mr. maxwell, any of you? >> madam chair, i will take a stab at it. -part of this, the national level exercise series developed out of the top of series that was done. >> the what? >> the top official exercises that were done that involves cabinet level officials, as do the national level exercises. for a long time, the states and regions have practiced natural disasters. and i think we were playing -- >> at the direction of the federal government or on own? >> both on their own and to some degree with the federal government as well. >> so perhaps, you know, terrorist attack is not like it would be some kind of involved in desiderata the united states, yet we have national exercises there. >> i think to some degree we are playing catch up on not having practice that terrorist event. so we went through several scenarios on that, and now we are getting back to the need to do those high level officials exercises with natural disasters as well. >> makes one question. so you agree that there wasn't a lack of authority. >> no, ma'am. >> and i think it is, y