[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]




 
 FEMA'S PRIORITIES FOR FY22 AND BEYOND: COORDINATING MISSION, VISION, 
                               AND BUDGET

=======================================================================

                                (117-20)

                             REMOTE HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                            SUBCOMMITTEE ON
    ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, PUBLIC BUILDINGS, AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

                                 OF THE

                              COMMITTEE ON
                   TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                             JUNE 23, 2021

                               __________

                       Printed for the use of the
             Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
             
             
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     Available online at: https://www.govinfo.gov/committee/house-
     transportation?path=/browsecommittee/chamber/house/committee/
                             transportation
                             
                             
                           ______
 
              U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 
49-634 PDF           WASHINGTON : 2022                             
                             
                             
                             
                             

             COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

  PETER A. DeFAZIO, Oregon, Chair
SAM GRAVES, Missouri                 ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON,
DON YOUNG, Alaska                      District of Columbia
ERIC A. ``RICK'' CRAWFORD, Arkansas  EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON, Texas
BOB GIBBS, Ohio                      RICK LARSEN, Washington
DANIEL WEBSTER, Florida              GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California
THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky              STEVE COHEN, Tennessee
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania            ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey
RODNEY DAVIS, Illinois               JOHN GARAMENDI, California
JOHN KATKO, New York                 HENRY C. ``HANK'' JOHNSON, Jr., 
BRIAN BABIN, Texas                   Georgia
GARRET GRAVES, Louisiana             ANDRE CARSON, Indiana
DAVID ROUZER, North Carolina         DINA TITUS, Nevada
MIKE BOST, Illinois                  SEAN PATRICK MALONEY, New York
RANDY K. WEBER, Sr., Texas           JARED HUFFMAN, California
DOUG LaMALFA, California             JULIA BROWNLEY, California
BRUCE WESTERMAN, Arkansas            FREDERICA S. WILSON, Florida
BRIAN J. MAST, Florida               DONALD M. PAYNE, Jr., New Jersey
MIKE GALLAGHER, Wisconsin            ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California
BRIAN K. FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania   MARK DeSAULNIER, California
JENNIFFER GONZALEZ-COLON,            STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts
  Puerto Rico                        SALUD O. CARBAJAL, California
TROY BALDERSON, Ohio                 ANTHONY G. BROWN, Maryland
PETE STAUBER, Minnesota              TOM MALINOWSKI, New Jersey
TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee              GREG STANTON, Arizona
DUSTY JOHNSON, South Dakota          COLIN Z. ALLRED, Texas
JEFFERSON VAN DREW, New Jersey       SHARICE DAVIDS, Kansas, Vice Chair
MICHAEL GUEST, Mississippi           JESUS G. ``CHUY'' GARCIA, Illinois
TROY E. NEHLS, Texas                 ANTONIO DELGADO, New York
NANCY MACE, South Carolina           CHRIS PAPPAS, New Hampshire
NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS, New York         CONOR LAMB, Pennsylvania
BETH VAN DUYNE, Texas                SETH MOULTON, Massachusetts
CARLOS A. GIMENEZ, Florida           JAKE AUCHINCLOSS, Massachusetts
MICHELLE STEEL, California           CAROLYN BOURDEAUX, Georgia
                                     KAIALI`I KAHELE, Hawaii
                                     MARILYN STRICKLAND, Washington
                                     NIKEMA WILLIAMS, Georgia
                                     MARIE NEWMAN, Illinois
                                     TROY A. CARTER, Louisiana
                                ------                                

      Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and
                          Emergency Management

     DINA TITUS, Nevada, Chair
DANIEL WEBSTER, Florida              ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON,
THOMAS MASSIE, Kentucky                District of Columbia
JENNIFFER GONZALEZ-COLON,            SHARICE DAVIDS, Kansas
  Puerto Rico                        CHRIS PAPPAS, New Hampshire, Vice 
MICHAEL GUEST, Mississippi           Chair
BETH VAN DUYNE, Texas                GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California
CARLOS A. GIMENEZ, Florida           JOHN GARAMENDI, California
SAM GRAVES, Missouri (Ex Officio)    TROY A. CARTER, Louisiana
                                     PETER A. DeFAZIO, Oregon (Ex 
                                     Officio)



                                CONTENTS

                                                                   Page

Summary of Subject Matter........................................     v

                 STATEMENTS OF MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE

Hon. Dina Titus, a Representative in Congress from the State of 
  Nevada, and Chair, Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public 
  Buildings, and Emergency Management, opening statement.........     1
    Prepared statement...........................................     3
Hon. Daniel Webster, a Representative in Congress from the State 
  of Florida, and Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Economic 
  Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, 
  opening statement..............................................     4
    Prepared statement...........................................     5
Hon. Peter A. DeFazio, a Representative in Congress from the 
  State of Oregon, and Chair, Committee on Transportation and 
  Infrastructure, opening statement..............................     6
    Prepared statement...........................................     8
Hon. Sam Graves, a Representative in Congress from the State of 
  Missouri, and Ranking Member, Committee on Transportation and 
  Infrastructure, prepared statement.............................    35

                                WITNESS

Hon. Deanne Criswell, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management 
  Agency, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, oral statement...    10
    Prepared statement...........................................    12




                             June 20, 2021

    SUMMARY OF SUBJECT MATTER

    TO:      LMembers, Subcommittee on Economic Development, 
Public Buildings, and Emergency Management
    FROM:  LSubcommittee Staff
    RE:      LSubcommittee Hearing on ``FEMA's Priorities for 
FY22 and Beyond: Coordinating Mission, Vision, and Budget''
_______________________________________________________________________


                                PURPOSE

    The Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, 
and Emergency Management will meet on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, 
at 2:00 p.m. in 2167 Rayburn House Office Building and via 
Zoom, to receive testimony from the Honorable Deanne Criswell, 
Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) 
regarding ``FEMA's Priorities for FY22 and Beyond: Coordinating 
Mission, Vision, and Budget.''

                               BACKGROUND

DEVELOPMENTS SINCE OUR MOST RECENT FEMA ADMINISTRATOR HEARING

    The subcommittee last received testimony from a FEMA 
Administrator--former Administrator Peter Gaynor--on March 11, 
2020. This testimony took place two days before President Trump 
invoked Sec. 501(b) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief 
and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act, P.L. 93-288 as 
amended) to issue emergency declarations for each state and 
territory of the United States to provide federal assistance in 
combatting the quickly expanding COVID-19 pandemic.\1\ 
Subsequently, states sought major disaster declarations for 
expanded federal assistance, which President Trump granted to 
all states and territories, as well as some federally 
recognized tribes.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ ``Letter from President Donald J. Trump on Emergency 
Determination Under the Stafford Act,'' March 13, 2020,``determine[ing] 
that an emergency exists for which the primary responsibility for 
response rests with the United States because the emergency involves a 
subject area for which, under the Constitution or laws of the United 
States, the United States exercises exclusive or preeminent 
responsibility and authority.'' Available at https://
trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/letter-president-
donald-j-trump-emergency-determination-stafford-act/.
    \2\ FEMA.gov, ``Coronavirus (COVID-19) Response.'' Available at 
https://www.fema.gov/disasters/coronavirus.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    During fiscal years (FYs) 2020 and 2021, Congress provided 
FEMA with significant amounts of supplemental assistance for 
COVID-related emergency measures.\3\ Concurrent with its 
activities related to the pandemic, FEMA was repeatedly tapped 
to assist state, local, tribal, and territorial governments as 
the nation was buffeted by record hurricane and wildfire 
seasons during the latter half of 2020,\4\ continuing recent 
trends of increasing severe weather and hazard activity.\5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\ P.L. 116-136, Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security 
(CARES) Act (Division B, Title VI), March 27, 2020. See also P.L. 116-
260, FY 2021 DHS Appropriations Act and Coronavirus Response and Relief 
Supplemental Appropriations Act (Division F, Title III and Division M, 
Title II), December 2020. See also P.L. 117-2, American Rescue Plan Act 
(Title IV, Secs. 4005, 4006, 4007, 4013, and 4014).
    \4\ Scientific American. ``A Running List of Record-Breaking 
Natural Disasters in 2020.'' Last updated December 22, 2020. Available 
at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-running-list-of-
record-breaking-natural-disasters-in-2020/.
    \5\ See FEMA's Priorities for 2020 and Beyond: Coordinating Mission 
and Vision; hearing before the Subcommittee on Economic Development, 
Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, 116th Congress, March 11, 
2020. See also Disaster Preparedness: DRRA Implementation and FEMA 
Readiness; hearing before the Subcommittee on Economic Development, 
Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, 116th Congress, May 22, 
2019. See also Building a 21st Century Infrastructure for America: 
Mitigating Damage and Recovering Quickly from Disasters; hearing before 
the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and 
Emergency Management, 115th Congress, April 27, 2017.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Decades of regular federal data collection and scientific 
research and analysis, as well as private sector research 
indicates that these types of events are increasing.\6\ State 
and tribal requests for FEMA federal emergency assistance and/
or disaster relief are accordingly on the rise as state, 
tribal, territorial, and local governments' capacity to respond 
to and recover from these events is quickly exceeded given the 
scale and associated losses.\7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 
``Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters: Events''. Available at: 
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/events.
    \7\ Congressional Research Service. Stafford Act Declarations 1953-
2016: Trends, Analyses, and Implications for Congress (R42702). August 
28, 2017. See also FEMA, Declared Disasters. Available at https://
www.fema.gov/disasters/disaster-declarations. See also FEMA. ``Pandemic 
Response to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Initial Assessment 
Report.'' January 2021. Available at: https://www.fema.gov/sites/
default/files/documents/fema_covid-19-initial-assessment-
report_2021.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    FEMA's response to the pandemic since President Trump's 
invocation of Stafford Act Sec. 501(b) has been noteworthy, 
including nearly $75.5 billion in assistance to state, local, 
tribal, and territorial partners; \8\ a 210-days-long 
activation of the National Response Coordination Center at FEMA 
headquarters; and an unprecedented logistics mission including 
249 Project Airbridge flights to quickly import personal 
protective equipment in the opening months of the pandemic.\9\ 
It has proven the capacity and tenacity of FEMA's personnel and 
the flexibility of the Stafford Act, but it has also exposed 
the limitations of the agency's capabilities to quickly provide 
reimbursement for eligible activities, highlighted 
discrepancies in administering assistance across regions, and 
shown challenges for vulnerable populations across the 
country.\10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \8\ FEMA. ``DRF Funds Status report.'' Provided to committee staff 
by FEMA Congressional Affairs Division, June 10, 2021.
    \9\ ``Presentation of the Fiscal Year 2022 President's Budget for 
the Federal Emergency Management Agency,'' briefing to committee staff. 
June 16, 2021.
    \10\ ``Public Assistance Project Processing,'' briefing to 
committee staff. March 26, 2021; see also Experiences of Vulnerable 
Populations During Disaster; hearing before the Subcommittee on 
Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, 116th 
Congress, July 28, 2020.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

FEMA LEADERSHIP DURING A TIME OF TRANSITION

    During Administrator Gaynor's tenure at FEMA, the Trump 
Administration did not nominate individuals to serve as the 
agency's other top two leadership posts--Deputy Administrator 
and Deputy Administrator for Resilience. The Associate 
Administrator for Response and Recovery was, and continues to 
be, filled by an official in an acting capacity. Administrator 
Gaynor was tapped to become acting Secretary of the Department 
of Homeland Security on January 11, 2021, in addition to his 
FEMA role.\11\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \11\ DHS.gov. ``People--Peter T. Gaynor.'' Available at https://
www.dhs.gov/person/peter-t-gaynor.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    President-elect Biden nominated Deanne Criswell to be FEMA 
Administrator on January 15, 2021.\12\ During the transition of 
administrations, FEMA Region 9 Administrator Robert Fenton 
assumed the role of Acting Administrator on January 20, 2021, 
and Region 3 Administrator Mary Ann Tierney became the senior 
official performing the responsibilities of Deputy 
Administrator. Both Fenton and Tierney are career members of 
the Senior Executive Service with significant experience in the 
field of emergency management.\13\ However, tapping Tierney 
ignores the existing orders of succession in place to fill the 
vacancy in the Deputy Administrator role, continuing a practice 
with which the committee previously expressed concern.\14\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \12\ Boston Globe. ``Biden picks David Kessler, Deanne Criswell, 
David Cohen for top roles.'' January 15, 2021. Available at: https://
www.bostonglobe.com/2021/01/15/nation/biden-picks-deanne-criswell-
david-cohen-top-roles-fema-cia/.
    \13\ FEMA.gov, ``Robert J. Fenton'' and ``MaryAnn E. Tierney.'' 
Available at https://www.fema.gov/profile/robert-j-fenton-jr and 
https://www.fema.gov/profile/maryann-e-tierney.
    \14\ ``DHS Orders of Succession and Orders for Delegations of 
Authorities'', updated January 31, 2020. Provided to committee by U.S. 
Dept. of Homeland Security Office of Legislative Affairs February 4, 
2020.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Administrator Criswell most recently served as the 
Commissioner of the Department of Emergency Management for the 
City of New York (NYCDEM), starting in 2019. Prior service in 
the first responder community includes 21 years in the Colorado 
Air National Guard as a firefighter (1992-2013), Emergency 
Manager for the city of Aurora, CO (2005-2011), and a stint at 
FEMA as a Federal Coordinating Officer and then leading one of 
the agency's elite National Incident Management Assistance 
Teams (IMAT) (2011-2017). Additionally, she was an emergency 
management consultant between her service at FEMA and 
NYCDEM.\15\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \15\ LinkedIn. Profile of Deanne Criswell. Available at https://
www.linkedin.com/in/deanne-criswell-862bb2a.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Administrator Criswell's nomination was formally 
transmitted to the Senate on February 22, 2021; the Senate 
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (HSGAC) 
held her confirmation hearing March 25, 2021; her nomination 
was fast-tracked out of committee on April 14, 2021; and she 
was confirmed by the Senate via unanimous consent on April 22, 
2021.
    The Biden administration has not yet announced additional 
nominees for political leadership positions at FEMA. On June 
11, 2021, FEMA announced that Regional Administrator Tierney 
will serve as the agency's senior official performing the 
responsibilities of the Deputy Administrator through July 6, 
2021, and that Nancy Dragani--currently the Acting Regional 
Administrator for Region 8--will assume the Deputy 
Administrator role on July 8, 2021.\16\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \16\ FEMA all-hands e-mail ``FEMA Senior Leadership Announcement,'' 
June, 11, 2021. Provided to committee staff by FEMA Congressional 
Affairs Division.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

ADMINISTRATOR'S PRIORITIES

    During her confirmation hearing, Criswell stressed to HSGAC 
the importance of FEMA's employees and the need to bolster 
community resilience through mitigation. Criswell also 
highlighted the potential impact to communities across the 
nation posed by climate change.\17\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \17\ See Nomination of Deanne B. Criswell to be Administrator, 
Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Department of Homeland 
Security. Hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs. 117th Congress, March 25, 2021.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    On her first full day following her swearing in, 
Administrator Criswell shared a message with FEMA's employees 
via an all-hands e-mail. She thanked them for their tireless 
efforts to respond to the pandemic and noted the challenges 
over which the agency prevailed, and revisited her commitment 
to bolstering resilience from the individual-level up to the 
nation as a whole. Administrator Criswell also stressed that 
considerations of equity, diversity, and inclusion are 
paramount to the agency's future efforts.\18\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \18\ Provided by FEMA Congressional Affairs Division to committee 
staff.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Weeks later, during remarks to FEMA's National Advisory 
Committee (NAC) in early May, Administrator Criswell re-
affirmed that her areas of focus would include FEMA's 
workforce; emergency management as a discipline--including 
managing expectations of the public and improving the community 
of emergency managers; resilience and mitigation; and equity--
for disaster survivors, FEMA's workforce, and across the 
profession of emergency management.

PRESIDENT'S FISCAL YEAR 2022 (FY22) BUDGET REQUEST

    President Biden's proposed budget for FY22 calls for a 
modest increase for the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) over the 
base amount enacted for FY21 to account for ongoing pandemic-
related operations and assistance. It also proposes an 
appropriation of $500 million for Pre-Disaster Mitigation 
(PDM), which the president's budget request refers to as 
``Disaster Relief Climate.'' This $500 million would be moved 
immediately into the PDM set-aside of the DRF established as 
part of Sec. 1234 of the Disaster Recovery Reform Act (Div. D 
of P.L. 115-254) to fund the Building Resilient Infrastructure 
and Communities (BRIC) program.\19\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \19\ DHS.gov, ``Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency 
Management Agency Budget Overview--Fiscal Year 2022 Congressional 
Justification.'' Available at https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/
publications/federal_emergency_management_agency_0.pdf
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The FY22 president's budget request also proposes the 
following changes over FY21 enacted appropriations:
     LAn increase of $3.2 million to enhance Wildland-
Urban Interface (WUI) Fire Outreach and Training activities of 
the U.S. Fire Administration and its National Fire Academy;
     LAn increase of $2 million--to $12 million for 
FY22--for the High Hazard Potential Dam grant program;
     LAn additional $12.5 million--to $275.5 million 
for FY22--for flood hazard mapping and risk analysis (RISKMAP);
     LAn additional $10 million each--to $370 million 
each for FY22--for Assistance to Firefighter Grants (AFG) and 
Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) 
Grants; and
     LA reduction of $15.3 million--to $594.7 million 
for FY22--from the State Homeland Security Grant Program 
(SHSGP) and $15.3 million--to $689.7 million for FY22--from the 
Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI).\20\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \20\ DHS.gov, ``Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency 
Management Agency Budget Overview--Fiscal Year 2022 Congressional 
Justification.''

    The President's budget request seeks level funding for 
Emergency Management Performance Grants ($355 million), Post 
Security Grants ($100 million), Public Transportation Security 
Assistance ($100 million), Emergency Food and Shelter ($130 
million), and Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention ($20 
million). Additionally, the President's Budget request includes 
a proposal for resources to implement the Federal Flood Risk 
Management Standard (FFRMS), which is intended to ensure that 
all federal infrastructure investments are constructed with 
resilience to current and predictable future flood risk, and 
was re-instituted on May 20, 2021.\21\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \21\ ``Executive Order on Climate-Related Financial Risk'' Sec. 
5(e). May 20, 2021. Available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-
room/presidential-actions/2021/05/20/executive-order-on-climate-
related-financial-risk/.

               Overview of Disaster Relief and Mitigation Request in FY22 President's Budget \22\
                                                  (in millions)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                                          Diff. of FY 2022 Pres.
                                                                               FY 2022      Budget and FY 2021
                 Program                   FY 2021 Enacted      FY 2022      President's          Enacted
                                                               Authorized       Budget   -----------------------
                                                                                                $           %
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disaster Relief Fund (DRF)...............    $17,142.0
                                             $2,000.0 \23\
                                            $50,000.0 \24\
                                                               Such sums as    $18,799.0  +$1.657 over    +9.66%
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pre-Disaster Mitigation..................          $0 \25\    Authorized in  $500.0 \27\       +$500.0       N/A
                                                               Stafford Act
                                                                Sec. 203(i)
                                                                       \26\
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Emergency Management Performance Grants..           $355.0               No       $355.0            $0        0%
                                                              Authorization
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Total..................................        $18,218.2                      $5,933.1    -$12,285.6    -67.4%
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


ONGOING CHALLENGES

    The\\ committee\\, the\\ Government\\ Accountability\\ 
Office\\ (GAO), and various external stakeholder groups have 
identified several facets of FEMA's work ripe for improvement. 
The committee has already taken up legislation to address some 
of these issues and is working toward additional legislation. 
These areas include:
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    \22\ ``Executive Order on Climate-Related Financial Risk'' Sec. 
5(e). May 20, 2021.
    \23\ P.L. 116-260, FY 2021 DHS Appropriations Act and Coronavirus 
Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, December 2020.
    \24\ P.L. 117-2, American Rescue Plan Act, March 2021.
    \25\ No money was appropriated by Congress to Pre-Disaster 
Mitigation (PDM) for FY21, but the Agency utilized some of the six 
percent set-aside established in Sec. 1234 of the Disaster Recovery 
Reform Act of 2018 (DRRA, Division D of P.L. 115-254) to fund PDM 
grants for the FY20 grants cycle (Notice of Funding Opportunity 
released August 2020, awards pending) and will do so again for the FY21 
cycle, for which a $1B NOFO is expected in the summer 2021.
    \26\ To more permanently address the need for authorization and 
dedicated funding for Pre-Disaster Mitigation, the Disaster Recovery 
Reform Act of 2018 (DRRA, Division D of P.L. 115-254) amended the 
Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to 
establish a National Public Infrastructure Predisaster Mitigation 
Assistance program, funded by a six percent set-aside from the Disaster 
Relief Fund, based on the estimated aggregate amount of the grants made 
pursuant to Stafford sections 403, 406, 407, 408, 410, 416, and 428 for 
major disasters.
    \27\ The President's budget refers to this as ``Disaster Relief 
Climate'', noting that this $500 M will supplement the 6 percent set-
aside allowed pursuant to DRRA, and that this is intended to make up 
for amounts not set-aside in October 2020.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
     LReducing the complexity of FEMA's programs to 
help individuals and disaster-impacted communities recover and 
cut red tape.
      + LFEMA's Public Assistance (PA) program, which funds 
infrastructure repair/replacement and essential governmental 
services, has an arduous application process and the agency is 
now dealing with more PA applicants than ever in its history 
resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and related Stafford Act 
declarations; \28\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \28\ ``Public Assistance Project Processing,'' briefing to 
committee staff. March 26, 2021.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
      + LOverhauling the disaster survivor experience to ensure 
all those impacted by disaster who are under- or un-insured 
have access to the Individual Assistance (IA) they need and 
deserve and are not set back further in the wake of disaster;
      + LWorking with federal partners like the U.S. Department 
of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Small 
Business Administration (SBA) to eliminate post-disaster 
bureaucracy and align rebuilding standards where applicable;
     LIncreasing federal investment in resilience and 
mitigation to reduce future response and recovery costs.
      + LEnsuring the full calculation of aggregate disaster 
costs are placed in the Pre-Disaster Mitigation set-aside of 
the Disaster Relief Fund to fund BRIC (Building Resilient 
Infrastructure and Communities) projects;
      + LProviding states/tribes/territories the assistance 
needed to spend down post-disaster Hazard Mitigation Grant 
Program (HMGP) balances;
      + LEncouraging communities to adopt building codes and 
standards to reduce the impacts of disaster using the full 
suite of assistance programs beyond HMGP and BRIC to construct 
a built environment that is insurable;
     LEnsuring agency policies are consistently applied 
from one FEMA region to another.

                               CONCLUSION

    FEMA has been tested in recent years given COVID-19 and 
increasing disasters. Disasters are becoming more costly and 
increasing in frequency.\29\ The new FEMA administrator is 
tasked with leading the federal government's crisis management 
agency during a time of overlapping management and mission 
challenges. It is imperative that the Biden administration has 
permanent leadership in place to tackle all of these issues and 
appropriately invest in pre-disaster mitigation and resilience 
to drive down the severity of future hazard events and ensure 
it has contributed to increasing national resilience from the 
individual citizen up to local, state, tribal, and territorial 
levels of government. This hearing provides the committee an 
opportunity to hear directly from Administrator Criswell how 
the administration will try to meet these challenges.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \29\ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 
``Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters: Events.'' Available at: 
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/events.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

                              WITNESS LIST

     LThe Honorable Deanne Criswell, Administrator, 
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), U.S. Department of 
Homeland Security


 FEMA'S PRIORITIES FOR FY22 AND BEYOND: COORDINATING MISSION, VISION, 
                               AND BUDGET

                              ----------                              


                        WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 2021

                  House of Representatives,
      Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public 
               Buildings, and Emergency Management,
            Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:39 p.m., in 
room 2167 Rayburn House Office Building and via Zoom, Hon. Dina 
Titus (Chair of the subcommittee) presiding.
    Members present in person: Ms. Titus, Ms. Norton, Mr. 
Garamendi, Mr. Webster, Miss Gonzalez-Colon, Ms. Van Duyne, Mr. 
Graves of Louisiana, and Mr. Rouzer.
    Members present remotely: Mr. DeFazio, Ms. Davids, Mrs. 
Napolitano, and Mr. Gimenez.
    Ms. Titus. The subcommittee will come to order.
    I ask unanimous consent that the chair be authorized to 
declare a recess at any time during today's hearing.
    Without objection, so ordered.
    I also ask unanimous consent that Members not on the 
subcommittee be permitted to sit with the subcommittee at 
today's hearing and ask questions.
    Without objection, so ordered.
    As a reminder, I would ask you to please keep your 
microphones muted unless you are speaking. Should I hear any 
inadvertent noise, I will request that the Member please mute 
their microphone.
    To insert a document into the record, please have your 
staff email it to [email protected].
    Today, in this hearing, we are going to examine the 
priorities for the coming fiscal year for the Federal Emergency 
Management Agency, that I will refer to as FEMA going forward, 
and hear from the Administrator, Deanne Criswell, the Agency's 
first female leader.
    And thank you very much for being here, and 
congratulations.
    I look forward to hearing how Administrator Criswell and 
her team plan to convert the priorities of President Biden's 
fiscal year 2022 budget into measurable improvements in FEMA's 
administration of emergency assistance, disaster relief, 
mitigation, and resilience.
    In March of last year, we held a similar hearing with 
former Administrator Gaynor. This was 2 days before President 
Trump invoked the Stafford Act to grant emergency declarations 
to each State and Territory to provide assistance to combat the 
COVID-19 pandemic as it quickly spread across the country.
    At that time, I don't think any of us could have imagined 
FEMA would be tapped just a month later to plan and conduct an 
airlift, in coordination with the Department of Defense and the 
private sector, to bring staggering volumes of personal 
protective equipment from all over the world into this country.
    Since that time, FEMA has helped multiple States utilize, 
tragically, refrigerated tractor-trailers to serve as makeshift 
mortuaries and has set up the Lost Wages Assistance program to 
provide additional jobless aid to those impacted by the 
pandemic's economic impact.
    At the same time, they were dealing with record-setting 
hurricane and wildfire seasons and processing an unprecedented 
number of reimbursement requests from eligible grantees and 
subgrantees. In fact, the statistics show that there were more 
unique requesters in the last year alone than there were in the 
Agency's first four decades of existence. You can imagine how 
overwhelming that must have been. And these are just the most 
immediate issues that Administrator Criswell will be tasked 
with having to address and get us through.
    While the Agency has accomplished a lot since March 2020, 
including helping State, local, Tribal, and Territorial 
partners fully vaccinate more than 150 million Americans--and 
that was just in the last 6 months--many of the problems that 
deserve FEMA's attention were prepandemic. And so we must not 
forget about addressing those now as well.
    Fortunately, the Administrator is no stranger to FEMA nor 
to being challenged shortly after stepping into a new 
leadership role. What an impressive resume she has. She served 
with distinction at FEMA as the Federal Coordinating Officer 
and as the lead for one of the Agency's elite National Incident 
Management Assistance Teams.
    Just days after taking the helm of New York City Emergency 
Management, a blackout struck Manhattan, stranding hundreds of 
elevators and subways and wreaking havoc over a large part of 
the island. I cannot even imagine if those were my constituents 
calling me from a locked-in elevator.
    So we look forward to hearing from you, based on that 
experience and your talent and your knowledge. I don't expect 
you to have solved all of the challenges in just your first 8 
weeks leading FEMA, but we are hopeful that we can learn more 
about your plans to address the foundational challenges facing 
FEMA.
    Some of those are adjudicating the backlog of 
reimbursements due to States and local governments under the 
Public Assistance program; tackling the inequities of the 
Individual Assistance program; recruiting and retaining a 
qualified, compassionate, and competent disaster workforce to 
provide timely aid; and allocating resources to better invest 
in mitigation and resilience before danger strikes our 
communities so they will be able to get back up on their feet 
faster and with less expense following a disaster. We must 
build back better and not make the same mistakes of the past, 
even if it seems like it would be quicker or cheaper in the 
short run.
    I expect you will touch on many of these tasks during 
today's hearing, and we will learn how the President's budget 
request will contribute to resolving some of those challenges 
we see facing the Agency.
    I will close by saying, we recognize the challenges you 
face, Administrator Criswell, and we are here because we want 
you to be successful in that job. We also want to hear from you 
so we can ensure that you have the resources and authorities 
that you need to get the job done and done right for survivors 
and their impacted communities.
    So thank you very much.
    And I will now recognize the ranking member for his opening 
statement.
    [Ms. Titus' prepared statement follows:]

                                 
  Prepared Statement of Hon. Dina Titus, a Representative in Congress 
     from the State of Nevada, and Chair, Subcommittee on Economic 
        Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management
    Today we will examine the priorities for the coming fiscal year for 
the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and of Administrator 
Deanne Criswell, the agency's first female leader.
    I look forward to hearing how Administrator Criswell and her team 
plan to convert the priorities in the President Biden's Fiscal Year 
2022 budget request into measurable improvements in FEMA's 
administration of emergency assistance, disaster relief, mitigation, 
and resilience.
    In March of last year, we held a similar hearing with former 
Administrator Gaynor two days before President Trump invoked the 
Stafford Act to grant emergency declarations to each state and 
territory to provide assistance to combat the COVID-19 pandemic as it 
quickly spread.
    At the time, I don't think Mr. Gaynor could have imagined FEMA 
would be tapped a month later to plan and conduct an airlift in 
coordination with the Department of Defense and the private sector to 
bring staggering volumes of personal protective equipment from all over 
the world into this country. Since then, FEMA helped multiple states 
utilize refrigerated tractor trailers to serve as makeshift mortuaries, 
set up the Lost Wages Assistance program to provide additional jobless 
aid to those impacted by the pandemic's economic impact concurrent with 
record-setting hurricane and wildfire seasons last year, and processed 
an unprecedented number of reimbursement requests from eligible 
grantees and sub-grantees. In fact, there were more unique requestors 
in the last year alone than there were in the Agency's first four 
decades of existence.
    And these are just the most immediate issues that Administrator 
Criswell will be tasked with addressing.
    While the agency has accomplished much since March 2020--including 
helping state, local, tribal, and territorial partners fully vaccinate 
more than one hundred and fifty million Americans since January of this 
year--many of the problems that deserved FEMA's attention pre-pandemic 
remain.
    Fortunately, Administrator Criswell is no stranger to FEMA, nor to 
being challenged shortly after stepping into a new leadership role.
    She served with distinction at FEMA as a Federal Coordinating 
Officer and the lead for one of the Agency's elite National Incident 
Management Assistance Teams. Days after taking the helm of New York 
City Emergency Management, a blackout struck Manhattan, stranding 
hundreds in elevators and subways, and wreaking havoc over a good chunk 
of the island.
    I do not expect our witness to have solved all of the agency's 
challenges half-way through her eighth full week leading FEMA.
    But I am hopeful that we can learn more about her plans to address 
the foundational challenges facing FEMA: adjudicating the backlog of 
reimbursements due to states and local governments under the Public 
Assistance program; tackling the inequities of the Individual 
Assistance program; recruiting and retaining a qualified, 
compassionate, and competent disaster workforce to provide timely aid; 
and allocating resources to better invest in mitigation and resilience 
before danger strikes so our communities are able to get back up on 
their feet faster and with less expense following a disaster.
    We must build back better, not continue to make the same mistakes 
because it may be easier or cheaper in the short-term.
    I expect we'll touch upon many of these tasks during today's 
hearing, and how President Biden's budget request will contribute to 
resolving them.
    I'll close by saying we recognize the challenges you face, 
Administrator Criswell, and we are here because we want you to be 
successful in this job. We also want to ensure you have the resources 
and authorities you need to get the job done, and done right for 
survivors and their impacted communities.

    Mr. Webster. Thank you, Chair Titus. And thank you to the 
new FEMA Administrator Criswell for being here today.
    FEMA has a critical mission in our Nation and especially in 
my home State, Florida. FEMA leads the Federal Government's 
response to disasters, natural and man-made. While hurricanes, 
floods, wildfires, tornadoes, things like that, those disasters 
are more common, FEMA also manages the response to man-made 
disasters. Additionally, as we have seen with COVID-19, FEMA 
has an important role in responding to pandemics.
    This all-hazards approach is critical to ensuring that we 
are prepared and the chain of command at the Federal level is 
clear, effective, and efficient.
    Following problems in the Federal Government's response to 
Hurricane Katrina, Congress fixed key issues. Prior to Katrina, 
DHS had dispersed FEMA authorities throughout the Department 
and put multiple people in charge. This created confusion with 
no clear chain of command.
    The Post-Katrina Act put FEMA back together again, and 
while maintaining FEMA within DHS, ensured that it is FEMA's 
Administrator--the emergency management expert--leading the 
Federal response. This provides a clear chain of command up to 
the Administrator and then directly to the President.
    Since the reforms of the Post-Katrina Act, we have passed 
reforms to streamline the recovery process and invest more in 
mitigation and resiliency. There has been some progress. 
However, at times, it seems like after Congress removes 
redtape, there is more redtape.
    Time costs money. The longer it takes communities to 
rebuild, the higher the cost to both the communities and to the 
Federal taxpayer. For example, in the Sandy Recovery 
Improvement Act, we created section 428 of the Stafford Act, 
which intended to give States a choice for a streamlined, 
faster process or to use the old paperwork way.
    Security 428 authority was intended to speed up the process 
by basing assistance on certified cost estimates. The idea was 
to reduce costs by shortening the rebuilding time, cutting 
administrative costs, and arriving at a more definitive dollar 
amount for a project faster. Yet by many accounts, the section 
428 process is looking more and more like the old.
    Similarly, on the Individual Assistance side, GAO detailed 
how confusing FEMA's process can be for individuals and 
families who want to navigate the process. Communities hit by 
disaster should not have to deal with bureaucratic redtape when 
they are trying to rebuild their lives. Ultimately, making it 
more difficult to access assistance will not reduce the rise in 
disaster costs--it may actually increase it.
    Proposals to tinker around the edges, like making it more 
difficult for disaster declarations or creating more redtape, 
do little to reduce the disaster costs and harm individuals and 
communities.
    The reality is that only a quarter of the disasters make up 
about 90 percent of the cost. It is the big disasters that 
drive the cost. And we know the proven way to reduce future 
administrative costs or disaster costs is to invest in 
mitigation. Study after study has shown that $1 of investment 
in mitigation can save $4 to $11 in disaster recovery costs. In 
Florida, we have seen these benefits firsthand frequently by 
building smarter and investing in proven mitigation strategies.
    This is why, on a bipartisan basis, in the Disaster 
Recovery Reform Act, we authorized up to 6 percent of disaster 
costs out of the Disaster Relief Fund to be used in predisaster 
mitigation. Unfortunately, FEMA has only set aside a portion of 
that money that is available.
    The solution is helping communities recover and reducing 
future costs. Simplify the recovery process for small disasters 
to reduce administrative cost and allow Federal and State 
resources to focus on the large, more complex disasters.
    Second, in the larger disasters, leverage flexibilities in 
the law to close out projects faster.
    Third, maximize investment in proven mitigation measures.
    FEMA already has many tools and legal authorities to 
achieve these goals. To make meaningful progress in these 
areas, it has to come from the top down within FEMA.
    I look forward to working with you closely on these and 
other issues. I believe we can all work together to finally 
make a difference in how to prepare for recovery from 
disasters. I look forward to hearing your testimony.
    Thank you, Chair Titus. I yield back.
    [Mr. Webster's prepared statement follows:]

                                 
Prepared Statement of Hon. Daniel Webster, a Representative in Congress 
from the State of Florida, and Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Economic 
        Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management
    Thank you, Chair Titus, and thank you to the new FEMA 
Administrator, Ms. Criswell, for being here today.
    FEMA has a mission critical to our Nation and my home state of 
Florida. FEMA leads the federal government's response to disasters--
natural and man-made. While hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and tornados 
are disasters that are more common, FEMA also manages the response to 
man-made disasters. Additionally, as we have seen with COVID-19, FEMA 
has an important role in responding to pandemics. This all-hazards 
approach is critical to ensuring we are prepared and the chain of 
command at the federal level is clear, effective, and efficient.
    Following problems in the federal government's response to 
Hurricane Katrina, Congress fixed key issues. Prior to Hurricane 
Katrina, DHS had dispersed FEMA authorities throughout the Department 
and put multiple people in charge. This created confusion with no clear 
chain of command. The Post-Katrina Act put FEMA back together again 
and, while maintaining FEMA within DHS, ensured that it's the FEMA 
Administrator--the emergency management expert--leading the federal 
response. This provides a clear chain of command up to the 
Administrator and then directly to the President.
    Since the reforms of the Post-Katrina Act, we have also passed 
reforms to streamline the recovery process and invest more in 
mitigation and resiliency. There has been some progress; however, at 
times it seems after Congress removes red tape, more red tape is 
created by FEMA. With the significant rise in disaster costs and more 
disasters happening more frequently, we simply cannot afford to 
continue doing things the same way and expect different results.
    Time costs money--the longer it takes communities to rebuild, the 
higher the costs to both those communities and to the federal taxpayer. 
For example, in the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act, we created section 
428 of the Stafford Act intended to give States a choice for a 
streamlined, faster process or to use the old, paperwork-intensive 
process for rebuilding infrastructure. 428 authority was intended to 
speed up the process by basing assistance on certified cost estimates. 
The idea was to reduce costs by shortening the rebuilding time, cutting 
administrative costs, and arriving at a more definitive dollar amount 
for a project faster. Yet, by many accounts the 428 process is looking 
more like the old, cumbersome process, removing any incentives to use 
it.
    Similarly, on the individual assistance side, GAO detailed how 
confusing FEMA's process can be for individuals and families to 
navigate. Communities hit by disaster should not have to deal with 
bureaucratic red tape when they are trying to rebuild their lives. 
Ultimately, making it more difficult to access assistance will not 
reduce the rise in disaster costs--it may actually increase it.
    Proposals to tinker around the edges, like making it more difficult 
for disaster declarations or creating more red tape, do little to 
reduce disaster costs and harm individuals and communities. The reality 
is only a quarter of the disasters make up over 90 percent of disaster 
costs. It's the big disasters that drive the costs.
    And, we know the proven way we can reduce future disaster costs is 
investment in mitigation. Study after study has shown that $1 of 
investment in mitigation can save $4 to $11 dollars in disaster 
recovery costs. In Florida, we have seen these benefits firsthand 
frequently by building smarter and investing in proven mitigation 
strategies. That is why on a bipartisan basis, in the Disaster Recovery 
Reform Act, we authorized up to 6 percent of disaster costs out of the 
Disaster Relief Fund to be used for pre-disaster mitigation. 
Unfortunately, FEMA has only set aside a portion of what is available 
for mitigation, and we see the same proposed for the FY2022 budget.
    The solutions to helping communities recover and reducing future 
costs are clear. First, simplify the recovery process for small 
disasters to reduce administrative costs and allow federal and state 
resources to focus on the large, more complex disasters. Second, in the 
larger disasters, leverage flexibilities in the law to close out 
projects faster. Third, maximize investment in proven mitigation 
measures.
    FEMA already has many tools and legal authorities to achieve these 
goals, but where you feel you don't have what you need, we need to 
know. And, to make meaningful progress in these areas, it must come 
from the top down within FEMA. I look forward to working with you 
closely on these and other issues. I believe we can all work together 
to finally really make a difference in how we prepare for and recover 
from disasters. I look forward to hearing your testimony.

    Ms. Titus. Thank you very much, Mr. Webster.
    I now recognize Mr. DeFazio, who is the chairman of the 
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, for his opening 
remarks.
    Mr. DeFazio. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    And thank you, Ms. Criswell, for testifying here today. As 
I reminded your predecessor, Administrator Gaynor, our 
committee has jurisdiction over all of FEMA's Stafford Act 
responsibilities, which obviously are vast and of extraordinary 
importance and growing importance with the disasters invoked by 
climate change.
    You have got a big job ahead. You bring good credentials to 
the job. But I have got to say, there is a lot of work to do. 
Having heard from Members representing devastated areas in 
previous disasters and myself last year with the extraordinary 
fires here in Oregon, including in my district--it looks like I 
am frozen up here. Hopefully, this is coming through well. I am 
in my office and I don't know what is with the Wi-Fi.
    One of the common threads across these recoveries was a 
disconnect somewhere in the Public Assistance pipeline where 
bureaucracy seems to stifle the efforts on the ground. Many of 
the FEMA folks I have met on the ground are doing an 
extraordinary job and trying to help those who have been 
impacted, but somewhere further up the food chain and the 
bureaucracy, things get messy or delayed.
    I have experienced that personally here in Oregon and 
particularly, not in my district, but in the district south of 
mine with assistance programs that were very, very slowly 
implemented. So there is a lot of concern about the logjam in 
the Public Assistance pipeline.
    You have got a lot of eligible project worksheets to work 
on. I mean, there are a whole lot of them. But the pace at 
which they are being adjudicated is daunting, maddening, and 
very much a hardship for the applicants.
    But despite the backlog, I am glad we were able to ensure 
the Agency had resources necessary to provide assistance. We 
worked hard on CARES, the end-of-year 2021 omnibus, and this 
year's American Rescue Plan. The only two times I can recall 
Congress allocating FEMA more and as quickly was after 9/11 and 
the 2005 hurricane season with Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.
    The share of FEMA's assistance overall for disasters is 
infinitesimal compared to Public Assistance, yet Individual 
Assistance is seemingly bureaucratic and even more 
exasperating.
    You got a letter from me, Chair Titus, Ranking Member 
Graves, and Ranking Member Webster, regarding confusion even 
for basic determinations of eligibility for Individual 
Assistance and the drastic differences, which have now been 
noted, between survivors' Individual Assistance awards for very 
similar types of damage in the same disaster. So you know there 
is a problem. And it is pretty much a black box to us. And I 
hope we will get some more insight into that today and in the 
future.
    We can't get details for things as simple as full lists of 
questions posed to survivors, or copies of form letters used by 
the Agency to communicate throughout the process. You know, 
sure, I want to prevent fraud, but there has got to be a way to 
balance between the widespread fraud after 2005 and where we 
are today. When survivors have lost virtually everything, they 
shouldn't have to go through such a tortuous process.
    I appreciate that you have discussed within the Agency the 
importance of ensuring more equity for survivors and within 
FEMA and their workforce itself. I want to know more about how 
you are going to improve in those areas.
    And then finally, one more priority of the committee is, as 
was mentioned by both who spoke before me, the predisaster 
mitigation. We are all very proud of what we did on a very 
bipartisan basis in the DRRA, Disaster Recovery Reform Act, in 
2018.
    We were pleased to hear about the upcoming notice of 
funding opportunity for the Building Resilient Infrastructure 
and Communities program, doubling it from $500 million to $1 
billion. It is a great step. But last year, the interest in the 
BRIC funding outstripped available resources by $3 billion.
    So this is another area where the chairs and ranking 
members sent a letter to your predecessor. Based on the 
calculations of disaster relief during the first 6 months of 
the pandemic, FEMA should have placed $3.2 billion into the 
predisaster mitigation set-aside. Instead, the Trump 
administration only set aside $500 million. So that means there 
is yet another $1.7 billion in authority you have to commit to 
predisaster mitigation from the COVID declarations alone, which 
could result in, at a minimum by calculations that are well-
documented, a 4-to-1 return. We will look for any way we can to 
provide additional funding for these cost-effective investments 
so we can achieve our shared goal of building a more disaster-
resilient Nation.
    Later in questions, I will bring up concerns I have about 
coordination between SBA, HUD, and FEMA, in the hope that we 
can deal with that morass into which many people fall.
    So thanks again for your testimony, your time, and the 
expertise you bring to this Agency. You have massive challenges 
ahead. Thank you.
    [Mr. DeFazio's prepared statement follows:]

                                 
   Prepared Statement of Hon. Peter A. DeFazio, a Representative in 
      Congress from the State of Oregon, and Chair, Committee on 
                   Transportation and Infrastructure
    Thank you Chair Titus and thank you Administrator Criswell for 
being here today.
    As I reminded former Administrator Gaynor at last year's hearing, 
this Committee has jurisdiction over all of FEMA's Stafford Act 
authorities. What I didn't realize then was how much time we were all 
going to spend working on FEMA issues over the past year.
    I suspected that a lot of our work was going to surround the 
oversight of the still-ongoing recoveries from the record wildfires of 
2017 and 2018, as well as hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, and Michael.
    Hearing from members representing those disaster devastated areas, 
I was frustrated by the complexity of nearly every aspect of the 
recoveries, but when I traveled to see these areas, I was always 
heartened by the FEMA leaders in place who were clearly committed to 
working with state and local leaders through the tough recovery issues.
    But, one of the common threads across these recoveries was a 
disconnect somewhere in the Public Assistance pipeline, where 
bureaucracy was able to rear its ugly head and stymie efforts on the 
ground.
    Unfortunately, since last year's hearing with the previous 
administrator, much of my own state of Oregon is also now working 
through recovery from the catastrophic destruction of last September's 
wildfires, while concurrently planning for what will likely be another 
devastating wildfire season.
    All while still fighting to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic.
    And Oregon isn't alone. So many states, territories, and tribes are 
working through recoveries from non-pandemic, presidentially-declared 
emergencies and disasters from recent years.
    The committee has some serious concerns with the logjam in the 
Public Assistance pipeline. That's why I'm thankful that President 
Biden clarified eligibility for pandemic-related efforts earlier this 
year. But the glut of eligible project worksheets and the pace with 
which the agency is adjudicating them is daunting and frankly 
maddening.
    But, despite the backlog, I'm glad that we were able to ensure the 
agency had the resources necessary to provide assistance. We worked 
hard on the CARES Act, the end-of-year FY21 omnibus, and this year's 
American Rescue Plan.
    The only two times that I recall Congress providing FEMA as much 
and as quickly to assist states and locals was in the wake of 9/11 and 
the 2005 hurricane season that produced Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.
    Tucked into last year's omnibus and this year's Rescue Plan was 
dedicated funds for funeral assistance--assistance for individual 
Americans who lost their lives to the pandemic.
    As a share of FEMA's overall assistance, help for disaster 
survivors is infinitesimal compared to Public Assistance. Yet 
Individual Assistance is seemingly bureaucratic and even more 
exasperating.
    When you get a letter from me, Ranking Member Sam Graves, Chair 
Titus, and Ranking Member Webster about the confusion regarding even 
basic determinations of eligibility for Individual Assistance and the 
drastic differences between survivors' Individual Assistance awards for 
similar types of damages, you know you have a problem.
    The apparent inconsistencies and inequities for disaster survivors 
seeking help are frustrating. And the process survivors endure to apply 
and get evaluated is frankly a black box.
    We can't seem to get details as basic as the full lists of 
questions posed to survivors or even copies of the form letters used by 
the agency to communicate throughout the process.
    I'm all for preventing fraud, but there must be a middle ground 
between the abuses we saw in the wake of the 2005 hurricanes and the 
bureaucratic Individual Assistance program that exists today.
    Survivors who have lost literally everything should not have to go 
through a rigmarole to try to prove eligibility for often meager FEMA 
assistance. It's demoralizing.
    Having been here for the post-Katrina investigations, I realize 
there will always be people trying to beat the systems in place to 
deter fraud. But, the federal government should be able to ensure more 
consistent outcomes for survivors, without making them jump through 
hoops.
    I appreciate that you've discussed the importance of ensuring more 
equity for survivors and the FEMA workforce, and I look forward to 
learning more about how you're going to improve outcomes in this area.
    One more priority of the committee that I hope we can work on with 
you is pre-disaster mitigation. We are all proud of the work we did to 
get the Disaster Recovery Reform Act enacted in 2018, and the more 
consistent resources it provides for pre-disaster mitigation.
    We were pleased to hear about the upcoming Notice of Funding 
Opportunity for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities 
program--doubling it from last year's $500 million to $1 billion. This 
is a great step, but interest in last year's BRIC funding outstripped 
available resources by nearly three billion dollars.
    This is another area where the chairs and ranking members sent a 
letter to your predecessor last October. Based on the calculations of 
disaster relief during the first six months of the pandemic, FEMA 
should have placed $3.2 billion dollars into the pre-disaster 
mitigation set aside. Instead, the Trump administration only set-aside 
$500 million.
    So, that means that there's yet another $1.7 billion in authority 
you have to commit to pre-disaster mitigation from the COVID 
declarations alone, which could result in--at a minimum--a four-to-one 
return on investment.
    We are looking at ways to provide additional funding for these very 
cost-effective investments so that we can achieve our shared goal of 
building a more disaster-resistant nation.
    Thank you again for your time, testimony, and expertise. I'm 
hopeful that you'll be the change agent needed to drive reforms inside 
FEMA, improve outcomes, and cut red tape. I look forward to the 
committee being a partner to ensure you have the authorities, 
resources, and direction to achieve your goals and the agency's 
mission.
    Thank you. I yield back.

    Ms. Titus. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    The ranking member of the full committee is not here today, 
so we will move on to hear from our witness.
    I would like to welcome you again.
    Our witness is the Honorable Deanne Criswell, who is 
Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
    Thank you very much for being with us here today. We all 
look forward to hearing from you.
    Without objection, our witness' full statement will be 
included in the record.
    Since your witness testimony has been made a part of the 
record, the committee would request that you limit your oral 
testimony to 5 minutes.
    So, Administrator Criswell, the floor is yours. Please 
proceed.

   TESTIMONY OF HON. DEANNE CRISWELL, ADMINISTRATOR, FEDERAL 
   EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND 
                            SECURITY

    Ms. Criswell. All right. Thank you, Chair Titus. Just real 
fast for a sound check to make sure you can hear me.
    Ms. Titus. We can hear you. You look and sound good.
    Ms. Criswell. OK, great.
    Chair Titus, Ranking Member Webster, and members of the 
subcommittee, I am delighted to appear before you today to 
discuss the President's budget request for FEMA in fiscal year 
2022, and to describe how the President's vision guides my 
priorities for the Agency.
    FEMA's mission of supporting people before, during, and 
after disasters has never been more critical than we see right 
now. Our role during the COVID-19 pandemic response and 
numerous other active disasters attests to the vital importance 
and responsibility of this Agency to our Nation.
    Given FEMA's unprecedented mission requirements, the 
President's budget increases the FEMA budget to $28.4 billion. 
This is $1.9 billion more than the fiscal year 2021 enactment. 
The President's budget, if enacted, will allow FEMA to meet the 
challenges we face ahead.
    In my first months as the FEMA Administrator, I am focused 
on three key priorities: supporting the FEMA workforce and our 
readiness, integrating equity into everything we do, and 
addressing climate change through risk reduction. I will 
describe these priorities in turn.
    First, we must support the FEMA workforce and our 
readiness. To protect the well-being of our workforce and the 
communities we serve in a COVID-19 environment, we continue to 
rely on virtual operations where appropriate. We are evaluating 
how to enhance our operational capacity, promote an agile and 
expeditionary culture, and support the safe return to the 
office.
    Workforce readiness begins with the right staffing levels. 
The fiscal year 2022 budget supports increased hiring, and 
among other things, would result in a 14-percent increase in 
the number of our Stafford Act employees. Readiness also means 
ensuring the workforce has the training, tools, and resources 
they need to do their job. And I am committed to providing that 
to my workforce.
    Longer term, we also need to professionalize the field of 
emergency management by better defining what it means to be an 
emergency manager and building career paths for the Nation's 
emergency management workforce.
    Second, we must integrate equity into everything we do. The 
Nation deserves to have our programs and services delivered 
fairly and equitably. To meet this expectation, diversity, 
equity, and inclusion must be core components of how we conduct 
ourselves and execute our mission.
    FEMA is currently soliciting feedback from the public and 
our partners to ensure we understand how our programs impact 
survivors of different demographics and, where needed, we are 
committed to making changes. This includes changes to our 
policies, procedures, and how we deploy and execute our 
mission.
    Internally, this means building a diverse and inclusive 
workforce which resembles the communities that we serve. 
Externally, it means we must proactively identify and reach out 
to underserved communities and populations most in need of our 
help.
    We are analyzing our operational programs through the lens 
of equity, and we are doing that for a reason. We know that 
disasters exacerbate existing inequalities, and we need to 
ensure FEMA assistance reaches everyone who needs it. We must 
also identify the root causes of differing recovery outcomes 
for survivors and work aggressively and collectively to ensure 
access for all disaster response and recovery assistance.
    FEMA's commitment to equity is evident in our efforts to 
advance the accessibility of COVID-19 vaccines. At the 
President's direction, FEMA coordinated with Federal, State, 
local, Tribal, and Territorial partners to support the 
establishment and expansion of over 2,100 community vaccination 
centers. This included 39 federally led CVC pilot sites and the 
deployment of 18 mobile vaccination units to help reach 
traditionally underserved and remote communities. Nearly 60 
percent of all of the doses administered at the federally led 
pilot CVCs went to communities of color.
    As we continue to execute our response to COVID-19 and 
other disasters, FEMA will also continue to prioritize equity 
across all of our operations.
    Finally, we must address climate change through risk 
reduction. As emergency managers, we must face the challenges 
that climate change poses to our mission head-on and make 
generational-level investments to reduce these impacts.
    As a former firefighter in Colorado, I understand the 
benefits of mitigation. Developing resilient communities ahead 
of an incident reduces both the loss of life and economic 
disruption. Every dollar invested in mitigation saves the 
American taxpayers $6 in future spending.
    To provide local partners with financial support for 
mitigation projects, FEMA is expanding resources and technical 
assistance for the Building Resilient Infrastructure and 
Communities program, which establishes a reliable stream of 
funding for larger mitigation projects through a nationwide 
grant program. Recently, the President visited FEMA and 
announced that he was doubling the funding available for the 
BRIC program to $1 billion for the fiscal year 2021 application 
period.
    Mitigating the increasing flood risk is particularly 
important, as flooding is the most common and costly natural 
disaster in the United States. Among other initiatives, the 
President's fiscal year 2022 budget requests more than $428 
million for the Flood Hazard Mapping and Risk Analysis Program 
to allow for more climate change data to be incorporated into 
flood risk analysis.
    FEMA is also working to ensure that communities are 
protected financially from flooding. FEMA is updating the 
National Flood Insurance Program pricing methodology to fix 
longstanding inequities by more closely aligning insurance 
premiums to the specific flood risk of each home. The fiscal 
year 2022 budget also includes a means-tested affordability 
proposal to ensure that everyone who needs flood insurance can 
afford it.
    In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic is an important 
turning point for our country and challenges us to rethink our 
systems, decisions, and investments. This past year has not 
been easy, and I would like to recognize the professionalism 
and perseverance demonstrated by the FEMA workforce.
    I look forward to working with the members of this 
subcommittee as we build a more ready and resilient Nation. I 
am happy to answer any questions.
    [Ms. Criswell's prepared statement follows:]

                                 
  Prepared Statement of Hon. Deanne Criswell, Administrator, Federal 
   Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
    Chair Titus, Ranking Member Webster, and Members of the 
Subcommittee. My name is Deanne Criswell, and I am the Administrator of 
the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). I am delighted to 
appear before you to discuss the President's Budget request for FEMA in 
Fiscal Year (FY) 2022, and to describe how the President's vision 
guides my priorities for FEMA as the Agency's new Administrator.
    FEMA's mission of supporting people before, during, and after 
disasters has never been more critical. Our role during the response to 
the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the numerous other disasters we are 
actively supporting, attests to the vital importance and responsibility 
of this Agency to our Nation. Given FEMA's unprecedented mission 
requirements, the President's Budget increases the overall FEMA budget 
to $28.4 billion, which is $1.9 billion more than the FY 2021 
enactment. I believe that the President's Budget, if enacted, will put 
FEMA on sound footing to meet the challenges ahead.
    Climate change is making natural disasters more frequent, more 
intense, and more destructive, and we must be prepared for another 
challenging series of disaster events this summer and fall. Last year, 
FEMA faced record-setting hurricane and wildfire seasons. Response and 
recovery operations from many of these past disasters continue even as 
FEMA pivots to prepare for what lies ahead. The FY 2022 President's 
Budget would increase the major disaster allocation in the Disaster 
Relief Fund (DRF) from $17.1 billion to $18.8 billion to address 
ongoing Stafford Act disasters. This includes $9.3 billion for COVID-
19; $4.1 billion for Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria; $2.2 billion 
for non-catastrophic disasters; $1.2 billion for catastrophic 
disasters; and $2.0 billion in reserve in anticipation of additional 
COVID-19 costs.
    In my first months as the FEMA Administrator, I am focused on three 
key priorities, which are guided by the President's vision: (1) 
supporting the FEMA workforce and our readiness; (2) integrating equity 
into everything we do, and (3) addressing climate change through risk 
reduction. In today's testimony, I will describe these priorities in 
turn.
    Supporting the FEMA workforce and our readiness. FEMA's workforce 
of more than 21,700 emergency managers does exceptional work every day 
to deliver our mission and as FEMA's Administrator, their readiness and 
well-being is my first priority.
    Prioritizing the health and safety of FEMA's workforce enables us 
to best ensure that our personnel are ready to deploy or re-deploy to 
any disaster at a moment's notice. FEMA will continue to take all 
necessary measures to prioritize workforce health and safety within the 
COVID-19 environment. FEMA's workforce became eligible for the COVID-19 
vaccine through the Department of Homeland Security's Operation 
Vaccinate our Workforce, which was launched in late January. Where 
appropriate, we continue to rely on virtual operations and inspections, 
as well as no-contact service methods, to protect both our workforce 
and the communities they serve. As we prepare for a post-COVID-19 
environment, we are evaluating how to enhance operational capacity, and 
promote an agile and expeditionary culture, while we support remote 
work where appropriate and return to the workplace safely.
    Workforce readiness means that our people are ready to respond. 
This starts with having the right staffing levels. The FY 2022 Budget 
supports increased hiring, and among other things would result in a 14 
percent increase in the number of FEMA's Stafford Act employees.
    Readiness also means the workforce has the training, tools, and 
resources they need to do their job, and I am committed to providing 
them. For instance, FEMA's Incident Management (IM) workforce is 
currently comprised of nearly 11,000 personnel. The FY 2022 Budget 
includes $32.3 million to not only recruit additional staff for the 
Incident Management Workforce, but to also train and equip them.
    As we enter the 2021 hurricane and wildfire seasons and continue to 
prepare for no-notice events, our workforce has never been more 
experienced or tested. However, I recognize that many of our staff have 
been activated in support of COVID-19 response operations and numerous 
other disaster declarations for over a year, and we will ensure that 
our deployed workforce gets the rest and training to be ready for what 
comes next.
    Longer term, we also need to continue to professionalize the field 
of emergency management by better defining what it means to be an 
emergency manager and building career paths for the Nation's emergency 
management workforce.
    Integrating equity into everything we do. The Nation deserves to 
have our programs and services delivered fairly and equitably. To meet 
this expectation, diversity, equity, and inclusion are not optional and 
must be core components of how we conduct ourselves and execute our 
mission. They are not empty buzzwords. FEMA is actively working to meet 
this expectation and reduce unnecessary barriers to program 
participation for disaster survivors, grant recipients, and other key 
stakeholders. That includes low-income households and other 
traditionally vulnerable populations. We know we have work to do and we 
are committed to doing it. FEMA is currently soliciting feedback from 
the public and our partners to ensure we understand how our programs 
impact survivors of different demographics, and we are committed to 
making changes where needed. This includes changes to our policies, 
procedures, or how we deploy and execute our mission.
    Internally, this means understanding that to help individuals we 
must create safe and welcoming environments and that we do this by 
building a diverse and inclusive workforce which resembles the 
communities we serve. Externally, it means we cannot be satisfied only 
with assisting those who seek us out--we must also proactively identify 
and reach out to underserved communities and populations most in need 
of our help. We are analyzing our operational programs through the lens 
of equity for a reason. We know that disasters exacerbate existing 
inequalities, and we need to ensure that FEMA assistance reaches 
everyone who needs it. We must also come together across all disaster 
recovery stakeholders to identify the root causes of differing recovery 
outcomes for survivors and work aggressively and collectively to ensure 
equity in disaster response and recovery.
    FEMA's commitment to equity is further evident in our efforts to 
advance the accessibility of COVID-19 vaccines. At the President's 
direction, FEMA coordinated with federal and state, local, tribal, and 
territorial (SLTT) partners to support the establishment and expansion 
of over 2,100 Community Vaccination Centers (CVCs) to achieve the 
Administration's goal of administering 200 million shots in 100 days. 
This included 39 federally led CVC pilot sites and the deployment of 18 
mobile vaccination units to help reach traditionally underserved and 
more remote communities. As part of these efforts, FEMA established a 
Civil Rights Advisory Group (CRAG) in January with our federal partners 
to support the Administration's priority of making equity a cornerstone 
of the COVID-19 response. The CRAG supported the development of the 
methodology used to determine federally led CVC pilot site selections 
and has worked in all ten FEMA regions to collect and analyze 
demographic data, identify underserved communities, and collaborate 
with community-based organizations. Nearly 60 percent of all doses 
administered at federally led pilot CVCs went to communities of color, 
and interpretation services have been provided to non-English speakers 
in over 180 languages.
    As we execute our response to COVID-19 and other disasters, FEMA 
will continue to prioritize equity across all operations, both 
internally and externally. In support of this priority, the FY 2022 
President's Budget includes an additional 54 employees at Headquarters 
and in the Regions, who will focus on equity issues. Among other 
things, these staff will analyze the extent to which FEMA is delivering 
programs and services fairly and equitably, as well as make data-
informed recommendations for how FEMA can improve the delivery of its 
programs and services nationwide.
    Addressing climate change through risk reduction. As emergency 
managers, we must face the challenges that climate change poses to our 
mission head-on and make generational-level investments to reduce the 
impacts we are experiencing as a result. Disasters are more frequent 
and more costly. While we will always be ready to respond when 
disasters occur, we recognize that true success rests in mitigating the 
worst impacts of disasters before they occur. As a former firefighter 
in Colorado, I understand the impact mitigation has. Developing 
resilient communities ahead of an incident reduces both the loss of 
life and economic disruption, and, according to an independent study by 
the National Institute of Building Sciences in 2019, every dollar in 
federal hazard mitigation grants invested in mitigation is estimated to 
save the American taxpayer six dollars in future spending.
    To provide local partners with financial support for mitigation 
projects, FEMA will expand the Building Resilient Infrastructure and 
Communities (BRIC) program. I would like to thank Congress for 
providing the legislative tools to create BRIC, per Section 1234 of the 
Disaster Recovery Reform Act of 2018 (DRRA). By establishing a reliable 
stream of funding for larger mitigation projects through a nationwide 
grant program, the BRIC program provides a critical opportunity for 
governments to invest in a more resilient nation, reduce disaster 
suffering, and avoid future disaster costs. Recently, the President 
visited FEMA to announce that he was increasing the funding available 
for the BRIC program to $1 billion for the FY 2021 Notice of Funding 
Opportunity (NOFO) application period. FEMA will set funding levels for 
the FY 2022 BRIC program consistent with the President's priorities.
    Mitigating the increasing risk of flooding will be an important 
component of FEMA's efforts to increase our Nation's resilience to 
climate change. As millions of American families have unfortunately 
experienced first-hand, flooding is the most common and costly natural 
disaster in the United States. Furthermore, direct average annual flood 
losses have quadrupled from approximately $4 billion per year in the 
1980s to roughly $17 billion per year between 2010 and 2018. Over the 
past decade, flooding and coastal storms have accounted for roughly 70 
percent of all Presidential Disaster Declarations.
    We must drive the kind of system-based mitigation this Nation needs 
to make our communities more resilient to flooding. The President's FY 
2022 Budget requests more than $428 million for the Flood Hazard 
Mapping and Risk Analysis Program (Risk MAP) to allow for climate 
change data to be incorporated into flood risk analysis. The FY 2022 
Budget also requests $5 million to help other federal agencies put 
flood resilience measures into effect. A further $5 million is 
requested in FY 2022 for climate research and nature-based solutions, 
to provide funding for actionable climate research that can be used by 
SLTT partners to design and build innovative mitigation projects which 
address the impacts of climate change. By investing in mitigation, our 
federal and SLTT partners will be better prepared for future extreme 
weather events and be able to recover faster at the individual and 
community level.
    FEMA is also working to ensure that communities are protected 
financially as well as physically from flooding. Flood insurance 
policies through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) can help 
households fill a financial void when a disaster occurs and better 
rebuild their lives in its aftermath. For the first time in nearly 50 
years, FEMA will update the NFIP pricing methodology to communicate 
flood risk more clearly so households can make more informed decisions 
on risk, insurance, and mitigation actions to protect against the 
perils of flooding and climate change. These changes will also fix 
longstanding inequities in flood insurance pricing by more closely 
aligning insurance premiums to the specific flood risk of each home. 
The FY 2022 Budget also proposes a means-tested affordability proposal.
                               Conclusion
    The COVID-19 pandemic has represented an important turning point 
for our country, and challenges us to rethink our systems, decisions, 
and investments. This past year has not been easy, and I would like to 
recognize the professionalism, resilience, and perseverance 
demonstrated by the FEMA workforce and our partners. As we look to the 
challenges ahead, I look forward to working with the Members of this 
Subcommittee as we build a more ready and resilient nation. Thank you 
for this opportunity to testify. I am happy to answer any questions.

    Ms. Titus. Thank you very much.
    I now recognize Chairman DeFazio for his first questions.
    [Pause.]
    Sorry, we can't hear you.
    Mr. DeFazio. Sorry. And I am there. OK, sorry.
    You mentioned your firefighting background, and that is 
going to be critical in the coming summer. We are having what 
might turn out to be the hottest week over the Greater West in 
history. I mean, we are not anywhere near August yet and we 
were already in record drought. So this is going to be 
extraordinary.
    And I am just wondering if you think that our pre- and 
post-disaster funding has historically--just because, you know, 
the severe wildfires are a more recent occurrence--slanted 
toward wind and flood events, hurricanes and the like, and 
whether we need to rethink those priorities in predisaster.
    Ms. Criswell. Yes. It is a really timely question as we 
talk about the hazard mitigation funding that we have available 
through BRIC, but we also have several other hazard mitigation 
programs.
    I think an important point to note is we in recent years 
have enacted a hazard mitigation funding after an FMAG, a Fire 
Management Assistance Grant, has been given to do additional 
hazard mitigation that is specific to those communities that 
were impacted by the fire. This program allows us to rebuild 
and help those communities that were specifically impacted.
    But I think, on a larger note, the grant program that we 
have available or the various grant programs that we have 
available, it is the State and local jurisdictions that submit 
for the projects that they want to conduct within their 
communities. And I think where FEMA can help play a part in 
that is really help educating communities that this funding is 
available to also support wildland mitigation efforts, which to 
date only a small percentage of the grants submitted are 
submitted for wildland fire mitigation.
    And so I think as a Nation we have work to do to make sure 
everybody understands the magnitude and scope that this program 
can cover and that we help people understand the types of 
systemwide mitigation that can now be done through this 
increased level of funding.
    Mr. DeFazio. Excellent. Yes, I think a new program of 
outreach is warranted. In many cases, we are dealing with 
relatively unpopulated counties, small jurisdictions, and there 
is not a lot of expertise there. So that would be very welcome.
    How about the issue I raised at the beginning: simplifying 
the language used in correspondence and the notifications for 
status of applications, and then some kind of coordination?
    Is it possible--I know bureaucracies are difficult--to have 
a universal application between HUD, SBA, and FEMA, and is that 
something you are envisioning working on?
    Ms. Criswell. I think that the points you raise really 
demonstrate that recovery from these disasters is really 
complex. And there are several programs that are out there that 
do support the long-term recovery of communities and for 
individuals.
    I understand the frustration. I recently came from the 
local level. And while it may be a major urban center, it was 
also difficult to navigate sometimes the Federal bureaucracy.
    I think that right now we can do a better job of trying to 
make sure that our programs are more accessible and easily 
accessible for individuals so they know what to ask for and 
what they would be eligible for. But from the long-term 
recovery standpoint, we have recovery coordinators that do work 
with communities to help bring all of the various programs 
together.
    But I think as we talk about the fact that these disasters 
are becoming more complex and we are having to bring in more 
programs to rebuild really emphasizes the point that we need to 
also be taking a different approach, and as all of you have 
stated, investing in mitigation upfront so we reduce those 
impacts and so we don't have to rely on so many programs for 
recovery.
    Mr. DeFazio. OK. Again, we may want to revisit my idea 
about universal application, and I would be happy to work with 
the other committees of jurisdiction.
    But finally, we have been looking for a national rule of 
reasonable and prudent alternatives under the National Flood 
Insurance Program for ESA compliance, given some perverse court 
rulings on this. And I want to know when we can expect to have 
that rule published, because the alternative is, we are going 
to have litigation in myriad States by various groups regarding 
the NFIP program and noncompliance with ESA for whatever 
species exists in those States. I think we really have to move 
on to a national rule.
    Do you have a timeline on that?
    Ms. Criswell. I don't have the specifics on where we are at 
with that program, Representative, but certainly I will get 
with my team and we will get back to you with the status and 
what the timeline looks like.
    Mr. DeFazio. OK. Thank you. That would be fabulous because 
this has been dragging on for far too long. I mean, the 
litigation was back under the Obama administration. Granted, 
there probably wasn't much progress under the last 
administration on this issue. But, anyway, that would be great.
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Ms. Titus. Thank you.
    The Chair now recognizes the ranking member for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Webster. Thank you, Chair.
    FEMA has played a critical, I might say from my own 
experience, a very effective leadership position and leadership 
role in response to COVID-19. Are you looking, is FEMA looking 
at sort of the lessons learned of success and failure--or 
whatever--during this time, and are you making recommendations 
for, hopefully not, but the pandemic of the future?
    Ms. Criswell. Representative Webster, we have learned so 
much as a Nation from the response to COVID-19, and I learned a 
great deal during my time in New York City. And when I came 
here, I worked with my team to see where we are at in really 
discovering what we as an Agency learned and how we implemented 
our programs differently.
    And we did find that there are ways that we can administer 
our programs more remotely, more efficiently, through the use 
of technology. And that is one of the things that we are now 
looking at, how we can institutionalize that into the way we 
deliver programs for the future.
    I think that we have such a great opportunity in front of 
us right now to capitalize on how we learn to do things better 
and differently that I believe will really make a difference in 
reaching out to more underserved communities and being able to 
bring assistance to the people where they are at instead of 
making them come to FEMA to get their help.
    Mr. Webster. Awesome. The State of Florida has two problems 
related to each other, both of them related to time. And I 
would suspect there are others that have the same problem. In 
one case, we need more time. In another case, we need less 
time.
    And at least in my area, FEMA has set, at least in some 
instances, it has set an amount of time, 30-day deadline to get 
cost estimates in to the damage that has happened. So the 
storms happened, the winds came, or if it was a hurricane or 
something, then it leaves, and now we have got 30 days to come 
up with a cost estimate.
    On the other hand, for our area, after that happens, 30 
days is just when it is probably subsiding. It may be just 3 or 
4 days before that the flooding from the rivers has peaked, 
because the flow of the water comes downstream and this rolling 
crest that is coming down floods the area again, and so we 
can't make the estimates needed. So that is sort of the--we 
need a little bit more time, because it is just the way it 
works, at least in some areas for some things.
    Secondly, though, we need less time. Sometimes our State, 
especially the small cities and counties that don't have a 
surplus, they don't have sort of a slush fund or anything else 
to balance their needs, they get by from kind of like paycheck 
to paycheck. And so those counties and cities that do that need 
less time for FEMA to pony up the money that they need.
    I was thinking about several of them who waited maybe after 
a disaster over a year, maybe 2 years before they were able to 
get their money. It is not that they didn't get it. It is just 
that in the time in between, they have nothing to fill in the 
gaps. Lots of major cities, larger cities, they can do it. They 
can get by and things work out and the time isn't as big a 
problem, but for us, I have a lot of small counties and cities. 
They do--they need time shortened so that they can get those 
things taken care of.
    So I guess my question is, can you commit to help us out? 
Or if there are other tools you need in order to do that, can 
we provide them? Or is it do you have enough tools, you just 
need to do it? Those are my questions.
    Ms. Criswell. Thank you. I appreciate the conversation you 
and I had the other day regarding this. Time, as you stated, is 
our most precious commodity. When it comes to response, we want 
to make sure that we are getting in there fast so we can save 
lives. When it comes to recovery, we want to make sure that we 
are getting people assistance, financial reimbursement soon so 
they can stay viable for their own staff.
    But you bring up the great point, as I have seen firsthand 
how long it can take for flooding to recede and actually get in 
there to do the assessments that are required. So I think that 
your point also really goes to my priority of equity, which is, 
we want to be able to ensure that we are delivering our 
programs equitably across the Nation and to provide for the 
needs of the communities that are impacted, which will all have 
their own specific and unique needs.
    So I am committed to having my team continue to dive into 
this subject and determine how we can better support 
communities, give them access to the programs that they need 
soon when they need it, and give them the time that they need 
to make sure that they can get all of the appropriate paperwork 
in place so they can get the reimbursement that they are 
eligible for.
    Mr. Webster. Thank you very much. I look forward to working 
with you.
    I yield back.
    Ms. Titus. Thank you.
    Now I yield to myself.
    It is very refreshing to hear you speak so freely about the 
impacts of climate change as opposed to erasing the term from 
the website like we saw happen with some agencies under the 
last administration.
    Now, Nevada and the West are drier and hotter in recent 
years than ever, exacerbating the wildfire threats. Just last 
week, my district in Las Vegas experienced 5 straight days over 
113 degrees and a couple at 117. Meanwhile, we are burning up, 
other places are flooding. Riverside and coastal communities 
are dealing with the consequences of sea level rise, whether it 
is just regular tidal flooding on clear days or it's severe 
storm surges during the extreme weather, like the hurricanes 
that you are seeing in the Southeast.
    We already know, and as Chairman DeFazio pointed out, the 
demand is great for State, local, Tribal, and Territorial 
governments to invest in infrastructure projects to mitigate 
some of these known and predictable threats that arise from 
environmental changes. And we are seeing that reflected in the 
oversubscribed Building Resilient Infrastructure and 
Communities program, or BRIC, as we call it.
    Another place we are seeing it is in a program that this 
committee enacted last year with FEMA to seed State-managed 
revolving loan funds. This idea was introduced by our 
colleague, Representative Angie Craig, and it is based on very 
successful Water State Revolving Funds.
    Those communities that have gotten tired of repeatedly 
applying and not being selected for some of the highly 
competitive grants can instead just choose to pursue projects 
on their own with a predictable path of paying it off. And I 
hope that FEMA will seek funds to seed those revolving funds in 
the next budget.
    But something we could do today is put aside more resources 
into predisaster mitigation. And I realize what the budget 
calls for, the request for $500 million for disaster relief 
funding and the 6-percent calculation for BRIC, but could you 
talk to us a little bit about how you see those two buckets 
coming together to help with this issue of great demand and not 
very many resources?
    Ms. Criswell. Thank you for the question. We are, and I 
have seen personally the continuous increase in the number of 
natural disasters, the severity of these disasters, the 
frequency of these disasters, and I think, more importantly, 
how rapidly they start to escalate now, more rapidly than we 
have seen them in the past. And that goes from wildfires to 
hurricanes in the gulf. And this is a direct result of our 
changing climate.
    The best protection we have as we work to reduce and change 
the direction that the climate is going, the best investment 
that we can do right now is through predisaster mitigation 
funding. And we have multiple different mitigation programs 
that can support this.
    The BRIC program, which I thank everybody here for your 
involvement in making this a reality. I think the importance of 
the BRIC program and how it relates to some of our other 
programs is we now have a continuous source of funding at a 
much higher level than we have had in the past. So we can make 
generational-level investments in reducing risk.
    In our previous programs, the max grant I believe was $4 
million Federal share, and now we can go up to $50 million. 
This takes us away from the incremental way that we have been 
approaching hazard mitigation in the past and really shifts our 
focus to a systemwide approach.
    But what we need to do is really help communities think in 
the systemwide approach more so we can start to put these 
visionary projects that will not just have an impact for us now 
but for our children and our grandchildren in the future. I 
think this type of generational-level investment is going to be 
critical as we start to think about what the risks are going to 
be 10 years from now or 20 years from now as a result of our 
changing climate.
    Ms. Titus. I know that there is bipartisan support for 
expanding these kind of investment opportunities, and I wonder 
if you see any problems with increasing that budget from $1 
billion?
    Ms. Criswell. Chair Titus, I don't see any issues for 
increasing that budget. FEMA has the ability to set aside 6 
percent as a result of the DRRA, and we are committed to 
continuing a baseline of funding at $500 million to help 
support these mitigation projects as we continue to build out 
and mature the BRIC program.
    Ms. Titus. OK. Well, thank you. We would like to pursue 
that and see if we can't encourage some greater investment.
    I will now recognize Ms. Van Duyne.
    Ms. Van Duyne. Thank you very much, Chairwoman Titus and 
Ranking Member Webster, for holding this hearing.
    FEMA plays an incredibly important role responding to 
natural disasters, but it also works side by side with numerous 
other agencies to fulfill its mission.
    When I was regional administrator for HUD during Hurricane 
Harvey, Maria, and Irma, I saw firsthand the bureaucratic web 
of redtape and inefficiencies that prevented getting help to 
those who needed it most in a timely manner. And I spoke with 
many of you in this body who came to me fighting for your 
constituents and asking me why it was taking so long to get 
aid. And I felt and understood your frustration, but I had to 
explain the long list of policies, procedures, and redtape that 
our regulations demanded.
    And these inefficiencies have serious costs. The faster 
FEMA is able to get help to communities of need, the faster 
they can recover. And it is critically important that these 
agencies all work together.
    Now, I understand what has been said today about increasing 
funding, but I think it shouldn't be always about increasing 
the amount of funding but about spending the allocated dollars 
in the most efficient way possible. And many of the rules for 
disaster recovery often make no sense. For example, FEMA can 
spend $500 to install a temporary water heater, but it can't 
spend more than $300 to repair the one that is there. So FEMA 
is unable to build a permanent structure when often the 
temporary is more expensive.
    Can you help me understand and just bring a little bit more 
common sense and tell me what kind of efficiencies and 
adjustments have you seen in your time at FEMA that could 
actually help in this matter?
    Ms. Criswell. I think that it is a great point. As I 
mentioned a little bit earlier, there is so much of our funding 
that is designed for long-term recovery, and we have so many 
different sources that can bring assistance to individuals.
    And I hear you. I hear that sometimes the way the 
regulations are written, it takes the common sense out of the 
factor of how do we actually be good stewards of the taxpayer 
dollar.
    I understand some of the struggles that we have had in the 
past. And we have been able to do some creative things through 
the Stafford Act, like the STEP program during the response to 
Hurricane Sandy in New York and New Jersey, and I believe we 
have done some other things. FEMA has done some other things 
over the past 2 years as well.
    But I have directed my team to take a look at how we are 
applying the intent of the Stafford Act, and do we need to make 
some regulatory changes so we can make sure that we are, one, 
being good stewards of the taxpayer dollar, but getting people 
on the road to recovery sooner than having to wait for all of 
these programs to come together.
    Ms. Van Duyne. And I appreciate that. And by the way, I do 
want to give a shout-out to Tony Robinson. He is your RA out in 
region 6. I would recommend talking to him and others who I 
have worked with that actually can help you direct the funds 
more efficiently.
    I have got another question. Since March, FEMA has been 
involved in setting up shelters at the border. Yesterday, I 
know that you met with President Biden. Was the ongoing crisis 
at the border and FEMA's ongoing mission discussed?
    I know that Press Secretary Psaki was unable to answer if 
there was a deadline on FEMA and whether or not you are going 
to be able to pull away from the border as we enter into our 
hurricane season.
    Ms. Criswell. Thank you for asking that question. FEMA's 
role is to coordinate across the Federal interagency. We are 
very good at that.
    And FEMA was brought in to support HHS and CBP as they were 
executing their mission to support the border. FEMA at no 
time--I mean, the max number of people that we had at the 
border was less than 100 at any given time. So only a small 
amount of our staff were involved in providing some technical 
assistance to that.
    But as HHS and CBP have continued to take over their roles 
in the program, we now have less than 14 people supporting this 
mission, and our staff has reset so they can get ready to 
support hurricane season.
    Ms. Van Duyne. Great. Thank you very much.
    I have got one quick other question. I know we had a great 
relationship at HUD and FEMA and USDA and others that are 
working on disaster recovery, but sometimes we have like hard 
silos that we see that were unable to be able to cooperate in a 
manner that would make the most sense.
    So have you seen how to be able to build more of a unified 
front with some of the other agencies?
    Ms. Criswell. I think as we talk about long-term recovery, 
that is what the intent of a National Disaster Recovery 
Framework was all about, about how do we build those 
relationships and bring all of the things that the Federal 
Government has to offer to the table, and to make sure that we 
are doing it in a collective way so we are complementing each 
other's programs instead of working in individual silos.
    As we continue to look at how we are going to approach and 
refine the way we are doing business here at FEMA, given the 
new operational things that we have learned from COVID-19, I 
think we have another opportunity to also talk about how we are 
doing that for long-term recovery and can actually bring these 
programs together in a better way.
    Ms. Van Duyne. Awesome. Thank you very much.
    I yield back my time.
    Ms. Titus. Thank you.
    The Chair now recognizes Ms. Norton.
    Ms. Norton. Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
    Administrator Criswell, I want to question you first on 
FEMA's role in the insurrection here at the U.S. Capitol. The 
reason I am interested is I noted that FEMA has an Office of 
National Capital Region Coordination. Let me read to you what 
its mission is: ``To conduct preparedness, planning, and 
operational activities and provide leadership and coordination 
within the National Capital region to synchronize and integrate 
the whole community in executing homeland security and 
emergency management activities.''
    Administrator Criswell, what steps did FEMA take in 
general, and the Office of National Capital Region Coordination 
in particular, take to prepare for and respond to the attack of 
January 6?
    Ms. Criswell. Thank you for that question. I observed the 
events of January 6 not from Washington, DC; I was in New York 
City at the time. And so I was away from the area as many 
Americans watched what happened that day.
    But I want to point out that FEMA is not a law enforcement 
agency. But as you stated, we do have a team, the National 
Capital Region Coordination team, the National Capital Region 
Coordination. And they work every day with the district and the 
neighboring jurisdictions on preparedness activities. And 
particularly, one of their roles is to work collectively with 
those homeland security and emergency management agencies 
across the region in preparation for national special security 
events.
    And so that team had done a number of preparedness efforts 
in advance of the inauguration. They had done a number of 
tabletop exercises, planning exercises, coordination meetings, 
to talk specifically about what would happen at the 
inauguration if there was an event of civil unrest. And so they 
had----
    Ms. Norton. Well, that is really my question. Now that we 
know what happened on January 6, in what ways is FEMA prepared 
to respond to any future such attacks against the Federal 
Government in the Nation's Capitol?
    Ms. Criswell. Again, I would like to point out that FEMA is 
not a law enforcement agency. Our job is to work with our local 
jurisdictions in their preparedness efforts, make sure that 
they have the tools and the resources that they need in order 
to accomplish their mission.
    Ms. Norton. You have an office of preparedness, planning, 
and operational activities for the National Capital region. 
That is the reason I am asking this question.
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, ma'am. And it is that group that works 
with the local agencies to help in their capability and their 
preparedness efforts. Our role is to work with them, to do 
exercises with them, to assist in writing their plans as needed 
so that they can execute it. But FEMA, again, is not a law 
enforcement agency and would not respond to such a situation.
    Ms. Norton. I am well aware of that. I am just trying to 
make sure you are playing your role here in the National 
Capital region. The Department of Defense failed to deploy the 
DC National Guard here for hours. And so FEMA is not uninvolved 
in all of this.
    Let me ask you a question about communities of color and 
low-income and disabled people here around the country in the 
wake of national disasters, because these are the people who 
face more difficulties when applying for FEMA disaster 
assistance.
    Now, I know that the President has an Executive order--that 
is President Biden--that commits the Federal Government to 
implementing a comprehensive approach--I was very pleased at 
that--to advancing equity for historically underserved and 
marginalized communities.
    Administrator Criswell, how do you plan to fulfill this 
administration's pledge of eradicating inequity in emergency 
planning?
    Ms. Criswell. Yes. Through my previous experience, I have 
seen firsthand the disproportionate impact that our underserved 
communities face during a disaster. What I have seen is those 
communities that have a hard time during day-to-day life have 
an even harder time then once a disaster happens.
    And as I stated in my opening remarks, equity--and equity 
in how we deliver our programs--is one of my top priorities as 
I come into this position. I have directed my team to really 
take a deep look at the barriers that people are facing in 
receiving assistance.
    But I think even more importantly is access to assistance. 
What we have seen and what we have been able to do during our 
support for the COVID-19 response is learning how important it 
is to get assistance to the people instead of having them and 
forcing them to come to us.
    And we were able to use data in a way that we have never 
been able to or didn't use before. And I think that is really 
going to be instrumental in how we change the delivery of our 
programs going forward, to make sure that we can target and 
reach out to those communities we know are going to need 
assistance and maybe just don't have the means to access it as 
much as some other communities. And so, again, I have directed 
my team to take a look at what barriers that we are seeing.
    And we have also, and it is important to point out here, we 
have asked for input from the public. We have put out a request 
for information on our website asking the community what 
struggles are you facing in receiving assistance from FEMA.
    And we are going to take that information as we continue 
this analysis of our delivery of programs and make improvements 
along the way. And that RFI, that request for information is 
available for the communities to respond to until July 21.
    Ms. Norton. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Ms. Titus. Thank you.
    Mr. Gimenez.
    Mr. Gimenez. Thank you, Madam Chair and the ranking member.
    Administrator Criswell, I represent the congressional 
district with probably the most National Flood Insurance 
Program policies in the country. In Miami-Dade and Monroe 
Counties, which I represent, there are almost 400,000 NFIP 
policies. Obviously, the Risk Rating 2.0 is going to have a 
huge impact on my constituents and I intend to watch the 
situation very closely.
    With that in mind, I am concerned with the roll-out of the 
plan. It all seems to be happening pretty quickly and I don't 
think that any of my constituents who are policyholders 
understand what may happen to their rates. What does FEMA 
intend to do beyond simply working through the insurance 
industry to educate and inform policyholders about their rates?
    And, more importantly, what else can FEMA do to help people 
learn about the mitigation options available to them to help 
them reduce their rates if they are going to go up 
significantly under the new rate structure, and it looks like 
it will? And some of my constituents that never had to buy 
flood insurance are now going to be faced with buying flood 
insurance for the first time at a significant rate.
    So what can you do to help?
    Ms. Criswell. Yes. Thank you for that question. Risk Rating 
2.0 has been in the works for several years, and FEMA has 
worked with industry experts to really look at how we were 
providing rates and establishing rates for individuals. And 
what we found is that the risk calculations themselves were not 
specific and unique to the individual's risk.
    And so what Risk Rating 2.0 does is, it really creates an 
equitable distribution of the risk that is out there and so 
homeowners that don't have as much risk, their rates are 
actually going to go down, but they have been subsidizing the 
risk for some of the individual homeowners that have a higher 
risk and so the program itself just--I believe it is about two-
thirds of the program, their rates are either going to go down 
or the increase in the rate is going to be no more than what 
they experience on a year to year basis right now.
    I hear you on the ability to make sure that we are doing 
enough education and outreach to make sure people understand 
what their rates are going to be. The roll-out of the program 
for phase 1 is that any new policies that are put in place by 
October 1, they are going to be subject to the new risk rating 
methodology, but also beginning October 1, any individuals that 
their rates are going to go down, their rates will go down 
starting October 1.
    But for those policyholders that need to renew their 
policies, if their rates are going to go up, that is not going 
to happen until April 1 of next year.
    And I will commit to you that I will make sure that my team 
is doing the appropriate level of outreach and education so 
homeowners understand what their impacts are going to be and 
how they can get better prepared for that.
    Mr. Gimenez. The statement that you said about the rates 
going up and down. That is not on a nationwide level, right? It 
is not really--it is not really in Monroe County, which is 
really the county that I am most concerned about?
    Ms. Criswell. Yes.
    Mr. Gimenez. OK. All right. Thank you.
    The second question I have--and I appreciate the 
administration's recent focus on the Building Resilient 
Infrastructure and Communities Predisaster Mitigation Grant 
program and I really applaud Congress for creating it.
    Monroe County, again, that is the Keys, which makes up the 
Florida Keys, requested funding from the BRIC program for the 
Twin Lake project in my district, but Twin Lakes and another 
community in the Keys, Stillwright Point, are ground zero for 
sea level rise and sea level rise concerns, and they really 
need FEMA's urgent attention through the BRIC program.
    The situation is so dire that the New York Times back in 
November of 2019 featured both communities and that they had 
lived through 82 straight days of flooding in their streets due 
to sea level rise.
    Will you please join me in my districts to visit these 
communities that really point to the spherical sea level rise 
and work with the county, the constituents, and me to help 
devise a plan to improve the situation there through their BRIC 
or other programs?
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman, yes. I mean, I think that is a 
true example of how this community [inaudible] now available 
through the BRIC program can make real differences across the 
community, and so I would be happy to meet with you and your 
constituents to get a better understanding of what their 
challenges are.
    Mr. Gimenez. Well, thank you. By the way, that is in the 
Keys, so it is really not a bad trip. OK?
    Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    And I yield my time back.
    Ms. Titus. Thank you. Maybe we should all go down there on 
a field trip for this committee.
    Mrs. Napolitano.
    Mrs. Napolitano. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Administrator Criswell, it is great to see you here. I have 
three points that I would like to make. First is the strategic 
goal that you name to reduce complexity. Many constituents in 
my area were struggling to identify and access funeral 
assistance and would like to know what efforts you make to 
improve outreach and accessibility?
    Second question, the $1 billion President Biden has 
included for FEMA's budget, Building Resilient Infrastructure 
and Communities program doubling the funding available to help 
citizens and States prepare for extreme weather disasters. In 
instances like Puerto Rico, can we make sure that the 
infrastructure policy is changed to allow rebuilding to modern 
infrastructure, not to the same old, to withstand frequent 
hurricanes or emergencies?
    And then to the same question, how will FEMA prioritize 
communities' requests for predisaster mitigation funding and 
will the communities be able to take precedence over them?
    The third item, a New York Times article on June 7, found 
FEMA looking at ratio disparities. Have you identified these, 
and how are you sharing your findings and changes with local 
government?
    Ms. Criswell. OK. I think I have all of them. So I am going 
to start out with funeral assistance, Representative 
Napolitano. Again, I spent the most challenging year of my life 
in New York City last year and saw the devastating impacts that 
communities were feeling by the loss of loved ones and I think 
all of us here have been touched by that in some way or 
another. FEMA was able to implement the funeral assistance 
program in a way that we have never been able to do before on a 
scale that is much bigger than what we have done in the past.
    To date, we have given out over $400 million already in 
funeral assistance to individuals that experienced this loss, 
and we continue to do outreach with communities to make sure 
that they understand that this program is available for them 
and also making sure that--again, back to the access issue--
that those that need the access to the program have access and 
they know how to apply for assistance.
    And so working through our regional administrators as they 
work with their State directors, we are making sure that we are 
trying to get that information out to everybody so they know 
that this assistance is out there. It doesn't mitigate their 
loss, but it does help take away some of the stress that they 
were feeling from that loss.
    Mrs. Napolitano. And reduce the redtape, reduction of the 
redtape involved.
    Ms. Criswell. Yes. I think right now our average award is 
taking less than 25 days from the time a person submits an 
application for funeral assistance till the time they get their 
reimbursement.
    Mrs. Napolitano. Thank you.
    Ms. Criswell. And then on your second point on mitigation 
and PDMG, I think that you make a great point. We don't want to 
build back our infrastructure to the way it was before. We want 
to build back stronger so we can reduce the impacts from future 
disasters. And we do that in a couple of ways. As communities 
have declared disasters and they get Public Assistance funding 
to repair their projects, they can also repair to a higher 
level through that program already. But then also after 
disasters we give out hazard mitigation grants to the State or 
the Territory that they can also use not just for those 
specific projects, but to talk about mitigation efforts across 
their communities to help, again, increase their own resilience 
to future events.
    Mrs. Napolitano. Puerto Rico--I was told they were building 
back to the old type of infrastructure and I found that very 
disturbing.
    Ms. Criswell. Yes. FEMA provides the funding, but we don't 
provide authority to direct them to build back to a different 
level, but we work and encourage----
    Mrs. Napolitano. No. It was the Agency's decision, not the 
community's.
    Ms. Criswell. So, again, FEMA does not have the authority 
to tell communities how to build, but we do work with them to 
let them know what their possibilities are. So they can use the 
funding to the most effective way possible and try to build 
back better, build back stronger.
    And so we work with them and encourage them and give them 
guidance and advice as they are going through the process as to 
what they are eligible to do.
    But the local jurisdictions will ultimately make the final 
decision on how they are going to repair their own 
infrastructure.
    And then on your last point, ma'am, on the New York Times 
story, again, I have seen firsthand the disproportionate 
impacts that the communities of color experience and this was 
never more apparent than during my time in New York City when I 
watched how the communities across New York City, the 
underserved communities were having much greater impacts than 
other parts of the city.
    And, again, equity is one of my top priorities as we 
continue to look at how we deliver our programs. It is partly 
because of access and we want to make sure that people have 
access to programs and we have seen through some of these 
stories that have come out that our programs don't always reach 
everybody that they need to reach, and that is not OK.
    And I am committed and my team is working on trying to 
figure out and identify what these barriers to access are so we 
can get the assistance to those people that need it most.
    Mrs. Napolitano. Thank you very much.
    Thank you for your indulgence, Madam Chair.
    Ms. Titus. Thank you.
    Mr. Graves, we are always glad to have you sit with us on 
this committee, but we are wondering why you don't just get 
assigned here so you can also have a vote as well as a voice?
    Mr. Graves of Louisiana. Madam Chair, thank you. I would 
urge you to talk to our ranking member about that.
    Administrator, thank you for joining us today and 
congratulations to you. The good news is, you get to head up 
FEMA; the bad news is, you get to inherit everything that has 
happened before you which is what I want to talk to you about a 
little bit.
    First of all, I want to associate myself with the 
chairman's comments and really reiterating what you said about 
the 6-to-1 return on investment and, of course, other 
statistics showing it is even higher.
    I represent south Louisiana, and no better place to prove 
the importance and the value of making proactive investments. 
The PDM program, the BRIC program, hazard mitigation, all of 
them are critical programs that can lead to more resilient 
communities and ecosystems, but they are not going to work if 
they are not fully funded. And they are not going to work if 
they are siloed.
    This committee also has jurisdiction over the Corps of 
Engineers. In many cases, we found that we're unable to use 
FEMA funds for these Corps of Engineer projects that are 
unfunded whenever those projects are the highest priority in 
the community. We fixed part of that in the DRRA bill, but we 
still have more work to do and would love to work with you on 
that.
    First issue I would like to bring up is school 
reimbursements. In 2016, we had a thousand-year flood perhaps. 
East Baton Rouge Parish has 29 of their 40 reimbursements 
outstanding and is waiting on FEMA for PW amendments right now. 
This represents millions of dollars. This is a school district, 
directly impacts the kids. Obviously not going to jump into the 
details with you right now, but I would like a commitment from 
you that you will put someone on this to full resolution. This 
is really important and it is impacting the school district's 
operations.
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, Representative Graves. I just recently 
visited Louisiana last week and was impressed with the meetings 
that I had. And to your comment on the school districts, we 
need to help these communities recover, and if we don't get 
that funding and get them on the road to recovery, then they 
are just more vulnerable to the next disaster. And so, yes, you 
have my commitment to working with you and your team to make 
sure that we get these projects moving.
    Mr. Graves of Louisiana. OK. I will say it, again, 29 of 
the 40 reimbursements are outstanding and when you slip that 
note to your staff, if you could also add Terrebonne Parish and 
St. Charles Parish that have project worksheets from Hurricane 
Katrina and Rita in 2005 and Hurricane Gustav in 2008, totaling 
millions of dollars. So St. Charles, Terrebonne, and East Baton 
Rouge Parishes, please.
    The next issue I would like to bring up is one of the great 
bipartisan bills we did that I referenced earlier, DRRA. I 
think it made some really important reforms to FEMA--begin this 
paradigm shift from a reactive Agency to a proactive one.
    We still have more work to do, but one of the things we did 
in terms of value to taxpayers is, we said that if a local 
government entity can implement a housing solution that is 50 
percent of the cost or less than the comparable FEMA housing 
solution, then that local government can carry it out and get 
reimbursed.
    I want to thank FEMA for their work with our Livingston 
Parish Sheriff's Office. It saved millions of dollars for the 
Federal taxpayers. Now with all the hurricanes you visited in 
southwest Louisiana recently, the sheriffs there being told 
this is not a Stafford-eligible expense. All I can say is that 
is completely bull, that we amended Stafford with DRRA, that 
you all have done it once already with the Livingston Parish 
sheriffs.
    And, look, if you want to stand in front of a microphone 
and tell the public that you think it is better for Federal 
taxpayers to pay twice as much or more for a solution, you can 
have at it. I am not playing any role in that and I just really 
appreciate you bringing some common sense to this issue to 
where we don't have to relegislate on this because that is 
pretty frustrating.
    Ms. Criswell. I understand and appreciate your frustration 
with that. I think that sometimes our legislation and our 
statutes take some of the common sense out, but I think FEMA 
has demonstrated that we can put the common sense back in as 
you stated. And my team is working through some of the issues 
that you have just brought up, so we can figure out how to do 
this better going forward.
    Mr. Graves of Louisiana. Thank you. Two other things we put 
on your all's radar screen. We did two provisions, one related 
to evacuation route performance and the other one related to 
inundated roads that we did provisions in DRRA. FEMA 
effectively issued guidance that says the same damn thing as 
they did before. We wouldn't have changed the law if that was 
our intent. Evacuation routes are not performing in a 
hurricane, for example, that indicates the standards are 
inappropriate. We need those standards updated.
    In my community and Mr. Rouzer's and Mr. Webster's, these 
hurricane-prone areas, we can't have our main evacuation routes 
like interstates that are under water. Ours is I-12 and in the 
2016 flood was under 6 feet of water, as I recall somewhere 
over 1,200 motorists stranded on the interstate that became 
victims that we had to then go fly food and water to and things 
like that. It diverted our emergency resources in that 
disaster, and I would like to ask you to look at those two 
things, please.
    Lastly, Madam Chair, I just want to reiterate the comments 
made by the mayor about Risk Rating 2.0. Very strong concerns. 
We absolutely want fairness. We want risk conveyed, but very, 
very concerned about how that is moving forward. Thank you, 
Madam Chair.
    Yield back.
    Ms. Titus. Thank you.
    Mr. Garamendi.
    Mr. Garamendi. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Mr. Graves has brought up a series of issues, but before I 
get to them, congratulations. Look forward to working with you. 
We have got a whole host of us here that know how the 
Department, how FEMA could be run better. If we were so good at 
it, we would have sought the appointment, but we are wise. We 
know that it is a thankless job because there is always more to 
be done. We wish you well.
    We may, from time to time, brow beat you, but we know that 
you have got a very difficult situation and it is almost always 
done at a time when people are traumatized and in need of great 
help.
    So now, having set the stage for being nice, let me jump on 
along with everybody else. This is just one more example of the 
work that I know you want to do and will do, and that is trying 
to make it more feasible for people to get the assistance they 
need.
    During the height of the pandemic, the food lines stretched 
for miles and the FEMA regulations were written in such a way 
as a lot of the opportunity to provide food using FEMA's 
authorization and money didn't happen because of a regulation 
or practice that basically said that if there was another 
Federal source then FEMA would not participate.
    And, of course, the Department of Agriculture was already 
there. I would ask you just to take a look at that as one of 
many examples within your Agency that the rules really get in 
the way of providing the relief that people really need.
    So I will let that one just hang out there. What answer 
would you have besides, yeah, we need to look at it, and I 
suspect you will now that I have mentioned it.
    There is another issue, the issue of small counties was 
brought up by Chairman DeFazio, but he didn't bring up a piece 
that I thought he would get to and that is the section 428 
program. It is an alternative procedure that counties can use. 
Many of the small counties when they are doing their recovery 
programs have to front the money. They simply don't have the 
money to front it. Often the damage is in the multimillions and 
their budgets may just be in the single millions, and so they 
are unable to carry out the mitigation and the disaster 
recovery.
    The section 428 program allows FEMA to front the money. And 
my question to you is, are you aware of this problem? If not, 
well, I just brought it up to you. If you could take a look at 
the small and rural counties and how FEMA can assist these 
counties by making full use of the section 428 alternative 
procedures under the Recovery Act.
    So if you could take a look at that and next time we have a 
small county disaster, which will probably be any time in the 
near future, if you would, please, help the counties by pushing 
that money forward under the alternative procedures.
    And I have got a minute. Once again, I think I have covered 
it already. It is the cash flow problem that these small 
counties have. Ms. Criswell, I have been talking, you have not 
had a chance to say, yes, yes, we will get on it. Would you 
like to do so?
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman, I am familiar with the section 
428 program slightly. It was something that was put in place 
towards the end of my previous time here at FEMA, but it is 
designed to help expedite the projects and get the projects 
moving faster. I am not familiar with the cash flow piece, so I 
would appreciate an opportunity to learn more about what that 
struggle and that challenge is, and happy to have my staff 
follow up with what we can do to assist.
    Mr. Garamendi. I would appreciate it. And hopefully we'll 
not have another pandemic with food lines around and round the 
blocks, but if we do, it would be wonderful if FEMA would 
participate side by side with other Federal agencies rather 
than standing back.
    Thank you so very much, and we wish you good success in 
your job. Look forward to working with you and we will try to 
brow beat you very kindly.
    Thank you.
    Ms. Titus. Thank you.
    Before I recognize Miss Gonzalez-Colon, I would point out 
that the Administrator has to leave us at 4:15. She is going to 
the White House for a meeting. Since we want her to take all 
these concerns we have to the White House with her, we will try 
to wrap it up by then.
    Miss Gonzalez-Colon.
    Miss Gonzalez-Colon. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, 
Administrator, for being with us today and also thank you for 
visiting Puerto Rico a few weeks ago. I was able to host you 
there for several meetings and I got the direct impression that 
you know what you are doing and you took notes on many of the 
issues on the island. So I appreciate that directly, and I want 
to say it as I said to you personally here in public.
    And one of the issues that we discussed at that meeting was 
that the issue of a claw back when there is an error in funding 
from FEMA to the agencies and actually to the people. And as of 
last month, my office received several calls from constituents 
that had FEMA assistance approved for their home that was 
damaged in hurricanes in 2017 and they were recently called by 
FEMA in coordination with the IRS informing them that the 
assistance was given in error and they are seeking to claw back 
the funding.
    And this is something that we discussed, and this is not 
new for the committee. That was the reason we co-sponsored H.R. 
539, the Preventing Disaster Revictimization Act, introduced by 
Ranking Member Graves that will require FEMA to waive the 
disaster assistance debts that FEMA provided to people in 
error.
    Is the Agency forced to do this by current law or 
regulation or can this can be reevaluated by the 
administration?
    Ms. Criswell. Representative Gonzalez-Colon, I just wanted 
to thank you for your time when I visited Puerto Rico.
    I appreciated the information and listening to the 
struggles and the challenges that your communities are facing 
out there.
    First on the claw back issue, I wanted to point out that we 
are currently using the waiver authority that current law has 
that Congress provided to us through the DRRA to waive some of 
those claw backs when it is an error on FEMA's part. But with 
this one that you are talking about now, I would really 
appreciate the opportunity for my team to learn more about this 
particular situation so we can better understand it.
    But I also understand that there is legislation that is 
being drafted and my team stands ready to assist Congress with 
technical drafting assistance so we can effectively address 
this issue so we don't have this problem in the future.
    Miss Gonzalez-Colon. Thank you. H.R. 539 is already 
approved by the House. So it is in route to the Senate, and I 
think it is a good piece of legislation.
    The other question I do have is regarding the build back 
better. You know that in Congress, Congressman Serrano and 
myself put an amendment to Section 2601 in the 2018 Bipartisan 
Budget Act that allow the Agency to be flexible in regards to 
predecessor condition, which is one of the main issues on the 
island, to instead rebuild to current industry standards.
    And the reason we want to rebuild to the current code is so 
in the next storm it is more resilient and so we don't have to 
spend more money again and again to rebuild or replace 
structures multiple times when we can be up to date in the 
codes.
    For the first years after the hurricanes in 2017, there 
were repeated complaints from the municipalities and the State 
government in spite of many occasions, projects that were in 
such a way to only fix what was broken by the storm, even 
though meeting new codes require many of the other parts of the 
site to be upgraded. Do you think this is still a problem?
    Ms. Criswell. So building codes are so important, and I 
have been talking with some communities that have been impacted 
recently by disasters and they have shared with me the fact 
that when a community adopts stronger building codes that what 
they are seeing is less impact from disasters.
    And so I think the first step is making sure that 
communities are adopting the current set of building codes so 
as communities are rebuilding or building that they are 
building to the new code.
    When people are recovering, when communities are recovering 
and repairing or rebuilding the structures that have been 
damaged during a disaster and a Presidentially declared 
disaster, again, FEMA does not have the authority to tell them 
what to build to unless it is to the current code.
    And we do provide additional mitigation funding so they 
don't have to build back to the previous state, but they can 
incorporate some increased hardening and resiliency to make 
them stronger against future disasters.
    Miss Gonzalez-Colon. Madam Secretary, I just want to say 
thank you to your office and all the FEMA employees on the 
island. They are helping the island, more than 1,000 employees 
since 2017. So this is not new. I mean, they have been working 
there. We are right now in the hurricane season. We got 
earthquakes last 2 years.
    So I know FEMA has had boots on the ground since 2017, and 
I hope we can continue to work together to have a more 
resilient Puerto Rico. So thank you, Madam Chair.
    And I yield back.
    Ms. Titus. Thank you. Before I recognize Mr. Rouzer, I 
would like to ask the Administrator--we talked about this 
earlier and you mentioned it in your opening remarks how 
important it is to get the best workforce possible to deal with 
some of these disasters.
    And I wonder if given your experience with the National 
Guard what you think about providing USERRA-like protections to 
Americans who want to go and be helpful, but they can't because 
they won't have their jobs when they come back home.
    Do you think that is something that we could work on 
together to help you build that better workforce?
    Ms. Criswell. I think it is an important point. I spent 21 
years in the Air National Guard and having USERRA protection 
allowed me to support the duty to my Nation and know that I had 
a job when I came back. And you are right. It is not a 
protection that we currently have for the largest part of our 
workforce, which is our reservist workforce.
    So I would appreciate the opportunity to continue to work 
with you on whether or not we can make that a reality for the 
FEMA reservist workforce.
    Ms. Titus. Great. I look forward to that too.
    Mr. Rouzer.
    Mr. Rouzer. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    And Madam Administrator, congratulations on your new post, 
your new assignment, and I know you will do great. I want to 
follow up on some of the comments that my colleagues made 
previously, and I have similar issues, obviously, in my 
district, all of us that deal with hurricanes and floods and 
natural disasters seems like on an annual basis seem to have 
the same problems, obviously.
    There are two towns, in particular, I want to highlight and 
I want to mention, and if you don't mind, if you can help me 
out with these two in terms of getting their reimbursement.
    I heard mention about small counties, and small towns too 
when they are putting up millions of dollars, $10, $14, $20 
million, whatever it is, and they are set to be reimbursed 
through the Public Assistance program from FEMA, but they don't 
get the reimbursement for a year or more.
    I know when Hurricane Matthew hit in 2016, I had some 
communities that didn't get reimbursed for a long, long time. 
Our North Carolina DOT was not reimbursed for their 
expenditures for far more than a year, as I recall, and in this 
particular case with Hurricane Florence, the town of Surf City 
and the town of Topsail Beach, both of them are still waiting 
for pretty significant reimbursement--the town of Surf City 
approximately $10.6 million and the town of Topsail Beach, 
pretty significant sum as well.
    Would you mind looking into those two, in particular? Both 
have waited more than a year. I believe they submitted their 
request March a year ago and, of course, obviously that has 
been a little more than a year since then.
    Ms. Criswell. Absolutely. I don't, obviously, know the 
specifics of those two, but I am happy to get the details and 
get back to your team and your staff with the status.
    Mr. Rouzer. I appreciate that very much because when they 
don't get those reimbursements, it is very hard to plan and 
prepare for the next storm. And like I said, in 2016, we had 
Matthew, then 2018 we had Florence. And 2019 and 2020, we 
escaped disaster, but very, very narrowly. And I expect 2021 to 
make us a little nervous as well.
    Following up on one other issue for the town of Topsail 
Beach, they have submitted updated lidar data, but the revised 
FIRM maps don't reflect those updates at all, and it has some 
pretty substantial impact for more than 400 homes there. And 
the town makes a very, very good case that the data that was 
used for the original set of maps is just not accurate. In 
fact, you know, really off.
    Would you mind checking into that as well?
    Ms. Criswell. Absolutely. Again, I am not familiar with the 
specifics, but I will have my team get back to you with the 
status of them.
    Mr. Rouzer. That would be great. And then one question for 
me just to help me understand. You have got Risk Rating 2.0 
that was mentioned previously by a colleague that I happened to 
hear his question and how does that overlay with--you know, you 
are supposed to have these new flood maps every 5 to 7 years 
and it takes forever to get them done and then here you got 
Risk Rating 2.0 that is set to go in effect.
    Is that just going to override the preliminary flood maps 
when you get those finalized, or how is that going to work? I 
would just like to know from an educational standpoint.
    Ms. Criswell. I do not believe that it overrides. Risk 
Rating 2.0 is really looking at the individual risk for each 
person's home and the flood maps are a part of that.
    But it goes into other pieces of the risk related to their 
home as well, but we can certainly get a better definition and 
clarification for you so you understand how the two 
interrelate.
    Mr. Rouzer. OK. Well, I have got more than 400 homes there 
on that particular beach that basically would not be eligible 
for flood insurance and it is all based on faulty data, and I 
want to get--whether it is Risk Rating 2.0 or whether it is the 
latest version of the flood maps that directly affects them, I 
would like to make sure that at least those who are putting in 
place these policies know what the correct data is.
    Ms. Criswell. Absolutely.
    Mr. Rouzer. Thank you, ma'am.
    Ms. Titus. Thank you.
    Thank you very much, Administrator. You have been very 
helpful and very patient.
    Mr. Webster, any final remarks.
    Mr. Webster. What a great meeting.
    Ms. Titus. All right. Well, I will then conclude our 
hearing and like to thank you, again, for your testimony. It 
has been very informative, helpful to us as we do policy and 
try to provide you the resources that you need to get the job 
done.
    I will ask unanimous consent that the record of today's 
hearing remain open until such time as our witness has provided 
answers to any questions that may have been submitted.
    I will also ask unanimous consent that the record remain 
open for 15 days for any additional comments and information 
submitted by Members to be included in the record of today's 
hearing.
    Without objection, so ordered.
    The subcommittee stands adjourned.
    Thank you.
    [Whereupon, at 4:12 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]



                       Submissions for the Record

                              ----------                              

  Prepared Statement of Hon. Sam Graves, a Representative in Congress 
     from the State of Missouri, and Ranking Member, Committee on 
                   Transportation and Infrastructure
    Thank you, Chair Titus, and welcome to the new FEMA Administrator, 
Ms. Criswell.
    As FEMA's committee of primary jurisdiction, we have worked on a 
bipartisan basis over the years to improve our Nation's emergency 
management system.
    While there have been reforms and improvements to FEMA processes, 
there is still a lot that needs to happen to speed up recovery from 
disasters and build in mitigation.
    Just last week, a bill I introduced, H.R. 539, the Preventing 
Disaster Revictimization Act, passed the House.
    For more than a decade, we were told FEMA was working to reduce its 
error rate in individual assistance, yet little progress was made.
    H.R. 539 ensures that at the very least, disaster victims don't pay 
the price for FEMA's errors.
    FEMA's process can be too confusing and bureaucratic for both 
individuals and states impacted by disasters.
    As highlighted in FEMA's FY22 Budget, FEMA's mission is, ``to help 
people before, during, and after disasters.''
    We need to ensure FEMA is doing just that.
    I look forward to working with you, Ms. Criswell, on how we can 
improve our disaster preparedness and response and recovery system.
    Thank you, Chair Titus. I yield back.