get into that to review that fishy contract. we can't do that until we get the ig report. mrs.titus and i sent a letter. your own starddard say that you have you had have 10,928 reservists. you had 6749 on call last year and you still have 2383 deployed, so that seems to leave us something around 4300 reservists. how are you didn't deal with that issue this year? >> that's a very good question. and as we outlined, in our after action, we faced personnel shortages in 2017. you know, if you go back, the agency faced personnel

shortages in 2016, 2015, 2013, 2010, and you can go back. we'll face personnel shortance in 2019. how do we do that? how do we accomplish our mission without saying, we need for fema employees? several things that we are doing. first of all, change the national level doctrine and readvising the national response framework. what that will do for us as a country, it puts more players at the table so that resources and the personnel that we have, we can better utilize those by including the private sector and what we do daily and our private -- and our delivered planning and operational planning by incorporating a-g-a critical infrastructure nodes and then, across sector planning with those. so for problems hence, we don't hit one bucket. we task recognize around the problem. we are making hiring in critical areas, hiring in logistics. we had issues with the last

logistics specifically in the commonwealth of puerto rico. we'll have teams that can get opt ground anywhere, not just in the commonwealth and help in the last logistics. in texas, a very robust capability from that end from the state and local side of things. we didn't have that same issue. the other thing that we have to do, if you look to the left or right, our best emergency managers, they don't wear a fema shirt. they are state and local partners. we have the system -- you are probably aware of the emergency management assistance compact from state emergency management. i have done that. i have a cysted states and i brought in states. but when we talk about a national catastrophe and similar to what we saw in 2017, we need the ability to also rally those resources, those well-trained professionals and put them resources to use so that would increase our staffing also. we are doing that through what we call the national qualification system.

and we feel like we'll have great buy-in from the state and local buyers. i did that in 2012 when hurricane hit. fema contacted me. i led a team to under fema's direction to head out the effort in new york city. you bring the lessons learned back to the states and local jurisdictions. in a perfect world, i would love to have 20,000 reservists ready to go right now. every federal agency sitting in front of you would say, i would love to have x amount of people. but the reality is that we have to look outside of our traditional means. we talk about state and local governments and mitigation but that's not working. how do we do things better? >> wasn't there concern and particularly in the case of puerto rico about reimbursement to the state and locals if they provided mutual aid? >> you know, there may have been but how does fema get involved in that? let me tell you how we did get involved in that?

we expedited what we call category b. we expedited that. that was our priority at the time, obligation to the commonwealth. there were concerns but, again, that's a question better asked to the commonwealth or to others. to combat that, though, what we have done in 2018, we hired over 2000 local hires on the island. they are fema employees going through the national qualification system now. we have very robust exercises. we had over 4600 staff on the ground. we had people embedded with every municipality. we have done a tremendous amount of effort from 2017 response wise into 2018 and we have newt to the test. -- we put that to the test. with tropical storm barryl, we turned that around in about 14

hours. we increased the commodities. we know we'll lose power in the storm but we will be able to power emergency power through those critical areas. >> thank you. my time expired bud i was going to ask the corps about the removal of large generator as it they delivered, if i could, mr. chairman. i don't know if they have been removed or -- i guess i would question why you would do that now, with the beginning of the hurricane season since their grid seems somewhat fragile still. there were three what we call mega generators, brought to the territory, two to help stabilize the grid there in pallaseco. they remain in operation. there is no plan for immediate demobilization. >> that may have bad information i received. >> there is one in the

community of yabacoa that will be demobilize effective tomorrow. and that's a decision reached based upon assessment, my prep of the standard grid of the area and it was concurred. that decision to demobilized was collaborated and concurred by the unified coordination group which has a representative from the governor's office there who concurred with that. >> okay. hope family preppa is better prepared now than before. >> thank you, mr. chairman, mr. alexander, for represent can the corps of engineers. my community dreads hurricane season not because of impending storms but year after year, a as result of risk management that surrounds hurricane preparedness, through the corps of engineers' water is charged out of lake okachobee, hundreds of millions of golfer lons of water, laided with micro system

algae yes, blue and green algae. right now, the water released into lake okachobee has 15 times greater time of micro system which leads to levels 15 times more than humans should be exposed to. i want to ask you some pointed questions on the risk manage many of the water levels of lake okachobee, the risk management. dike, potentially the failing dike around lake okachobee. what is the level of water in inches, feet, that lake okachobee should be at, going into hurricane season so that there is not a risk of dike failure? >> mr. mass, thank you for the question. going into the beginning of the season, we strife to maintain a lake level of approximately 12 1/2 feet. >> 12 1/2 feet is the maximum level you want going into hurricane season. >> yes, sir. and up to 15 1/2 feet beginning

of the dry season. >> and is that for strictly the purpose of risk management or keeping that 12 to 15 1/2 feet on the lake for other purposes? >> that combination of trying to meet other purposes anibalance the needs associate -- and ballance -- >> you gave me answer answer to a question that i at any time. >> what is left of that lake, that dike to be safe from dike failure? not for other concerns, not for drinking water, not for agriculture, or agreements with the tribes. what is the level you need so there is no risk of failure with the dike. >> we go into hurricane season, as i said, we go into hurricane season attempting to reach a level no less than 12 1/2 feet. getting into those corns, i know i sent you those questions in advance so i would have the answer. how much water do you keep on the lake for these other

concerns that you talked about? how much water in inches or feet is kept on lake okachobee for the purpose of agreements with the tribes? >> i'll give you the bottom line up front. lake okachobee is not managed like a corps flood control reservoir. the herbert hoover dike essentially is a levee system that encompasses and contains a prior free-flowing lake. the specific questions on inches of water is noneo not applicable in the management of lake okachobee. >> sir, the colusa hatch yes municipality was requesting 1000 cube yuck feet per second hoping to get inches of water off the lake. they were denied. the corps of engineers has a call every single week where they pay attention to the amount of inches or quarter

inches of levels of change on lake okachobee. so absolutely, lake okachobee is managed and remembering lated in that way. but let me ask you a different one. how much water is kept on lake okachobee in the form of what's requested by con summative use permit for agriculture? how many inches, how many feet of water are kept on lake okachobee for that purpose? >> i would like to state that corps of engineers does keep track of probably every inch much water in that reservoir. that being said, though, we don't have specific allocations for those specific purposes in this con summative use agreements. again, that's a balance between the 12 1/2 and 15 1/2 feet. it's managed as a system along with some other, i guess, laws that exist down there with respect to the con summative use of ive use of the --

consumptive use. >> in balancing the use, i asked about the ecology ballance of the lake. they say at min umm, that's 11 feet. i asked them, okay, if the water level on the lake should not be below 11 feet, if irrigation or those that need water, agriculture or irrigation, those that need drinking water or somebody else needed water for those concerns, if the lake is at 11 feet, would you still send the water to the irrigation canals for agriculture? the answer is yes. if it was at ten feet, would you still send the water to the canals for agricultural irrigation? the answer is yes. if it was at nine feet, the answer is yes. if the lake was at 8 feet, a dangerously low level, the answer was yes, they would still get the water for those uses. so is it right that you keep the water at this higher level when my community is destroyed because this water is at that higher level when you are still going to send the water to these other areas for purposes even if the water is down as

low as eight feet on lake okachobee? >> sir, i've not been privy to any of those conversations that you have had. what i will say is that i know that our jacksonville district is engaged with the community, very engaged with you. i am not an expert on lake okachobee and the releases. but what i will offer is an engagement of you, the district chippedder and anybody from his staff or here at headquarters who can walk you through in detail how we manage the lake and what the risks are at various levels. >> thank you for the answers to your question. i yield back and i do request a send round of questioning. >> the chair recognizes ms. plasket for minutes to. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman and i thank the ranking member for having this hearing. this is, of course, very important to me, representing the virgin islands, after we have gone through the 2017 hurricane season and beginning the 2018 hurricane season. and we are still looking to

ways in which not just to recover but to begin the rebuilding. some of you are probably unaware that this entire school year, children in the virgin islands have operated on a four- hour shift system because so many of our public schools were compromised so that children had to share facilities and only participated in school curricular activities for four ours during the day. most of our dialysis and in- patient individuals are still off island because our hospitals have been compromised so much from the hurricane that they have been unable to be at home for those services. i want to thank fema and the army corps, coast guard and so many other federal agencies that were there on the ground and providing assistance. i know that this action report really provides a blue print on how to have improvements and make things better and i'm trusting that fema and the

other agencies are really taking those things to heart. you know, the sign of maturity is recognizing when you have done things wrong and learning from them and just moving forward. but one of the things that in wanted to ask these individuals about, in particular with some of the issues that we still have, in april 20th, we sent a letter to administrative brock long which i asked be submitted into the record. the letter has been signed not only by myself but the chair of this committee, bill schuster and others, requesting support for some of the issues that we have. without objection, can that be admitted into the record? >> yes, it may. >> thank you. >> one of the things that we are concerned about that i would like to bring to your attention, mr. byard, as well as mr. alexander, if you can assist in answering this question is with regard to

debris removal. the u.s. corps is working on fema mission assignment to remove all the vegetative d and d and marine debris from the territory. this work will be completed in september. however, large stock piles of debris remaining with hurricane season upon us already is very concerning. i know there has been some discussion about getting this out and ensuring where it can be kept. we were given an extension of the local share on this. but due to the army corps bid protest done to the army corps which they believe will be overcome, debris will not be removed until the end of december. the government of the virgin island will be hit with a 10% local cost share. will fema support 100% federal share extensions since the delay is not under the control of the government of the virgin

islands? >> ma'am, that's a good question. as you know, the debris has been difficult to remove. i was down there about a month ago or so. there is still a lot of work to do there. what we will do is work with the governor. and if we receive a request, irdon't want to sound ignorant to that, it will be working itself up. if we do not receive a question, i will be looking on that. i spoke to bill vogel yesterday, the fco federal coordinate for. >> right. >> and i spoke to also mike vern who will be being to -- >> you'll work with the governor and through to do that if it's necessary, because this outside of our control and, of course, you know, any cost share for us is really a great burden. >> yes, ma'am. the second question i have is with regard to the step program. the stem program is one which can be supportive of individuals. this is the program that allows

temporary repair of homes in the virgin islands. i know that there was some back and forth with regard to the step program because the limit i cannily for the stem program was 20,000. however, the blue roof program, we know, ran an average about 25,000 per roof. we understand that that has been increased. the step is now at 25,000. i know that governor of the virgin island has a request in for 35,000 per home. are you willing to support that request at this time? >> well, what i do know is that we have authorized the use of the step program for any home in the territory with a blue roof. >> okay. would that include -- one thing that's really important to us. you did allow the -- the step was used for rental properties in new york city after hurricane sandy. yes, ma'am. >> but, to date, you have refused to allow that for low

income renters in the virgin islands and some of those do have blue roofs on them. will you be willing to reconsider that? >> what i would like to do is get back to you, representative, and the reason i say that is that we have the multi-lease repair program under the individual assist stands program. i would like to see where that program is, when it deals with multi-family facilities. and also the step. so i will have my staff definitely take that for action. if it's okay with you to get back to you. >> i have run out of time. saw bins you said you will get back with me on the record, i'm going to hold you to come into my office. >> yes, ma'am. >> it's been difficult to get fema. bill vogel has been really good about being there on the ground and answering any questions that we have. but i had difficulty in getting individuals from here at headquarters to come into my office and have conversations. i know we have all the same interest in mind and i'm not trying to be, you know, the bad

guy all the time. i really do want to see how we can work together and make this better, particularly as we are preparing people in the virgin islands for this new hurricane season. and also i know my time is out. mr.al text i want to thank the corps of engineers for really extending themselves and committing to having biweekly meetings with me, giving me anone tate of what they are doing. that's been very helpful and really happy for the cooperation and the relationship that our office has with them. thank you. i yield back. >> mr. gallagher? >> thank you, i am sorry that i was late. i hope that i don't rehash some of the things we talked about. but mr. byard, can you explain

what happens to commodities in 2017 and what adjustments you have made in 2018 to address the potential needs of the territories should there be another hurricane? >> yes, sir. i would be happy to. the first question is, you know, the 2017 issue. you know, and, again, as we pointed out in the report, all of our national planning, all the deliberate ing that we do is the deliberate planning that we do is build around a three-legged stool. you have local, state and federal government. two of those legs in the commonwealth were not there. i don't mean that to be disparaging. we had a lot of impacted first responders. they were survivors in the mom welt. we have the ability to get the

commodities. we accomplished that. we were taking from the port but getting it out to the more difficult terrained facilities. we did. with action planning on the ground, you do that to assist needs. that was accomplished. what are we doing in 2018? as i mentioned earlier, you know, one of our targeted hiring initiatives is in our logistics. everything that we do is about logistics. and, so, we are hiring more teams or more individuals that will staff teams, called intimate support teams that we can sends down to further expand our footprint for the last mile of logistics. currently, on the caribbeans, in the caribbeans, we have about 4600 staff, fema staff, doing the reef coverry mission. they are trained to do response. we have staff in each municipality, communication, satellite communication in each municipality, backup generators already installed in critical

facilities to include communication towers. we have done logistical exercises where we have one warehouse going into 2017, we have five on the island now. where we had thousands of commodities, we have millions now. we have done exercises with the municipalities where we actually moved commodities from the distribution center out into the more rural or difficult terrained municipalities. we did that to exercise the movement but we didn't take them back. they are well secure right now, well positioned, out of the weather. >> i appreciate that. >> administrator paulson, you have extensive experience as a firefighter and a fema administrator. what do you think we can do to avoid the problems that we had

in 2017. >> i think mitigation from wildfires is not any different than mitigating from any other type of disasters. it's looking at what are the issues? what are the risks? is there enough funding to deal with those risks? i think that we need to -- i would encourage this committee to look very clearly at that 6% of disaster mitigation. states like your state, california, all the western states out there are having a very, very difficult time. i mean, we've lost so many homes. we had fatalities out there. we had infrastructures. we had water systems destroyed because of the wildfires out there. and not having the right types of materials in place to with stand those types of disasters. so a state having enough money pre-disaster mitigation will go a long way towards resolving a lot of the issues that you are

talking about, protecting our homes and businesses from these wildfires. >> thank you. >> i yield the balance of my time. >> thank you. the chair recognizes ms. norton for five minutes. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. this is a very timely hearing and i'll tell you why in a moment. this is a question, i suppose, best addressed to mr. byard and also mr. alexander. the question i'm asking implicates very deeply the federal presence with the climate change that we are seeing across the country. we are seeing increasing flooding that's been alluded to in this hearing. there was sufficient concern about flooding here in the nation's capital. we have a levee on the mall that i think, mr. alexander, the corps of engineers was involved with as well to protect the federal presence. yet, in real time, yesterday, we had a disastrous flood in

this region. nobody who lives here or who was here, in the capital and didn't have to go out could have missed what happens happened and it seems it waves this question about real time flood even in the nation's capital. a portion of the george washington parkway was closed in both directions. to show you just how close or how implicated the capitol is, water poured into at least one metro stop and that happened to have been capitol south. the one closest to the capitol of the united states. of course seems to wonder, is anybody protected to the united states if that's close to the capitol itself we could have had such a flood. so my question really goes to a real test. we in the district of columbia,

are very proud. we have built on both water fronts, southeast and southwest. many, many areas build on dr. waterfront. the question implicates new york and many other areas of the united states because the water front is a very ripe area for revenue. on the south -- by the way, if you go to the southwest waterfront, we call it the wharf, we finished phase 1. and it looks like the whole thing is finished but phase 2 is yet to come. we are building on the southeast waterfront called capitol river. and, again, that's ongoing. it will be another ten years of building. i have to ask you, is it safe to build on water fronts? what does fema require? what does the corps of engineers require? what do they require of those who are building on the

waterfront to make sure that those areas are not flooded with a huge waste -- to the jurisdiction involved not to mention the private sector? can maybe just build on the waterfront? what does someone have to do? i had no suggestion that the waterfront was implicated. but i would be a fool to sit here and say that everything is fine unless you tell me that there are regulations that should be required or are required on the waterfront? i would like to hear from both of you since the federal presence is here. >> the majority of our population, as you know, lives on the waterfront. when i was with the state of

alabama, the governor asked me how we can help with evacuation. i said, ban air conditioning 58 miles from the coast and people will stop coming. the economic impacts -- >> you have to build on the waterfront. >> exactly. >> from a fema perspective, i would first look at the initiatives that were passed by the committee, you know. the incentive to build stronger, the bipartisan -- >> you are telling me that when people -- when building occurs on the waterfront -- i don't know what you mean by incentives. >> those who build understand that they are either required or there are economic incentives to do so. >> what i'm saying -- let me rephrase that. part of the authorities that were granted in the bipartisan budget act that was passed was the incentives to build a more resilient -- at a more resilient rate. fema has no authority necessarily over what is built. that is a local and state issue. i would also -- as we have a

working group -- >> of course, you have mitigation authority. >> we have mitigation authority working with an eligible applicant. there is not a mitigation authority that we can direct or tell, you know, a local business how to build. we would work with the district in that case to see what are the local codes of the district? i don't know that. you know, fema is not in a position to know that. you know, i would -- and i will let the corps talk about that. >> mr. alexander? >> yes, ma'am. i will be quick. you know, as mr. byard just said, the corps has no authority and oversight on the district or any state. >> i can't hear you, sir. >> as mr. byard just said, the corps has no authority under which it can direct any -- the district or any state or locality on what they can bit or what they cannot build. but the corps does urge local

governments to, you know, enforce their zoning and certainly enforce building to established codes. and if you're going to build on the waterfront, whether it's river rain or coastal, you know, make sure that you out of flood plain. you may have to do that by standoff or through elevation. that's the major reason that we do shore protection projects along the nation's beaches. it is not primarily for recreation but for the protection of infrastructure and the economy. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. >> thank you. we will now begin a second round of questions. i would like to remind all members today is the annual hot dog lunch in ray burn so we will hold everyone strictly to five minutes. in february, as part of the bipartisan budget act of 2018, congress enact add provision that will allow fema to

incentivize mid gays through the increase of the the federal cost share of federal disaster. what is the process of the implementation? >> we have a group looking at how do we best implement. as you administrator paulson say, we'll look at the palete. we want to take full advantage of the authority that congress -- you know, granted us in that provision. it fits the administrator's strad ic plan. we want to do that right to start with. >> administrator paulson, what do you think should be driving the incentive of fema -- >> that's not a giveaway program that states have to do

certain things to qualify for that extra money. have a statewide building plan in place, a rock solid mitigation plan. they have done an assessment of the risk and put those mitigation dollars those alleviating those risks. i think we need to make sure that we are not wasting these taxpayer dollars but we are actually giving the dollars to states who have done things to reduce costs. you know, we had $200 million, $200 billion last year. we put strong mitigation in mess for 2018, perhaps next year, it won't be $200 billion with the same amount of storms. you know, my conversation with fema is, you know, they are doing a great job putting this thing. get it going but let's make sure that the states do what is necessary to mitigate the disaster cost. otherwise, we are just wasting our money. >> mrs. sheehan and mrs. gardner, what are the greatest

challenges facing local governments with the programs designed for incentivize mitigation? >> predict ability of funding stream. i think that's a complicating factor for us. we need to be able to plan. mitigation measures take a long time to put into place. and i think anything -- i think -- one of administrator long's priorities is to simplify or take the complexity out of feel y anything that -- out of fema. anything that we can do to take the complexities out of fema will help us be better mitigate fors. >> to build on that, the actions that mr. paulson and

mr. sheehan discussed are all challenges that we face but from the state and local perspective, the more you do in policy to add incentives, it just helps us to reiterate the importance of those mitigation steps and it gives us the leverage that we need to do those mitigation steps, even another they are link at this and even though they are costly. there are other things to spend that money on. and some more incentives that are there at all levels and, as i mentioned earlier, directly to private sector partners and citizens would also be a benefit. the more incentives, the better there. that gives us more leverage to back up the mitigation projects and hopefully do more in the future. >> thank you. the chair recognizes ms. titus for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i would just like to go back to some questions i was asking earlier. as you noted in your

generalized answer, i had some specific questions i wanted to ask you one more for the record. can you very specifically provide to the subcommittee a detailed justification or the project worksheet under which preppa is requesting reimbursement for the power in puerto rico? can you give us that information. >> you are asking for the project work sheets that preppa -- that fema fema is working with prepa for the remaining -- >> for all of it. >> as we close on the emergency work, the permanent restoration work which is two different categories of work is done under a different authority. so the estimates are not there. they were not there -- there is no forward project worksheet,

if you will, for the remaining work. >> can you give us an accounting of what they did that you are paying them back for? very simple, common sense terms, things that people understand. can you give us that? will you give us that? >> yes -- >> will we it be getting it? i will check with our counsel to make sure. we have nothing to hide -- >> could be -- for the record, i would think. should be yes. >> thank you, we look forward to getting it. i want to go back to mr. alexander to a question that was asked by mr. defazio. we had con interest dick tri information. in a letter that we got from feela, the two generators at the plant will be demobilized on august 18th. is that not accurate? >> ma'am, we are working with

fema to extend the mission assignment for several months, to potentially mid-october. the alacoa power plant will be demobilized. >> that will go offline july 18th. you tried to extend the other two. up didn't make that very clear in your answer to mr. defazio. we have three. the mission ape sign. ends 18 augment on the i'm land, federal coordinating officers are working with the corps and puerto rico on potentially extending that mission assignment for several more months into the fall. >> if that does not work out, the deadline is august 18th. >> that would not be our decision, ma'am. the current mission assignment ends 18 august for pallaseco.

>> the avacoa generator will be demobilized tomorrow evening. >> i just want to be sure that's clear. sounded like you weren't going to demobilize the other two, that there wasn't any question about it. >> also, now, i would like to go back to the point that we were making about animals. we know that people are much more likely to leave a disaster area if they can take their pets or they know what's going to happen to them. but we saw in the last disaster, i think it's harvey, pet shelters, m gardner, you are well aware of this, all over texas, they were taking in rescued animals. they used fema resources to do that. yet, there is little or nor reporting on how those funds were used. that's why ms. comstock and i introduced a bipartisan bill, just to do minimum reporting to fema, about how pets are used, how they are reunited, how they are cared for. just seems common sense.

i would ask the local and the state emergency management folks what they think about that bill, if they have any suggestions for it, if they can help us work to get that passed. would that make their work easier or will there be more accountability? ms.guards another or mr. sheehan -- ms. gardner or mr. sheehan? at thely call level, that would help us reiterate the need. apathy is the biggest problem. it takes six or seven messages to get somebody to do something. animals are the same thing. mort we can do on the front end to explain, what the process is going to look like that their animals will be taken care of, the more willing they will be willing to actually evacuate when they have to and do those

things pro actively instead of waiting that they are already impacted. >> ma'am, we do know that people are less likely to evacuate or there are additional complications if people are not able to take their pets with them. it does present a logistical challenge when people bring pets. our i'd afterpets is dogs, cats, perhaps birds but other people, you know, countrymen sometimes have other ideas of what pets mean. i do think we have a lack of data around this and a report will be helpful for us. we'll continue to manage it. we need to so that people can evacuate, we need data. >> that would be great. thank you. >> the chair recognizes mr. mass for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr.alexander, let's get back to risk management of lake okachobee during hurricane season. the corps of engineers recently said when they were announcing the releases of water to the treasure coast of florida from

lake okachobee that in their risk calculation was the threat of life to 36,000 people south of lake okachobee. that's something that goes into that risk assessment matrix. knowing the situation there, one inch of water, six inches of water, one foot of water, that can be the difference of failure or not failure on that 730-mile square like of lake okachobee during a storm. so, again, i point out the corps of engineers absolutely manages and pays attention to every inch of water that flows into lake okachobee, sits on lake okachobee, evaporates off lake okachobee or discharged out of lake okachobee into some other body of water that has no business being. the corps of engineers pays attention to it. now, i want to ask again. you do not have the numbers for how much water is maintained on lake okachobee for the purpose of drinking water? >> sir, i do not believe that i

ever said that corps does not manage and knows exactly how much water is in the lake itself. that being said, again, lake okachobee is not managed like a flood control multi-purpose reservoir. we work on a balance, again, between 12 1/2 and 15 1/2 feet. that balance is to meet multiple purposes i environmental water, supply, flood, navigation. but at the end of the day, you know, we have to place a premium on risk. >> at the end of the day, it's risk. and if you are keeping more water on the lake, then what should be on there, that puts at risk 36,000 people south of lake okachobee, according to the corps of engineers. i'm formally requesting from the corps of engineers that you do tell me exactly how much water you keep in terms of inches or feet on lake okachobee or in terms of gallons for the purpose of agriculture irrigation, for the purpose of drinking water in

the communities, for the purpose of the agreements with the tribes. what are the amounts through those consumptive use permits that is kept on the lake because the corps of engineers needs to manage how much water is on the lake for all those purposes in addition to risk management and in addition to other things, how much water for each of those? i'm making a formal request for the corps of engineers to get those to me. i want to move to another question before my time expired. i sent a letter to the corps of engineers in the name of hurricane preparation and risk management, the corps does have discretion based upon collusion concerns that could be in the water. i asked this specific question. what level of pollution concerns or poxle to,ins of water in lake okachobee could be considered too great of a level where the corps of engineers says, we cannot discharge waters to these epicenters of human populations, the treasure coast

of florida or the west coast of florida. what levels of to,ins in the water will be considered too great? and the answer was entirely avoided. if there is cyanide in the water, would the corps of engineers cease discharging water into these epicenters of population. sir, i'm not avoiding the question. i don't have the answer. again, i am offering an engagement, whether here in d.c. or down in your district with the district leadership, with the headquarters here army corps to discuss these matters. i'm not an expert on lake okachobee. i did receive your questions in advance. if i had specifics as to how much inches for these events, i would have provided it today. if there was lead in the water, would the corps of engineers cease discharging water to the etchy center of these human populations? >> sir, i cannot answer that. i don't know what the levels are. >> if there is arsenic in the

water, will the corps of engineers cease discharging water into mine community. the corps of engineers is discharging water as a result of risk management, hurricane preparedness if they are discharging water right now, clearly, enough water was not discharged earlier in the season. >> again, circumstances i don't have the specific answers. i have to believe, though, that, you know, there are other regulating agencies who do pay attention to what those toxic levels are and i'm confident that they will work hand in hand with the corps was we look at those releases. i will offer detailed work with you. >> thank you for the will second round of questioning, mr. chairman. i will yield back. >> thank you. and thank you all for your testimony. your comments have been helpful to today's discussion. if there are no further questions, i would ask

unanimous consent that record of today's hearing remain open until such time that witnesses have provided answers to any questions that may be submitted to them in writing. and unanimous consent that record remain open for 15 days for additional comment and information submitted by members or witnesses to be included in the record of today's hearing. without objections, so ordered. i would like to thank our witnesses again for their testimony today. if no other members have anything to add, the subcommittee stands adjourned.

over the next couple of day, we'll cover the governor's association summer meeting in santa fe, new mexico. tomorrow, governors will discuss the future of technology as well as attend workshops on work force equity. that's tomorrow starting at 11:00 a.m. on c-span 2. on saturday, the nga meeting will focus on an international focus. arts and educational assistance.

join us this weekend for alaska weekend. we'll explore alaska's beauty, mystery and future and public policy issues facing reporter on the eel affect of climate change in alaska. >> and jacquelin pedda, it executive director of the national congress of american indians discusses native americans alaskan issues. tina pigeon, general counsel for alaska cable provider g ci talks about how the company makes broad band possible for small communities across tundra and lakes. on book tv, saturday at noon eastern, the c-span cities tour

explores the alaska literary scene. the president of the see alaska institute with her book on alaska exploration and the effect of the 1989 exxon valdez spill. and author mark adams talks about his book, tip of the iceberg. the experience retracing an 1899 expedition of scientists, arties, conservationists and writers. on american tv on c-span 3. the c-span cities tour visits the alaska state capital. the native heritage center and we'll take a look at preparing seafood for markets from alaska seafood glacier incorporated. watch forth documentaries on alaska. the film alaska silver

millions, the 1949 film, eskimo hunters. the 1967 film alaska centennial and the 1945 film, alaska highway. watch alaska weekend. listen with the free c-span radio app. >> sunday night and q & a, the daughter of american diplomat george cannon discusses the me roy, daughter of the cold war. >> i met putin in '91 in st. petersburg. was he deputy mayor then. >> yes, i was. i was deputy mayor. they substituted deputy mayor, putin and i was annoyed because i was not meeting with the

mayor. i knew putin was kg b. i was negative about it all. he came in and was equally negative. he didn't want to meet with an american woman who claimed to run a business. i think he was very suspicious of women. he had no gallantry. he was the coldest -- he had the coldest eyes i had ever seen. develop big, blue, cold eyes. all i could think of was, what would happen if he was interrogating me. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern. coverage of day long symposium on the future of the democratic party leading to the 2018 and 2020 elections. you can watch all of it at c- span.org but we'll show you a couple of