mr. holmes and mr. depallo. you have both in your testimony referred to the shortened time frame that is proposed by the department for awarding funds, or for getting funds out the door. and you both have suggested that this might eliminate certain kinds of larger scale projects, certain kinds of capital projects. i mentioned mr. fugate few minutes ago, the tunnel hardening as a possible example. i wonder if you would elaborate exactly just based again on your experience, on the kinds of projects you have asked for and have anticipated going forward, what would be the effect of that kind of shortened time frame. and i guess this particularly applies to the rail and transit side. you're going to have to make up in some way for this funding to pay for what you need to do. >> right. you mentioned tunnel hardening. we currently have a tunnel hardening project. a project like that requires a great deal of advanced planning, engineering, design, procurement of the equipment and materials necessary, and then implementa

mr. holmes issues better when we can look at what his risks and threats are and make intelligent judgments about how to support those. >> thank you. mr. mullen, nema has been outspoken about the need to show the impact of investment in programs. empg is one of the few grant programs that has significant cost share. it is not just federal funds invested but also state and local funds. how do you measure performance? what lessons learned can you share with the rest of the stakeholder committee questions -- with the stakeholder community? >> one is the capabilities that exist in state and local government. i was looking at the report was submitted to the committee just yesterday. there was something like 99 disasters. there were 50 other state events that did not rise to the level of disaster marshall because of the ability of the states to prepare in advance and coordinate response. there were thousands of other events that local governments managed the required little or no intervention by the state because their professional staff at the local level are equipped and talented enough to addr

mr. john holmes, deputy executive director for the port of los angeles and representing the american association of florida authorities. jim mullen, the current president of the emergency managers association and also the direct your of the washington department of emergency management. he is representing the national emergency managers association. and last but certainly not least, mr. michael depalo who is the director and general manager of the port authority trans hudson corporation. thank you for being here this morning. and we look forward to hearing from each of you as you give us your thoughts and opinions on the grants reform that has been introduced. this bill is on effort by this committee last year and how the grant is -- has been set up. but we recognize that there are challenges and we believe that it is also time for reform. if you could, maybe keep your kmants to two or three minutes and summarize it for the committee. bear in mind that your written testimony will be placed in the record so before i begin with the open testimony, let me recognize mr. price. >> thank you, mr. chai

mr. chairman. >> it would make you uncomfortable. interesting transition. miss holmes norton is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you, sect geithner and chairman bernanke for being here. every country and every culture, of course, is very different and it's very risky to go looking at cultures whether it's greece or some cultural country that you perhaps admire. i want to -- i do want to ask you about germany. we are -- there are some in the congress who believe that the way out of our present recession and dilemma is to impose draconian cuts repeatedly. even forsaking the budget deal, that was very difficult to reach was reached at a huge sacrifice, the loss of our aaa rating. the -- i look to europe. this was a worldwide recession. and look at the difference among the various countries. the british seem to have adopted something of that approach. approach to emphasize retrenchment over growth. i'm intrigued by germany. everybody's favorite example of the strongest economy in europe, perhaps the strongest in the world today. and do not

mr. holmes for being here, flying across the country to testify. as i mentioned earlier, the ports play such an important role in our national economy. understanding the difficult budgetary decisions that mr. fugate has to make, the fact remains that a terror attack on the port of long beach complex would have a devastating impact on our national economy. you heard mr. fugate comments. i believe you are here during his testimony. could you comment on his response regarding the proposed grant program and his hope that everybody can work together to properly prioritize the needs, and if time allows, can you also provide us with some suggestions on how you think the port security grant requirements and guidance could be improved and simplified? if you could offer some should destines. >> and restart by saying -- if you could offer some suggestions. >> the first point i would make is, there is a difference between coordination and control. it is easy to make it sound like we don't work with the states, but we work very closely with the state of californ

mr. aaron tone. ms. april holmes. ms. courtney. mr. richard wold. f. dr. paulau cuello. mr.damien lewis. >> [inaudible] >> what do i want to tell them? [inaudible] there was that moment in the new york times op ed, it seemed we crossed into the cultural zeitgeist. president obama's foreign policy -- when does he watch tv? that is what i'm going to ask him. [inaudible] >> mr. warren buffet. mrs. buffet. the honorable tina chen. mr. john w. thompson. mrs. sandy thompson. dr. amy -- dr. michael doyle. the honorable eric holder, attorney general. it secretary of health and human services. the honorable rajiv shaw. mrs. shaw. mr. joe lamont. mrs. andra lamont. mr. anthony gardner. mrs. alejandra gardner. mrs. carol penske. mr. david penske. mr. raj fernando. mrs. jennifer -- the honorable martha johnson. mr. steve johnson. the honorable camilla harris. mrs. mike harris. -- maya harris. the honorable wendy sherman. mr. stokes. the honorable brooke anderson. mr. james -- ms. ann windosr. mr. shelby bryant. mr. harvey weinstein. ms. georgina chapman. >> i have not seen her yet. [ina

mr. mullen? >> thank you. i agree with captain holmes in the idea of separating the funding for reports and for security. the security grant, by combining the programs, there is no guarantee that any money at all will go to transit security grants. as far as the 2012, the transit security grant program, there is only $87 millionprram. that's down from the previous year of 2011 where there was 200 million. and that's down from previous years. so the amount of funding needs to increase. in 2013, the elimination or the reduction of the time to finish performance on projects goes from three to five to two years. congressman price mentioned a project like that you wouldn't be able to do. essentially what will happen is you'll be eliminating any major capital projects at all. it will all just be for operating expenses. and finally, we believe that the going through the states for funding believes just adds another step to the process. and it's not that's. most transit systems are already prepared to be able to accept grants directly, and there

mr. chairman and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify. i'm captain john holmes, director of operations for the port of los angeles. my testimony focuses on experience of the port of los angeles and apa's u.s. members. my written testimony has been submitted for the record. i'll summarize it briefly before i answer any questions. in the decades since 9/11, a key component of the nation's effort to harden the security of sea ports has been the port security grant program. under the safe port act, the port security grant program is authorized at $400 million. unfortunately, in the last few years, the funding for this program has decreased dramatically. there were other adverse changes to the fy 2012 grants as well. first, the term of performance has been changed from three years to two years. although we appreciate the need to execute projects, we are concerned that such a move will shift the focus to buying stuff rather than developing solutions. the past period performance made it difficult to exercise these solutions. the current period will make it impossible.

mr. aaron tone. ms. april holmes. ms. estee -- mr. richard wolf. dr. paulau cuello. mr. damien lewis. >> [inaudible] >> what do i want to tell them? [inaudible] there was that moment in the new york times op ed, it seemed we crossed into the cultural zeitgeist. president obama's foreign policy -- when does he watch tv? that is what i'm going to ask him. [inaudible] >> mr. warren buffet. mrs. buffet. -- mrs. astrid m. buffet. the honorable tina chen. mr. john w. thompson. mrs. sandy thompson. dr. amy -- dr. michael doyle. the honorable eric holder, attorney general. the honorable kathleen sebilius, it secretary of health and human services. the honorable rajiv shaw. mrs. shaw. mr. joe lamont. mrs. andra lamont. mr. anthony gardner. mrs. alejandra gardner. mrs. carol penske. mr. david penske. mr. raj fernando. mrs. jennifer -- the honorable martha johnson. mr. steve johnson. the honorable camilla harris. mrs. mike harris. -- maya harris. the honorable wendy sherman. mr. stokes. -- bruce stokes. the honorable brooke anderson. mr. james -- ms. ann windosr. -- anna wintour. m

mr. chairman. >> it would make you uncomfortable. interesting transition. miss holmes thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you, secretary geithner, and chairman bernanke, for being here. every country and every culture of course is very different and it's very risky to go looking at cultures, whether it's greece or some cultural country that you perhaps admire. i do want to ask you about germany. we are -- there are some in the congress who believe that the way out of our present recession and dilemma is to impose draconian cuts repeatedly, even foresake the budget deal which was very difficult to reach, was reached at a huge sacrifice, the loss of our aaa rating. i look to europe. this was a worldwide recession. and look at the difference among the various countries. the british seem to have adopted something of that approach, the approach to emphasize retrenchment over growth. i'm intrigued by germany. everybody's favorite example of the strongest economy in europe, perhaps the strongest in the world today. and do not understand and believe we need to come to grips wit

mr. rahall: madam speaker, i'm pleased to yield two minutes at this time to the distinguished gentlelady from the district of columbia, the ranking member on our economic development and public buildings subcommittee on our -- eleanor holmes norton. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady veck niced for two minutes. ms. norton: i thank the gentleman for yielding. the american people will be puzzled by why we can't get out of this house what has traditionally been the most popular bill, the transportation bill, an they will hope we're not on the road to the 30-plus f.a.a. extensions that we had before. you know it won't do to say, like two kids you did it too, we did it, you can do it, therefore we can do it. none of us should have done it. but in any case we know we don't have to do it this time. the senate has passed a bill that we could pass as well. so we know the compromise can happen because they passed a bill with more than 2/3 of their own house, including many republicans signing on, compromise is possible. if you believe in compromise. and i'm afraid this bill shows that we have a majority that does not. they are on record saying that they must have 218 votes from their caucus alone. that will say to the american

mr. whitehouse: madam president, marie colvin died last week, wednesday, in syria. as i speak, her body is still in holmes because the assad regime refuses to honor the centuries-old tradition of human decency that even in war, you're allowed to recover your dead. an american official in a position to know about the circumstances of her death has used with me the word "murder." and this is not an official who uses such words loosely. news reports have suggested that marie was targeted using her cell phone signals. why was she killed? marie once said, "covering a war means going to places torn by chaos, destruction, and death and trying to bear witness." she was killed because she was doing what she was passionate about and what her gift was and that is to bear witness. marie was in syria to bear witness to the massacre of the innocent in the city of holmes by the assad? the city of homs by the assad regime. her last report to theb bbc was of a baby killed by shrapnel dying in its mother's arms. that baby had no choice and that mother had no voice but marie was there. she was there making sure the dead did

mr. rahall: madam speaker, i'm pleased to yield two minutes at this time to the distinguished gentlelady from the district of columbia, the ranking member on our economic development and public buildings subcommittee on our -- eleanor holmes norton. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady veck niced for two minutes. ms. norton: i thank the gentleman for yielding. the american people will be puzzled by why we can't get out of this house what has traditionally been the most popular bill, the transportation bill, an they will hope we're not on the road to the 30-plus f.a.a. extensions that we had before. you know it won't do to say, like two kids you did it too, we did it, you can do it, therefore we can do it. none of us should have done it. but in any case we know we don't have to do it this time. the senate has passed a bill that we could pass as well. so we know the compromise can happen because they passed a bill with more than 2/3 of their own house, including many republicans signing on, compromise is possible. if you believe in compromise. and i'm afraid this bill shows that we have a majority that does not. they are on record saying that they must have 218 votes from their caucus alone. that will say to the american

mrs. christensen: thank you, congressman johnson. now i would like to yield a few minutes to the gentlewoman from the district of columbia, congresswoman eleanor holmes norton. ms. norton: i thank the gentlelady for leading this special order for our good friend and colleague, donnell payne, whose passing leaves me shocked and deeply saddened. after 12 terms of outstanding service in the house of representatives, don was a friend, he was more than a colleague, he was the kind of friend you could always strike up a conversation with about matters technical or just matters at hand. because don was easy of manner but strong of conviction. don turned out to be a real path breaker and history maker. he came to congress as the first african-american to serve in congress from the state of new jersey, he followed the great peter ridino, who had served newark for decades. newark had become a majority african-american city, but don grew up in a neighborhood that was as italian as it was black and felt comfortable with people of all ethnic groups. when congressman ridino who was chair of the house judiciary committee, this was before i came to congress but it w