my name is ernest mitchell, jr. of the emergency management agency and the united states fire administrator in charge of the united states fire administration at the department of homeland security. it is indeed an honor to appear before you today to discuss the u.s. fire had fenestration. the fire administration is committed to providing national leadership to foster a solid foundation for the fire and emergency stakeholders and prevention preparedness and response, and my testimony today i will share an overview of the administration's core functions,

our first witness is chief ernest mitchell jr. from the federal emergency management agency in charge of the united states fire administration at the department of homeland security. next, dr. john paul jr., division director of fire analysis at the national par friction association. the doctor has been active in fire analysis and research for nearly 35 years. our third witness is chief jim critchley, chief critchley represents the tucson fire kept in my home state of arizona and currently serves as the president of the western chir chief's oh. sour final witness mr. kevin o'connor, assistant to the general president for the international association of firefighters. thank you again for, to our witnesses for being here today. as our witnesses should know, spoken testimony is limited to five minutes each, after all witnesses have spoken, members of the committee lieutenawill h minutes each to ask questions. i now recognize chief ernest mitchell. >> good morning, chairman quayle and distinguished members of the committee. i'm at the

my name is ernest mitchell, jr. of the emergency management agency and the united states fire administrator in charge of the united states fire administration at the department of homeland security. it is indeed an honor to appear before you today to discuss the u.s. fire had fenestration. the fire administration is committed to providing national leadership to foster a solid foundation for the fire and emergency stakeholders and prevention preparedness and response, and my testimony today i will share an overview of the administration's core functions, major priorities and present activities and goals. this might making progress over time, the united states has been higher than in most of the industrialized world. this has held true in both fire deaths and loss rates. thousands of americans die each year and thousands more are injured. property losses reach millions of dollars. average annual fire loss in the united states exceed those from floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and other natural disasters comb

our first witness is chief ernest mitchell jr., an assistant administrator in charge of the united states fire administration at the department of homeland security. next, from dr. john hall jr. dr. hall has been active in fire analysis and research for nearly 35 years. our third witness is chief jim critchley. chief critchley represents the tucson fire department in my home state of arizona and serves as the president of the western fire chiefs association. our final witness is mr. kevin o'connor. assistant to the general president for the internation association of firefighters. thank you again for to our witnesses for being here today. as our witness, no spoken testimony is limited to five minutes each. after witnesses have spoken. mb each to ask questions. i now recognize our first witness, ernest mitch >> good morning, chairman l. quay quayle, ranking members. i am an assistant administrator at the federal emergency management agency and the administrator in charge of the united states fire administration at homeland security. it is indeed an honor to appear before you today to discu

he's also the police of the western fire chiefs association mean was joined by ernest mitchell from the u.s. fire administration and john hall from the national fire protection association. >> there's been a lot of discussion about resources, and i understand that over the course of a number of different years that the authorization level has been up to $70 million for the usfa and then the appropriations actually came in much lower than that. and i think in the 2013 house funding bill, basically it provides $42.46 million, which is right about the same level that the request from the president in his budget. i know that that's not the level that you would like, but i do think that this hearing has been very informative to see what the priorities of the usfa and how we can support your endeavors in very tough budgetary times. i think that providing an authorization level that is much higher than when really we can afford, i think is a little bit irresponsible. but i do want to continue to go down and see what priorities and what we can do to make sure that we are giving the support that

i now recognize our first witness, the united states fired a morer, ernest mitchell. >> good morning, chairman quayle, ranking member edwards and distinguished members of the committee. my name is ernest mitchell jr., i'm an assistant administrator at the federal emergency management agency and the united states fire, administrator in charge of the united states fire administration at the department of homeland security. it is, indeed, an honor to appear before you today to discuss the u.s. fire administration. the fire administration is committed to providing national leadership to forcer a solid foundation for our stakeholders in prevention, preparedness and response. in my testimony today,ly share on overview of the administration's core functions, major priorities and present activities and goals. despite making progress over time, fire losses in the united states have been higher than in most of the industrialized world. this has held true in both fire deaths and dollar loss rates. thousands of americans die each year, and thousands more are injured, property losses reach billion