mr. koon. mr. nelson, you may proceed. mr. nelson: good morning. thank you for holding this important hearing today to examine solutions to controlling the increased costs of natural disasters. my name is eric nelson, and i'm senior vice president of catastrophe risk management at travelers insurance. i'm testifying today on behalf of the build strong coalition, a group of businesses, consumer organizations dedicated to reducing human economic losses from natural disasters. as one of the largest property casualty companies in the u.s., travelers provides a unique private sector expertise that can add value to the federal government's mission in its own risk and losses from natural disasters. i'd first like to thank chairman barletta and the members of the subcommittee for their continued leadership in conducting a series of round tables on this topic beginning in january of last year. i begin today by outlining three major takeaways from that emerging from those roundtables. before i do that,

mr. koon? >> thank you, mr. chairman. as a director of the florida division of emergency management i have the luxury of a fairly large staff and adequate funding so every time there are new programs out there every time there are new incentives i have personnel whom i can assign to that to make sure we take full advantage of that program. however, a good number of states do not share that luxury and a good number of the counties across the country do not have that same luxury. so anytime a new program is put into place they have to determine how they can help meet the needs of that program because they're using current staffing, current year budgeting at the potential for a payoff down the road. i think a few things would assist in this effort. one would be as mr. gray suggested consider clarifying, consider consolidating, consider streamlining existing programs today rather than creating just additional new programs which would enhance the administrative burden on already overworked officials at the state and local leve

mr. koon, you may proceed. >> thank you, mr. chairman, ranking member and members of the subcommittee. my name is bryan koon, and i am director of the florida division of emergency management. i'm here on behalf of the national emergency management association which represents the state emergency management directors of the 50 states, territories and the district of columbia. as the frequency, intensity and variable about of disasters increase, it is imperative to reduce risk wherever possible. this will focus on life safety and those aspects of the built environment where the risk cannot be reduced everything nema believes the following: meaningful cost reduction should impact all levels. the government practice of spending more money on disaster recovery than risk reduction must be changed. hazard mitigation is a cost effective effort with a documented return on investment. mitigation reduces response costs and speeds recovery. integrating mitigation meaningfully into recovery can be the catalyst for a community-wide focus on p

mr. koon, you may proceed. >> thank you, mr. chairman, ranking member and members of the subcommittee. my name is bryon coon, and i -- bryan koon. i'm here on behalf of the national emergency management association which represents the state emergency management directors of the 50 states, territories and the district of columbia. as the frequency, intensity and variability of disasters increase, it is imperative to reduce risks wherever possible. this will insure that our scarce personnel and financial resources are focused on life safety and those aspects of the built environment where the risk cannot be reduced. meaningful cost reduction should impact all levels of government and not simply shift the cost between stakeholders. the government practice of spending more money on recovery than risk reduction must be changed. mitigation reduces response costs and speeds recovery, integrating mitigation meaningfully into recovery can be the catalyst for a community-wide focus on preparedness in the future. mitigation and resilience