mr. nelson, you may proceed. mr. nelson: good morning. thank you for holding this important hearing today to examine solutions to controlling the increased costs of natural disasters. my name is eric nelson, and i'm senior vice president of catastrophe risk management at travelers insurance. i'm testifying today on behalf of the build strong coalition, a group of businesses, consumer organizations dedicated to reducing human economic losses from natural disasters. as one of the largest property casualty companies in the u.s., travelers provides a unique private sector expertise that can add value to the federal government's mission in its own risk and losses from natural disasters. i'd first like to thank chairman barletta and the members of the subcommittee for their continued leadership in conducting a series of round tables on this topic beginning in january of last year. i begin today by outlining three major takeaways from that emerging from those roundtables. before i do that, the main question we want to ask ourselves is what action

mr. nelson on that. but we have had a similar situation in the state of florida with the citizens nrns company and the win born nshlgs. they have depopulated a large segment of their policies to the private market and still remained financially feasible. so i believe mr. nelson may be able to elaborate on that a little bit. but i believe again comprehensive reform of the national flood insurance program is absolutely necessary at this point and can tie into some of the activities we've discussed thus far. >> thank you. first let me say i would echo your concerns that you're raising. i think those are profound issues that we have to evaluate. so mr. chairman, for the record, i just want to note he called me profound. >> so the -- i do think if you just step back for a minute, travelersori -- let me back up. travelers we do write flood insurance on a commercial basis, for commercial nshls. we do not write homeowners flood insurance and we have no plans to enter that market. we also don't have a formalized

mr. nelson. mr. mickey, please proceed. >> chairman barletta, ranking member carson and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony on approaches for reducing the costs of natural disasters. my name is kevin mickey, director of professional development and geospatial education at the polis center at indiana university, purdue university/indianapolis which has the mission of linking academic and community expertise to create strong and resilient communities. i am here today as the chairman of the multihazard mitigation council at the national institute of building sciences, introducing a new and unique approach we have proposed. the united states congress established the national institute of building sciences in 1974 to serve as an authoritative source for both public and private sectors to improve the built environment. to achieve its mission, the institute has established 18 councils that engage building industry experts in examining and developing tools, tec

mr. nelson. mr. mickey, please proceed. >> chairman barletta, ranking member carson and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony on approaches for reducing the costs of natural disasters. my name is kevin mickey, director of professional development and geospatial education at indiana university which has the mission of linking academic and community expertise to create strong and resilient communities. i'm here today as the chairman of the multihazard mitigation council introducing a new and unique approach we have proposed for the incentivization of prove property owners throughout -- private property owners throughout the united states. the congress established the national institute of building sciences in 1974 to serve as an authoritative source for both public and private sectors to improve the built environment. to achieve its mission, the institute has established 18 councils that engage building industry experts in examining and developing tools, techno

mr. nelson: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. nelson: reserving the right to object. and, mr. president, i like the senator from oklahoma. he is a great friend, and it pains me to reserve the right to object because i do consider him an excellent senator. the issue that he, however, raises in his unanimous consent request is to take the emergency funding of $1.1 billion out of the appropriations bill and replace that emergency funding with raiding a number of funds that would cut medical research and public health in order to address the zika environment. so what am i talking about? cancer research, children's immunizations, c.d.c.'s efforts to fight other infectious diseases. so to raid money from these other pots that are already so important to the health and welfare of this country. now, the senator from oklahoma who i said and i repeat i consider him a friend and i consider him a good senator. he's from right there, right in the heart of the country, oklahoma. and oklahoma is covered up with these two strains of mosquitoes, b

mr. p.r. nelson once said, dearly beloved, we gather here today to get to this thing called life. but on this occasion, the graduation of a class in the year of our lord 2016, john hopkins university, i've been blessed to do what i want and what i love. i love what i do. and what i do is i make films. i'm a film maker, a story teller. and there are two words that are almost in all of my 23 feature films to date. these two words are wake up. wake up from the sleep. wake up from being comatose. wake up from the slumber that keeps your eyes shut to the inequalities and injustices in this often evil, crazy, and insane world we live in. let's move our minds back to the front to a conscious state and wake up. let's leave our lofty ivory towers and institutions and get down to the people. as sisters and brothers say on the block, get woke. let's be alert, open minded, get woke. let's wake up. like the knuckle rings worn by the late ray rahim, let's truly know the difference between love and hate. as malcolm x said, we've been took. hood winked. led astray. run amok. and bam boozled. peop

mr. p.r. nelson, you might know him also as the artist, prince. [cheers and applause] can we give some love to prince, pleasesome. [applause] prince is a true great american. and he wrote a song entitled " baltimore." don't worry, i'm not going to sing it. but here it is. baltimore, nobody got nobody's way, so i guess you say it was a good day. a little bit better than a day in baltimore. does anybody hear us pray for mike brown or freddie gray? peace is more than absence of war, absence of war. are we going to see another bloody day? we're tired of the crying and people are dying. let's all take the guns away. absence of war, you and me may finally, we say, enough is enough. it's time for love. it's time to hear, it's time to hear the guitar play, guitar play. baltimore ever more. and there ain't no justice, there ain't no peace. if there ain't no justice, there ain't no peace. if there ain't no justice, there ain't no peace. and if there ain't no justice, there ain't no peace. baltimore, are we going to see another bloody day? we're tired of cry

mr. nelson: mr. president, i would say to the senator from missouri that while this senator is most appreciative, that he and senator murray have come forth in a bipartisan fashion with about half of the funding that this senator also in a bipartisan proposal since my colleague from florida, senator rubio, is the sponsor of this amendment with this senator, i would point out to the senator's own words and him commending the administration that they recognize that this was a crisis enough to go in and borrow from the ebola fund $589 million to get started since we couldn't get the congress off dead center until now, and i do commend senator blunt and senator murray for their action. i commend the leadership for being willing to put this on the t-hud bill, appropriations bill, but to suggest for the senator that he raise that point that it was such an emergency, $589 million but the appropriations committee proposal only replaces that ebola fund, that $589 million that has been taken from it replaces,

mr. nelson rolihlahla mandela duly elected president of the republic of south africa." dear fellow citizen, i know what it's like to make a home you love. i'm so happy that everybody could come today... i have a big family- and it's still growing! so my home equity line of credit helped me upgrade my kitchen and make room for everyone. call 1-855-422-4740 to learn more. and i love helping others with their own home equity line of credit. you can use it to renovate your home, do repairs or just have it on hand for whenever you need it. it's there for you. and i am too. if you have a question about how a home equity line of credit can work for you, ask me. sincerely, karen peterson fellow home owner and fellow citizen. citizen's bank home equity line of credit. call 1-855-422-4740 to apply now. we turn the lens of time back to 1981 when the idea of taking you music on the go was the newest thing. "just about anywhere you go this weekend you may be listening to music or if you're really lucky as bernard goldberg reports, you may be watching people listen to music." "from t

mr. p.r. nelson once said, "dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get to this thing called life." [applause] but on this occasion, the graduation class in the year of our lord 2016, johns hopkins university, i've been blessed to do what i want, what i love. i love what i do, and what i do is i make films. i'm a filmmaker and storyteller. and there are two words that are almost in all of my 23 feature films, to date. these two words are wake up. wake up from the sleep, wake up from being comatose, wake up from the slumber that keeps your eyes shut to all inequalities and injustices. to this, often more than not evil and insane and crazy world we live in, let's move our unconscious minds from the back to the front, to a conscious state, and wake up. let's leave our lofty ivory towers of institutions, and get down to the people. as the sisters and brothers say on the block, get woke. let's be alert and open-minded, get woke. let's wake up. like the knuckle rings worn by the late radio raheem, le

mr. nelson discuss how your lawsuits generally compared to the federal assistance provided in the wake of the disaster? >>. >> so we are paying for the building if you are a small business we will give you business interruption and coverage with additional living expenses with those individual small grants to consumers but not enough to rebuild your home in general and we have seen the trend go up this is an important concept. we spread the risk over people and overtime. as the risk changes the price is change so it is important to bend the cost curve and then the the cost curve for consumers. but for every $1 invested $4 is saved. most federal litigation funding is provided for the grant program after a disaster declaration. how can we more proactively address to shift the investment before the catastrophe? thinks to the committee and the congress to allow the mitigation money and to be part of the recovery process. we have authority to do post mitigation and for the five-year grants to restore the burned areas is a more robust way. the three can't consider reauthorize seeing that abilit

mr. chairman, for calling this hearing to shed light on the distaste of american consumers about these annoying calls. >> thank you, senator nelson. all right. we'll get underway. we have with us the honorable greg zoeller. and ms. becca wahlquist. margot saunders. with the national consumer law center. mr. rich lovich, testifying on administration health care management and miss monica dasai, a partner of squire patent bogs law firm. we'll start with mr. zoeller, please proceed and welcome to the committee. >> thank you mr. chairman and members of the committee, i appreciate the opportunity to come and be heard. i'll pick up with senator nelson left off. we do in the state of indiana receive remarkable number of complaints each year. i think last year it was somewhere around 14,000 calls, the largest number of complaints in our consumer protection area. over half of those complaints were about robo calls specifically. indiana has unique statute that was passed in 1988 that prohibits the use of the auto dialers to make calls to consumers. this is across the board. we've successfully defended that statute to the federal courts, th

mr. nelson: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from florida. mr. nelson: the senator from wyoming knows my affection for him as a friend. the senator from wyoming is a great senator from the state of wyoming. wyoming does not have the threat like the southern states do in the united states as the summer comes upon us. madam president, as the senator has referred to the cornyn amendment, yes, the cornyn amendment $1.1 billion which was voted down was paid for and it was paid for by raiding the affordable care act, and that's just not going to happen. whenever emergency happens, the tradition of the united states congress is in fact to provide for that emergency on a basis that you don't have to go over and rob some other piece of funding in order to pay for it. so when a hurricane hits, if it hits florida, i certainly hope you all are going to appropriate emergency funds. if there is an earthquake or the eruption of a volcano, whatever the fires -- whatever the -- fires, whatever the natural or manmade disaster that occurs, that is what a government

mr. p.r. nelson once said, dearly beloved, we gather here today to get to this thing called life. but on this occasion, the graduation of a class in the

mr. nelson: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from in a. mr. nelson: mr. president, i want to talk about the zika virus, but i want to add a comment about senator bob bennett. a gentleman's gentleman. a legislator's legislator. a senator who would reach across the aisle in order to get the workable consensus in order to get something done. now, doesn't that sound like the type of person that we need in the congress today in order to confront these issues that we're facing? and i was saddened to hear the news that he had passed on. all right, mr. president, what i want to do is to give you an update. the zika virus is raging. it is certainly raging in puerto rico. it is expanding greatly in this country, and the state with the most affected cases is my state of florida. i have been on this floor many times asking for the president's request of $1.9 billion to attack the zika virus. about $800 million of that is, number one, to replace the ebola emergency fund that they have raided since the congress has not given them the funding in order to try to get at t

mr. nelson. >> i'm going to defer my questions until later. i want to introduce a thought. the law says it's illegal robo calls on cell phones. yet consumers receive millions of those robo calls on cell phones. can you imagine if we made it legal what would happen? i'm going to defer and let our members ask their questions first. >> senator blount. i'm sorry, that's right. we'll keep it even. blumenthal not here. senator mccaskill. >> so this is not that complicated. all you have to have is the permission of the person you're calling and call them. i mean you guys make this sound like this is an impossible thing to do. you have somebody who leaves your hospital and you guys can't manage to get their permission to follow up with them by phone and call them? why is that so economically difficult for you? >> thank you. the problem is, the plaintiff's bar has taken the opportunity to twist the language with regard to the use of consent. and has chosen to sue most of the members of my association with regard to the inexactitude of the language involved in the consent process. co

mr. p.r. nelson. you might know him as the artist, prince. can we give some love to prince? [applause] prince was a true great american and he wrote a song titled "baltimore." don't worry, not going to sing it, but here it is. baltimore, nobody got nobody's way. i guess you could say it was a good day. at least a little bit better than a day in baltimore. does anybody here us pray for mike brown or freddie gray? pieces more than the absence of war. are we going to see another ?loody day let us all take the guns away. absence of war. sayand me may finally enough is enough. it is time for love. hear the guitar play. baltimore, evermore. there ain't no justice and there and no peace. if there ain't no justice, there ain't no peace. baltimore. are we going to see another bloody day? we are tired of crying and people are dying. let's take all the guns away. justice, areo echoing to be no peace. going to be no peace. thank you. go with god. black lives matter. >> on the next "washington journal, whether nutrition labels make a difference in changing people's eating habits. richard

mr. pr nelson once said dearly beloved we gather here today to get through this thing called life. in the year of our lord of 2016 john hopkins university i have been blessed to do what i want in a what on love and love what i do and i make films i am a storyteller and i make films. and there are two words better in all of my films to date. the two words are wake-up. wake up from the sleep. wake up from being comatose wake up from the slumber that keeps your eyes shut to in the quality and injustice in the evil and crazy and insane world that we live in. let's move our unconscious minds to the front to a conscious state and wake up. let's leave our lofty towers of institutions and get down to the people as the sisters and brothers say on the block. get woke be alert and open-minded like those knuckling this there is truly no difference between love and hate as malcolm x said we have been hoodwinked gore led astray run amok and bamboozled. we had a very crooked moment in history of these united states of america and the way that i look at it today to tell you the truth and things ar

mr. chairman, for calling this hearing to shed light on the distaste of american consumers about these annoying calls. >> thank you, senator nelson. all right. we'll get underway. we have with us the honorable greg zeller. and ms. barbara wellquist. m margot saunders. and a partner with squire patten bogs law firm. we'll start with mr. zeller, please proceed and welcome to the committee. >> i appreciate the opportunity to come and be heard. i'll pick up with senator nelson left off. we do in the state of indiana receive remarkable number of complaints each year. i think last year it was somewhere around 14,000 calls, the largest number of complaints in our consumer protection area. over half of those complaints were about robo calls specifically. indiana has unique statute that was passed in 1988 that prohibits the use of the auto dialers to make calls to consumers. this is across the board. we've successfully defended that statute to the federal courts, the seventh circuit court of appeals talking about how we do not allow these calls for any -- other than those like senator nelson mentioned, have opted in. so the schools and th

nelson. >> plmp mr. chairman, if you go anywhere in this country and you ask a consumer do you want to receive robo calls or you ask would you like to receive robo calls on a cell phone you may get the cell phone thrown at you. there are few things that ignite people like robo calls. it goes on and on. it is a sentiment that nearly all of us share. and that is why for the last 25 years the laws have sided with consumers. the number of consumer complaints about robo calls regardless of the laws continue to increase. the sec receives 10s of thousands of robo call complaints every month. and we all have stories to tell. one of our friends signed up for a line service one morning. and by the afternoon before he had given his new number to his family and friends, his phone was being flood by robo calls. so he gave up the land line. in fact how many of us know friends at home that have given up the landline and just use the cell phone for that exact same reason. they don't want the robo calls. most of us, our

nelson post office building. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from north carolina, mr. walker, and the gentlewoman from north carolina, mrs. lawrence, will each control 20 minutes. mr. walker: i yield myself such time as i may consume. i ask that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend and include extraneous material. petty officer nellsn was a navy seal who served a tour of duty in iraq. on his 2011 tour in afghanistan he was killed when his vehicle instruct an explosive device. friends and family remember him as a cherished teammate and loving husband and father. petty officer nelson made a great sacrifice by giving his life in the service of his country so i urge members to honor his sacrifice by naming a post office in his honor. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from michigan. mrs. lawrence: i would like to yield two minutes to the sponsor of this bill, mr. ashford. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. ashford: i thank my colleague and thank the chairman of the committee and rank -- a

mr. speaker, i rise today to remember a minnesota legend, glenn nelson, who passed away this last week. mr. olson: he was a medical pioneer who transformed the lives of many thousands of people. from performing surgeries to creating medical devices to leegged several health care companies, glenn did it all. health care was his career. and that's because he recognized the power of medicine and innovation, how it could be used to make a difference in the lives of his neighbors. he put it best when he said as a urgeon you save one live at a time but with medical devices you know you are saving so many more. mr. paulsen: glenn did what he did not to make money or gain fame. he was a leegged doctor, inventor, philanthropist, and great family man because he cared about people and valued giving back to others. mr. speaker, the loss of glenn nelson is something all of minnesota is feeling. our state and our country and our medical community are better off because of the leadership and passion and spirit of glenn nelson. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for

nelson rockefeller. john: elections. get this. due to changing demographics, more states are predisposed democratic party. post"says "the washington reporter, makes mr. trump's path 270 electoral college votes, a big challenge. mr. trump's problems don't end there, because the magnate has poor favorability ratings with women, and minorities. republicans also fear that if be far moreuld likely to retake control of the in november. perhaps there's light at the end of the tunnel. weekw polls released this by quinnipiac poll agency, donald trump is within the error against hillary clinton in florida and and ahead of the former first lady in ohio. does donald trump get to 270? eleanor clift? eleanor: he thinks he can double down on male grievance in this mobilize these forgotten middle class of mostly working men and that he can take a couple of midwestern that haveates basically voted democratic in the last half a dozen elections put up one poll that you from ohio, he did better than hillary clinton because he did better among men than she did among women but women are the electorate and his numbers among women are -- gets the republican base which is p

mr. chairman. >> thank you. >> we thank all of you for being here today. >> thank you, senator markey. senator nelson, anything for the -- okay. let me just ask one last question. and, again, this kind of gets to the point of other regulatory bodies. and i think you indicated that some don't have the same views as the fcc when it comes to communicating with consumers via cell phone. have other regulators seen consumer benefits in communicating with consumers via mobile phone or text message? >> oh, sure. yes, thank you for the question. the consumer financial protection board has an early intervention rule that encourages outbound communications. the home affordable modification program, the federal deposit insurance corporation, the federal trade commission, the consumer product safety commission have all discussed the benefits of outbound communications both by call and by text. there are also state laws that require outbound communications because they see the value in that. for example, with utilities. >> okay. well, i just want to make kind of one final point, and that is i don't -- nobody propo

and when nelson pointer died suddenly in 1978, gene turned mr. year, 2016, is the 100th anniversary of the pulitzer prize. the year 1966 would have been the 50th anniversary of the prizes, so smack dab in the middle. >> as editor of the atlantic constitution from 1960 to 1968, gene patterson's image and words angered the editorial page during the most tumultuous year of the civil rights movement in the south. with his mentor and best friend ralph mcgill, gene used his platform to persuade his fellow white southerners that on matters of race they were wrong, and that if they changed, the sky would not fall. i see what you're trying to do, one reader accused. you're trying to make us think we are better than we are. [ laughter ] in an era of political assassinations and church bot botchings southern editorial writer who challenged segregation needed courage. advising patterson not to worry with cowards. it ones you don't hear from that you have to worry about, he said. patterson's equalizer was not a pistol, but a ball ping hammer hidden in a desk

mrs. beatty: thank you. let me just end by saying, the urgency is now. and in the words of nelson mandela, it always seems impossible until it's done. tonight the congressional black caucus says, let's get it done. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. pursuant to clause 12-a of >> members planned to debate the $81.6 veterans affairs spending measure. follow the house live here on c-span when lawmakers return tuesday at 10:00 a.m. eastern nd noon for legislative war. >> madam secretary, we proudly give 72 of our delegate votes to the next president of the united states. >> in a sunday front page story in "the washington post," "a band of exasperated republicans plotting to draft an independent presidential candidate who would keep donald trump from the white house." one of those editors is billy kri sshes tol. thank you for being with us. >> hi, steve, how are you? steve: so how is your effort coming along? bill: well, there's a lot of support for the proposition. we should have a choice other than hillary clinton

mr. whitehouse: with that i >> with that this amendment have that the other two, the minute by marco rubio and dylan nelson the john cornet amended why were those amendments blocked in the senate? >> guest: the republicans put forward by john cornyn was $1.1 billion. it was largely through cuts to obamacare through prevention of public health funds. gary commit there was that where preventing zika a prevention and public health measure that could be funded through obamacare money and obviously democrats were not going to support that one because they don't want to see the aca cut at all and then essentially the democratic amendment by bill nelson and democrat marco rubio a republican the full 1.9 million, billion excuse me that the white house had requested. >> host: what are the states we know teeing affected the most by this early on in the disease? >> so far there is no local transmission by public health experts expect that at the summer it will be happening in the united states and largely in the southern states. florida obviously bill nelson and marco rubio are from florida is expected to get it firs

mr. mcconnell: i send a cloture motion to the desk for the nelson amendment o amendmen. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on amendment number 3898 to amendment number 3896 to calendar number 138, h.r. 2577, an act making appropriations for the departments of transportation and housing and urban development and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2016 and for other purposes signed by 1 senators as follows -- mr. mcconnell: i ask that the reading of the names be disnsed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: i ask that the mandatory quorum being waived. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection. mr. mcconnell: send a cloture motion to the desk for at cornyn amendment of. the presiding officer: the clerk will report the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion: we, the undersigned senator