mr. mccarthey. you are analyzed the history of our nation's disaster assistance authorities and the creation of fema. can you explain some of the basic principles that are fundamental of fema's assistance programs and the nation's approach to disaster recovery? >> yes, mr. chairman. fundamentally it begins as a partnership between the federal government and the state governments. and i think it is written that the staffford act is written in a way that is of interest because it's extremely flexible. i know mr. fugate was talking about some of the ways it works, some of the way it does work. i have occasionally heard it referred to as the kind of act that you could drive a truck through. then i heard it referred to as a straight jacket. perhaps both people are right. but i think it's a matter of interpretation. essentially fema is looking at the states as their partners and i think that in that way it works fairly effectively. and you have state agencies by the way, the state emergency management age