ms. cooley is of the navajo nation. derek holly is the president of reaching america, a nonprofit with a focus on the african-american outreach. mr. holly has over 25 years of experiencing in advertising and marketing. dr. park is assistant professor of public policy at ucla's lufkin school. and it's labor economics and public finance. his research focuses on how climate change has economic outcomes and in particular, studies the labor and human capital impact of climate change and the prospects for long run climate adaptation and environmental determinenates of economic ability. without objection, the witness's written statements will be made part of the record. with that, ms. flowers, you're now recognized to give five minute presentation of your testimony, welcome. >> thank you. thank you, chair caster and for the opportunities to testify. again, my name is katherine coleman flowers and i'm the development manager for the justice initiative and the founder director for rural enterprise and environmental justice in mo

ms. cooley, thank you for participating.long a similar line, you know people should be consulted thoughtfully from the early stages. ethical best practices should be followed to make consultation meaningful. but this practice has not always been followed by the federal government. can you tell us what it looks like when it goes right? >> thank you for the question. i think it has been outlined when you provide meaningful partnership and adequate financing, access to resources that a community thrives and when you provide that support in the long-term, there is a statistic that the native american communities receive $23 per person for disaster emergency funds while the average american gets $26 per person. so you're giving them not just a seat at the table but taking meaningful action to engage them and remove the barrier and strengthen tribal sovereignty and honoring the trust responsibility that the government has two tribes. -- has to tribes. >> i want to reiterate again that we must invest in environmental justice in dis