House Appropriations Subcommittee Issues Testimony From FEMA Administrator
"Good morning, Chairman Carter, Ranking Member Roybal-Allard, and Members of the Committee. My name is
"I have been in office for just over five months, and I am proud to be part of an agency that, works every day to help communities reduce the risks associated with future disasters, as well as to assist disaster survivors all across the country. In this short time, our Nation has faced four catastrophic disasters. Hurricane Harvey struck
"These historic disasters - each historic in its own right - have compelled
2017 Hurricane Season
"
"To say this hurricane season has been historic is an understatement. We had four hurricanes make landfall this season, three of which have been major hurricanes (Harvey, Irma, and Maria).
"Since Hurricane Harvey made landfall in
"The impacts of these events are substantial. Roughly 25.8 million people were affected by these three storms - eight percent of the entire
"In just over 30 days,
"
"State, local, tribal, and territorial governments, along with the residents in the affected areas, are the true first responders. Non-profit organizations, like those that are members of the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (NVOADs), provide crucial services to sustain lives while the rest of the response and recovery infrastructure can be established by emergency managers for longer-term needs. The private sector also plays a critical role in disasters, as businesses work to restore critical services and donate their time and resources in close coordination with emergency management personnel to help communities rebound in the wake of disasters. The whole community must be, and is, engaged, involved, and coordinated.
"For our part on the federal level,
"I am incredibly grateful to my interagency colleagues from across the Federal government for supporting this important initiative, and for allowing their hardworking and dedicated personnel to support disaster survivors who have been impacted by these historic events. Over 22,300 members of the Federal workforce were deployed to
"This unprecedented hurricane season has truly tested us as a Nation and tested many of our assumptions about what works in disaster response and recovery. While each year the hurricane season comes to an end on
"Under current law, the
"The DRF helped fund response needs related to hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria and will also help fund recovery efforts for those events. As of
"Because
"To date,
"Currently,
"Funding available under the Disaster Cap is recalculated each year based on a formula established by the BCA that in part utilizes a ten year average. It is important to note that the Nation went 11 years without a major hurricane making landfall, which has affected the funding available to the DRF. However, the Disaster Cap will continue to fall or remain flat over the next few years due to the good fortune of relatively low disaster spending between 2012 and 2016, and the fact that the Disaster Cap does not take into account emergency funding
"This drop in the Disaster Cap could result in constraints on future DRF appropriations and, consequently, insufficient balances in the DRF to support mission operations. This dynamic could lead to an increasing reliance on emergency supplemental appropriations to support basic disaster missions as soon as this fiscal year or FY 2019. We would like to work together with
Third Request for Supplemental Appropriations Related the 2017 Hurricane Season
"On
"While this is an FY 2018 supplemental request, it does not represent either a schedule or a deadline for recovery efforts. Providing the necessary funding and authorities requested by the Administration will address ongoing recovery efforts in
"In terms of meeting
"We ask the
Next Steps and Conclusion
"At
"The response to the 2017 hurricane season continues to provide me the opportunity to test the validity of many of the ideas I had coming into this job. We look forward to collaborating with
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