as mr. byard just said, the corps has no authority and oversight on the district or any other state -- ms. norton: i can't hear you, sir. mr. alexander: as mr. byard said, the corps has no authority which they can direct the district or any state or locality on what they can build or what they cannot build. but the corps does urge local governments to, you know, enforce their zoning and certainly enforce building to establish codes. if you're going to build on the waterfront, whether it's river or coastal, you know, ensure you're out of the flood plane. you may have to do that by standoff or through elevation. it's the major reason we do shore protection projects along the nation's beaches. it is not primarily for recreation. it's for the protection of infrastructure and the economy. ms. norton: thank you very much, mr. chairman. mr. barletta: thank you. we will now begin a second round of questions. i'd like to remind all members today's the annual hotdog lunch in rayburn so we will hold everyone

mr. byard, you may start. >> yes, sir, we appreciate the committee's commitment to improving our nation's resilience and response to the disasters. you know, the drra when incentivized, that predisaster mitigation very, you know, similar to what the administrator paulison just laid out. building a nation of resilience, building a culture of resilience is one of the administrator's top strategic goals. thank you. >> the corps of engineers certainly supports any effort to increase the nation's infrastructure and to promote safety measures. we support, you know, investments in mitigation up front. we are working on the mitigation function leadership group with the federal agency departments on the investment strategy. if you take a look at if star amounts associated with the supplements of storms since hurricane katrina, if you took a fraction of that amount and vels investigated it in mitigation, perhaps we can see that today. thank you. >> the national emergency management association remains ac

but mr. byard, can you explain what happens to commodities in 2017 and what adjustments you have made in 2018 to address the potential needs of the territories should there be another hurricane? >> yes, sir. i would be happy to. the first question is, you know, the 2017 issue. you know, and, again, as we pointed out in the report, all of our national planning, all the deliberate ing that we do is the deliberate planning that we do is build around a three-legged stool. you have local, state and federal government. two of those legs in the commonwealth were not there. i don't mean that to be disparaging. we had a lot of impacted first responders. they were survivors in the mom welt. we have the ability to get the commodities. we accomplished that. we were taking from the port but getting it out to the more difficult terrained facilities. we did. with action planning on the ground, you do that to assist needs. that was accomplished. what are we doing in 2018? as i mentioned earlier, you know, one of o