ms. johnson: thank you. rise in support of h.r. 2431, the national integrated drought information system re-authorization act of 2013. this vital program, known as nitis, was -- known as nidis was developed in 2006. it provides critical drought information to communities all across our nation. over the past three decades it's estimated that droughts have cost our country hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impacts. loss estimates from the 2012 drought alone run upwards of $70 billion. moreover, the effects of climate change are anticipated to exacerbate this problem in many parts of the country, including my home state of texas. right now, california is experiencing its driest period in recorded history. 67% of the state of california is experiencing extreme or exceptional drought conditions. we all know that farmers and ranchers bear the brunt of these rought conditions. that hits the pocketbooks of every american as food prices go up. but the damage is not limited to agriculture. for example, the w

ms. johnson. >>> hello, my name is cynthia cruz. i am a proud member of the league of women voters, but i am here speaking on my own as a resident of district 5. prior to the work that i do now, i actually work in mental health services and i just want to bring up -- first of all, i want to say my heart is just wide open with the community support and all the people that were here rushed here to get here in time to speak because i just didn't know how full the room would be. but the people i saw coming into the clinic, they already had so many thing against them. and when they were looking for jobs and housing, the thing that i saw the most was they had to actually reveal things that were illegal to reveal. they had to reveal their medical histories in order to explain sometimes the reason why they got caught up

ms. donna stanton. [inaudible conversations] the honorable kevin johnson mayor of sacramento and ms.lle lee. >> i'm really excited. this is my first state dinner. for my wife and i to big treat. i have learned to french phrases. >> go ahead. >> i can't remember. thank you. the honorable paul ryan and mrs. ryan. the honorable chuck hagel, secretary of defense and daughter ms. ellen hagel. mr. dan barber and brother mr. david barber. ms. mindy kelling and guests ms. jocelyn leavitt. [inaudible conversations] the honorable nancy pelosi and daughter jacqueline kelling. >> this is my daughter jack wayne. she is from texas. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] attorney general erik holder and mrs. holder. >> i'm glad to be here. we have a great relationship which i'm sure will be made better by this dinner. spanish. >> thank you. ambassador to the united nations and ms. cass sunstein. [inaudible conversations] mr. and mrs. peter bashar. mr. and mrs. james roosevelt junior. [inaudible conversations] the honorable karen bass and ms. barbara jordan. >>

ms. donna stanton. [inaudible conversations] the honorable kevin johnson mayor of sacramento and ms.lle lee. >> i'm really excited. this is my first state dinner. for my wife and i to big treat. i have learned to french phrases. >> go ahead. >> i can't remember. thank you. the honorable paul ryan and mrs. ryan. the honorable chuck hagel, secretary of defense and daughter ms. ellen hagel. mr. dan barber and brother mr. david barber. ms. mindy kelling and guests ms. jocelyn leavitt. [inaudible conversations] the honorable nancy pelosi and daughter jacqueline kelling. >> this is my daughter jack wayne. she is from texas. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] attorney general erik holder and mrs. holder. >> i'm glad to be here. we have a great relationship which i'm sure will be made better by this dinner. spanish. >> thank you. ambassador to the united nations and ms. cass sunstein. [inaudible conversations] mr. and mrs. peter bashar. mr. and mrs. james roosevelt junior. [inaudible conversations] the honorable karen bass and ms. barbara jordan. >>

ms. martinez from the council? any from staff? >> carla johnson. a quick clarification about the renovation on mission. i think the input for disability is more from staff of the mayor's office. one of the things we do from the access program is we do field inspections from all facilities to make sure they are fully ada compliant. this is one of our projects. we are proud to be a partner with you there. >> great. >> all right. i will ask for any public comment on this topic? >> thank you. james cansini with seniors and disability action. the issues coming forward is really big. two things i want to

ms. martinez from the council? any from staff? >> carla johnson. a quick clarification about the renovation on mission. i think the input for disability is more from staff of the mayor's office. one of the things we do from the access program is we do field inspections from all facilities to make sure they are fully ada compliant. this is one of our projects. we are proud to be a partner with you there. >> great. >> all right. i will ask for any public comment on this topic? >> thank you. james cansini with seniors and disability action. the issues coming forward is really big. two things i want to acknowledge, not to say everything is great in san francisco because there is obviously problems but we are ahead of the game in comparison to other counties. one of the things is prior to becoming 65. they are going to notify them in advance. that's pretty important. i wanted to acknowledge that's a success. it's a positive step in the right direction and also at the statewide level something that is kind of really big. when i first found out about it,

johnson: madam chair, i'd yield four minutes to the gentlewoman from texas. the chair: the gentlewoman from texas is recognized for four minutes. ms. jackson lee: thank you. i want to thank my good friend, congressman johnson, for his leadership and the management of this legislation. i thank the chairman as well and for the kurt cisextended to members to -- courtesies extended to members to allow us to have a vigorous discourse on issues that impact the lives of the american people. i'd just like us to take a journey down memory lane, and i'm sure that many of us will e reminded of the famous pinto and the original crafting of that automobile. no commentary on the great industry that so many of us admire, but for those of us who have memories, we realize some of the injuries that occurred in the structure of the pinto. or maybe cars without seat belts or air bags or maybe we recall times when we traveled throughout our community and we noticed not only a heavy fog but polluted air. maybe some of us have been exposed to polluted water. or maybe you've traveled internationally, even in the 21st century, seen the conditions that man

johnson. i believe we have the planning department here. ms. velve. >> good afternoon, chair wiener and honorable members of land use committee. my name is sarah valve of planning department staff. [speaker not understood]. this sud will enable the adaptive reuse of the historic resource at page and masonic street. it is to create 16 affordable eunice and one manager's unit. it is a joint effort between mercy housing and mayor's office of housing. [speaker not understood] planning code requirements related to density, open space, exposure, setbacks and parking. the majority of these modifications cannot be met due to existing site constraints. the sud was initiated at the full board by supervisor breed on november 5th, 2013. on december 19th, 2013 the planning commission unanimously adopted [speaker not understood] to support the sud and authorization to implement the sud. thank you. this concludes presentation. i'm here for questions. >> thank you. next we have tim dunn from mercy housing. >> yes, thank you. tim dunn from mercy housing. i'll b

ms. jackson lee: mr. chairman, i have an amendment at the desk. amendment number nine. as the designee of mr. johnson. chris: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 9, printed in house report number 113-361, offered by ms. jackson lee of texas. chris: pursuant to house resolution 487, the gentlelady from texas, ms. jackson lee, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. the chair now recognizes the gentlelady from texas. ms. jackson lee: as i indicated i'm moving this on he behalf of mr. johnson. the amendment is simple. it would exclude from this bill any rule that would result in net job growth. i ask that my colleagues support this commonsense amendment to promote job growth and strengthen the middle class. after all the stated purpose of the act is to grow the economy and create jobs. although this bill purports to grow the economy, create jobs, we cannot pretend that this bill's myopic focus on regulations will accomplish any of these goals. i have profound concerns with the alert act. the bill would undermine the ability of agencies to protect the public in

ms. carpenter's experiences raising rates three teenage nieces and nephews at age 79. she also discusses her years in the white house working as press secretary for lady bird johnson. this is about an hour. c-span: liz carpenter, you say early in your book that, "by heritage and by profession, i am a storyteller." where did you learn that? >> guest: i think growing up. i grew up in rural texas. rural areas seem to -- you need entertainment, and so my family had been rooted in texas for five generations and they were full of tales that had been hand-me-downs. we heard them a lot around the fireplace while you're cracking pecans, and it grew. then, of course, i just was propelled to be a journalist, and that's what i did. i went to the university of texas and came to washington when franklin roosevelt was president, with my journalism degree in hand and my virtue intact. i still have the journalism degree. it just led naturally into seeing things as a story, a saga. c-span: you mention you actually were in the audience to see will rogers perform. >> guest: absolutely, and i know that it makes me feel like an artifact, but he came to the university of texas. we went t

ms. virginia dewer and her husband, a white woman posted the bail to get rosa parks out of jail. there's a white side to black history. but let's get back to frank m. johnson. they decided they would not ride the bus. for over a year they provided alternative transportation and boycotted. in so doing, in boycotting, they brought this to the attention of not only the united states but of the world. but here's the other side. the boycott was effective but it was an order from frank m. johnson as a part of a three-judge panel concluding that that segregation was unconstitutional based upon brown vs. the board of education which had been decided about a year earlier. frank m. johnson signed the order along with two other judges. frank m. johnson went on to sign orders integrating schools, voting rights, his history is replete with orders that he signed to change the face of the south. paraphrasing dr. king, frank m. johnson gave meaning to the word justice. a white, republican federal judge. i mention these things tonight because i want people to know that black history is american history. and that it includes people of all hues and genders and persuasions an

ms. patton, your whole statement will be made part of the record. please proceed. >> thank you very much. >> make sure your mic's on. >> i think so. chairman carper, ranking member johnson. i'm lindene patton. chief financial officer for zurich. we provide coverage for customers in the 170 countries. we've been serving customers in the united states since 1912. we have over 8,000 employees nationwide. i would like to thank you for holding this timely hearing and i am pleased to share with the committee an insurance industry's perspective and the economic importance of investing today and improving resilience. zurich observes that the u.s. is increasingly reliant on disaster recovery funds and it's under invested in resilience. disasters have increased to over 1,000 per annum. it's risen to $400 per household. that is more than a four fold increase over the past 30 years. in other words, the resilience gap is large and growing. how large? in cummings projected that unfunded response costs for weather-related disasters would grow to more than 1 trillion u.s. dollars and might be as much as 5 point poip 7 trillion u.s. dollars. taxpayers are bearing the burden of this. wit

ms. patton, your whole statement will be made part of the record. please proceed. >> thank you very much. >> make sure your mic's on. >> i think so. chairman carper, ranking member johnson. i'm lindene patton. chief financial officer for zurich. we provide coverage for customers in the 170 countries. we've been serving customers in the united states since 1912. we have over 8,000 employees nationwide. i would like to thank you for holding this timely hearing and i am pleased to share with the committee an insurance industry's perspective and the economic importance of investing today and improving resilience. zurich observes that the u.s. is increasingly reliant on disaster recovery funds and it's under invested in resilience. disasters have increased to over 1,000 per annum. it's risen to $400 per household. that is more than a four fold increase over the past 30 years. in other words, the resilience gap is large and growing. how large? in cummings projected that unfunded response costs for weather-related disasters would grow to more than 1 trillion u.s. dollars and might be as much as 5 point poip 7 trillion u.s. dollars. taxpayers are bearing the burden of this. wit