they did a phenomenal job through their 211 as the office is dropped off of their ability in south louisiana, north louisiana picked up as i am sure the same thing happened in texas and in alabama and mississippi and florida is the storms come in, the northern part of the state picks up the great amount of help. we want to hear about the increased activity of the 211 operation, which is sort of the go-to the operation when people need help and assistance. they don't call 911, they call 211 and we want to help americans understand that. with that opening statement i would like ask mr. fugate-mag good to see a senator. i would like to ask mr. fugate, if you can let me ask senator burris, i know you are just coming in and welcome. do you want to make any brief opening statements or should we go right to the panel? thank you, thank you senator. we are happy to have craig fugate with us who is the new administrative from the muck, and man that i supported and keep my wholehearted support for and many members of the senate. you are

town and in katrina they did a phenomenal job as the offices dropped off of their ability in south louisiana, north laws f louisiana picked up as i'm sure the same thing happened in texas and in alabama and mississippi and florida as these storms come in, the northern part of the state picks up a great amount of help and we want to hear about the increased affect tivity of the 2-1-1 operation, which is sort of the go to operation. they don't call 9-11, they call 2-1-1 and we want to help americans understand that. so i'd like to ask mr. few gate, good to see you senator. i would like to ask mr. fugate to begin. let me ask senator burriss, i know you're just coming in and welcome. do you want to make any brief opening statement or should we go right to the panel? thank you. thank you, senator. we are happy to have craig fugate with us who is the new administrator from fema who i supported and many members of the senate, you are greatly experienced. we thank you for the work you've already done. but we're looking forward to hearing from you, because you know as i know that while we've made som

local levies in the south louisiana failed again, a failed with katrina, a failed with rita, gustav, ike, as the said mr. ritter knows because he is from florida of south florida is concerned about their water management issues and whether the dikes and levees will hold that is the subject of another hearing. was continuing to be a cumbersome process despite many improvements which i well mentioned we are still relying mr. fugate to much nine trailers to jump-start recovery and we will be pressing hard on new housing and shelter options broken to new to say to provide these communities with $5 million in the community long-distance is probably not what charleston or savannah or miami or new orleans or atlanta or batteries are in a number of committees that can do much with $5 million and that is all the law allows them to borrow. the administrator 55 from fema will discuss the 2008 response and the agency's work on an alert system evacuation plans and from his perspective if we are better situated in it 2009 season opens. major general from the northern command will outline the depar

and that is part of the industry that we know in south louisiana along the entire gulf coast. and if you go throughout the fishing industry in this united states, you'll find that does not differ a lot. many domestic policies have strong positive impacts on all of our constituents. in the case of food safety and sustainability, all of our constituents, regardless of where they're from the north, south, west, east, middle america, share in the peace of mind they can feed their families with clean, healthy safe food. while those benefits are shared by all, it makes sense that the cost be shared as well. this project we are discussing today focuses funding on food safety and sustainability in a location that produces a large portion of the nation's seafood. by prioritizing the funding of the institute for seafood studies at nicholls state university, we are investing in a food supply we enjoy. this is about safe seafood, whether it's sthrimp or fin fish. it's about the study and making sure that the products that are delivered to america are safe for the people to consume. with t

caller: now there is not one in south carolina -- guest: i have been a nuclear facilities -- nuclear facilities and louisiana -- caller: correct? host: do you have a question? caller: republicans are set against general motors and such, the auto industry, having higher mileage on their vehicles and what not. that

if you don't have that preclearance in south carolina, georgia, other than athens and atlanta, most of alabama, mississippi, and northern louisiana, above new orleans, you know, will there be the back sliding, you know, without that coercion? that doesn't make majority-minority districts, you know, the only real potential remedy, but to does make -- does provide some course for us. the only other thing i wanted to say is i deeply agree with richard on the whole question that we need a national law on registration, and voting, you know, to deal with some of the other problems, but i think we have still have problems in certain parts of the south. >> well, a couple of thoughts. first, i'm sympathetic to a part of what you're saying if that you're separating out issues of access to the ballot box to the issues of redistricting and part of the reason this debate gets so distorted and so polarized to use that word, is we have a hard time keeping those two phoenixes separate. i'm very much in favor of aggressive laws for protecting access to the ballot box. i'm actually willing to think about preclearance regimes for voter registration

louisiana state university, massachusetts institute of technology, mississippi state university, rice university, texas a&m, texas tech, university of kansas, oklahoma, texas, tulsa, utah, alaska, fair banks, houston, michigan, south carolina, corn california, west virginia, and west virginia state. those are just some of the many institutions that are working within the confines of the bill that we passed. the consortium has awarded dozens of projects. these are underway. this bill if you divert this money from this bill to support the bill that mr. skelton has, these are the things that you're knocking out. an effort to find energy for 100 years of energy that this country needs. it would prevent us from having to pay foreign agents, arab nations that we don't trust and don't trust us. that millions of dollars could stay here in this country. the consortium has awarded dozens of projects including 43 research projects currently underway with a total project value of nearly $60 million. also, madam chairman, the value of the projects over and above the amount of annual funding for the projects, 37.5 million was achieved because industry believes in the value of the program and has invested substantially in it. te

louisiana overlooked that, maybe because of his politically conservative positions. but i am tired of these sanctimonious politicians that want to tell us about family values, moral values, and this other guy, sanford, from south carolina, is another example of that. i am thoroughly disgusted with david vitter, but i guess that is politics these days. host: this story as above the fold in most of them. our next caller is mary. caller: good morning. i really nervous, but i guess i get that way. host: no need to be nervous. caller: the ok. i figure nobody is perfect, but all this stuff really should just be private between them. between a husband and wife and stuff, because we have so many other things we need to worry about. unemployment, stuff like that -- the economy, the business in iran and overseas. it is just incredible to me that we are in such a dither about somebody who cannot control themselves when we have war criminals around this country making billions of dollars off book deals and stuff and nothing is being done about that. but that is just my opinion. thank you so much. host: thank you for the call. from s a miller wh, writing for "the washington times." "the once powerful source -- force that f