ms. lowey. ms. lowey: administrator long, thank you for being here and all your hard work assisting the territories that have suffered recently. there have been more than 50 major disaster declarations so far in 2017. 20 of them were for disasters that have occurred since your confirmation, including hurricanes harvey, irma, and maria. wasr superstorm sandy it difficult to garnish support for the disaster assistance we needed and i remember that very clearly. there are similar concerns now about the adequacy of funding proposed by the administration for this supplemental, particularly with regards to puerto rico, which has faced significant fiscal challenges for some time. it is my hope that today we could have a productive canussion about how fema best help those impacted by harvey, irma and maria. with a particular focus on how to assist puerto rico with a vital repairs and improvements to the system, water infrastructure, transportation system and other important infrastructure. programstion

ms. kaptur: i thank ranking member lowey for yielding me this time and rise in opposition to this continuing resolution that some might consider ridiculous. because no matter how you look at it, republicans have control of all the reins of the federal government and yet we find ourselves again rock locked in an artificial crisis of their own creation. on the third punt to try to run this government for another couple of weeks. first in september, then again two weeks ago and now here again today, the government will be set on automatic pilot. because president trump and his fellow republicans refuse to pass a real budget under regular order so the appropriations committee can get its work done within strict budget parameters. these last three months, congress has been left to twiddle its thumbs while the list of unmet priorities for americans has steadily grown. most notably, let me address the children's health insurance program or chip that covers over nine million children in our country and more than 220,000 in ohio. in fact, that insurance program expired 81 days ago and covers half, ye

lowey: i yield one minute to ms. jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. jackson lee: my friend has spoken on the floor of the house and i look forward to working with him and standing against any legislation that does not provide hurricane harvey funding and the c.r. does not. there's nothing in the c.r. that has anything to do with those who are suffering with houses that are in disrepair or destroyed and as well other items, army corps of engineer items and that's why i stand ready, not to be in a dispute, but to really raise the issue with my colleagues of how urgent it is to move to the appropriations process. i mentioned in my remarks that i'm concerned as much about military preparedness as i am about nondefense discretionary spending. i want everybody to be helped. i want the american people to be helped. and so my vote, whatever it might be, is going to be to drive this engine forward to make sure resources get down to harris county, houston, corpus, and all the parts of texas that are in

lowey: i yield one minute to ms. jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. jackson lee: my friend has spoken on the floor of the house and i look forward to working with him and standing against any legislation that does not provide hurricane harvey funding and the c.r. does not. there's nothing in the c.r. that has anything to do with those who are suffering with houses that are in disrepair or destroyed and as well other items, army corps of engineer items and that's why i stand ready, not to be in a dispute, but to really raise the issue with my colleagues of how urgent it is to move to the appropriations process. i mentioned in my remarks that i'm concerned as much about military preparedness as i am about nondefense discretionary spending. i want everybody to be helped. i want the american people to be helped. and so my vote, whatever it might be, is going to be to drive this engine forward to make sure resources get down to harris county, houston, corpus, and all the parts of texas that are in

lowey: i'm pleased to yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from texas, ms. jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized for two minutes. ms. jackson lee: i want to thank the gentlelady from new york. i want to thank the chairman. but i do want to take a moment and particularly thank the gentlelady from new york for the kindness that she showed the first victims of this horrific hurricane season. i remember coming back to congress in the immediacy of hurricane harvey, many don't know but i left my home in a fire truck, not out of desperation but to go where my constituents were, and spent the st of the time with 14,000 homeless evacuees. in a shelter that had been set up immediately with the concern of the city of houston. we had meetings starting at 6:00 a.m. in the morning. in the evening as the waters started moving in different communities and different communities became flooded, we would see evacuees carrying their only belongings, pillows, just a paper bag, flooding into the brown convention center. this is serious for me. i remember seeing e

. >> we are also joined by the full committee ranking member, ms. lowey. ms. lowey, you're now recognized for any comments you'd like to make. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i appreciate chairman carter's holding this hearing. administrator long, thank you for being here and for all your hard work assisting the states and u.s. territories that have suffered recently from natural disasters. there have been more than 50 major disaster declarations so far in 2017. 20 of them were for disasters that occurred since your confirmation, including hurricanes harvey, irma, and maria. after superstorm sandy it was very difficult to garner support for the disaster assistance we needed, and i remember that very, very clearly. there are similar concerns now about the adequacy of funding proposed by the administration for this supplemental, particularly with regard to puerto rico, which has faced significant fiscal challenges for some time. it's my hope that today we can have a productive discussion about how fema can best help those impacted by harvey, irma, and maria, with a p