[Senate Hearing 117-577]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]




                                                        S. Hrg. 117-577

    EXAMINING FEMA'S STRATEGIC PRIORITIES AND DISASTER PREPAREDNESS

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

                                HEARING

                               before the

                              COMMITTEE ON
               HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS


                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

                             JUNE 22, 2022

                               __________

        Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov

                       Printed for the use of the
        Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs







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                 U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
                 
50-848 PDF               WASHINGTON : 2023
















        COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

                   GARY C. PETERS, Michigan, Chairman
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware           ROB PORTMAN, Ohio
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire         RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona              RAND PAUL, Kentucky
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada                  JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma
ALEX PADILLA, California             MITT ROMNEY, Utah
JON OSSOFF, Georgia                  RICK SCOTT, Florida
                                     JOSH HAWLEY, Missouri

                   David M. Weinberg, Staff Director
                    Zachary I. Schram, Chief Counsel
         Christopher J. Mulkins, Director of Homeland Security
           Naveed Jazayeri, Senior Professional Staff Member
                Pamela Thiessen, Minority Staff Director
            Sam J. Mulopulos, Minority Deputy Staff Director
       Clyde E. Hicks Jr., Minority Director of Homeland Security
   Timothy Harris III, Minority Federal Emergency Management Agency 
                                Detailee
                     Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk
                     Thomas J. Spino, Hearing Clerk

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
                            C O N T E N T S

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Opening statements:
                                                                   Page
    Senator Peters...............................................     1
    Senator Portman..............................................     3
    Senator Carper...............................................     9
    Senator Padilla..............................................    11
    Senator Romney...............................................    14
    Senator Ossoff...............................................    15
    Senator Scott................................................    17
    Senator Hawley...............................................    20
Prepared statements:
    Senator Peters...............................................    25
    Senator Portman..............................................    27

                               WITNESSES
                        Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Hon. Deanne B. Criswell, Administrator, Federal Emergency 
  Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security
    Testimony....................................................     5
    Prepared statement...........................................    29

                                APPENDIX

Senator Peters Politico Article..................................    34
Response to post-hearing questions submitted for the Record
    Ms. Criswell.................................................    77

 
                 EXAMINING FEMA'S STRATEGIC PRIORITIES 
                       AND DISASTER PREPAREDNESS 

                              ----------                              


                        WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2022

                                     U.S. Senate,  
                           Committee on Homeland Security  
                                  and Governmental Affairs,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:30 p.m., in 
room SD-342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Gary Peters, 
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
    Present: Senators Peters, Carper, Hassan, Rosen, Padilla, 
Ossoff, Portman, Johnson, Lankford, Romney, Scott, and Hawley.

            OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN PETERS\1\

    Chairman Peters. The Committee will come to order.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ The prepared statement of Senator Peters appears in the 
Appendix on page 25.
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    Administrator Criswell, welcome back to the Committee and 
thank you for your absolute dedicated service to our country. 
We certainly appreciate that.
    From the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMAs) work 
to respond to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, 
to helping communities recover from catastrophic storms and 
disasters, I certainly appreciate your continued efforts, along 
with FEMA's dedicated workforce, to address these serious 
emergencies.
    While this Administration has improved Federal preparedness 
and response efforts, there is much more we can do together to 
ensure our communities can stay safe and quickly recover when 
disaster strikes.
    Today's hearing is an important opportunity to discuss what 
resources and authorities FEMA needs to address worsening 
emergencies, including increasingly destructive natural 
disasters. As we just saw from a damaging tornado in my home 
State of Michigan, these natural disasters have only continued 
to worsen due to climate change. There is no question this is a 
long-term threat that continues to cause deaths and injuries, 
destroy property and small businesses, and harm livelihoods.
    According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration (NOAA), weather and climate-related disasters 
cost the United States more than $300 billion dollars over the 
past three years alone.
    To ensure FEMA can effectively respond to these 
increasingly frequent and destructive events, we must address 
the alarming shortage of FEMA personnel who are instrumental to 
response and recovery efforts. That is why Ranking Member 
Portman and I have authored bipartisan legislation to help FEMA 
recruit and retain Reservists, who ensure that FEMA can deploy 
additional emergency personnel quickly. This bill, which has 
already passed the Senate, will protect dedicated disaster 
response workers from losing their full-time employment when 
they are called up to assist communities that are facing dire 
emergencies. I urge my colleagues in the House to send this to 
the President's desk.
    As we work to strengthen FEMA's ability to respond to 
disasters, we must also ensure every community has equitable 
access to Federal disaster aid before, during, and after 
extreme weather events and other emergencies. We have all seen 
troubling reports of minority, rural, and disabled communities 
receiving lower quality, and less disaster assistance. These 
communities, who are often disproportionately impacted by 
disasters, need us to finally act and address long-standing 
disparities in our Federal disaster response.
    To address this issue, I introduced legislation to 
establish a high-level office within FEMA that would be 
dedicated to understanding and to advocate for the needs of 
underserved communities, and coordinating FEMA efforts to 
ensure the delivery of disaster assistance is equitable. I am 
proud that, on a bipartisan basis, this Committee voted to 
advance this important bill, and I am working to ensure it 
passes the full Senate as soon as possible.
    In addition to passing common-sense reforms, our nation's 
response to worsening floods, hurricanes, storms, and coastal 
erosion will not be complete without investing in 
infrastructure that will withstand extreme weather events and 
natural hazards for generations to come. Ensuring that 
communities can fund resilience projects such as floodwalls, 
breakers, and modern drainage systems will not only protect the 
lives and livelihoods of small business owners and families, 
but will also help save taxpayer dollars.
    In fact, studies have shown that every $1 invested in 
hazard mitigation or prevention saves an average of $6 in 
recovery costs for taxpayers. That is why, through my 
bipartisan Safeguarding Tomorrow through Ongoing Risk 
Mitigation (STORM) Act that is now law, I worked to establish 
revolving loan programs that local governments can access to 
fund mitigation projects, and through the bipartisan 
infrastructure law I secured $500 million to help kick-start 
this important program.
    I look forward to working with FEMA to swiftly implement 
the STORM Act and ensure that it receives additional funding as 
necessary.
    Finally, while taking steps to strengthen our response and 
mitigation efforts will help address disasters and energy, we 
must also do more to combat climate change.
    Administrator Criswell, I look forward to our discussion on 
FEMA's strategic priorities and what more your agency needs to 
respond to current and future emergencies. Thank you again for 
being here today.
    Ranking Member Portman, you are recognized for your opening 
remarks.

            OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR PORTMAN\1\

    Senator Portman. Thank you, Chairman. I appreciate it, and 
we appreciate your service, Administrator Criswell. You come 
with a lot of experience. I just joked with her and I said is 
the Fed role easier than New York or the other States where she 
has run their programs, and for the record she refused to 
answer the question, which is smart.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ The prepared statement of Senator Portman appears in the 
Appendix on page 27.
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    FEMA has a lot going on right now. You have such a critical 
role in so many areas, including natural disasters. You have a 
budget of $24 billion, and that seems like a lot, but you have 
also got a lot of responsibilities.
    One area where I think we are not doing enough is through 
the Technological Hazards Division (THD). You can help 
communities prepare for technological hazards from nuclear 
power plants and from the last remaining chemical weapon 
stockpiles. But that is a small percentage of the number of 
communities in America that are facing potential problems here. 
There are big gaps in the program. Hundreds of communities have 
these hazards, such as a chemical plant or a radiological 
research facility, and yet FEMA is only, again, able to provide 
assistance to a small fraction of those, only those, again, 
located near a nuclear power plant or a chemical weapon 
stockpile.
    Unfortunately, there are gaps in this program.
    Given the ongoing threats and terrorist activities 
throughout the world, I think expanding the scope of the FEMA 
Technological Hazards Division is really important and would 
enhance FEMA's national preparedness framework.
    We have a big plant in Ohio, as you know. The uranium 
enrichment plant in Piketon, Ohio, is an example of this. But 
there are also over 1,000 chemical plants in Ohio. We really 
want to have the Technological Hazards preparedness support for 
these communities.
    We have introduced legislation to do this with Senator 
Sinema. It is called Technical Hazards and Preparedness Act--
very original name--and it expands support from FEMA to these 
communities. I am pleased to say that got that bill out of 
committee. I want to talk to you later about that bill. We 
would love your help in getting it through the House and 
getting it to the President's desk for signature, assuming you 
agree that it is a good idea.
    You also play a role in helping keep our communities safe, 
not from natural disasters but from terrorist attacks and 
violent extremists. Many people do not know that FEMA is 
implementing responsibilities, including implementing the 
Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NPSG), which helps community 
organizations, religious organizations, faith-based groups in 
general, to secure their facilities from this threat of 
violence.
    Ensuring there are enough resources to help these 
synagogues, Jewish Community Centers (JCC), other faith-based 
organizations has been a priority for us here in this 
Committee, and mine personally. We have actually expanded this 
program so it does include not just urban areas but all 50 
States in different areas. President Trump signed our law that 
actually reauthorizes that program, and we would love to have 
your comments on that today as well, to talk about what you see 
is working, not working.
    My idea is not just for hardening these facilities but also 
for providing best practices, which the new Pray Safe Act we 
have also introduced would help on, and Senator Hassan is here 
and probably will raise that as well. But we would like to have 
your view on how you think that is going.
    There is another issue that I want to raise today, which 
is, we had a 2018 law to forgive debt when FEMA issues disaster 
aid by mistake. FEMA gives somebody some disaster aid, they are 
not qualified to get it, and they get it anyway, and then they 
go back and try to collect the money. Senator Peters just 
talked about the tornado in his State. All of us have had 
natural disasters, and people make a commitment to a contractor 
to fix something because FEMA tells them that they are able to 
get the funding. There are protections, by the way, against 
fraud, misrepresentation, or false claims, and if any of that 
happens then the debtor is at fault and FEMA should be able to 
get the money back, claw the money back. But if there is not 
fraud, misrepresentation, or false claims or something along 
those lines the concern is that you are going back to people 
and telling them, ``We made a mistake. We need your money 
back.'' This is really tough for people.
    It is not a lot of money, we think, that is involved here. 
I think the estimate is it is $350,000 a year. But we are also 
trying to pass legislation called Preventing Disaster 
Revictimization Act, meaning somebody is told you can spend 
$10,000 to fix your roof and then later they say, ``No, we need 
the $10,000 back because we blew it.'' I would love to know 
your views on that as well. It really is a clarification, I 
think, to this 2018 law, to forgive debt when FEMA issues 
disaster aid by mistake.
    With that, Mr. Chairman, I look forward to hearing the 
testimony, and again, thank you for your service.
    Chairman Peters. Thank you, Ranking Member Portman.
    It is the practice of this Committee to swear in witnesses, 
so Ms. Criswell, if you would please stand and raise your right 
hand.
    Do you swear that the testimony you will give before this 
Committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but 
the truth, so help you, God?
    Ms. Criswell. I do.
    Chairman Peters. Thank you. You may be seated.
    Today's witness is Deanne Criswell, Administrator of the 
Federal Emergency Management Agency at the Department of 
Homeland Security (DHS). As Administrator, Ms. Criswell 
coordinates closely with other Federal, State, and local 
partners to provide emergency assistance and save lives in 
times of crisis, and helps communities all across our country 
rebuild and become safer and more prepared for the next 
disaster.
    Ms. Criswell has over 25 years of emergency management and 
disaster response experience at the Federal, State, and local 
levels. Previously, Ms. Criswell served as Commissioner of the 
New York City Emergency Management Department, where she was 
responsible for coordinating citywide emergency planning and 
responses for all emergencies.
    Ms. Criswell, welcome back to the Committee, and you may 
proceed with your opening comments.

       TESTIMONY OF THE HONORABLE DEANNE B. CRISWELL,\1\ 
ADMINISTRATOR, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY, DEPARTMENT 
                      OF HOMELAND SECURITY

    Ms. Criswell. Thank you. Chairman Peters, Ranking Member 
Portman, and Members of the Committee, thank you again for this 
opportunity to come and discuss our FEMA priorities, our 
strategic plan, as well as the President's fiscal year (FY) 
2023 budget.
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    \1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Criswell appears in the Appendix 
on page 29.
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    The field of emergency management is at a pivotal moment in 
our history. While our mission itself has not changed, our 
operating environment has. Ten years ago, we managed an average 
of 108 disasters per year. As of June 16th, we are managing 
349. This includes our ongoing response to COVID-19.
    The changing climate is the biggest crisis that is facing 
our nation and makes the disasters more frequent and more 
destructive. At the same time, structural inequities in our 
society are compounding the impacts of disasters for 
underserved communities. The budget request for FEMA ensures 
that our agency can meet these challenges and continue to help 
people before, during, and after disasters.
    FEMA aligned its budget request to support three goals in 
our strategic plan. First, as an agency we must instill equity 
as a foundation of emergency management. We must recognize that 
disasters affect individuals and communities differently. Our 
strategic plan focuses our entire agency on putting people 
first and reducing barriers to accessing our programs.
    We have already made important changes in how we provide 
assistance. For example, some homeowners had difficulty proving 
that they owned their homes if their property had been handed 
down through the generations. We expanded the types of 
documentation that we can accept, including receipts for major 
repairs or improvements, court documents, public officials' 
letters, and even applicant self-certification for mobile homes 
as a last resort.
    In addition, we changed the way we calculate the threshold 
for property losses to qualify for our Direct Housing Program. 
This resulted in close to 3,000 families receiving assistance 
who would not have been considered for direct housing in the 
past. This means close to 3,000 families with a roof over the 
head, a bed to sleep in, and a stove to cook with.
    We also know that the more our workforce resembles the 
Nation we serve the better we will serve it. We are adapting 
our recruiting efforts to reach individuals from 
underrepresented communities by partnering with organizations 
like historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) as 
well as other minority-serving institutions.
    Second, we must lead the whole-of-community in climate 
resilience. FEMA is not just a response-and-recovery agency. 
One of my highest priorities has been hazard mitigation, and 
Congress' investment in hazard mitigation has been strong. We 
have seen it most recently through the appropriation of $6.8 
billion in mitigation funds to FEMA in the Infrastructure 
Investment and Jobs Act, including funding to establish 
revolving loan funds under the STORM Act. Thank you for your 
bipartisan recognition of this investment in mitigation.
    The budget request also includes $3.4 billion for further 
investments including the Building Resilient Infrastructure and 
Communities (BRIC) Program, our Hazard Mitigation Grant Program 
(HMGP), flood maps, and the Federal flood risk management 
standard. We must think innovatively and shift our projects to 
those with community-wide impact, and we must eliminate the 
barriers underserved communities face when seeking hazard 
mitigation assistance.
    Third, we must promote and sustain a ready FEMA and a 
prepared nation. The increased frequency, severity, and 
complexity of disasters has heightened the demands on FEMA's 
workforce and on the broader emergency management community. 
FEMA's request includes $19.7 billion for the Disaster Relief 
Fund (DRF), to address current and future disasters. To reach 
this number, FEMA worked shoulder-to-shoulder with disaster-
impacted States and localities to understand what their 
recovery needs are from ongoing catastrophic disasters, in 
addition to evaluating the historical cost average for non-
catastrophic disasters, the allocation of funds for the BRIC 
program and a reserve to ensure that FEMA maintains the ability 
to fund initial response operations for new significant events.
    While natural disasters are at the forefront of our 
discussions, we cannot overlook the other threats that are 
facing our Nation, which FEMA is also charged with helping to 
mitigation. Like natural disasters, terrorist attacks can occur 
any time or anywhere. We saw this earlier this year during a 
hostage standoff at the Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue in 
Colleyville, Texas. I visited the synagogue and spoke to the 
rabbi following this instance. He relayed to me the importance 
of the Nonprofit Security Grant Program and how it helped to 
save lives. We are requesting a total of $360 million for this 
program.
    I would also like to note that tomorrow the Senate is going 
to hear testimony about FEMA's proposal for a reauthorization 
of our National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). This proposal 
has the full backing of the President and the Department of 
Homeland Security, and I would be grateful for your 
consideration of it. The proposal would go a long way to 
ensuring that the National Flood Insurance Program is 
affordable for homeowners and is put on sounder financial 
footing so that it remains available for years to come.
    The unrelenting pace of a year-round cycle of disasters and 
crises place great demands on the FEMA team. We must look out 
for the physical, the emotional, and the mental health of our 
workforce. Their adaptability, dedication, and willingness to 
do the hard work is extraordinary, and I believe that the 
President's budget request will enable them to continue their 
incredible work.
    In closing, I would like to say how much I appreciate this 
Committee's support of the FEMA workforce. The Committee came 
together to pass the Civilian Reservist Emergency Workforce 
(CREW) Act, legislation that will extend Uniformed Services 
Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) protections to 
the FEMA Reservists. The full Senate then came together to 
approve the bill. This is a hugely important piece of 
legislation for our workforce and for FEMA's mission.
    Thank you again for this opportunity to testify, and I look 
forward to your questions.
    Chairman Peters. Thank you, Administrator Criswell.
    Before I begin my questions, last month a devastating 
tornado tore through Gaylord, Michigan, tragically resulting in 
the loss of two lives. Forty-four others were injured among the 
residents. This horrible disaster destroyed businesses, 
destroyed the Nottingham Forest Mobile Home Park. It displayed 
residents from their now uninhabitable homes and left 
considerable debris in its wake.
    The survivors, especially many of the senior citizens and 
low-income individuals that reside in the area are still trying 
to rebuild their lives. Governor Whitmer sent a request for a 
major disaster declaration on June 8th. Senator Stabenow, 
Representative Berman, and I sent a letter to President Biden 
on the same day, asking him to quickly approve the declaration.
    I know that this request is still being reviewed, but I 
hope that if approved FEMA will move swiftly to provide 
assistance to these disaster survivors.
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, Chairman. We are in receipt of that 
request from the Governor, and we are reviewing it currently. 
We should have an answer soon.
    Chairman Peters. Great. Thank you.
    FEMA's new pre-disaster mitigation program, the Building 
Resilient Infrastructure in Communities program, is funding 
more hazardous mitigation projects than ever before. This money 
has the potential to be transformative in improving the 
resilience of our Nation. However, I am deeply concerned about 
the problems that have plagued BRIC over the past year and a 
half, including information technology (IT) mishaps with the 
agency's grants management system, FEMA GO, application 
complexity, and long delays obligating funds to projects, 
including planning grants.
    For example, Ann Arbor, Michigan, was supposed to be 
awarded a BRIC grant to help the city update its hazard 
mitigation plan, and it took FEMA a year and a half to approve 
this simple planning project, and the city can no longer accept 
the grant because they could not wait any longer to update 
their plan that had already started.
    My question for you, Administrator, is how do you plan to 
address problems surrounding BRIC, because certainly we need to 
reduce the program's complexity and we need to get money 
awarded in a timely fashion for these communities. Tell me what 
your plan is, please.
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, Chairman. First I would like to thank 
Congress for their commitment to the BRIC program. It is an 
incredible tool for us to increase the resiliency for our 
communities across the Nation.
    We have just finished our first year. We are getting ready 
to announce the second round of awards for the BRIC program. It 
is certainly a work in progress. But my team has been dedicated 
and committed to taking the lessons that we learned from this 
first round of applications and obligations that we have made 
and making sure that we are making corrections along the way.
    I do not have the specifics on Ann Arbor, the specifics 
that you talked about, but the hazard mitigation plan, what I 
would say, is such an incredible part of a community's ability 
to understand what their risks are and plan for how they are 
going to become a more resilient community.
    I will commit to you that I will make sure that those types 
of grants specifically, where we are trying to make sure that 
they can better understand their risks and prepare for the 
future, that we are moving those along more quickly.
    Chairman Peters. Great. Last year the STORM Act, a bill 
that I authored, was signed into law and received initial 
funding in the bipartisan infrastructure law. The law grants 
FEMA the authority to work with States and tribal governments 
to establish a revolving loan fund that local governments can 
access to carry out mitigation projects that reduce natural 
disaster risk, including flooding, shoreline erosion, and high-
water levels. These are issues that unfortunately continue to 
plague my home State of Michigan, as well as States all across 
the country.
    My question for you is, it has been seven months since the 
program was provided funding through the infrastructure law. 
When do you anticipate launching this program?
    Ms. Criswell. I am so excited about the STORM Act, and 
again, thank you very much for your leadership. It is going to 
be another amazing tool to help our communities become more 
resilient. This is the first program of its type for FEMA with 
a revolving loan fund, and my team has done significant 
outreach and engagement with our stakeholder communities right 
now to get a better understanding of how this program is going 
to best benefit them.
    I have challenged my team to push up their original 
estimate of late next year to get the first notice out to early 
next year. We are focused right now on getting that first 
Notice of Funding Opportunity out in early 2023.
    Chairman Peters. That would be great, and I appreciate you 
moving that timeline up. Could I receive a commitment from you 
that your staff will update my staff on a monthly basis so we 
can follow its progress?
    Ms. Criswell. Absolutely.
    Chairman Peters. I appreciate that. Also I would like to 
have your guarantee that you will notify us if you think 
additional appropriations will be needed. Clearly the demands 
are great out there.
    Ms. Criswell. Yes. I expect that this, like many of our 
other programs, will be over-subscribed, and so I would be 
happy to work with Congress if we find that there is a greater 
need.
    Chairman Peters. Thank you. After a disaster there are 
multiple types of Federal assistance that may be available to 
disaster survivors, and this includes FEMA's Individual 
Assistance (IA) Program, the Small Business Administration's 
(SBA) Disaster Loan Program, and the Department of Housing and 
Urban Development's (HUD) Community Development Block Grant 
Disaster Recovery Program.
    Each of these programs currently has its own separate 
application, and the burden of these multiple applications, 
often asking repetitive and duplicative questions, can 
overwhelm survivors, causing many to simply give up on trying 
to access desperately needed assistance. That is why I have 
been working on a bill to require FEMA, SBA, and HUD to create 
a universal disaster application, one application that a 
disaster survivor can fill out to apply for all disaster 
response programs, no matter what agency they may be seeking 
help from.
    Administrator Criswell, could you discuss how simplifying 
the application process with a universal application would help 
disaster survivors and improve equitable disaster recovery?
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, Chairman. I believe that the complexity 
that individuals have to go through as they are suffering the 
worst day probably in their lives just adds to their 
frustration, and anything that we can do as a Federal family to 
simplify that process I think will be a real benefit to the 
communities.
    We have already started to have conversations and work with 
SBA and HUD on how we can use a universal application. We do 
have some privacy concerns that we have to work through, but we 
are all focused on working together to make this a reality.
    Chairman Peters. Great. Thank you for that.
    Senator Carper, you are recognized for your questions.

              OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR CARPER

    Senator Carper. Thanks so much. Welcome. It is great to see 
you again. Thank you for your work and your leadership and for 
joining us for this hearing.
    I want to begin by talking with you about rebalancing the 
FEMA support model, and if I have time to also raise how do we 
go about managing multiple disasters, so maybe two questions, I 
hope.
    In many cases, maybe too many cases, the Federal Government 
looks at disasters and looks at storms in ways that discount 
the impacts experienced by States like my own, Delaware. As you 
may know or may not know, Delawares experiences prolonged 
weather events--we call them Nor'easters or 'Easters--that can 
have devastating impacts on property and on infrastructure.
    Hurricanes generally move through fairly quickly. They do 
not come to our State often, but when they do they are usually 
there and they are gone. That is not the case with Nor'easters. 
They come and they stay. They pound the beaches. They have high 
waters and high winds and can have an extraordinary negative 
impact on our State.
    Not that long ago, in fact about two months ago, in May of 
this year, Mother's Day weekend, as we recall, Delaware 
experienced a week-long Nor'easter that caused significant 
erosion on our beaches across our State, and both damaging 
property and creating quite a few safety concerns.
    Similar events have occurred in the last couple of years 
across Delaware. Short-term weather events like hurricanes 
often, and rightfully, qualify States for FEMA assistance. As 
climate change-related weather events become more common, the 
Federal Government needs to better account for short-term 
weather occurrences like hurricanes and longer-term weather 
events like Nor'easters.
    With that said, what steps is FEMA taking, or could FEMA 
take, to better support communities experiencing sustained 
weather events that may be just as damaging, maybe more 
damaging, than short-term, high-impact weather events, and are 
there any policy changes that Congress needs to consider to 
help FEMA support these efforts?
    Ms. Criswell. Senator Carper, I think that I would answer 
this in a couple of different ways. I think that what we are 
seeing is an increase in the number and types of severe weather 
events that communities are facing, sometimes events that are 
breaking records that were only set a few weeks prior.
    Our focus has really been to elevate the role that FEMA 
plays, not just in the response and recovery side of what we do 
but also in our resilience side, in what we can include or 
improve on in our individual preparedness and our hazard 
mitigation efforts.
    Through our regional offices they have been very focused on 
working with the States within their jurisdiction to help them 
build their recovery plans, their response plans, as well as 
identify areas for hazard mitigation so we can reduce the 
impacts that these communities are seeing from disasters.
    But I think it also goes to the individual preparedness 
side, that we want to make sure that individuals understand 
what their risks are, and they can make plans to appropriately 
protect their families.
    Senator Carper [presiding.] OK. Thank you.
    I have just become the Chairman of the Committee.
    Ms. Criswell. Congratulations.
    Senator Carper. It is like deja vu. Who says you cannot go 
home again, right?
    All right. You will not have to put up with me for too 
long. I am going to see if I cannot convince Senator Padilla to 
relieve me in a little bit so I can run and vote, and he can 
too.
    Let me also ask you a question about managing multiple 
disasters. As climate change continues to impact the weather 
patterns, we are going to continue to see more extreme weather 
events, whether we like it or not. This means that there is 
also an increased demand for FEMA to respond to severe and 
sustained weather events in multiple places, sometimes at the 
same time.
    What steps is FEMA taking to prepare the agency to respond 
to multiple disasters that come at us at once? What more needs 
to be done, and how can we help? How can Congress help?
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, Senator Carper. This is a question that 
I have been working with my staff since I took over in this 
position. What we are seeing is a year-long operational tempo 
unlike anything that we have seen in the past. Where we used to 
have small spikes during the peak of hurricane season, we have 
individuals that are deployed now year-round with just small 
increases during different parts of the year.
    That means we have to take a step back and understand how 
we have approached our staffing decisions and our architecture 
for how we are going to support these disasters differently. We 
are taking a hard look at the number or the planning 
assumptions of how we have recruited our staff and what we can 
do to improve that so we can maintain this year-long cycle.
    I related to a little bit of a military model where they 
have a readiness cycle and we have individuals that are ready 
to deploy, those that are in a reset status, and those that are 
in a training status. I think that we can do something similar 
to keep up with this policy.
    I think one of the things that Congress can certainly 
support, and I mentioned it in my opening remarks, is the 
support of the CREW Act. The majority of our response force 
that goes out to support communities in disasters is our 
Reservist workforce. They are really the heartbeat of what we 
do. The more tools we have to recruit a really strong Reservist 
workforce will help us increase the number of individuals that 
we have available but also the types of technical skills that 
we need to face the types of disasters that we are starting to 
see.
    Senator Carper. Thank you. One last quick question dealing 
with rebuilding resilient communities. As FEMA responds to 
natural disasters and focuses on rebuilding those communities 
that are affected, whether in Delaware or one of the other 
States, how is FEMA working to identify communities at risk for 
repeated severe or prolonged weather events? As FEMA helps 
these communities rebuild, how is FEMA taking into account the 
impacts of climate change for the focus on rebuilding in a more 
resilient way in anticipation of the next weather event that we 
know is coming?
    Ms. Criswell. I think the biggest way that we are doing 
that again is through our regional administrators who stay in 
contact with our States to better understand what their needs 
are and what their gaps are. We support the development of 
their hazard mitigation plans where they are identifying what 
their risks are for these types of weather events.
    We are also providing direct technical assistance to 
communities that perhaps have not asked for hazard mitigation 
funding from us in the past, to help them navigate the system, 
develop projects that can really have a community-wide impact 
instead of an incremental approach in some of the programs that 
we have had in the past.
    We are going to continue to work hand-in-hand with our 
partners like NOAA and National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration (NASA) to bring in the data that they are using 
to predict what the weather events might be in the future, to 
help these communities make more informed decisions.
    Senator Carper. All right. Thank you. Again, it is great to 
see you. Thank you for your leadership, for your good work. I 
hope you are enjoying your work. I know it is challenging, but 
thank you for taking it on.
    Senator Padilla, I think you are next, and I will just call 
you Mr. Chairman, and I am going to head to vote. Thank you, 
Mr. Chairman.

              OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR PADILLA

    Senator Padilla [presiding.] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I 
appreciate you being here. Let me jump right into it, because 
it is the beginning of summer, and wildfire season in 
California keeps just growing and growing. It is almost a year-
round concern these days.
    Just last year, in 2021, California experienced more than 
8,000 incidents, with more than 2.5 million acres burned and 
more than 3,500 structures either damaged or completely 
destroyed. The largest fire, the Dixie Fire, burned almost 1 
million acres, and is the largest single fire now in California 
history.
    With 4.6 million properties in California, or about 40 
percent of the State having at least moderate risk of burning 
in the next 30 years, this is according to the First Street 
Foundation, California is experiencing more frequent and more 
severe fire seasons year after year. The situation is dire, and 
it demands expanded and sustained Federal support.
    The first area of questioning is this. The one issue that I 
keep hearing time and again when I am out and about in 
California, particularly for communities that are recovering 
and rebounding from recent fires, is the delays in FEMA dollars 
getting out the door and into the communities that have been on 
the front lines of these disasters, particularly regarding 
mitigation grants. These delays, I think, are unacceptable--you 
probably agree; I would hope you would agree--and do not really 
reflect the realities of those on the ground that are trying to 
mitigate prior to an event, recover after an event.
    My question is this. What steps would you suggest that we 
take for FEMA to reach a decision on grant applications on a 
more timely basis and keep the money moving, and if there is 
anything that this Committee can do to assist in that regard I 
would welcome your ideas.
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, Senator Padilla. We have a couple of 
different programs that can support the mitigation efforts, 
especially to mitigate against this increased wildfire threat 
that we are seeing. We did just talk about the BRIC program, 
and that is a pre-disaster mitigation program, and that Notice 
of Funding Opportunity does come out every year. We also have 
post-disaster, hazard mitigation grant funding that comes out 
after a Presidentially declared disaster, and we recently, over 
the last few years, included hazard mitigation money for our 
Fire Management Assistance Grants (FMAGs). We have several 
different programs that are eligible for communities to use.
    What I would say is that, one, we actually do not see a lot 
of grant applications for wildfire mitigation, and what I could 
really use help with Congress on is helping communities 
understand that these are eligible programs that can be used 
for wildfire mitigation. I would love to see more applications 
come in to support those resilience-building efforts.
    I will continue to work with my team on getting funding out 
the door. Again, our BRIC program, we are getting ready to 
announce our second year of awards. It is a new program for us 
and more money than we have ever been able to give before. We 
want to work with communities to make sure that they are in the 
position to execute at the same time. We will continue to work 
on getting that funding out sooner.
    Senator Padilla. OK. I appreciate hearing that. It looks 
like we have some follow-up already on getting the word out on 
grant availability. So be careful what you ask for because you 
are going to get it.
    Let me also turn to a different incident from last year, 
the Caldor Fire, which burned more than 220,000 acres and 
destroyed over 1,000 structures, including the entire town of 
Grizzly Flats, California. In Grizzly Flats alone, 594 homes, 
and essential community resources such as the only elementary 
school, the grocery store, the fire station, the medical 
clinic, the post office, all destroyed.
    President Biden came out to California to personally tour 
the devastation, and the newspapers did not skip a beat. They 
quoted his address to the community, including, ``There is so 
much we can do. I really mean it, from the bottom of my 
heart.'' So that left a lot of people feeling good about his 
personal commitment to assist. Yet despite that commitment, the 
Administration turned around and repeatedly--not just once, but 
repeatedly--denied California's request for individual 
assistance for the devastated residents of Grizzly Flats.
    My specific question is in regard to the process. I 
understand that FEMA's role is to provide a recommendation to 
the President regarding granting individual assistance. Is the 
President under any legal obligation or restriction to only 
heed that recommendation, or is the President allowed to differ 
from that recommendation if he concludes differently?
    Ms. Criswell. FEMA does provide a recommendation to the 
President for what we think should be the decision on any of 
these different disaster requests that come in. The President 
would have the ability to make a decision if he does not feel 
that it would be appropriate, but we provide our justification 
and our rationale to the President on why we would recommend he 
not approve that declaration.
    Senator Padilla. But it is not a binding recommendation.
    Ms. Criswell. I do not believe so.
    Senator Padilla. OK. In my limited time left I just want to 
turn to a California-specific concern, and that this concept of 
States' capacity. You have heard of the recent rule change. 
When it comes to assistance determinations, I know Congress 
directed FEMA to evaluate the factors with which to recommend 
individual assistance in the Sandy Recovery Improvement Act of 
2013. Now Congress did not specify what factors should be 
included in that review or determination. The new rule, 
finalized in 2019, established a new factor called the State 
Fiscal Capacity and Resource Availability to be considered when 
evaluating the need for individual assistance.
    According to my colleagues in State government in 
California, this new State capacity criteria has resulted in 
significant disparities and inequities in granting individual 
assistance, and has left survivors, including those in Grizzly 
Flats but there are many others, without the support that we 
believe they need.
    In the interest of time I will just ask this. Will you 
commit to working with the Committee and my office to ensure 
FEMA's process for recommendations is, in fact, more equitable 
and fairer for all survivors, regardless of what State they 
live in?
    Ms. Criswell. Senator Padilla, I absolutely commit to 
working with you. After I came into this position I have worked 
with my team that came in with me to look at the factors that 
we use for individual assistance. They are reviewing them now 
and making sure that we are using all of the authorities and 
the ability to use the Disaster Reform and Recovery Act as it 
was intended to be used. I would be happy to continue to work 
with the Committee and provide updates on our progress.
    Senator Padilla. OK. Thank you. I look forward to our 
follow-up.
    I now recognize Senator Romney for his questions.

              OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR ROMNEY

    Senator Romney. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Padilla. I am going to pass the virtual baton over 
to Senator Ossoff.
    Senator Romney. You have to go vote, yes.
    Administrator Criswell, thank you. It is good to see you, 
and I appreciate your work. I agree with Senator Padilla, and 
that is that wildfire season is now no longer a season. It is 
year-long.
    There was an article recently, actually NPR ran it, that 
said as Western States see worsening wildfires, FEMA is denying 
most people who ask for help. They said no more than seven in 
10 who ask for help receive that help. I do not know whether 
you know whether that figure is accurate or not, but I am 
wondering, how can you make sure that we do determine who is 
eligible and who is not eligible for aid from these fires? Is 
the standard different for wildfires than it is for floods or 
hurricanes or other types of natural disasters?
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, Senator Romney. I am not familiar with 
the specific article that you are referencing but I will 
certainly go look at that.
    There are a number of factors that go into our 
consideration. Some of them have to do with whether they are 
primary homes or secondary homes, whether there is insurance in 
the area, but also the capacity of the State to support 
communities with their recovery.
    But we also, right now, as I stated with Senator Padilla, 
we are taking a look at those IA factors to make sure that we 
are also understanding the impact to the community and not just 
numbers. We cannot make our decisions based on numbers alone. 
We have to understand that there are people behind those 
numbers, and we want to be able to have assistance available to 
those who are eligible and need our assistance. That is why I 
have directed the team to take a look at that.
    The factors are not different regardless of the type of 
disaster. We do not look at them differently. It is all about 
the impact of that community, secondary homes, insurance, and 
so forth, that have an input into that.
    Senator Romney. Thank you. One item you are probably not 
aware of, but we are known around here for passing a lot of 
legislation and then hoping it all gets acted upon. But last 
year we passed a Wildland Fire Commission Act, and it 
designated a number of agencies, including yours, the 
Department of Interior (DOI), the Department of Agriculture 
(USDA), to form Federal policy recommendations to deal with the 
increasing number of wildfires. I note that your agency has 
paid attention to this. It said that we will gather these 
individuals in the Federal Government to review the policy.
    But I would note that this commission specifically 
indicates that it was to include outside voices as well, not 
just governmental voices. I think it is really important for us 
to recognize that the frequency and the severity of wildfires 
is becoming dramatically more severe and significant and that 
we need to develop new strategies to deal with them. I do not 
know whether it means more fixed-wing aircraft, more 
helicopters, more on-the-ground personnel, more monitoring 
systems.
    I do not know what the answer is, but I do know that we are 
being devastated in many of our communities by virtue of these 
fires and would strongly encourage FEMA and these other Federal 
agencies to meet as soon as possible and to bring in 
individuals from outside government who may have expertise, to 
come up with the broadest array of strategies to deal with 
these efforts.
    Can you make sure that that occurs and to get back to me 
and my office to let us know whether we are actually making 
progress on that front, and when, for instance, the first of 
these commission meetings would occur?
    Ms. Criswell. Yes. Absolutely, Senator Romney. I am 
familiar with this and I am really excited about this. The team 
has been working. We received over 540 applications to be on 
this commission, and the majority of the people that will be on 
it are going to be from non-Federal Government actors. We have 
finalized that list. It is going through the final approval 
process, and we expect the first meeting to happen sometime in 
August. But I will be happy to have my team update your office.
    Senator Romney. Great. Thank you so much.
    Chairman Peters [presiding.] Senator Ossoff, you are 
recognized for your questions, and thank you for taking the 
chair.

              OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR OSSOFF

    Senator Ossoff. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Administrator 
Criswell, good to see you.
    I want to follow up on a planning and coordination session 
that I convened last week in Savannah, Georgia. Your Deputy, 
Erik Hooks, was there. I appreciated his presence. I appreciate 
the Federal support for disaster preparedness and strengthening 
Georgia's coastal defenses, now that we have entered hurricane 
season.
    We discussed, at that meeting, steps that we need to take 
to ensure that the most vulnerable people are taken care of in 
the aftermath of a potential storm that could hit Georgia's 
coast, and I want to follow up with you about a particular 
action item, which is to ensure that we are prepared to take 
care of infants and babies and nursing mothers, particularly 
given the continued shortages of baby formula nationwide.
    I would like for you to please brief the Committee on what 
steps you are taking to ensure you have the supplies necessary 
to support infants and babies and their parents in the 
aftermath of a disaster, given these current conditions, and 
then get a commitment from you to work with my office, 
communicate with my office about what specific plans may need 
to be made to ensure that mothers and babies in coastal Georgia 
are taken care of in the event a storm hits that area in coming 
months.
    Ms. Criswell. Absolutely. I think there are two pieces to 
that question, Senator Ossoff. I think one is on the breast 
pumps and whether or not they are an eligible expense after 
disaster, that they can get reimbursed for, and they certainly 
are. It is not something that we have obviously made clear 
enough, and we are making changes to that. When our policy gets 
reissued next spring we are going to make sure that that is in 
there.
    But we have also updated our website. Our website now, when 
an individual goes in to apply for assistance, it clearly 
states, as that is an example of one of the types of eligible 
expenses that they can get reimbursed for through our Critical 
Needs Assistance. We will make sure that is clear, and we are 
also going to work on promoting that when we go into an area so 
individuals understand that.
    I think on the infant formula side of things we do carry 
enough infant formula to meet the needs within a shelter 
population. That has been our planning model for history. We do 
not keep a lot on hand. We keep enough infant formula on hand 
to serve just under 4,000 infants for a period of seven days. 
That is our target and that is from experience with the number 
of infants that come into our shelters. We see a small number 
of infants that end up in our shelter population, but we keep 
enough on hand to support that.
    Senator Ossoff. OK. I appreciate that, and I have joined 
Senator Duckworth on her Delivering Essentials to Mother's Amid 
Natural Disasters Act (DEMAND Act) legislation to ensure that 
breast pumps are available through FEMA to breastfeeding 
mothers in the aftermath of a major disaster. My office will 
follow up with yours for some more detail to address both that 
potential need as well as potential infant formula needs in the 
aftermath of a storm that could hit coastal Georgia in coming 
months.
    I want to follow up with you on a bipartisan inquiry that I 
placed with Senator Scott of South Carolina last year regarding 
prior FEMA policies that discriminated against Black homeowners 
and property owners, especially in the American South, owners 
of heirs' property who may have lacked clear title to property 
that they inherited. I was pleased by FEMA's response to our 
bipartisan effort to undertake certain policy changes to ensure 
that Black property owners are not discriminated against in the 
aftermath of a disaster.
    How are you working to implement those policies to ensure 
that there are not discriminatory effects from other such 
policies that FEMA implements in the aftermath of a disaster?
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, Senator. This was a topic that was 
really important to me. On my listening tour that I did in my 
first few months in this position I had heard the same thing 
from many of our States and our stakeholders in the 
communities. We took a hard look at our policies and we found 
that we were able to just make simple changes to our policy 
that expanded the types of documentation that we will accept. 
What we found is that some families had homes that were passed 
down through the generations and they did not necessarily have 
the exact paperwork that a home that was recently purchased 
might have, and so we would typically then just deny them 
assistance and force them to come back and appeal that 
decision.
    We made simple changes, and I would love to be able to just 
share a few numbers. We implemented these changes in our own 
policies in August of last year, and since then we were able to 
help over 42,000 homeowners and 53,000 renters receive 
assistance that we would have denied assistance under our old 
system. That amounts to somewhere close to $350 million that we 
would have made them come back to us through an appeal process 
before.
    This is just the start. We are going to continue to look at 
ways that we can improve our policies and identify and better 
understand the barriers that individuals have to accessing our 
programs so we make it easier for them to get what they are 
eligible for.
    Senator Ossoff. Thank you. Let me thank you for your 
commitment to ensuring that there is not racial discrimination 
in the implementation of disaster relief and for your prompt 
attention to the inquiry that I placed with Senator Scott for 
ensuring that Deputy Administrator Hooks was available in 
Savannah last week. I am looking forward to working with you on 
a continuing basis to help to protect Georgia's coast and our 
whole State from disasters that may impact our area in the 
months to come, as well as further engagement with you to 
ensure that Georgia's farmers are as resiliently situated as 
possible. Hurricane Michael, obviously, several years ago, had 
a devastating impact on our pecan orchards, for example.
    So more work for us to do together. Thanks for your 
efforts, and I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
    Chairman Peters. Thank you, Senator Ossoff. Senator Scott, 
you are recognized for your questions.

               OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR SCOTT

    Senator Scott. So Senator Ossoff, one benefit you have is 
you have a really good person in the Southeast, Gracia Szczech 
at FEMA, and she does a really good job. I had four major 
hurricanes plus flooding, plus tornadoes, and she always showed 
up. They have a great FEMA office down there and they do a 
great job.
    Ms. Criswell. I appreciate that.
    Senator Scott. Hurricane season, we are in it. It has 
impacted, I am sure you personally, gas prices are up, supply 
chain problems, baby formula shortage. In my State there are 
still hurricanes. Now people have to make a choice between food 
and gas, so now during hurricane season we try to get everybody 
prepared to buy all their stuff. My wife actually has one of 
the plans that--I think it is one that FEMA put out--of what we 
ought to have.
    Tell me what FEMA is doing to, one, how you are getting 
prepared to know when we have this inflation, supply chain 
stuff, how Florida families that are struggling financially, 
how they are going to get ready.
    Ms. Criswell. Great question. As we are seeing the impacts 
of inflation on the communities across the country, we want to 
make sure that we still have the ability to keep people safe. 
Things that FEMA is doing is, even in the last few years we 
have increased the amount of stockpile that we have in our 
distribution centers, so we can make sure that we have enough 
to support that initial response and the initial lifesaving and 
life-sustaining operations.
    We are able to predeploy that. One of the things that we 
did last year is we worked really closely with our Governors to 
ask for pre-landfall declarations so we could move the 
resources into the area sooner and have them available for 
individuals, if needed. We are going to continue to work on 
making sure that our supplies are sufficient to meet the 
potential needs that we can expect.
    But on the individual size, we want to make sure that 
people have the information that they need to protect their 
families. In the plans that we work on through our regional 
offices, through Regional Administrator Szezech, they work very 
closely with our State directors to get a better understanding 
of what they think their challenges and their gaps are going to 
be and help them with their plans for how they are going to 
approach that.
    I have been talking to individuals about it. It is not 
necessarily about having all of the necessary supplies that you 
need. I think the most important thing is to know what your 
risk is. I get concerned about the fact that we have a lot of 
individuals that live in areas that have never experienced a 
hurricane before or never experienced a wildfire before. I want 
people to understand their risk.
    Then I want them to know where they can go to protect their 
family. I suggest that they go to their local emergency 
management websites to find out where they are going to have 
shelters, if needed, how they are going to be able to evacuate 
if they do not have a car. All of our States have built their 
preparedness plans on the premise that there is going to be a 
large number of individuals that do not have transportation, so 
we can use that model for those that have a new need for 
transportation, to help them get to some of these centers.
    We will continue to work closely with our State partners, 
through our regional administrators, to better understand what 
they anticipate their challenges are going to be, and making 
sure that our supplies are ready to support those.
    Senator Scott. Don't you think this year is going to be a 
little bit worse, because in the hurricanes you worry about 
running out of gas, and now you are hearing, at least, from 
AAA, that people are running out of gas because they are not 
filling up their tanks. Now you think you get to a hurricane, I 
imagine there are going to be more people that are going to 
have bigger problems now with that. I do not know what the 
right answer is, but it is not getting better.
    I want to talk about flood insurance. This happened while I 
was Governor. FEMA dramatically increased the flood insurance 
costs for a lot of Florida families. It never made sense, 
because since national flood insurance has been created Florida 
has been, my understanding, a 4 to 1 donor State. If you are a 
4 to 1 donor State then your rates should not be going up, 
right? They should be coming down as we get better data.
    Then what we try to do is try to work with FEMA to get more 
information out so we could get more robust private insurance 
market, because it was not helping us through the National 
Flood Insurance Program. Now there is a recent report by Redfin 
that found that nearly 90 percent of flood insurance 
policyholders in Florida will see price increases as a result 
of Risk Rating 2.0.
    First, that does not make sense if we are a 4 to 1 donor 
State, right? That is one. No. 2 is, we still do not see FEMA 
putting a lot of effort into getting a private flood insurance 
market created. Can you talk about those two issues?
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, I can talk about both of those. Risk 
Rating 2.0 does a couple of things, and I understand that there 
is a certain population that is seeing a more significant 
increase in their flood insurance. But when you say numbers 
like 90 percent are going up, the majority of those--and it is 
about 70 percent, I had some numbers in here, about 68 percent 
are going up the same amount that they would have gone up 
before Risk Rating 2.0. The difference is that they are going 
to reach a maximum threshold, and under the old program their 
rates would just continue to go up year after year.
    We are also seeing, in Florida specifically, 20 percent of 
the policyholders have had a reduction in their rates. But 
there is that percentage that are continuing to go up.
    One of the things that we are working with Congress on is 
the reauthorization of our National Flood Insurance Program, 
that would put in place an affordability act that would help 
support those individuals that cannot afford flood insurance 
but still need to have coverage.
    I think the biggest part about Risk Rating 2.0 is what it 
does is it helps families understand their true risk, so then 
they can take the right measures to protect their families from 
the threats that they are going to face.
    As far as the private sector, we would love to partner with 
the private sector, and continue to partner with them on ways 
that they can help us close that gap. Our goal is to close the 
gap in the flood insurance policies that are out there so those 
that need it, have it. I am happy to continue to partner with 
you and your team on how we can make that happen.
    Senator Scott. Do you feel comfortable that you are 
helpful? Because when I was Governor, the issue that we had 
then was that FEMA would not share the data. If you were a 
private insurance company you cannot write it if you do not 
have the data. Do you feel comfortable that FEMA now has given 
all the private insurance companies enough data they have that 
they can write private insurance?
    Ms. Criswell. I do not have the answer to that 
specifically, Senator Scott. I would be happy to have my team 
get back to you on the data sharing. Data sharing is always one 
of our biggest hurdles, because of privacy concerns, but I 
would be happy to get back with you.
    Senator Scott. Two things, which no one has ever been able 
to explain to me. If we are a donor State, then why should any 
of ours go up? If we have been a donor State for, what, now 40-
plus years, right, it does not make sense. And nobody has been 
able to explain that to me.
    Ms. Criswell. I will get back with my team and get a better 
understanding of how that works with our NFIP program, and get 
an answer to you.
    Senator Scott. Yes, and if I am wrong, if somebody has 
better data than what I have been told--and no one has ever 
suggested I am wrong, by the way. If you could get back on both 
of those, one, why, if we are a donor State our rates go up, 
and two, what are you doing, and if there is anything else we 
can do to try to build a bigger private market.
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, sir.
    Senator Scott. Thanks. And thanks for the people that work 
there.
    Chairman Peters. Thank you, Senator Scott.
    Senator Hawley, you are recognized for your questions.

              OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR HAWLEY

    Senator Hawley. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 
Administrator, good to see you. Thanks for being here.
    Let me ask you about the flooding in my State. We talked 
about this at your confirmation hearings, back in 2019, the 
Missouri flooding in the central and northwestern part, really 
actually all along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, but 
particularly serious flooding in the central and northwest 
parts of the State.
    We talked at that time, as you probably remember, about the 
problems with responsiveness and delays that many Missourians 
encountered, particularly as it relates to the Individual 
Assistance Program.
    I wanted to follow up on this. You said, in response to our 
conversation, that FEMA has a strategic goal of reducing the 
complexity of the agency and that you would work to streamline 
this process, particularly the rewards of IA to the best of 
your ability.
    Can you give us an update on progress you have made related 
to that goal, particularly as it relates to Individual 
Assistance?
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, sir. Specifically, we have done a couple 
of things. One, we have taken a look at our policy and we have 
adjusted our policy to make sure that we are understanding the 
barriers that individuals have to accessing our programs, like 
being able to prove home ownership or occupancy for renters 
when they do not have the exact paperwork that FEMA has 
required in the past. We have seen a significant improvement in 
the number of individuals that have now been eligible for 
Individual Assistance as part of that policy change.
    But I think more specifically to your point, and one of the 
things that we are doing, is I have directed the team to make 
sure that we are taking our services to people instead of 
forcing them to figure out how to navigate our system. One of 
the other things that we put in place last year was that 
anybody who still does not meet the requirements within our 
computer system, we are actually doing a 100 percent callback 
to talk to them and ask them and go through their case with 
them so we can better understand or explain to them the type of 
information, so we can get those approved.
    We have seen a tremendous amount of, again, more 
individuals approved through this process. There are still some 
that do not meet our requirements, but we continue to see 
improvements, and instead of forcing them to try to navigate 
our system and appeal, we are coming to them.
    Senator Hawley. That is great. That is encouraging. Can you 
give me an update on other steps you have taken with regard to 
communication and responsiveness, which is what you are getting 
at there, I think, in the second part of your answer? What else 
are you doing in terms of proactive communication to folks, 
alerting them as to what FEMA is doing, alerting them to what 
assistance they may be eligible for, alerting them to the 
process and how they can apply, when they can expect answers, 
and so on? Give me a sense of what you are doing there.
    Ms. Criswell. I think there are a few things that we have 
added into the way that we are trying to do outreach into 
communities. First, we have always had our Disaster Survivor 
Assistance (DSA) Teams, and what we are doing now, though, is 
we are using data to look at where the damage has been and 
where we have low levels of registrations, and these are teams 
that can go out into the community and register them right from 
their iPad. We are targeting where they are going.
    The second thing that we are doing is through our External 
Affairs and our Public Affairs Division, is just doing more 
outreach to local media, and trying to make sure we understand 
the demographics of a community and using the media that they 
are used to listening to. We are doing a much broader outreach 
on different types of media platforms to try to get to people 
on how they get information.
    Senator Hawley. Any obstacles that you have encountered so 
far along the way, in terms of improving responsiveness, also 
improving communications? Have you experienced challenges that 
you have been able to overcome? I am curious what you have 
found as you have gotten on the ground, so to speak, in the 
agency.
    Ms. Criswell. Honestly, I think some of the biggest 
obstacles are getting out of our own way so we can make the 
necessary changes that need to happen to help people. When we 
come into this with a different mindset of putting people 
first, then we are able to make a lot of different changes, to 
really help the people that have been impacted in these 
communities.
    Senator Hawley. Good. Let me ask you about something that 
FEMA announced earlier this year, February, to be exact, 
February 22nd, the new Equity Action Plan. That plan says that 
FEMA's goals including generating a FEMA-wide definition of 
equity and a framework for implementing equity in all agency 
programs. I have the definition of ``equity'' in front of me. 
It is pretty long. It is 89 words. It references skin color, 
references sexual orientation.
    I also noticed in your written testimony you list as your 
first priority, instilling equity as a foundation of emergency 
management. What does that mean, exactly?
    Ms. Criswell. What that means to me, Senator Hawley, is the 
fact that we have a lot of individuals that have barriers to 
accessing our programs. My focus, like I talked about with the 
Individual Assistance Program, is better understanding those 
barriers and targeting our assistance to help communities that 
have had difficulty navigating our programs, whether that is 
our Individual Assistance Program or our grant programs. We 
want to be able to help those communities understand better the 
services that we can provide so we can help them achieve the 
resilience that they need to for the different threats that we 
are facing in the future.
    Senator Hawley. I am trying to understand, I guess, the 
aims of the program and the scope of it, because it sounds like 
it is important if it is your first priority. Is the aim to 
better deliver FEMA's services and to improve responsiveness to 
folks who have been affected by a disaster, or is the aim to 
internally change the makeup of FEMA? Because you also write 
that FEMA's Office of Equal Rights is now collecting data on 
various internal categories, to actively build, and I am 
quoting now, ``active build a robust civil rights program by 
recruiting and hiring experienced civil rights subject matter 
experts in the Office of Equal Rights (OER).''
    I am trying to figure out what the priority is here.
    Ms. Criswell. It is actually both. So equity is my No. 1 
priority in the strategic plan, and each of the objectives 
within my priorities, one focuses externally on how we deliver 
our services to communities, one focuses internally on how our 
workforce is going to support that, and another one talks about 
how we partner with other stakeholders in order to deliver our 
programs.
    In this case, for me, on delivering services to our 
programs, my goal is to not have a one-size-fits-all approach, 
to better understand that every individual experiences a 
disaster differently. Every community experiences a disaster 
differently. We want to be able to understand their unique 
situation to make the decisions on how we deliver our programs 
and not use the same criteria for a large, urban area as we use 
for a small, rural community.
    Senator Hawley. Does your Office of Equal Rights, is this 
different from a Diversity, Inclusion, Equity Office? Is there 
something different about it?
    Ms. Criswell. I do not have a separate Diversity, Equity, 
and Inclusion Office. My Office of Equal Rights----
    Senator Hawley. That is what it does.
    Ms. Criswell [continuing]. Deals with the civil rights 
complaints, or civil rights issues as required by law. We have 
an equity enterprise steering group that is made up of 
leadership from across my agency to talk more broadly about the 
culture of FEMA and the diversity of FEMA and how we can 
improve that.
    Senator Hawley. Finally, do you consider an individual's 
race or gender when making hiring decisions, Administrator?
    Ms. Criswell. We do not. We base it on qualifications.
    Senator Hawley. Yes, good. Thank you for what you are doing 
in terms of improving responsiveness, and I would hope that in 
terms of your priorities, I hope that emergency management and 
disaster responsiveness would always be your No. 1 top 
priority, serving and responding to people in need.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Chairman Peters. Thank you, Senator Hawley. And Senator 
Hawley, if I could pick up on your questions, because you 
raised some issues that you know that we have been working on 
as a Committee, and I want to get clarifications from the 
Administrator when it comes to providing relief to underserved 
communities, which is legislation that we did pass out of 
Committee here, looking at equity.
    But it is about understanding, and the evidence is fairly 
clear. In fact, there was an article in Politico\1\ that just 
came out here I think within the last week, that talked about 
how when disaster does strike it impacts all communities, but 
those communities that are underserved get particularly 
impacted because they tend not to get the resources 
commensurate with the damage.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\ The article referenced by Senator Peters appears in the 
Appendix on page 34.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    In fact, this story and others show that wealthier 
communities tend to get more money from FEMA than poorer 
communities. In rural areas in your State they may not have the 
resources to have grant-writers and do all the work that they 
need that a wealthy community is able to get. We want to make 
sure that every community has equal access to those FEMA 
resources in an equitable way, not based on income.
    Is that right? Is that an accurate reflection of how you 
look at this thing? There are certain communities, for a 
variety of reasons, oftentimes economic is what is really 
driving it. Poorer communities, unfortunately, do not get the 
same resources as wealthy communities, even though they have 
suffered the same damage.
    Ms. Criswell. I am familiar, Chairman, with the Politico 
article that you are mentioning, and types of inequities that 
it addresses are unfortunately a reality right now. What we see 
when we are trying to get to a benefit-cost ratio, or a 
benefit-cost assessment, that lower-cost homes have less 
ability to get the same amount of resources than something that 
is a higher-cost home.
    We are going to continue to work on how we can either 
adjust our policies, or if we need support from Congress to 
make changes in how we approach this type of determination.
    I will say, though, one thing that we were able to do on 
our own is for Individual Assistance Program, just for the 
Direct Housing Program, a number of individuals often need 
another place to stay and we will active our Direct Housing 
Program. Many of you will understand it as our RV, or mobile 
home program. We used to have a set threshold of $17,000 worth 
of damage, which disproportionately impacted people with lower-
value homes. We changed that, and we changed that to a price 
per square foot, and as a result, during Hurricane Ida, we had 
over 2,700 families that were able to qualify for our program 
going forward.
    It is these types of understanding of our policies and how 
they are unintentionally having a negative impact on 
communities that I am going to continue to work on and see 
where we can make our own internal policy changes or where we 
need to make legislative or rulemaking changes.
    Chairman Peters. Yes, Senator Hawley.
    Senator Hawley. Just briefly, Mr. Chairman.
    Chairman Peters. Yes, no, please.
    Senator Hawley. This is to your good point, and I do not 
disagree with anything you said, and if that is what the equity 
effort amounts to, in terms of reaching communities all across 
the board, particularly those that are historically 
underserved, which includes, in both of our States, rural 
communities often, I am fine with it.
    If it means, however, much of what I read in the equity 
report that FEMA is doing, perhaps I was not direct enough in 
my questioning. Let me say for the record that huge amounts of 
training in diversity, inclusion, and equity and basically, if 
this is an effort to turn the agency into a social justice 
outfit, I am against it, and I am very skeptical of it.
    My only point is, Mr. Chairman, I hope that the agency will 
continue focusing on the people who are in need and getting 
services to them, in the way that you outlined. I am all for 
that. Count me in for that. But count me out if it is going to 
be about this internal social justice politics where we are 
promoting a social agenda and we are using FEMA to do that. 
That is my concern.
    That is all I have to say. Thanks, Mr. Chairman, for that 
opportunity.
    Chairman Peters. I appreciate that, and I look forward to 
working with you on that, Senator Hawley, because I think that 
is the objective that we are trying to achieve, is that we do 
know that these patterns exist. In fact, I believe there was a 
report out of Texas, that also a Director for Emergency 
Management in Texas that brought up a point that it tends to be 
poorer communities do not get the same relative to the damage 
that they have had, relative to wealthier communities.
    I know you do not support that. You believe there should be 
an element of fairness involved. Folks who are of lower income, 
it is a whole lot harder to recover from a natural disaster to 
begin with. They are absolutely devastated and do not have 
other insurance resources and others.
    Hopefully we can come to an agreement as to how we make 
sure that what we know is a persistent problem we can address 
it in some way that is looking at the standard in an objective 
way. I appreciate that.
    Thank you, Ms. Criswell. I appreciate that. I want to thank 
you, Administrator Criswell, for joining us today and for your 
testimony.
    As we begin what is expected to be a busier than normal 
hurricane season and face continued wildfires in the West, 
Congress certainly must do everything in their power to promote 
a prepared FEMA and support FEMA's workforce, including by 
passing my legislation, along with Ranking Member Portman's 
CREW Act, to make sure we have folks on the front lines that 
are able to help those people in need.
    Administrator Criswell, we look forward to our continuing 
work together to improve the Federal Government's preparedness 
response and recovery capabilities.
    The record for this hearing will remain open for 15 days, 
until 5 p.m. on July 7, 2022, for the submission of statements 
and questions for the record.
    This hearing is now adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 3:45 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]

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