. >> after katrina fema made people's lives worse. were awful. >> fema was also run by someone who was put there in a patron edge position who had no idea how to run the agency. >> isn't that how it happens in government? >> no. it could be run by people who know the specifics who know the expertise. >> techno crabs with expertise easy to i a sume they would hire the right people. he was smart he went to harvard. those experts will make sure they get changed the right way. >> he worked at the department of homeland security. >> spending billions how can you not be prepared? >>> oo big government does really well. >> the government experts make big plans. >> it makes sense to people. big disaster. you want to have the plan from the top. >> we have lots of plans. >> we could not catch more than 6 percent. >> wal-mart was praised for its relief effort. >> why would wal-mart do it better? >> their business is to make money. they have a sophisticated weather system that allows them to track where do we need to surge before the storm. peopl

katrina four years later was a tremendous difficulty. one of the things we do is to chronicle the position of fema federal emergency management agency and the fact that it had as its former director. it had become a stepchild. important to note that even after katrina the terrorism mandate remain that the floor and to this day remains of the four in the department of homeland security even though there is an expansion of the natural disaster mandate. the attention that existed in the white house apparatus and continues we argue to be essentially a.of contention. but the dhs subsequent obama administration change in which the staff of the homeland security council was put under the national security council. it has become -- it has been evident that national security terrorism mandate is still largely at the four there are some questions as we start to discuss in the conclusion about whether there should be more of an institutional, particularly the leadership role that deals with these natural disasters this drawing sets of natural disasters. as we all no natural disasters are increasingly a problem. tremendous. over $1 million. it's on

fema disaster fund. fiscal 2013, $18 billion. that was for some of the recovery efforts after hurricane headed. 13 going dollars in 2012. $45 billion in 2005 with the series of hurricanes katrinailma. how does fema make a determination for who is eligible to receive those dollars from that fund? guest: the first thing that has to be emphasizes that the president and congress have to make a decision to how much money will be in the fund. that has proven to be a tricky proposition. we saw during superstorm sandy that the fund was deflated. there was a need for supplemental appropriation. it became a political process and eventually $60 billion became appropriated. 2005, 2 thousand six, you have hurricane katrina. 2012 and 2013 you have superstorm standing. it should be -- superstorm sandy. it should be emphasized that in the early years we were talking to bullion dollars to $4 billion in the fund. for hurricane katrina, we had to appropriate $120 billion to respond to that massive disaster , and superstorm sandy, $60 billion. and as dr. knabb said, it would be very hard to predict. he predicts is lower season, but it is difficult because the individual intensities of these dorms

let's remember that after katrina we talked about fema and national readiness. but the gun lobby doesn't want us to have this conversation. they accuse anyone who tries with exploiting the deaths of innocent people. with that logic, we couldn't talk about solutions when 13 people were killed and eight were injured during a shooting in the washington, d.c., navy yard. or after a person opened fire during a midnight screening of the film "the dark knight rises " in 2012. or 28 people were shot and killed including 20 innocent children at sandy hook elementary school. or when a man shot three people and killed seven others at a sikh temple in wisconsin. or when 14 people were shot and six were killed in 2011 during a constituent meeting hosted by our colleague congresswoman gabby giffords, in a supermarket parking lot in tucson. or when a man opened fire at fort hood texas in 2009 killing 13 people, injuring 30 others. or in 2008, when a man opened fire in a lecture hall at northern illinois university, shooting 21 students and killing six. or when a senior at virg

katrina? >> i'll say a couple things about this. the first is that one of the things that the president did when he took office was to appoint craig fugate to run fema. and the confidence of the american people was shaken in our government's ability to respond in national security situations. and i think that confidence has been restored. the president made that a priority and having had the opportunity to travel with the president when he visited communities across the country that have been wracked by a national disaster, the citizens of those communities appreciate the commitments of their government to help them rebuild and recover and come back stronger than ever. and that's a testament to the effective work of somebody like craig fugate and all the men and women at fema that work for him and it's a testament to the state and local officials that respond to these situations that fema is typically there to support the state and local officials who have the lead. and the president made that a priority when he came into office and for all the talks about trying to prevent a second great depression and for the president to look at national security

katrina? >> a couple things about this. the first is one of the things the president did when he took office was appointed craig fugat fugate to run fema and the people's faith was shaken in the government's ability to react to the emergency situations and because of the professionalism and experience of someone like that the confidence has been restored. the president made that a priority and having had the opportunity to travel with the president when he visited some communities across the country that were racked by a national disaster. .. the efforts to prevent a second great depression and for the president to pursue our nation's good interests around the globe there hasn't been as much talk about how effectively that particular agency has rehabilitated not just its image but their operations in a way that is profoundly affected the lives of thousands if not millions of americans. as it relates to new orleans more specifically we will have i'm confident a lot more to say about this and on this as the anniversary gets closer. but i can tell you that the president and his team has been a longtime working with officials in new orlean