her career and katrina it is a result of several reports -- hurricane katrina is a result of several reports. we have to focus more resources on cornish with state and local governments. with support from team up, -- fema, we got full-time representatives for offices and also have two additional staff working at the national headquarters. we also have passed a staff member to work with the housing task force. we have been working with governments, state governments, in improving planning. for example, the red cross in louisiana is working toward a single, unified sheltering plan. discussions continue with the state department of social services and the governor's office of homeland security emergency preparedness about mutual logistics' for people with transportation needs. the major disaster exercise emerges, with category 4 hurricanes affecting savannah, georgia. we also participated in a cabinet-level exercise that dealt with category three, making landfall in new york city. identifying new and strengthening existing partnerships continues to be a strong priority of my organizatio

local levies in the south louisiana failed again, a failed with katrina, a failed with rita, gustav, ike, as the said mr. ritter knows because he is from florida of south florida is concerned about their water management issues and whether the dikes and levees will hold that is the subject of another hearing. was continuing to be a cumbersome process despite many improvements which i well mentioned we are still relying mr. fugate to much nine trailers to jump-start recovery and we will be pressing hard on new housing and shelter options broken to new to say to provide these communities with $5 million in the community long-distance is probably not what charleston or savannah or miami or new orleans or atlanta or batteries are in a number of committees that can do much with $5 million and that is all the law allows them to borrow. the administrator 55 from fema will discuss the 2008 response and the agency's work on an alert system evacuation plans and from his perspective if we are better situated in it 2009 season opens. major general from the northern command will outline the depar

and katrina was the yellow. and this was done before ike. and i'm going to put ike up there because it really ran smack in galveston. >> that would be interesting modern art. it's just scary that it represents hurricane, hurricane hugo came through south carolina and it was very devastating. i appreciate the work of the chairman of this committee. i've never met anybody in the entire congress more dedicated to a cause than of this subcommittee. i'm just trying to stay up with you. south carolina is certainly in harm's way. i want to thank all the folks at state, local, federal level who help our fellow citizens in disaster. in myrtle beach we had a huge fire. the fire did a lot of damage to myrtle beach. it's not just hurricanes. the red cross was there so hurricanes are what we're talking about. so coastal communities can be hit by many different ways. ron osborn, the director of the emergency management division office of the general could not be here but he prepared a report about hurricane preparedness and i'd like to submit it to the re

we had the shelters before katrina, but after katrina we actually put those into a database so the first time in a computer database we could see where they were at short notice, what might be available and also when we have a disaster of local chapters will report back on the shelters and the number of people in the shelters etc.. >> and the school issue is interesting to me because you obviously in a catastrophic disaster that we had and others have had. when people move into schools for a long period of time it's hard to back to the operate the school. and one of the essentials in ingredients of recovery for parents with children used to get their children back in school as soon as possible because at least then when the children are in school that parents can go about all the work they need to do to rebuild their home, business, etc.. how does the red cross negative the use of school buildings in areas that could potentially suffer catastrophic flooding and destruction and do you have a backup plan in the event using schools in some areas might not be the best in that circumstance? >

as far as the reserve component there's actually requirements provided post-katrina emergency reform act. for fema the bill building more response and training capabilities within our reserve force and so we are looking at that as far as a standing reserve, that would be something i would like to further research by the there are elements of that we are already seeing in the programs where we are not creating such a formal reserve process but to building community emergency response teams to start training, and it's in many cases building capabilities that are more adequately leveraged at the local level by enhancing through community emergency response team through citizen core capabilities people stand ready to help in their neighborhoods and communities when disaster strikes. >> thank you. general, i have one more question for you and then one more for mr. fugate and we are going to move to the next panel and a minute. when you all did your assessment on the joint task force, one of the issues that came up for the sick that cans of particularly the coast. all of the coast have por

the number is now 90,000, compared to the 23,000 that we had during hurricane katrina. we are in the process of a evaluating the availability for disasters in the next several months. hurricane katrina had several after action reports, red cross has been focusing more resources on coordination. we currently have brought representatives in 10 of the offices and we have staff working at the national headquarters. we also have a staff member working with the housing task force. we have been working with state governments, in improving planning. the red cross and the state of louisiana are working to a unified plan, with the state department of social services and the governor's office of homeland security about mutual legit -- logistics', and we recently participated in the state of florida, and the major disaster exercise. with a category 4 hurricane affecting savannah georgia. -- savannah, georgia. we're also looking at a store making landfall near new york city. identifying the existing partnerships continues to be a strong priority of my organization. we partner with l

i'm very interested i understand the red cross since katrina has gone through a major reorganization and we are looking forward to hearing some of the outcomes today. and finally, last but certainly not least this is janet durden, president of north west united way serves as coordinating council person for louisiana 211 but this is a nationwide emergency response system that i think can be very helpful in all of the issues we have talked about this morning. so, mr. foresman, if you will begin. thank you. >> senator, thank you very much -- [inaudible] >> can you pull the microphone a little bit closer, there you go. >> normally might booming voice works wonders. senator landrieu, thank you for the opportunity to be with you this morning and talk about the important work of the community partnership. we've provided written testimony respectfully requested it be included in the record. the ready come into partnership is an initiative of corporate crisis response officers association six to identify and implement best practices that helps support improvements in public and private sector

so rita was the blue and katrina was the yellow. and this was done before ike. and i'm going to put ike up there because it really ran right smack into galveston and i'm sure you've had some major storms in your time. but senator, let me recognize you at this time. >> thank you. that would be interesting modern art. it's just scary that it represents hurricanes. hurricane hugo came through south carolina and was very devastating. so i appreciate the work of the chairman of this committee. i've never met anybody in the entire congress more dedicated to a cause than you are to this subcommittee. we -- i'm just trying to stay up but. but south carolina is certainly in harm's way. i want to thank all the folks at state and federal and local lell of who help our citizens with disasters. in myrtle beach we had a huge fire. the fire did a lot of damage. and it's not just hurricanes. the red cross was there. so hurricane is what we're talking about today but coastal communities can be hit in many different ways. ron osborne, the director of the emergency management divi

they have gone through a major transformation since katrina. were very interested in hearing about the fact that they have increased their volunteer base from 23,000 to 90,000 we think it is not only a bigger but a better red cross and we are excited about hearing it because i think americans look to the red cross to give them particular strength and comfort at times of disaster and that of course has been a key role of the red cross for many years. finally mrs. janet durden joins us on behalf of a committee in northeast louisiana which i am very proud. my husband's hometown and in katrina, they did a phenomenal job through their 211 as the office is dropped off of their ability in south louisiana, north louisiana picked up as i am sure the same thing happened in texas and in alabama and mississippi and florida is the storms come in, the northern part of the state picks up the great amount of help. we want to hear about the increased activity of the 211 operation, which is sort of the go-to the operation when people need help and assistance. th

we have the shelters before hurricane katrina, but after this we put this into a database. we could see where they were at short notice. and when we have a disaster, the local chapter will report how many of the shelters are open and the numbers of people inside. >> the school issue is interesting to me, because in a catastrophic disaster like we had, when people moved into schools for a long time, it is hard to operate the school. one of the central ingredients of recovery for parents with children is to get their children in school as soon as possible because the parents can go about all of the works that they have to do to rebuild their homes and businesses. how does the red cross -- red cross utilize the buildings that may suffer catastrophic flooding and destruction, do you have another plan using schools in some areas -- this may not be the best in that circumstance. >> right now there is work being done, but this is a long way from a solution. what happens when you have a large number of people dislocated on a certain basis -- there is the past four -- task force tha

as you know the post katrina emergency format established positions of the administrator and provide for the authority additional functions we now have at fema, more tools as you pointed out last year began showing the improvement but again, we still have a way to go. and it allows us to further strengthen the relationship with our state partners, tribal and local governments as part of that community. it's contributed to our increased operational capacity to all types of emergencies. as you remember one of the challenges of of katrina was not being able to move and release audits until there was declaration and the challenge of prepositioning assistance that clarity has been brought because the work you are kennedy did that said we need to enable the administrator and the team to submit more productively. we continue that work in powering fema to do that and you point out we face a lot of hazards and we instituted starting this morning exercises to begin testing the team. we simulated a major earthquake in california at 6 a.m., no notice to the team to make sure we are reinforcing t

at the time of katrina the agency was understaffed and unable to manage a catastrophic disaster. it's my belief that the increases over the last two fiscal years were a major disaster in fema's return to full strength or something like full strength as demonstrated during the response to hurricane ike and the midwest floods. i'm afraid the gentleman's amendment could send us backwards. the gentleman would cut the account that supports the national hurricane program, the national dam safety program, national continuity programs, disaster operations and disaster mitigation. the committee supports predisaster mitigation. that's why we included a $10 million increase above fiscal year 2009. but the gentleman proposes a further increase, and i believe that should not come at the detriment of fema's operational readiness. besides, the grant program that the gentleman seeks to increase had $143 million that was unobligated or not spent at the time this bill was reported. in other words, there's money in the pipeline, a good deal of money in the pipeline. so as a supporter of increased m

the blue line is hurricane katrina which was the greatest among all the storms doe picket ed there by a significant in terms of size of damage smed and then hurricane reeda which ranks second among t the storms in terms of damage. and i would like to show you the next graffedt which is even more startling are the storms since 1851 to the present. we've gotten pretty good at predicting where these storms will hit. there's very little we can do to stop them but we can certainly prepare our people better for the threat that they are facing. it's important for us to understand our capacity to deal with these real and ongoing and in some people's minds ever strengthening thretsd, and that is what this committee will focus on and has focused on since the wakeup call of cailttedna which will be four years august 29. we want to make sure that we continue the science necessary to make more scientific based predictions and warnings so they can move oudoffed way smedwepped to make sure that there evacuation rusde are secure and clear smed and that the rules and regulation of involving are clear

and we did this despite the terrible aftermath of hurricane katrina where everybody, republicans and democrats alike, agreed that we should hold back a week on the hearings so that we could all concentrate the nation's resources on hurricane katrina. and so that required a week's delay. and then 72 days after, if we followed the same schedule 72 days after judge sotomayor was designated to the supreme court, would be august 6th, and we're not even having the week of katrina. now, the hearing's the opportunity for all senators on the judiciary committee, both republicans and democrats, to ask questions, raise concerns, evaluate the nominee. our republican colleagues say they intend to ask her about her judicial philosophy. now, it doesn't take four months to prepare to ask these questions. in fact, most have already raised the questions. they'll be surely prepared to ask them more than a month from now. and during that month, we have a week's vacation from the senate. now i intend to use that week without the interruption of committee hearings, without the interruption of votes, witho

while there is a chart that shows significant growth, during katrina, people's lives were saved by the volunteers and staff of 211. we did connecting people to the appropriate governmental entities, and the most vivid example is a volunteer took a call from a man who went back into his home and found his mother's body. there was no to call the 211. your urgency to continue this funding and legislation speaks to the need of the american people. >> thank you. any closing,? >> i have come to realize there has not been a lot of consistent advocacy on the hill on the issues of disaster and response recovery. one of the things we have seen with the initiative is i know you are focused on it. we have had a bit of a shakeup in the los angeles region, with eight pandemic. and the one thing i encourage you to do is let's make this about the need for better capabilities to deal with catastrophic events, particularly housing, in respect of of the cost. because as the senator from illinois pointed out, he is more concerned about tornadoes these days, and we need to make sure we are resonating that

and we're not ian having the week of katrina. now, the hearing's the opportunity for all senators on the judiciary committee. both republicans and democrats can ask questions, raise concerns, evaluate the nominee. our republican colleagues say they intend to ask her about her judicial philosophy. now, it doesn't take four months to prepare to ask these questions. in fact, most of them have already raised their questions. they'll surely be prepared to ask them more than a month from now, and during that month we have a week's vacation from the senate. now, i intend to be using that week without the intrups of committee hearings, votes, regular senate business to prepare for the hearings. i would advise those senators who feel they have to have extra time, forgo your vacation. spend that week preparing for the hearing. because this is an historic nomination. this is an historic nomination. and i hope all senators will cooperate. it's a schedule that i think is both fair and adequate. fair to the nominee, but also adequate to the un

on the emergency of katrina. if you look at days where the record is available -- and it's been available right from the get-go here -- and no vacation, no intervening long recesses and things like that, the nominee knee will have -- or the minority leader or any senator here will have more time to scrutinize this record than we've had for most other judges. and, again, underscored by the fact that the record is public, open and ample. it's not, you know -- no one has to go look for needles in a haystack to try and figure out what the record of judge sotomayor is. it's very extensive and ample. with justice roberts, we only had a few years where he was on the bench and all the rest of his record was in executive -- in the executive. and it took us weeks -- and i think if the chairman probably remembers this better than me, months to get the record. so with with, that i'll yield te floor. i know we want to get on with the vote. mr. durbin: mr. president, i ask consent to speak for up to three minutes before the vo

and the blue line is very keen katrina -- hurricane katrina which was the greatest among all who thestorms depicted there by a significant amount in terms of size of damage and then hurricane rita which ranks second and most of the storms in terms of damage and out of line to show you the next craft which is even more startling are the storm since 1851 to the present. so when we in the gulf coast are dropped threats it is real, it is frightening, and is important for this committee and of committees of this congress to continue to focus as best we can on the shore a threat of hurricanes that are getting more and more predictable. we know and can be better focused on where they're going to hit and when they are heading unlike earthquakes although our science is getting much better on earthquakes and fires as wow, but we have gotten pretty good at predicting where the storms will hit. there is very little we can do i think immediately to stop them but we mostly can prepare our people better for this rent than they are facing. it is important for us to understand our capacity to deal wi

back a week on the hearings so that we could all concentrate the nation's resources on hurricane katrina, and so that required a week's delay, and then 72 days after, we followed the same schedule, 72 days after judge sotomayor was designated to join the supreme court, and without the week we had with katrina. both republicans and democrats ask questions, raise concerns, evaluate the nominee. our republican colleagues say they intend to ask her about her judicial philosophy. now, it doesn't take four months to prepare to ask these questions. in fact, most have already raised the questions. they are surely prepared to ask them more than a month from now, and during that month, we have a week's vacation from the senate. now, i intend to be using that week without the interruption of committee hearings, without the interruption of votes, without the votes of representative business to prepare for the hearing. i advise those senators who feel they have to have extra time to forego your vacation and spend that week preparing for the hearing, because this is an historic nomination. this is an

>> in mississippi, again, using that that i'm most familiar, i will tell you that when katrina came, for example, and that infusion of capital construction personnel and equipment and companies, contractors all, you know, made that rush. now because of the balanced program that we're doing with our regular program letting a couple with our stimulus funds and having it balanced statewide we're not seeing that migration, but what we are seeing is a better employment picture in every region of our state. and i think from what i've heard from my colleagues, i think that probably throughout america, you've seen a distribution, a balanced distribution of stimulus funds which cuts down on the migration of the work force. it keeps it more regionalized and localized for the use of those people as they work for those contractors. >> that's very interesting. it's very useful. very important to know that. now, as you work through these projects that are committed and mr. keating, you'll see, you know, members responding to bids and the work of contractors, you will have worked off some proportio

hold back the hearings for a week so we could all concentrate the nation's resources on hurricane katrina. so that required a week's delay, and then 72 days after we followed the same schedule. 72 days after judge sonia sotomayor was designated on august 6, we're not even having the week of katrina. leer is the opportunity for all -- here is the opportunity for both returns and democrats to ask questions, raise concerns, evaluate the nominee. our republican colleague said they intend to ask her about her judicial philosophy. now, it doesn't take four months to prepare to ask these questions. in fact, many have already raised the questions. they will surely be prepared to ask them a month fwr now. and during that month we have a week's vacation from the senate. i intend to be using that week without the introduction -- interruption of committee meetings and regular senate business to prepare for the hearings. i would advise those senators who feel they have to have extra time, forego your vacation and spend that week preparing for the hearing. because this is an historic nomination. i hope

and this is recognizing you don't want to just take five years but in an event like katrina where we have so much rebuilding to take place, that it's sometimes say it may be a simplistic measure but having been in government most of my life tax bases is a good indicator of the health of the economy. it tell us how many homes we have. it tells me people are buying permits and buying cars and i can provide for the services such as schools and other components and it gives me a chance to look at our programs that can come in such as hud dollars from community bloc development grant, training dollars that come from the department of labor, working with commerce and other groups and sba to make sure sometimes disasters happen as the community is pivoting economically and it doesn't make sense if you don't recognize just putting it back will not change the economic outcome and we still end up with a failure. so looking at something that may not be the best answer in all cases, but from the standpoint of being able to give us a focal point to start driving recovery not just merely the staff

katrina was yellow and i said the reverse and i a portion of the patterns better than anyone so when hurricane rita was in the blue white and katrina was the yellow dot and this was done before haworth hurricane ike because it really ran smack into the allyson and i'm sure you has a major storms in your time. senator, let me recognize you at this time. >> thank you madam chairman, that would be interesting modern art, scary that represents hurricanes. hurricane hugo came to south carolina and was very devastating so i appreciate the work of the chairman of this committee. i have never met anybody in the entire congress who are dedicated to a cause and then to the subcommittee. i'm trying to stay up with you, but south carolina certainly is in harm's way and i want to thank all the posts of state, local and federal level will help our fellow citizens with disaster in myrtle beach which a huge fire. the fire did a lot of damage to myrtle beach, not just hurricanes, the red cross was there some hurricanes are what we're talking about today but also committed these can be hit in many dif

what happened in katrina was one aspect of it. what is creating reverberations about this issue of hypocrisy that the caller was talking about is when people in the middle east selling was going on in iraq after the invasion, the chaos, and the effort by the bush administration to take democracy to iraq peepe. people then saw the issues around katrina. that caused confusion. how can a government with its own problems try to export democracy to other parts of the world and the middle east? i go back to my fundamental argument. that is that you cannot compare the arab world with the united states in terms of democratic systems. >> another reminder, a chance to see the president's speech sunday morning at 10:30. the president held a press conference with german chancellor angela merkel today in dresden. he said the buchenwald camp is the ultimate rebuke for those who deny the holocaust. he will mark the 65th anniversary of the deep-day invasions' tomorrow. -- of the d-day invasions tomorrow. >> panels and offers on the economy, globa

what happened in katrina was one aspect of it. what is creating reverberations about this issue of hypocrisy that the caller was talking about is when people in the middle east selling was going on in iraq after the invasion, the chaos, and the effort by the bush administration to take democracy to iraq peepe. people then saw the issues around katrina. that caused confusion. how can a government with its own problems try to export democracy to other parts of the world and the middle east? i go back to my fundamental argument. that is that you cannot compare the arab world with the united states in terms of democratic systems. >> this weekend, the midwest's largest literary event. it is saturday, starting at 11:00 a.m. eastern throughout the day. there are panels on the economy, globalization and the american worker, homosexual rights, former illinois gov. rod blagojavich, the mob and counterfeiting, and a look at the graphic adaptation of "working." later, stanley greenberg is interviewed by sandy madeleine. bill ayers talks about

in not long after -- must have been towards christmas 2005, not long after katrina, and someone from a military family described his stomach being turned. the wasn't the kind of you're doing a heck of a job browny moment. he said it was the flyover. he said i don't expect our government do much. i agree with reagan that the government can sometimes be the problem but i do expect them to get the bodies out of the mud. we all want as americans our government to be decent and we want it to work, and i think the sort of sense of alienation from the idea of governments, you know, with all so deafened by the relentless rantses of the right week talk shows where any kind of public service is a betrayal of our credentialed that we forgot is there was somebody noble about the elementary obligations of public service. and that i think actually taking a huge risk was what obama gambled on in his campaign and is gambling, the sense of restored mutuality in trouble. if it weren't for government we would be in an even deeper hope than he actually are but it seems to be something that was lying out

i think everyone along the coast is more ready than they were before hurricane katrina, but we have a long way to go. here are a couple of examples. you can look at a map of all the shelters -- the majority are red cross shelters and they are school. if you have a catastrophic flood and people have to flee to shelters, let's say schools better on this map, what happens two or three weeks down the line when you want to open the schools for the children who should be going to those schools? there is no backup plan. number two, unfortunately, the bush administration was stuck on trailers. why? i do not know. if they just could not come up with something else. the obama administration has inherited this plan with trailers. if a hurricane five hits manhattan as it did in 1938 on long island, i don't know how many troops can fit in times square, but it will be interesting to see. -- how many trailers can fit in times where. we finally have a good fema director and has a vision and leadership ability. we finally have a very excellent homeland security director who was a governor and had to d

what happened in katrina was one aspect of it. what is creating reverberations about this issue of hypocrisy that the caller was talking about is when people in the middle east selling was going on in iraq after the invasion, the chaos, and the effort by the bush administration to take democracy to iraq peepe. people then saw the issues around katrina. that caused confusion. how can a government with its own problems try to export democracy to other parts of the world and the middle east? i go back to my fundamental argument. that is that you cannot compare the arab world with the united states in terms of democratic systems. host: a what to remind our audience that they can log on to aljazeera.net for more information. the economy in health care are the remaining issues in the hour. first, here is an news update. >> president obama is traveling in europe, following each for of a former nazi concentration camp. he visited with wounded troops and a medical center. he will attend a ceremony tomorrow in france to commemorate the day.

been in the aftermath of hurricane katrina, we all saw that when government is not prepared to reach out to people and work with people in times of disaster, terrible things can happen. indeed, people can die. within fema, which i must say it is much improved and changed and altered since hurricane katrina, lessons were learned and inc., and many dedicated men and women have come to work there, in the wake of that, we have thought about how we can work with different communities to be prepared for disasters even before disasters happen. they are going to occur in any state and any community, whether you like it not. you may live in a hurricane area or an area with tornadoes or earthquakes or floods or forest fires. it does not matter where you live in the united states, mother nature can wreak havoc. in that instance, in that case, it's so important that we think not just about what we do in the aftermath, but what we do now when things are ok and peaceful. you can help us with that. the government alone cannot bear the responsibility for helping were preparing people for when disast

a as you might imagine when katrina hit, the money came with no strings attached, no reporting data or requirements or anything else and i am sure we that is in a saturation but you see my point*. as we move further into recovery we got more and more request for data and request for reporting and transparency and one of the things if anything i was able to do for my colleagues at ashto is to tell them to tell them the story last year that there would be reporting requirements we have not heard of yet. i think for the most part our industry and the people that i know and my colleagues at ashto while they talk about the reporting issues and auditing issues and lead gao and inspector general's office coming by, i don't think it has been a problem. i think it is expected and anticipated when you do get the extra funds whether they come from emergency and/or stimulus projects. to answer your question, no sir we have not had any and i don't have any real knowledge of other. >> that is encouraging to hear. i said earlier in the hearing at the very outset of the process of structuring a stimul

that is the difference between a happened there and what happened in katrina were that nine of the storm 2 million people were summer other than their own bedroom and i don't think the country understands what is going to happen if this happens in new york or new jersey or connecticut or pennsylvania, virginia, any place and i think that people think they are not going to be impacted by category five hurricane. i think they think they built building strong enough to withstand them but i beg to differ so who will continue to make my voice heard to the president and the leadership and hope that we get through this storm season without facing a category three, four, or five and a major metropolitan area, not that orleans on dallas and houston, but in northeast metropolitan area has a lot more than city than even we do long the gulf coast because the numbers are staggering and i know janet. >> i do want a, first of all, thank you for your sense of emergency and i want to give an update regarding this critical issue of the urban parts of the northeast. new york city has excellent coverage of

people forget that in a post- katrina environment, how well the department operated the year before when we had a series of four major hurricanes -- nothing like the biblical -- literally the biblical implosion of the levees breaking and the impact of the hurricane on new orleans. i think that was more of a failure of leadership at all levels rather than the failure of the department. men and women with the right direction and the right support consistently delivered i think rather admirable service in response to natural disasters. 9/11 was not an admirable -- it was noteworthy for the wrong reasons. a lot of lessons were learned by the administration. they made some corrections, and i suspect the same today because of the corrections made in the global aftermath of katrina makes it an even stronger department. it should remain growth in the department of homeland security. host: last question, what is more difficult, running a state, a department, or writing a book? guest: good question. i enjoyed all three. guest: the bug is called "the test of our times. it is coming out in december

to a question by the bankruptcy judge, judge gonzalez, his dealership had been ruined by hurricane katrina. but he reopened it five months later and during the course of hurricane katrina, he provided fleet vehicles to police departments and fire stations and every parish of louisiana that was affected by the hurricane. also provided vehicles for the state of louisiana and the city of new orleans. he says i'll probably end up living out of my car as a result of this set of decisions. now, it brings me to i think where the gentleman was going and that is the clue travel edition, who is this task force and who made the decision to close eight chrysler plants without telling the workers it was going to happen? throwing 9,000 people out of work. who made the decision to be more aggressive and throw 200,000 people out of work that work for autodealers? before i talk about the auto task force qualifications and where we are going to go with the game of clue, i have to tell you i mentioned mr. manzo, the chrysler restrucring expert, and you may recall, mr. speaker, there was some discussion about

happens in the event of a cyber attack so people aren't guessing with the kind of confusion we had with katrina it is about trying to make sure oregonically who does what. we are traying to state the obvious that in an extreme cyber attack, it really wasn't meant to go beyond that. this kind of a discussion is something we've been having in a conference room. it is very hopeful so that by the time we got to moving the legislation, i'm hoping that it will be more warmly received. >> i think a core part of the report is exactly that. defining the lines on the rode we've known this is a problem for some time. getting people to report to you incidents has always been a real problem. one of the reasons for that is the people asking the rourt don't really see what benefit they will get out of it. we need to do our part too. i don't think government is going to pick up in a big siper incident either. we need to have organic processes and come together april really respond. can i ask a silly question? >> absolutely. >> d.o.d. is a planning outfit. we work out relationships. all those details appear in

faith in government that ignored the root of the republicans since the dismal aftermath of hurricane katrina>> i promise you i will lead america in the twenty-first century and make you proud, i will restore your trust and confidence in government. >> that is what folks are saying, help us to believe in the american future again. >> 47! >> 49! >> in iowa, citizens going to the polls. it is odd, in a country obsessed with the news, the epic history is treated as a living, breathing thing. >> we are not recollection of this state's, we are the united states of america! we are running to believe again! >> it has never been more apparent than now. is there anyone america who doesn't call this collection historic? a candidate who doesn't reach out to history? i want to explore this haunting of the president by the past, i want to follow america deep into the conflicts of its history to understand what is at stake right now. ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, please welcome simon schama. [applause] >> hello. what a pleasure to be at the library of philadelphia. it is sort of redundant. and enslaved librar

our weather patterns and all the kinds of resources we pay into try to avert them as in hurricane katrina, though fires and the west, and so on. these issues must be confronted and they happen more and more. host: next, on the democrats' line. . . they don't talk about the structure of it and have some cross will be eliminated. we really need a health care program. my son had open heart surgery when he was a baby, and we were on cobra, but even on cobra paying $366 a month in the 1980's, that on the cover my son, we still ended up paying $10,000. host: how to fix that? guest: you have heard president obama talk about that. to keep people out of an emergency rooms. i think that is part of what happened with tobacco regulation bill. guest: there needs to be a lot of personal responsibility in health care. if you are not doing your part to ensure that you are watching your weight and taking measures to make sure that your health is good, the costs will be borne by all of us. people need to take a certain responsibility. another thing is that it is important that we have care, you see it thro

we face a similar challenge in funding related to hurricane katrina. in the wake of that storm, we created a task force investigated fraud and corruption, and to identify serious abuse which was likely to take place. we have two hundred 46 convictions in mississippi and louisiana. today, we face a much different kind of war, with opportunities for criminal behavior and underlying agreed remain sustained. with trillions and trillions of dollars at stake, the purchase of troubled assets, improvements to infrastructure, health care, energy and education, even a small percentage of fraud results in substantial taxpayer losses. we must select the intelligence is necessary to target waste and abuse at all levels, and we must do so before we get fully -- it gets fully develop. we must be able to follow the money all the way down the line. we are working with the fcc for the tarp, the task forces and inspector general's to identify where these funds are going and for what purpose. we want to ensure that these funds will be appropriately utilized, and we will i

the blue line is hurricane katrina which was the greatest among all of those storms depicted there by a significant amount in terms of size of damage and hurricane it rita which ranks second among those storms in terms of damage and i would like to show you the next graph it is even more startling which are the storms since 1851, led to the president. when we in the gulf coast talk about the threat to combat it is real, it is frightening and it is important to this committee and all committees of this congress to continue to focus as best we can on the threat of hurricanes that is getting more and more predictable. we can be better focused on where they will hit and when they are hitting of like earthquakes although our science is getting much better on

this happened during hurricane trip -- hurricane katrina. host: bonnie lake, washington. caller: good morning. one thing i have not heard the republicans mention much is on the health care reform plan, if people are focusing more on preventive medicines, getting into exercise programs, learning more about nutrition, i think it has en

it is crippling the tragic, because by definition, these are folks who are flooded by hurricanes, katrina or read or gustav or

so that we do not have the situation and confusion that we had with katrina or 9/11 where there is confusion between national decision makers and local and state authorities. organically, there has to be an understanding of who does what. we were trying to state the obvious. in an extreme cyber emergency attack, the president ultimately has constitutional authority to protect the country. it was not meant to go beyond that. this kind of discussion was something that we have been having and conference rooms. this bill is very helpful in this process with this legislation. it is actually moving the legislation and hoping that it will be warmly received. >> a core part of the report was exactly that, the finding what the lanes of the road are and how the government sectors work together. we know that this has been a problem for some time. we have not had a response plan. that was only one part of the plan. i echoed most of the sentiments heard here. partnership for what purpose? people throw that around without any content behind it. what relationships do you need to develop? what do you need f

feingold talk about corporate greed and what happened during katrina. i read court documents, absolutely blown away by what i was finding out. i blog on the insurance journal, the untouchables. it is heartbreaking to me to find out that we can have the worst thing happen in this country, and in the courts, our judges, the insurance industry, it doesn't matter. they raped these poor people and nobody cares. i am sorry--i am not far that i am upset, i am shocked, i am sickened by it. i called over 800 newspapers to try to get them to write the untouchables, nobody would do it. i talked to a reporter at the sun herald in mississippi gounod's with is going on with nd ne farm. it is like nobody cares, they can do whatever they want, they can fill up records in the hurts, now they are telling people we are moving because we have had to pay you so much ldney. where are the real reporters in this world? i just did a story about darfur and was shocked by how many people don't even know what that means. >> host: which one of you would like to answer? >> some of t

and not long after it must've been for christmas 2005, not long after katrina. and someone from the military family just described his stomach being churned. it wasn't the kind of you're doing a heckuva job. he said it was the flyers. is that i don't expect our government to do much. he said i agree with ronald reagan, government can sometimes be the problem, not the answer. but i do expect them to get the bodies out in the mud. we all want, as americans, we want our government to be decent and we want it to work. and i think the sort of sense of alienation from the idea of governance. you know, it also deafened by the relentless rants of the right wing talk shows in which any kind of public service is a form of betrayal of our american credentials that we forgot there was something noble and honorable and important and necessary about the elementary obligations of public service. and that i think, you know, taking a huge risk was obama gambled on in his campaign and indeed gambling. of course, had it actually not been for government than we would be an even dee

and a government that is not at the root of the republic since the dismal aftermath of hurricane katrina>> i promise you i will lead america to the 21st century and make you proud. i will restore your trust and confidence in government. >> that is what the votes are saying. help us to believe in the american future of again. [cheering] >> 46, 47, 48, 49. [applause] >> i saw all citizens going to the polls in doubles the members of the last election. it is odd in a country obsessed that history, the epic figure is treated as a living and breathing thing. >> we are not a collection of red states and blue states. we are the united states of america and in this moment, in this election we are ready to believe i again. thank you, iowa. [cheering] >> it has never ridden more alive than now. is their anyone in america who doesn't call this the election historic? a candidate that doesn't reach out to history? ♪ i want to explore this haunting by the past. i want to follow america deepak to the conflicts of its history to understand what is at stake right now. ♪ ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen, please