on newsmakers this week is the administrator of fema, brock long. emergency a career in response management at the state, federal level and in the private sector. sworn in in june of 2017 and has had quite a year with category 5 with two hurricanes. one of the biggest wildfire years in history and a category 7 earthquake in alaska. so lots of calls for your folks action.to >> glad to be here this morning. >> let me introduce the two reporters. ron nixon covers homeland times.y for the new york and this is the homeland security and immigration reporter. >> thanks for doing this. the question i'd like to start there's someink common misperceptions about fema's role in emergency management and dealing with natural disasters. could you lay that out? what's fema's role and what's and local first responder's role? break those down for us, please. mission iss incredibly complex. it's a lot more than just the response, which is often covered on t.v., when big events occur. obligation to provide billions of dollars worth of pre-disaster grant, mitigation fun

swan: fema administrator brock long, thank you for being our guest. mr. long: thank you so much.s. swan: welcome back to newsmakers. after our conversation with administration or of fema, two reporters are ron nixon and camila dechalus. what are the expectations of a democratic house and the kind of oversight fema might have that it has not experienced before with a republican congress? ms. dechalus: a lot of house democrats i have talked to especially in the house government oversight and reform committee have said that they need to see more oversight on fema. they are concerned that he did not agree or disagree with the george washington study that found nearly 3000 people died from hurricane maria. he has been hesitant to speak on that. he has always stated that one a death is a death too many, but what we will see come january is that more democrats will start conducting or calling for investigations to understand fema. there is a lot of misconceptions about what they can and cannot do. mr. nixon: i think that it is going to be a different environment because i do not think t

same with our fema add marcher -- administrator who'san been a busy man, let's face it, brock long. did a conference call with me, senator murkowski, congressman young. and i do also want to thank my senate colleagues. you know, a lot of the press likes to report, hey, we're always battling, we're always fighting. i don't think that's true,ay by thes way. it's actually not true. yeah, on serb things we have principled -- on certain things we have t principled difference. but a lot of action here it's bipartisan, and the relationships matter. i had within just a few hour, few hours several of my colleagues, democrats, republicans, calling, texting, e-mailing. hey, dan, we heard about alaska. we're seeing these images on tv. we got your back. we're praying forwe you. and that means a lot. you know, i was talking to senator pat leahy, senator from vermont, democrat from vermont, this morning about this very issue. and he's seen a lot here in the senate. he's been in the senate for a long time. over four decades. and you knowad what he said to ? it's important to remember on these kind

we spoke with the fema administrator, brock long, secretary of transportation chcha och chao and all were promises to help with resources and president trump, also, his support in promising to spare no expense as we work to recover from this natural disaster went a long way to providing long levels of assurance this. senator sullivan as i mentioned flew up on sunday evening. we waited until the weekend was over to fly back home. we didn't want to get in the way of the immediate recovery efforts and i got in at 1:00 in the morning and went to work cleaning up the glass and broken things in my house as many of my neighbors and fellow alaskans had been doing all weekend long and over the course of the day on monday, we were able to see some of the damage that this earthquake has caused. and you think about the worst when you're trying to describe something that the scenes are just so, so difficult. and it's boards like gut wrenching and astounding and then remarkable, but it was really gut wrenching in the houston middle school, that will not be open for this year and perhaps longer. yo

long newsmakers with brock sunday at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. coming up this weekend on book tv, on sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern on afterwards, citizens united president david bossi and former trump campaign manager corey lewandowski discuss their book trump's enemies, how the deep state is undermining the enemy. >> i don't want to be a conspiracy theorist, but we refer to these people as the november nightclub, meaning they became a fan of president trump the day after he got elected. they didn't support him during the campaign and likely didn't found anhim, but they opportunity to join an administration that was young and inexperienced to further their own agenda. >> as part of becoming president, he listened a lot to republican leaders in washington and took advice from folks that i don't know he would do that same thing today. i think during that transition likencredibly steep just it is for every single president of the united states. there is no degree on being president and it is a learning curve. >> watch book tv on c-span this weekend. f

. >> our guest on "newsmakers" this week is the administrator of fema, brock long. he has had a career in emergencies response management on the state and federal level. he was sworn in january 17 and has had quite a year with his , agency with two category five hurricanes and one of the biggest wildfires in history. a category seven earthquake. lots of calls for your folks to go into action. let me introduce you to the reporters who will be asking questions. ron nixon covers homeland security for the new york times. camila dechalus is cq roll call's homeland security and immigration reporter. mr. nixon, you are up first.

the email was provided to a congressional office and directly to fema administrator brock long.the forwarding email stated, and i quote, "here is another example. i know that you have had a rough time in houston. but at least you had competent people in charge of the response. we have incompetent people in charge here, and are getting no response to our urgent needs. first of all, restoration of power. please share this with representative mccall, along with our urgent request for the committee on homeland security to convene hearings on the utter failure of the federal response here and on the main island of puerto rico." we have no record of whether administrator long responded to this email. instead, we have press reports and inspector general findings that administrator long abused his position of trust. as the head of fema and charge the taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars for personal use of government vehicle. which included a trip to hawaii where a government employee settled his family around the island. unfortunately, and regrettably, this committee has failed the a

after that, newsmakers with brock long starting at 10 clock p.m. and the communicators with ajit pai. next, part of a conference on verbal attacks on the judiciary and the media. judges outlined their concerns with the president's criticism of the judicial ranch and his questioning of their rulings. [applause] >> thank you for that introduction. by settinge to begin the stage for today's discussion. we are here to speak about attacks on judicial independence and what that means for the courts and american democracy. there's going to be a lot to say. many of the judges have personal experiences to draw from on this issue. some of the most high profile attacks have come from the president. remember when donald trump issued the first travel band executive order. lawsuits came quickly and after issued a temporary restraining order, the president attacked him and the judiciary, saying the opinion of this so-called judge, which takes law enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned. since then, the president said the courts sho

after that, newsmakers with brock long starting at 10 clock p.m. pai. next, part of a conference on verbal attacks on the judiciary and the media. judges outlined their concerns with the president'

speaking after the results of the leadership said it was time to get on with delivering brock's it this has been a long and challenging day but at the end of it i'm pleased to have received the backing of my colleagues in tonight's ballot while so i'm grateful for that support a significant number of colleagues did cast a vote against me and i've listened to what they said following this but we now need to get on with the job of delivering bricks it for the british people and building a better future for this country. a brick sits that delivers all the votes that people. in the u.s. senate has gone against president onil trump on the war in yemen and voted to begin discussing a resolution to end u.s. military support for the saudi like coalition babb until friday to decide on the resolution plans for a similar move or struck down in march after donald trump voice strong support for that conflict and present times former lawyer is going to prison for three years for tax evasion and also for violating campaign finance laws michael cohen pleaded guilty to lying to congress and paying off two women who all

our guest is brock long. here is a portion of our conversation. [video clip] be a firstgned to responder, nor should it be. it is my job to coordinate the ofwer power -- the firepower the federal government down to a state level and down to the local level. 2017, it wasat, in a big year. hurricane irma, hurricane maria, hurricane florence cost the government more than $250 billion in damages. especially with the california wildfires. what the federal government -- wanted fema learning and how can you improve how you respond to natural disasters? >> we learned a tremendous amount. before i took office, the country went years without a major event. packed 38sically years of our entire history into that 16 month time period. the amount of disaster assistance we will provide for the last two years is the equivalent of what the agency has done in its entire history. it is forcing us to rethink everything. i fully believe a bigger fema is not the answer. it is a whole community approach that has to be put into play to be able to properly prepare and rec

we spoke with the fema administrator, brock long, secretary of transportation cho. all of them were all in on their promises to help throughout the federal government with resources. president trump also his support in promising to spare no expense as we work to recover from this natural disaster went a long way to just providing levels of assurance there. so senator sullivan and i, as i mentioned, flew up on sunday evening. we waited until the weekend was over to fly back home. we didn't want to get in the way of the immediate recovery efforts and i got in at 1:00 o'clock in the morning and went to work cleaning up the glass and the broken things in my house as many of my neighbors had been doing all weekend long. over the course of the day on monday we were able to see some of the damage that this earthquake has caused. and you think about the words when you're trying to describe something that the syrians are just so -- so difficult and it's words like gut wrenching and astounding and then remarkable, but it was -- it was really gut wrenching being in -- in the s

long has learned after two years of hurricanes and wildfires. what's the full interview on c-span. here is a little bit about what brock had to say. eo clip] long: it is my job to help the government meet his or her response and recovery goals or preparedness goals and open hopefully it translates down to the local level. >> now we know that 2017 was a big year. hurricane irma, florence, maria costs the government more than $265 billion worth of damages. especially with the california wildfires, what it seem a learned because of hurricanes that occurred in 2017, and what are ways that you can improve how to respond to natural disasters in the coming year? long: we have learned a major amount. we had record hurricanes. i guess i am bad luck. we put it into perspective. we basically packed years of our history into the 69th in my time period. into that of -- 16-month time period. the amount that we have done is what the agency has done in its entire history. ours forcing us to rethink entire enterprise. fema is not the answer. it is the whole thing that has to be in place to repair to recover. culture, with prepared dealing with fina

reporting live here from city hall, sam brock, nbc bay area news >> one of the nicest and most effective leaders we've had in the bay area in a longeat things including affordable housing. jeff, we had the ground fog this morning. is it sticking around? >> possibly a little tomorrow morning. doesn't look as thick and slow for the morning commute as we head into tomorrow morning. that's the good news. we are still managing to hold onto some rain chances as well. let's take you to microclimate forecast, and i do want to start off with a look at s.f.o. with the fog we've dealt with lately. that ground fog which is different than the typical san francisco fog, i wanted to show you it's clear right now. so if you're taking off tonight or picking somebody up, you shouldn't have any delays due to weather. right now 55 degrees, and you'll notice as we head through tonight we're dropping down to colder 40s once we hit 10:00 p.m. let's get a expansive look at the pacific. it sets up well at what could be coming our way. we have rainfall close by. eventually we're going to get some of that to the bay area, but right now it's dry. you'll be a

long road to recovery for survivors of the wildfires. state leaders are now taking proactive steps to stop the next fire from sparking. nbc bay area's sam brock joins us in marin county with the plan put forward by the california public utility commission. sam? >> reporter: yeah, raj, good evening. we certainly know the communities are concerned act the proximity of power lines to homes and to neighborhoods, which is one of the reasons why we had the sort of meetings at the cpuc that we did this afternoon. there are definitely people worried about the consequences of preemptively cutting off power. now the commission today approved this proposal to stutter the option understanding it is one tool in the toolbox. >> if you have a fire, they'll turn your power off. and we feel that turning the power off will be worse. >> reporter: howard matis survived the oakland hills fire pof 1991 barely and today joined a group of people concerned about preemptively shutting off to prevent wildfires versus other options. >> many of the recent wildfires have been attributed to faulty equipment, some of the wires are, like, 100 years old. >> these are very rea

brock: those are the safeties. those are the players that are just down there. give credit to randy shannon and his defensive staff that have made these kind oaff adjustment all year longob: white under pressure. he's going to go down! titus davis collapses the pocket! and here comes the punt group. no choice for memphis with their time-outs. to do anything here but kick it away. >> brock: yep. it's fourth and about 15. good punt from williams. anderson, an immediate fair catch inside the 20 yard line. >> brock: you've not seen this kind of pressure, and i think the left tackle, tate, one of the best, but titus gets to him. titus davis beats him off the jump. that's just a perfect picture of these guys that are just playing a tick ahead. the 40,000 some in here that are going nuts, that are creating kay use and havoc at the line of scrimmage, and these knights are feeding right off that energy. >> bob: and you can tune into the espn app for our postgame trophy ceremony immediately following the american championship game. and will it be back-to-back years handed to ucf with a win over memphis? or can the tigers get a stop, use their time-outs, if necessary, and get the

he's been a busy man, let's face it, brock long. he did a conference call with me, senator murkowski, congressman young. and i do also want to thank my senate colleagues. you know, a lot of press likes to report we're always battling, we're always fighting. i don't think that's true, by the way. it's actually not true. there are certain things we have principled differences on. but a lot of action here is bipartisan. and the relationships matter. i had within just a few hours, several of my colleagues, democrats, republicans, calling, texting, e-mailing, hey, dan, we heard about alaska. we're seeing these images on tv. we got your back. we're praying for you. and that means a lot. you know, i was talking to senator pat leahy, the senator from vermont, democrat from vermont, this morning about this very issue. we've seen a lot here -- he's seen a lot here in the senate. he's been in the senate for a long time, over four decades. and you know what he said to me? it's important to remember on these kind of -- when these kind of things