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


                       HURRICANE IDA AND BEYOND:
                          READINESS, RECOVERY,
                             AND RESILIENCE

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

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                              COMMITTEE ON
                          OVERSIGHT AND REFORM
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                            OCTOBER 5, 2021

                               __________

                           Serial No. 117-45

                               __________

      Printed for the use of the Committee on Oversight and Reform
      

[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]      


                       Available at: govinfo.gov,
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                             docs.house.gov
                             
                                __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
45-900 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2021                     
          
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                   COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND REFORM

                CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York, Chairwoman

Eleanor Holmes Norton, District of   James Comer, Kentucky, Ranking 
    Columbia                             Minority Member
Stephen F. Lynch, Massachusetts      Jim Jordan, Ohio
Jim Cooper, Tennessee                Paul A. Gosar, Arizona
Gerald E. Connolly, Virginia         Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois        Jody B. Hice, Georgia
Jamie Raskin, Maryland               Glenn Grothman, Wisconsin
Ro Khanna, California                Michael Cloud, Texas
Kweisi Mfume, Maryland               Bob Gibbs, Ohio
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York   Clay Higgins, Louisiana
Rashida Tlaib, Michigan              Ralph Norman, South Carolina
Katie Porter, California             Pete Sessions, Texas
Cori Bush, Missouri                  Fred Keller, Pennsylvania
Danny K. Davis, Illinois             Andy Biggs, Arizona
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Florida    Andrew Clyde, Georgia
Peter Welch, Vermont                 Nancy Mace, South Carolina
Henry C. ``Hank'' Johnson, Jr.,      Scott Franklin, Florida
    Georgia                          Jake LaTurner, Kansas
John P. Sarbanes, Maryland           Pat Fallon, Texas
Jackie Speier, California            Yvette Herrell, New Mexico
Robin L. Kelly, Illinois             Byron Donalds, Florida
Brenda L. Lawrence, Michigan
Mark DeSaulnier, California
Jimmy Gomez, California
Ayanna Pressley, Massachusetts
Mike Quigley, Illinois

                      Russ Anello, Staff Director
                         Krista Boyd, Team Lead
                       Elisa LaNier, Chief Clerk

                      Contact Number: 202-225-5051

                  Mark Marin, Minority Staff Director
                                 ------                                
                         C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page
Hearing held on October 5, 2021..................................     1

                               Witnesses

The Honorable Deanne Criswell, Administrator, Federal Emergency 
  Management Agency
    Oral Statement...............................................     5

 Opening statements and the prepared statements for the witnesses 
  are available in the U.S. House of Representatives Repository 
  at: docs.house.gov.

                           INDEX OF DOCUMENTS

                              ----------                              

The documents entered into the record during this hearing are 
  listed below. 

  * Articles about FEMA's work in south Louisiana; submitted by 
  Rep. Higgins.

  * Testimony of Constituents Post-Hurricane Ida Experience; 
  submitted by Rep. Ocasio-Cortez.

The documents are available at: docs.house.gov.

 
                       HURRICANE IDA AND BEYOND:
                          READINESS, RECOVERY,
                             AND RESILIENCE

                              ----------                              


                        Tuesday, October 5, 2021

                  House of Representatives,
                 Committee on Oversight and Reform,
                                                   Washington, D.C.
    The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 11 a.m., via 
Zoom, Hon. Carolyn B. Maloney [chairwoman of the committee] 
presiding.
    Present: Representatives Maloney, Norton, Connolly, Raskin, 
Khanna, Mfume, Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib, Porter, Bush, Wasserman 
Schultz, Welch, Johnson, Sarbanes, Kelly, DeSaulnier, Pressley, 
Comer, Grothman, Cloud, Higgins, Norman, Keller, Mace, 
Franklin, LaTurner, Fallon, Herrell, and Donalds.
    Also present: Representative Carter (waived on).
    Chairwoman Maloney. The committee will come to order.
    Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a 
recess of the committee at any time.
    I now recognize myself for an opening statement.
    The committee is holding this hearing to address the 
serious and growing crisis posed by natural disaster and 
extreme weather events driven by climate change. Between August 
29 and September 1, Hurricane Ida devastated the U.S. from the 
Louisiana coast to New Jersey, and my home state of New York. 
This deadly hurricane resulted in over 100 deaths, including 13 
in New York City.
    In New York and New Jersey, more than 1,000 miles from 
where the storm first made landfall, catastrophic flooding 
trapped people and flooded basement apartments and stranded 
vehicles. In Louisiana, Hurricane Ida took down the electric 
grid, knocking out all eight transmission lines that deliver 
power to New Orleans and downing more than 30,000 utility 
poles, nearly twice as many as Hurricane Katrina. More than 1 
million people were left without power. Some are still without 
power more than a month later.
    The unprecedented destruction unleashed by Hurricane Ida is 
part of a growing trend that the Federal Government cannot 
ignore. From record-breaking fires in the west, to devastating 
hurricanes in the south, to rising sea levels that threaten 40 
percent of America's population near our coastlines, the 
destructive impact of climate change is rapidly escalating, and 
the cost of ignoring this problem is growing.
    During the first half of 2021, the United States 
experienced eight climate disasters, with losses totaling more 
than $1 billion. Initial estimates put losses from Hurricane 
Ida at between $53-and $64 billion. The Government 
Accountability Office had climate change on its high risk since 
2013, in part because of concerns about the increasing cost of 
disaster response and recovery efforts.
    Today we are honored to be joined by FEMA administrator, 
Deanne Criswell. Thank you so much for being here, 
Administrator Criswell. I know you and your team are working 
around the clock to respond to the ongoing recovery efforts and 
other pressing issues. Your testimony is crucial today because 
there are thousands of people in New York, New Jersey, 
Louisiana, and Maryland, and other impacted communities who are 
desperate for information about how to get help, and when they 
will get help. That includes understanding what steps FEMA is 
taking to speed up the installation of temporary roofs on 
damaged homes in Louisiana, and to work with vulnerable 
populations to make sure their applications are complete and 
approved quickly.
    I am also interested in hearing about FEMA's efforts to 
address inequities in disaster readiness and recovery. 
Vulnerable populations like renters, people of color, people 
experiencing homelessness, and undocumented immigrants, are 
more likely to suffer the consequences of extreme weather 
events, yet, they often face the biggest barriers to getting 
help.
    The Biden administration is taking important steps to make 
it easier for disaster survivors to receive assistance, 
including waiving the requirement that survivors have a deed or 
other form of proof of home ownership to receive assistance.
    FEMA has also taken steps to assist vulnerable populations 
by developing fact sheets tailored to renters, undocumented 
immigrants, and non-English speakers.
    These are important steps, but more needs to be done. It is 
crucial that we invest in climate resilience and post-disaster 
assistance to advance racial and economic justice so that we do 
not leave behind our most vulnerable communities.
    Administrator Criswell, I also would like to hear from you 
today about how we can improve efforts to build climate 
resilient communities. One critical step the administration 
could take is to improve Federal data on the full extent of 
climate change on our communities. By leveraging data across 
the public and private sectors, we can better understand the 
future risks of flooding to communities and take action to keep 
people out of harm's way.
    Congress also must act. Today, I reintroduced the Federal 
Agency Climate Prep Act. This bill will ensure that communities 
have a say in how Federal agencies implement their climate 
action plans, which is crucially making sure our taxpayer 
dollars are put to work where they are most needed. Last week, 
I was proud to support the $28 billion for victims of Hurricane 
Ida that Congress approved, but I was disappointed that 175 of 
my Republican colleagues voted against this bill, including 
many members whose constituents are in dire need of the 
emergency funding approved by Democrats.
    I am hopeful that as extreme weather becomes more frequent 
and more deadly, we can agree on a bipartisan basis that 
impacted Americans deserve our help.
    But recovery funds are not enough. Congress also needs to 
make long-term investments to stop global warming before it is 
too late. That is why I call on my colleagues to support 
President Biden's Build Back Better Act. This transformational 
bill will make essential investments to solve the climate 
crisis, while also upgrading our infrastructure so that we can 
better prepare for future disasters.
    In the long run, these investments will save money by 
reducing the extraordinary costs from natural disasters and 
extreme weather caused by climate change.
    I now recognize my distinguished ranking member, Mr. Comer, 
for an opening statement.
    Mr. Comer. Thank you, Chairwoman Maloney, and I want to 
thank the witness, FEMA Administrator Criswell, for her 
willingness to appear before the committee.
    I am pleasantly surprised that the Democrats have finally 
called a witness from the Biden administration to testify 
before this committee. Maybe the Lugar Center will upgrade the 
F grade the committee was given earlier this year.
    Now, while I appreciate FEMA Administrator Criswell's 
testimony and look forward to hearing more about the Agency's 
efforts to assist Americans impacted by hurricanes and other 
natural disasters, it is critical to mention who from the Biden 
administration that the Democrats on this committee have 
refused to call to testify. Chairwoman Maloney, when will 
Democrats call Department of Homeland Secretary Mayorkas to 
discuss the crisis along our southern border, or Secretary of 
Defense Austin to explain the debacle that has been the 
Afghanistan withdrawals? Or someone to address the growing 
inflation created by the Biden administration that has gotten 
so bad that even stores like the Dollar Tree are raising prices 
on American consumers?
    In fact, Chairwoman Maloney, I've sent three letters this 
year urging committee Democrats to call a hearing to examine 
the Biden border crisis. Since January 2021, thousands of 
illegal immigrants, including unaccompanied minors, have 
crossed the southern border. There's an ongoing security, 
humanitarian, and public health crisis with no end in sight, 
and no clear policy to address this issue from the Biden 
administration.
    As I've outlined in my letters to Chairwoman Maloney, one 
of the most troubling issues at the border is the number of 
unaccompanied children entering the border and currently in 
U.S. custody. Today, thousands of unaccompanied children are in 
U.S. custody. The Biden border crisis became so dire in March 
of this year that the administration was forced to activate 
FEMA to support the response for unaccompanied children. Over a 
period of 90 days, FEMA supported DHS and HHS to get 
unaccompanied children out of DHS custody and into HHS 
placements. That FEMA, the Agency charged with the mission of 
assisting American citizens in recovery from disasters had to 
be activated, further illustrates the extent of the crisis 
created by the Biden administration's disastrous policies.
    Administrator Criswell, I hope that you can address my 
concern today with regard to the activation of FEMA to use 
critical resources reserved for American citizens faced with 
natural disaster to respond to crisis created by this 
administration at the border with regard to unaccompanied 
children.
    Chairwoman Maloney, I would like for the FEMA administrator 
and members of this committee to hear directly from Mr. Higgins 
with regard to issues he and his constituents have faced with 
FEMA's response to natural disaster recovery in Louisiana. I 
understand there's still people waiting on critical assistance 
from FEMA, and we look forward to getting answers about that.
    I will now yield the balance of my time to the gentleman 
from Louisiana, Mr. Higgins, to give an opening statement.
    Mr. Higgins. I thank the gentleman and ranking member, and 
I thank Chairwoman Maloney for holding today's hearing. And 
thank you, Mr. Comer, for giving me a few moments to speak.
    While this hearing is focused on Hurricane Ida, I would be 
remiss to not speak on the ongoing hurricane recovery in 
southwest Louisiana. Just over a year ago southwest Louisiana 
was ravaged by brutal Hurricanes Laura and Delta back to back, 
only to be followed by severe weather from winter storms and 
major flood events. Southwest Louisiana is appreciative of the 
$1.6 billion that FEMA and other agencies have delivered to 
help with immediate response costs, but this is insufficient 
for what is needed in the long-term recovery. Hurricanes Laura 
and Delta alone have been estimated to cost $16 billion in 
damage to the region, meaning that we have delivered thus far 
about 1/10 of what's estimated the costs of Laura and Delta.
    Even with the passage of last week's continuing resolution, 
these funds are over a year late, and fall short of the 
necessary Federal response. The entire Louisiana delegation, 
including our Governor, has written 14 letters to the 
administration and congressional leaders to get the funding out 
the door, yet the political realities have injured the lives of 
southwest Louisiana citizens for over 400 days.
    In closing, I would hope, Madam Chair, that although we can 
recognize intellectually, we may struggle as a body to address 
what's been referred to as extreme weather, perhaps the 
chairwoman would agree to work with myself, my office, and 
Republican members of the committee to deal with the extreme 
bureaucracy we face. We can certainly address that whereby 
response to natural disasters across the country that affect 
Americans, and at one time or another, in a very negative way, 
that we could work together to streamline the bureaucracy and 
red tape that we face as citizenry attempting to recover.
    And, Madam Chair, I yield. And Ranking Member, Mr. Comer, 
thank you for yielding me time.
    Chairwoman Maloney. The gentleman yields back.
    I want to briefly respond and address the claim from my 
good friend that the committee is not conducting oversight. We 
have today the administrator, Deanne Criswell, who did an 
incredible job in a job similar to this one in the city of New 
York to answer all of your questions. She has been to New 
Jersey and other sites to work with people and respond with 
FEMA.
    And the truth is that this committee is actively engaged in 
waste, fraud, and abuse. The committee has a joint 
investigation with the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus 
Crisis into the Emergent BioSolutions, a firm that received 
huge vaccine contracts but had to destroy millions of doses due 
to deficiencies in its manufacturing; our bipartisan 
investigation into the F-35 joint strike force fighter helped 
push Lockheed Martin to return $70 million to the Department of 
Defense's F-35 program to compensate for defective spare parts. 
Again, in waste, fraud, and abuse, this committee helped create 
the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, and the 
Committee of Inspector General overseeing the trillions of 
dollars in response to the pandemic, IG saved roughly $17 for 
every $1 spent, and we have not shied away from constructive 
oversight of the Biden administration. In the last 2 weeks, we 
conducted oversight of the treatment of Haitian asylum seekers, 
held a classifying briefing, which was the request of the 
minority, on Afghanistan, and sent a bipartisan letter on the 
FBI's handling of ransomware attacks. Our oversight record 
stands in strong contrast to Republicans who turned a blind eye 
to four years of outrageous abuses by the former President.
    With that, I would like to get back to the critical 
importance of today's hearing. First, I would like to introduce 
our witnesses. Today we are privileged to hear from the 
Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, 
Deanne Criswell. The witness will be unmuted so we can swear 
her in.
    Please raise your right hand.
    Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to 
give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, 
so help you God?
    Ms. Criswell. I do.
    Chairwoman Maloney. Let the record show that the witness 
answered in the affirmative. Thank you. And without objection, 
your written testimony will be made part of the record.
    With that, Administrator Criswell, you are now recognized 
for your opening testimony. Thank you for being here. Thank you 
for your public service in New York prior to coming to the 
Federal Government. Thank you.

   STATEMENT OF HON. DEANNE CRISWELL, ADMINISTRATOR, FEDERAL 
                  EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY

    Ms. Criswell. Good morning.
    And thank you, Chair Maloney, Ranking Member Comer, and 
members of the committee. I thank you for the opportunity to 
testify about our response and recovery efforts following 
Hurricane Ida, as well as the longer-term investments we must 
make to increase our Nation's resilience in the face of climate 
change.
    Climate change affects every single American. It is the 
biggest crisis facing our Nation, and it is making natural 
disasters more frequent, more intense, and more destructive. 
Mitigating the effects of climate change is one of my top 
priorities for FEMA. And Hurricane Ida has demonstrated the 
challenges presented by our changing climate, the benefits of 
mitigation investments, and the importance of equity in our 
response and recovery.
    Fueled in part by warmer than normal waters in the Gulf of 
Mexico, Hurricane Ida's wind speeds intensified from 85 to 150 
miles per hour in less than 24 hours. This Category 4 storm 
became the fifth strongest hurricane to ever make landfall in 
the continental United States.
    Storms normally break apart quickly when they make 
landfall, but Ida remained a Category 4 storm for four hours, 
and Ida's impacts have affected states and communities from the 
Gulf of Mexico to the Northeast. Ida left a million people in 
Louisiana and Mississippi without power at a time of sweltering 
heat.
    After transitioning and accelerating to a post-tropical 
cyclone, Ida caused widespread flooding in the northeastern 
United States, breaking multiple rainfall records, and causing 
catastrophic floods in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. 
Hurricane Ida caused over 100 direct fatalities, and my heart 
goes out to all of the families who lost loved ones.
    For all its severe impacts, Hurricane Ida was also notable 
in other ways.
    First, the storm came ashore 16 years to the day after 
Hurricane Katrina made landfall and caused widespread flooding 
in New Orleans; but this time, the levees in New Orleans held, 
reflecting significant investments made in the aftermath of 
Katrina to strengthen the levee system.
    Second, FEMA was well prepared for Ida. Thanks to 
congressional action in the 16 years since Katrina, we have 
authorities that give us the flexibility and the ability to 
lean in much quicker than we have in the past to bring the full 
force of the Federal family into position so we can respond 
quickly.
    We pre-positioned millions of liters of water, millions of 
meals, specialized response teams, and numerous resources from 
our Federal community to deploy based on the immediate needs 
after the storm had passed. At FEMA, we say that disaster 
response is locally executed, state-managed, and federally 
supported, and I am proud of how well we supported our state 
and local partners in responding to this storm. This was 
particularly true given the special challenges involved in 
responding to a disaster amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
    Third, as this storm hit the United States, FEMA was ready 
to implement important policy changes to help underserved 
communities, which are often disproportionately impacted by 
disasters, to obtain individual assistance to the full extent 
that they are eligible for it. Previously homeowners may have 
run into difficulties proving that they own their homes if 
their property was handed down informally through the years.
    To address this, we have expanded the forms of 
documentation that can prove ownership, including documents 
like receipts for major repairs or improvements, court 
documents, public officials' letters, mobile home park letters, 
and applicant self-certification for mobile homes and travel 
trailers as a last resort.
    In addition, FEMA has also changed the way it calculates 
the threshold for property losses to qualify for direct 
housing, such as a trailer or a mobile home. This ensures 
equitable damage evaluation regardless of the size of the 
damaged home.
    The recovery phase for Hurricane Ida continues as we speak, 
and we will be dealing with the consequences of this hurricane 
for quite some time. But even as we do that work, we must make 
the kinds of generational-level investments necessary to reduce 
the impacts of climate-fueled disasters that we will face in 
the months and years ahead.
    Mitigation investments are incredibly worthwhile. An 
independent study by the National Institute of Building 
Sciences in 2019, found that every dollar in Federal Hazard 
Mitigation Grants invested in mitigation saves the American 
taxpayer an estimated $6 in future spending.
    At FEMA, a cornerstone of our mitigation efforts is the 
Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program, or 
BRIC. I would like to thank Congress for providing the 
legislative tools to create BRIC through the Disaster Recovery 
Reform Act of 2018. By establishing a reliable stream of 
funding for larger mitigation projects through a nationwide 
grant program, the BRIC program provides a critical opportunity 
for state, territorial, Tribal, and local governments to invest 
in a more resilient Nation, reduce disaster suffering, and 
lessen future disaster costs.
    Earlier this year, President Biden visited FEMA to announce 
that he was increasing the funding available for the BRIC 
program to $1 billion for Fiscal Year 2021 application period. 
These are the kinds of investments that will protect lives and 
property in the face of the future storms we are going to face.
    Another important element of FEMA's mitigation efforts is 
the Hazard Mitigation Grant program. In August, President Biden 
approved more than $3.46 billion for the HMGP program for the 
COVID-19 disaster decorations. As a result, every state, tribe, 
and territory that received a major disaster declaration in 
response to the COVID-19 pandemic, will be eligible to receive 
substantial levels of funding to invest in mitigation projects 
that reduce risks from natural disasters.
    For eligible mitigation projects, HMGP funding can cover 75 
percent of the total project costs while states or communities 
cover the remaining share. We will be urging relevant agencies 
in your states to ensure that these funds are delivered to 
disadvantaged communities and would welcome your support in 
this effort.
    One more critical piece is the FEMA Flood Mitigation 
Assistance program, or FMA, which helps provide financial and 
technical assistance to states and communities to reduce the 
risk of flood damage to homes and businesses through buyouts, 
elevation, and other activities. Flooding is the most common 
and costly natural disaster in the United States, and the 
direct average annual flood losses have quadrupled from 
approximately $4 billion per year in the 1980's, to roughly $17 
billion per year between 2010 and 2018. The bipartisan 
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, approved by the Senate 
in August, would provide $3.5 billion over five years for the 
FMA program. The Biden administration has urged the House to 
approve the bipartisan infrastructure bill without delay, and I 
would like to add my voice today in calling for its swift 
passage.
    Mitigation is particularly important for underserved 
communities that are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate 
change. In administering our mitigation programs, we will keep 
equity considerations top of mind, and will include them in the 
competitive scoring process for programs such as FMA. Equity is 
one of my top priorities at FEMA, and the intersection of 
climate change and equity is a particular concern for our 
agency, as the impacts are worse for our vulnerable 
communities.
    In closing, I would like to thank all of the first 
responders across our Nation, our amazing FEMA work force, and 
our interagency partners, for their tireless work in responding 
to Hurricane Ida. They continue to answer the call to respond 
to disasters fueled by climate change, which truly is the 
crisis of our generation. The intensification of natural 
disasters will be our new normal, but this is a call to action, 
and I looked forward to continuing to work with Congress to 
make our Nation more resilient.
    I would be pleased to answer any questions you have.
    Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you. Thank you very, very much 
for your service and for your testimony today.
    And I recognize myself for five minutes.
    Administrator Criswell, I know that you visited New York 
City with President Biden and myself after Hurricane Ida, and 
saw firsthand the devastating loss and suffering it brought to 
New Yorkers. As the former Commissioner of the New York City 
Emergency Management Office--this is the office that rebuilt 
New York after 9/11, an incredibly important position--you know 
how unusually intense Ida's rainfall was for New York City. It 
overwhelmed drainage systems and caused flash floods. Eleven 
New Yorkers drowned in their basement apartments. Divers had to 
retrieve bodies, including a two-year-old toddler. You can see 
on the screen a picture of what remained after one basement 
apartment was flooded. And when we looked up the addresses of 
the five homes where New Yorkers died on FEMA's flood map, I 
was surprised to find that all of them are located in areas 
marked as having minimal flood hazard.
    So, Administrator, I understand that FEMA flood maps are 
intended to be limited tools and provide information on some 
flooding risks but not all, but is it true that local emergency 
responders sometimes use FEMA maps to determine which residents 
should be evacuated, and what areas to prioritize after a 
flood? Yes or no?
    Ms. Criswell. Chair Maloney, thank you so much for the 
question, and my heart goes out to those families who lost 
loved ones due to this event.
    As you stated, our flood maps are designed to be tools that 
account for coastal inundation as well as river flooding, and 
they do not take into account the storm sewer systems. As you 
saw, we had a record rainfall in New York which was broken by 
the previous record, which was just a couple of weeks before 
that, and it's a sign that our infrastructure has an 
opportunity to be upgraded and mitigated against, so we can 
prevent future flash flooding urban events like this. And these 
are the type of projects that are eligible under our hazard 
mitigation programs.
    We are going to continue to see these severe rain events 
across the country, and so we need to take action now to help 
mitigate the effects of these types of events.
    Chairwoman Maloney. That is great, and I am sure that the 
localities will be applying for it. And we saw that the storm 
water and drainage systems were overloaded in New York and 
probably across the country too. Will you commit to updating 
flood maps in New York City to better reflect local limitations 
such as storm water and drainage systems?
    Ms. Criswell. Chair Maloney, the flood maps are community 
maps, and we will work with all communities to help updating 
their maps with the information that they have available so we 
can make them more accurate.
    Chairwoman Maloney. Great, great. In addition to updating 
maps, does FEMA provide funds to communities to upgrade storm 
water and drainage systems so that they are more resilient to 
the flooding, such as what we saw with Ida and extreme weather?
    Ms. Criswell. Yes. Some of those upgrades are certainly 
things that could be eligible under our hazard mitigation 
programs. I would encourage communities to check with their 
hazard mitigation specialist to see if they are eligible under 
that program.
    Chairwoman Maloney. And we saw in Hurricane Ida the crucial 
importance of investing in infrastructure before a hurricane 
hits. You noted New Orleans has a special system to reduce 
storm risk, which includes raised levees and fortified flood 
walls. This helped protect New Orleans. New York City has also 
invested in protecting waterfront areas vulnerable to storm 
surges and sea level rise after Hurricane Sandy, but Ida 
brought a different challenge, with more than three inches of 
rain per hour, far more than New York's 100-year-old drainage 
system can handle.
    How can FEMA help New York and other cities assess the new 
climate risks we are facing now? Will FEMA give advice to 
cities across our country on how to become more resilient to 
extreme weather?
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, I think you raise a really great point, 
Chairwoman. Again, the levee systems are designed for certain 
types of events, but as we continue to see more and more of 
these severe rain events that are going to happen across our 
country, we need to start thinking about the future risks that 
our communities are facing. And so we do have technical 
assistance that we would be happy to work with local 
communities to help better understand what their risks are 
today, and the future risks that they are going to face.
    Chairwoman Maloney. And my time is running out, but, 
Administrator, do you agree that it's important that Federal 
agencies, including FEMA, plan ahead for the next disaster, and 
that local communities have a voice in that plan, which is like 
the prep bill that I am introducing today?
    Ms. Criswell. I think it's critical that we continue to 
plan for what the future disasters might be, instead of always 
focusing our efforts on our historical events. As we've seen 
this year, it's going to continue to change, and we're going to 
continue to be faced with more severe events.
    Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you so much.
    And I now recognize the gentleman from Louisiana, which was 
very hard hit. Mr. Higgins is now recognized for five minutes.
    Thank you, Mr. Higgins.
    Mr. Higgins. Thank you, Chairwoman.
    Before I begin my statement and questions, I would like to 
introduce several documents for the record. In the interest of 
time, six of them are local articles, media articles detailing 
FEMA's actions in my district in south Louisiana. One is an 
official FEMA document discussing NFIP risk rating 2.0 changes 
for Louisiana.
    Chairwoman Maloney. Without objection, all are accepted. 
Without objection, all are accepted.
    Mr. Higgins. Thank you, thank you. Thank you, good lady.
    Administrator Criswell, thank you for being here today and 
for visiting Louisiana in late August. Let me clarify that 
virtually every public entity, including Calcasieu Parish 
School Board, Cameron Parish, the Jeff Davis Parish, the Port 
of Lake Charles, and the city of Jennings, have numerous public 
assistance applications still outstanding from the 2020 
hurricane season. This delay in funding has real world 
consequences that forces small and local government entities to 
attempt to fund recovery efforts from very slim margins of 
revenue, and the leveraged state bond funding and other revenue 
streams. The fact that over a year after the initial incidences 
that these cities and towns are still waiting on public 
assistance reimbursements that they qualify for, on some cases, 
even to have FEMA inspectors come and appraise the damage a 
year later is shameful.
    Administrator Criswell, as a Biden administration official 
to participate in oversight hearings and the first as Congress, 
I appreciate you being here. I look forward to our discussions 
with you.
    FEMA's response to the 2020 and 2021 disasters is an issue 
within itself, but our overall Federal response is always 
seemingly late. While politicians and bureaucrats discuss the 
need for better mechanisms to respond to these disasters, the 
answer is definitely not to create more bureaucracy. The 
bureaucracy we have is slow and thick. As we discuss potential 
changes to Federal programs to better respond to future natural 
disasters, meeting the citizens needs should be our top 
concern.
    An increase to focus on timely responses between the 
Federal Government and state and local entities, that should be 
primary, and better coordination and proactive efforts are 
needed.
    Administrator Criswell, I wrote to you on August 10 
regarding Calcasieu Parish School Board's public assistance 
applications. This is an example of the bureaucracy that we are 
frustrated with from FEMA. The school board has two Category A, 
21 Category B, and 82 Category E projects currently 
outstanding. This is from a storm a year ago, ma'am. While some 
of these applications have been approved, there's very few. 
Most of the requests are still outstanding. Jeff Davis Parish 
has $2 million worth of requests. These parishes cannot afford 
to carry that for a year for programs that they qualify for.
    Additionally, regarding FEMA's 50 percent rule, the Port of 
Lake Charles has submitted multiple projects in order to 
receive funding and has yet to receive one validation or 
determination from FEMA.
    Administrator, can you explain why this school district, 
for instance, local governments and others like it in my 
districts, have had to wait, in some cases, over 300 days, to 
receive reimbursement that they clearly qualify for? Is it a 
funding issue? Is it because of inspectors, or is it due to 
bureaucracy, ma'am?
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman Higgins, I certainly appreciate 
your advocacy for your constituents there in Lake Charles. We 
discussed this previously on the Committee on Homeland 
Security, and following that, I did make a trip down to Lake 
Charles. I visited with Mayor Nick Carter to better understand 
some of the struggles that he has been experiencing, and I 
brought my senior leadership team with me so they could 
followup directly.
    Some of the things we learned brand new during that visit, 
and my team has been following up on it. I don't have the 
specifics on the school district that you mentioned, but it's 
taking too long is what it sounds like. So I commit to you that 
my team will continue to work with the representatives there to 
make sure that we are moving this forward as fast as we can. I 
thought that we had made some progress after that visit, but I 
will followup and make sure that it's continuing to move 
forward.
    Mr. Higgins. I thank the administrator for her candid 
answer. We will communicate directly with you and your office, 
ma'am, with further details and specifics.
    Madam Chair, I thank you for holding this hearing today. 
And my time has expired, so I yield.
    Chairwoman Maloney. The gentleman yields back.
    The gentlelady from the District of Columbia, Ms. Norton, 
is now recognized for five minutes.
    Ms. Norton. Thank you, Madam Chair, for this hearing.
    As you indicated in your remarks, this hurricane was felt 
in the Northeast as well. Fortunately, the District of 
Columbia, my district, was spared.
    But, Administrator Criswell, we see a rising number of 
natural disasters. I think that's because of climate change 
and, therefore, increased reliance on the Federal Government. 
Your own National Advisory Council has indicated that the 
public assistance program most benefits communities that can 
afford to pay the required match and can navigate the 
complexities of the contracting agencies.
    So my question is, what actions is FEMA taking to assist 
existing disaster recovery and mitigation programs to ensure 
outcomes are more equitable for all communities, including 
those that cannot afford to pay the required matching funds?
    Ms. Criswell. Congresswoman Norton, thank you for that 
question.
    You know, all of our programs always have opportunity for 
some improvement, and since I arrived here, I have worked with 
my team and directed them to take a people-first approach, and 
remember that we can't have programs that come in with a one-
size-fits-all way of applying our programs. We have to be able 
to understand the needs and the unique needs of individual 
communities and individuals themselves and bring our programs 
to them instead of forcing them to always maneuver their way 
through the bureaucracy.
    We made several programs going into this--or several 
changes going into this hurricane season in order to improve 
the equitable delivery of our individual assistance program. 
This is just the beginning. We are going to continue to look at 
ways that we can reach our communities more equitably, 
understanding that I have seen firsthand how our underserved 
communities, who already have difficulty, are more 
disproportionately impacted after a storm has passed. And, so, 
you have my commitment to continuing to work at our programs to 
find ways that we don't always go with this one-size-fits-all 
approach, and we understand the unique needs of individual 
communities and individuals.
    Ms. Norton. Thank you, Administrator Criswell.
    Indeed, GAO has noted that some communities simply don't 
have the technical staff, engineers, grant managers, the 
necessary capacity, in other words, to submit a complex grant 
application. And as GAO has recommended that FEMA create a 
centralized inventory of hazard mitigation resources on the 
FEMA website, has FEMA developed an inventory of resources yet?
    Ms. Criswell. What we have developed is our mitigation 
action portfolio which provides examples of mitigation projects 
that have been done across the country that can help 
communities better understand the type of projects that could 
be eligible. I am not sure if that's exactly answering the 
question on resources, and if it's not, I will certainly look 
into it and see exactly what you're talking about. But I would 
also like to say that we also provide technical assistance. We 
understand that not all communities have the ability to hire 
somebody to come in and write a competitive grant application, 
which is why we are doing directed technical assistance through 
our new Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities 
program. We offered this to 10 communities touring the first 
round, and we have doubled that to 20 communities, and I have 
been working with our state partners to help identify those 
communities who need this type of assistance the most so we can 
reach those populations that would otherwise not try to apply 
for this type of assistance.
    Ms. Norton. Administrator Criswell, thank you for that.
    The GAO has published a report in which it notes the 
complexity of the application process, the timeliness to grant 
awards and the technical capacity required to successfully 
apply is a problem. What specific opportunities has FEMA 
identified to simplify, or shorten the application process?
    Ms. Criswell. Again, there's a couple of ways that we can 
help communities with this. One is through technical 
assistance. It's one of the key ways that we can help 
communities better understand how to navigate some of the 
complexities. But with other programs, like our Assistance to 
Firefighter Grants program, we have shorter applications for 
smaller amounts that can help get those through quickly.
    But there's always opportunities for us to improve, and I 
have asked my grants section here to take a look, an 
overarching look at all of our grant programs to get a better 
understanding of where we are missing some communities, and 
then understand what the barriers are for them trying to reach 
out and ask for assistance so we can address that root cause of 
the problem.
    Chairwoman Maloney. The gentlelady's time has expired.
    Ms. Norton. I welcome the opportunity for technical 
assistance. And, of course, I yield back.
    Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you.
    The gentleman from South Carolina, Mr. Norman, is 
recognized for five minutes. Mr. Norman.
    Mr. Norman. Thank you, Chairwoman Maloney. And, 
Administrator Criswell, thank you for coming.
    I would like to address your answer to Congressman Higgins, 
but before I do that, you know, Ms. Criswell, you talk about 
crisis. We have got a crisis on the border. In seven months, 
we've had over 170,000 illegals cross the border. It's a 
medical crisis, and it's a military crisis. We've got an 
inflation crisis.
    Ask any American who is paying 40 and 50 percent more for 
gas from foreign countries that don't like us, if that's not a 
crisis, along with the food and everything else that inflation 
is hitting. We have got a military crisis in Afghanistan. You 
know, we have got 13 dead Marines. We have got Americans left 
behind. We have got crises, and this administration has simply 
not addressed them.
    Chairwoman Maloney, as has been mentioned, we've sent three 
letters on having testify before us different people. Why is 
Mayorkas not appearing before us to answer questions? Why is 
General Milley, Austin Blinken not before us answering 
questions? Why is Janet Yellen not here answering questions? 
This administration has simply put this country in a crisis 
mode from the day it took office.
    With that being said, Ms. Criswell, in response to 
Congressman Higgins, in all due respect, ma'am, it's just 
words. If you were in the private sector, you could not give 
the kind of answer that you gave. This is--we are two months, 
three months shy of 2022. He asked you questions about 2020 
that has not been addressed. And you said you would address 
specifics, but why the delay?
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman Norman, recovery takes a long 
time and it's complicated. And when you look at an event like 
Hurricane Laura, followed by Hurricane Delta, there are a lot 
of complicating factors that make it even longer to recover. We 
are working as fast as we can in coordination with our state 
and local partners to assist with their recovery efforts, and 
there's a number of things we can do to help speed that up. We 
can----
    Mr. Norman. Ma'am, in all due respect, when you received a 
request dating almost two years ago, was Louisiana responded 
to, the specific questions? Did your agency respond to each one 
of them?
    Ms. Criswell. I don't have the specifics of a letter 
received two years ago prior to my administration, but I know 
that we have addressed the requests that I have gotten since my 
time here in office.
    Mr. Norman. And you have been here how long?
    Ms. Criswell. I started at the end of April.
    Mr. Norman. And you would have looked over past requests to 
see where it was and why the money hadn't been released. I am 
saying if this would have been in the private sector, you would 
have had a problem.
    My other question to you, President Biden rescinded the 
proclamation declaring a national emergency at our southern 
border. If the crisis at our southern border is not an 
emergency as Biden proclaimed, then why was your agency, the 
Federal Emergency Management Agency, deployed to the southern 
border?
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman, FEMA is really good at 
coordinating across Federal agencies. It's one of the skill 
sets that we bring to the table, and it's one of the things 
that we do best. And in this case, we were asked to come in and 
help coordinate and support our partners at HHS and CBP. We had 
a very limited role. We no longer have a presence in supporting 
that mission, and it's just done now through our normal 
interagency avenues.
    Mr. Norman. How much money has been expended for the 
limited role that you say that FEMA had?
    Ms. Criswell. I don't have the exact dollar amount, but all 
of the funding that FEMA would have incurred has been 
reimbursed by those agencies.
    Mr. Norman. All right. Could you get that--I mean, could 
you get the numbers for us? And could you report on why you 
were there, the dollars that were spent? Are you still there?
    Ms. Criswell. We have nobody that is supporting that 
mission directly. It's all being supported through our normal 
interagency venues.
    Mr. Norman. OK. And is there any other outstanding issues 
with other states that your agency either needs to respond to 
or hasn't responded to?
    Ms. Criswell. Sir, I would have to know specifically what 
types of events you would be talking about, but to my 
knowledge, we are still managing recovery from disasters across 
this country, so we will continue to support those disaster 
response and recovery efforts.
    Mr. Norman. OK. And you led off with the fact that, you 
know, climate change is, you know, an overriding issue, and I 
guess money is no object for combating climate change. Are you 
aware of a study of MIT that said if every Nation complied with 
the Paris Accord, that it would only reduce carbon emissions by 
.2 percent?
    Ms. Criswell. Sir, I am not aware of that study.
    Mr. Norman. OK. That's another thing. Could you take a look 
at it and give us your thoughts on it and give us some idea if 
that's true or not? That's a pretty big statement for them to 
make, and they're not some fly by-night agency.
    Chairwoman Maloney. The gentleman's time has expired.
    Mr. Norman. Thank you, ma'am.
    Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you.
    The gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Connolly, is now 
recognized for five minutes.
    Mr. Connolly.
    Mr. Connolly. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, and thank you so 
much for having this hearing. And, Administrator Criswell, 
welcome.
    And I must say my friend just--Mr. Norman just talked about 
crises when the Biden administration began, and he is 
absolutely right. The Biden administration inherited endless 
crises from the Trump administration, I mean, everything from 
an insurrection at the Capitol to a pandemic that was made so 
much worse by the response or lack of response by the Trump 
administration and by the President himself, Mr. Trump. And, 
oh, by the way, through one other crisis, FEMA. We just voted 
for a continuing resolution and $28 billion in natural disaster 
relief, and 175 of my Republican colleagues voted against it.
    So, Administrator Criswell, if your budget had been zeroed 
out, as apparently some of my colleagues would have it, would 
that have created a crisis for you? And could it create a 
crisis for America in terms of preparedness for disasters and 
response to disasters?
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman, I do appreciate the passing of 
the continuing resolution so we can continue to support the 
American people. You know, any disruption in funding to our 
mission would certainly have an impact on our ability to 
protect the lives of individuals that are faced by disasters.
    Mr. Connolly. So let's be a little more specific. Thank you 
for that diplomatic answer. But you're the administrator of an 
agency that actually does nuts-and-bolts relief and recovery, 
and you're the lead Federal agency for responding to natural 
disasters. I don't know, has the frequency of hurricanes 
reaching land on the Continental United States increased over 
the last decade?
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman, what we are seeing is the number 
of hurricanes, the number of wildfires, the number of severe 
weather events continues to increase. They become more severe, 
more intense. They are intensifying more rapidly, and that's 
only going to continue to get worse.
    Mr. Connolly. So I was looking at some interesting data. In 
2017, three hurricanes of, you know, magnitude 3 or 4, hit 
Continental United States, which I believe was the first time 
that's happened. And the cumulative damage of those three 
events that affected Puerto Rico, Texas, and Florida, was $265 
billion, a record. That's the largest disaster costed out in 
American history.
    And the question is, given climate change, are we--when you 
do your planning, what do your experts tell you, Administrator 
Criswell? Should we expect more, or was this just a fluke and 
we're out of the woods?
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman, I think that we are seeing from 
the impacts of climate change is that we can expect to see more 
events like you just mentioned, which is why it's so important 
right now that we start to think about what these future risks 
are going to be and we invest in mitigation projects so we can 
reduce the impact, the financial cost of these disasters.
    Mr. Connolly. And are you also working with states, 
Administrator Criswell, to do more resiliency planning? You 
know, flooding is more frequent. Tidal surges are bigger and 
more dangerous and damaging. We've seen it even in urban areas 
like New York where the subway system now floods anytime 
there's any kind of major storm because the tidal surges and 
the rise of ocean level are now affecting places like Manhattan 
and shutting down subways.
    Are those events you're planning with local governments and 
state governments in terms of resilience? And, if so, can you 
tell us a little bit about it quickly?
    Ms. Criswell. States and local jurisdictions are required 
to have hazard mitigation plans which address some of the 
concerns that you talked about, and FEMA does provide 
assistance, again through a technical assistance program, and 
we also fund the development of those plans through our hazard 
mitigation grant programs. What we need to do is work with them 
closely to think about, again, what are these future risks that 
you're going to face so the next iteration of their hazard 
mitigation planning is thinking toward the future and what are 
the crises that our children and grandchildren are going to 
face so we can better protect against them.
    Mr. Connolly. Thank you.
    My time is up. I yield back.
    Chairwoman Maloney. The gentleman yields back.
    The gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Keller, is now 
recognized for five minutes.
    Mr. Keller.
    Mr. Keller. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Natural disasters and flooding poses enormous risks to our 
homes, businesses, crops, and infrastructure. They also 
jeopardize the safety and well-being of Americans nationwide. I 
think we can all agree that flood protection and prevention are 
essential tools to mitigate damages caused by severe weather, 
such as hurricanes, tropical storms, and heavy rainfall that 
have the potential to decimate communities like the ones all 
across Pennsylvania, all across our Nation, but particularly in 
the area that I am privileged to represent, Pennsylvania 12. 
Events like Hurricane Ida and other storms that took place this 
year underscore the need for our communities to remain 
resilient when challenged with these storms.
    That all starts with investing in disaster protection. In 
Pennsylvania, the Williamsport Levee is the second largest 
flood control project of its kind. The system protects central 
Pennsylvania from catastrophic flooding of the Susquehanna 
River. The levee system originally completed in 1955 is in 
desperate need of repair. The 2020 Water Resources Development 
Act named the levee as a priority, and Lycoming County's 2018 
County Comprehensive Plan update calls the state of the levee 
system, quote, ``the single greatest threat to maintaining and 
pursuing economic resilience.''
    Commissioner Criswell--or excuse me, Administrator 
Criswell, thank you for being here today. I understand you have 
experience with emergency management in the Northeast, having 
served the state of New York previously. And in many cases in 
New York, there are plenty of river towns like that here in 
Pennsylvania. Do you believe--what do you believe are some of 
the most pressing disaster-related needs for communities like 
the one I represent in Williamsport?
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman, I think the example you gave is 
a really great example of really understanding what our current 
risk is, and looking at the age of our infrastructure. We have 
to understand whether or not the infrastructure that was built 
decades ago is still adequate to support the extreme weather 
events that we are starting to see and will continue to see 
moving forward.
    I think it's critically important for all of us, and we 
have a shared responsibility, to look at what we can do to 
upgrade current infrastructure, or also improve the mitigation 
projects that we have so they can reduce the risk, reduce the 
impacts from this increase in the number of weather events that 
we are seeing.
    Mr. Keller. Yes, I guess I agree with that.
    Are there ways we can streamline items in the project 
delivery process for investments in priority flood protection 
projects, like the one in Williamsport?
    Ms. Criswell. I don't know the specifics about that 
project, but I think that there's always ways that we can work 
together to try to streamline the delivery of projects. If 
there's something specific on that one, I'd be happy to have my 
team get back with you and see what we can do.
    Mr. Keller. I appreciate that because, you know, looking 
back to 1955, you know, we want to be able to lower the risk 
and severe damage from a process standpoint, and that's really 
what we want to look to do. We certainly need that flood 
protection here in central Pennsylvania, around our Nation, 
because it does protect homes, families, businesses, and it's 
so important from that standpoint.
    So if there are things that we can look at and we can do, 
you know, to lower the risk of severe damage by having a 
streamlined process, you know, I would like to be able to work 
with you and your team on that. Again, it will benefit the 
areas that I represent, but, also, many of the people in 
Congress. We certainly need that help. So anything we can do to 
help that along we are willing to work on that.
    Ms. Criswell. Absolutely, Congressman. I'll have my team 
get back and see if there's anything specific we can do.
    Mr. Keller. Thank you. Because, again, you mentioned that, 
you know, these mitigation projects, you know, were completed 
before I was born actually, 1955, but I've been in the area a 
long time, and it's so important that we protect. And that's 
really our job as people who work for the individuals that pay 
our salaries, whether we're in Congress, whether we're at FEMA. 
You know, our responsibility is to the people of the United 
States of America, and we need to make sure that their money is 
being invested to protect their interests.
    So I appreciate the time to be here today. I appreciate you 
being with us, Administrator Criswell, and look forward to 
working with you and your team on these important issues.
    Thank you, and I yield back.
    Chairwoman Maloney. The gentleman yields back.
    The gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Mfume, is now recognized 
for five minutes.
    Mr. Mfume.
    You're muted. Mr. Mfume.
    Is he there? Let's go to Ro Khanna.
    OK. The gentlelady from New York, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, is now 
recognized for five minutes.
    Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Thank you so much, Chairwoman.
    And thank you so much to Administrator Criswell for not 
only joining us today, but even recently coming to visit so 
many of our communities in New York, as well as across the 
country, who are so deeply devastated by Hurricane Ida. And 
also for, in addition to that, your flexibility in 
implementation of our COVID funeral fund program, which has 
helped families all across the country help recover from the 
devastation of the pandemic, in addition to some of the other 
natural disasters we've been seeing across the country.
    Chairwoman, I would like to seek unanimous consent to 
submit a record--to submit to the record the full testimony of 
one of my constituents, Delawar Ahmed, regarding their 
experience post-Hurricane Ida.
    Chairwoman Maloney. Without objection.
    Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Thank you.
    Deluwar, alongside many others, wrote to my office, quote: 
I looked out the window and saw cars uncontrollably adrift 
during the Ida floods. A woman wading waist-deep in the street, 
people yelling for help. These are some of the images that we 
saw across the district. And I strongly believe that FEMA can 
play an active role in mitigating an experience like theirs.
    Now, earlier this year, Administrator Criswell, you told 
The New York Times that the risks we are seeing from climate 
change are the crisis of our generation. And I think that 
you're right. When we look at the numbers after doing some 
digging, according to the agency's data, in 2005, there were 48 
major disaster declarations. That was in 2005, 48 disaster 
declarations. Now, in 2020, there were 104 major disaster 
declarations, more than double that number.
    Now, the climate research commission by the city of New 
York projected that in 2015, the number of days with rainfall 
of at least four inches would increase by as much as 67 percent 
by the end of the decade, and that's compared to the period 
between 1971 to 2000.
    Is FEMA operating and planning ahead with similar 
projections for the climate crisis?
    Ms. Criswell. Congresswoman, thank you again for, you know, 
hosting me in New York City and being able to see some of the 
impacts that we saw or that people experienced from Hurricane 
Ida. Completely devastating to many of those individuals.
    And I think, you know, the data that you just mentioned, 
what that highlights is the thing that I'm stressing here, is 
that we have to stop focusing all of our efforts on historical 
risk--the historical risks that we faced in the past--and look 
to our future risk, and better understand what that future risk 
might be. That's hard to do because it's not tangible. You 
know, you can put your finger on what happened in the past and 
build to that. But we have to be able to be comfortable with 
understanding the potential for the future risk and the 
investments that it's going to take in order to protect against 
that future risk.
    And so I am committed, with my team, to working with locals 
as they are upgrading their mitigation plans, as they are 
looking at what their future risks will be, to help them better 
understand what that future risk, that future threat from 
climate change is going to be.
    Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Thank you so much, Administrator. And if 
you could list some of the measures. You know, one of the 
things I've been thinking about is that as climate change gets 
worse, the way that we're going to have to approach not just 
disaster response, but disaster prevention, is really going to 
have to evolve with the increasing threats that we have, and 
that includes our approach within FEMA.
    And so my question for you is, if you could list some 
measures that would aid or assist in shifting FEMA's role in 
responding to more frequent natural disasters, what would some 
of those measures be? Is it more funding for staff? Is it kind 
of increasing into or growing into disaster prevention? 
Streamline response measures during disaster relief time? 
Internal reorganizations? You know, from your bird's eye view, 
what are some of the things that we need to know on the 
congressional side, whether it's the potential for expanding 
authorizations, et cetera, that you see is going to be 
necessary in the coming years and decades?
    Ms. Criswell. It's a great question. And I think there's 
two things that I would talk about right now. And, one, we used 
to see a very cyclical disaster response cycle where we would 
reset in the wintertime and get ready for the next disaster 
season, and we don't see that any longer. Our team has been 
working hard, and now they are working year-round, to support 
the different types of weather events that we are seeing. And 
that's just going to continue. And so we are taking a hard look 
at how do we now create a year-round disaster work force that 
can keep up with the demand of the disasters that we are 
seeing.
    But I think the only way that in the long term we are going 
to continue to be able to keep up with this is reducing the 
impact so we don't have to respond as much. And the way we do 
that is through mitigation. And so we need to continue to 
educate communities about the importance of reducing the 
impacts, putting in communitywide mitigation projects in order 
to protect their citizens.
    Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. Thank you very much.
    Chairwoman Maloney. The gentlelady yields back.
    The gentlewoman from New Mexico, Ms. Herrell, is recognized 
for five minutes.
    Ms. Herrell.
    Ms. Herrell. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I really 
appreciate this hearing.
    I just want to kind of piggyback on something that my 
colleague, Congressman Norman, said regarding the border, just 
because it is such an important part of this entire process. 
But we know that there is a crisis at the border. And we also--
it is worth noting that 458,000 people came into our Nation 
illegally in the year 2020. But yet, over 1.5 million have come 
in this year so far. So I don't think that this current 
administration inherited a crisis at the border; I think he 
created a crisis.
    But with that being said, Administrator, I would like to 
know, are there policies or decisions that have been made by 
this administration that caused a crisis on the uptick in the 
crossings on the southern border, the illegal crossings?
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman, FEMA's--or, Congresswoman, 
FEMA's role is to support the response to disasters. We do not 
get involved in policy regarding immigration. I would have to 
defer you to the Secretary.
    Ms. Herrell. OK. Thank you. And can you just quickly give a 
couple of examples of how FEMA was able to help provide HHS and 
others support to move the children, the unaccompanied minors, 
out of border protective custody?
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, ma'am. Again, one of the things that 
FEMA does so well is helping to coordinate interagency efforts 
in large complicated structures. And we were able to put a 
process in place that helped them be successful in managing 
that mission. It's how we manage any of the events that we 
respond to, as far as helping with the process, helping with 
the flow, putting the organization in place that can facilitate 
the decisionmaking and setting benchmarks to set standards and 
goals that we wanted to achieve. Through that we were able to 
reduce the amount of time that migrant children were in custody 
and the amount of time that they spent with HHS.
    Ms. Herrell. Great. Thank you. And then, just going back to 
some of the services, this is just more for clarity. And I know 
people don't think of flooding in New Mexico, but, actually, we 
have a large amount of rainfall in some of our areas throughout 
the district. And this is just for clarifying. Some communities 
and counties believe that they cannot ask or apply for FEMA 
grants unless the state declares that specific area an 
emergency. Is that correct or are there programs where counties 
and communities can go directly to FEMA?
    Ms. Criswell. Congresswoman, I'd have to understand more of 
the specifics. They can't apply for public assistance grants 
unless there's a state-declared disaster. But our Hazard 
Mitigation Grant Program, like the BRIC program and the Flood 
Mitigation Assistance program, does not require a state-
disaster declaration. And then there's also our Preparedness 
Grant program.
    So I'd have to know specifically which types of grants that 
they're talking about. I'd be happy to have my team followup 
with you.
    Ms. Herrell. I would really appreciate that. Because we 
have a lot of very small communities that were hit very, very 
hard, and they don't have the income, they don't have the 
ability to do some of these repairs, but it's affecting 
everybody in those communities, but it's not big enough to be 
called a state disaster.
    And I would welcome you to come to New Mexico to look at 
some of our rural communities that have been hit. You know, you 
just don't think of flooding in New Mexico, but it happens, and 
it is devastating for those that live in and around those 
areas. So I appreciate all of your hard work. And the 
invitation is open. So thank you very much. And if you could 
have your people reach out to our office, I would really like 
to maybe push some of this information out to the district that 
I represent.
    Ms. Criswell. Absolutely, ma'am. Thank you for the offer.
    Ms. Herrell. Thank you. Madam Chair, I yield back.
    Chairwoman Maloney. The gentlelady yields back.
    But I would like to respond to your earlier comments. 
Although we do not want to be distracted from today's topic of 
today's hearing, I do want to note that migration across the 
border did not start under President Biden. It started long 
before his Presidency and this Congress. And the cruel child 
separation policy of the Trump administration did nothing to 
address the root causes of the problem, but this is a very 
important hearing on FEMA and its response to Ida.
    So I would now like to call on the gentlelady from 
Michigan, Ms. Tlaib, you are now recognized for five minutes. 
Thank you.
    Ms. Tlaib. Thank you so much, Chairwoman. And thank you, 
Administrator, for being here. Really impressed in the years of 
service that you had within FEMA and, of course, as a 
firefighter for I think over two decades. Very impressive.
    Thank you, Chairwoman, for holding this really critically 
important hearing.
    I know when I talk to my residents, they are not talking to 
me about the broken immigration system when they are saying can 
you get the sewage out of my basement, or, you know, Rashida, 
literally there's a river in front of my home. So I want us to 
really focus on the fact that we haven't invested, I think, the 
critical amount of money, the kind of bold, meaningful 
investment that we need to really address the fact that we have 
a climate crisis in our country.
    But, Administrator, I do want to talk to you about 
something really serious, and I hope that under your leadership 
changes can be made. As you noted in your testimony, flooding 
is the most common, costly natural disaster in the United 
States. I've seen it. My folks have been flooded, I think, four 
times just in the last two months. And your team on the ground 
here have been leading with compassion, and I can't express to 
you how much that means to me representing the third poorest 
congressional district in the country. These are folks that did 
not have any savings, anything to really address--again, they 
had no safety net to address the flooding in their homes and, 
of course, damage to their homes.
    But you know that every five years FEMA is required to 
update their flood maps. Correct?
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, ma'am.
    Ms. Tlaib. And it has to reflect, you know, whether 
properties are at risk for flood damage. And flood maps are a 
critical tool, as you know, to where major decisions are made 
about investment, where folks need flood insurance, where 
critical infrastructure is built, who gets evacuated during a 
flood emergency, as you know.
    So, last year, I know FEMA officials testified during a 
hearing in the House Science Committee that FEMA's flood maps 
may give false impressions to some communities, that they have 
little to no flood risk. We're already seeing that with, you 
know, FEMA officials on the ground can tell you and attest to 
that, Administrator.
    We know that new data released by an organization called 
First Street Foundation, which uses data to provide flooding 
risk levels for individual properties, shows that 8.7 million 
properties are at risk from a 100-year flood than what current 
FEMA maps show. And there have been, you know, other kinds of 
reports afterwards. But, you know, this is serious, and 
anything I can do to be a partner in this. But does FEMA plan 
to update its data and, you know, the method that they use to 
include forward-looking climate projections in its flood maps, 
such as heavy rainfall and sea level rises?
    Ms. Criswell. Congresswoman, thank you for the question. 
And you represent my home state of where I grew up, in 
Michigan, in Manistee, Michigan. So it has a very soft place in 
my heart.
    Flood maps are an incredible tool that we have and, again, 
designed primarily to support the inundation that we're seeing 
from coastal flooding or riverine flooding. They don't 
necessarily reflect the rain events that would cause some of 
the urban flooding that we see. But we work with the 
communities to help them update their community flood maps as 
they need to. And we would be happy to work with communities to 
help incorporate additional data that they may have to better 
portray the risks that they may be experiencing.
    Ms. Tlaib. You know, and I appreciate that, Administrator, 
but I think we need to go farther in providing the capacity. 
Many of them are not--you know, don't have the know-all in 
regards to that. I don't know if it's been a priority in 
pushing the state to maybe provide that capacity. But we are, 
you know, at a point, I think, in our country that we need to 
start thinking about how we do some of the, I think, preventive 
measures in place to making sure people have that safety net, 
that they are covered in regards to flood insurance, in regards 
to infrastructure implementation.
    And I say this sincerely. I--you know, my local 
communities, we're not prepared for this flooding. And I don't 
know how I can go back to them now and say, hey, I need you all 
to figure out, you know, what are the tools, what are necessary 
in regards to figuring that out. If that makes any sense at 
all. Look, I'm a social worker at heart, and I'm a person that 
understands, you know, some of my local communities--my larger 
cities may have more capacity, but my smaller communities, the 
11 that I have that were impacted directly by flooding, really 
don't have that capacity. And I really think FEMA, we need to 
step up and we need to look at these foundations and reports 
that are coming out, and say, let's put some of that data point 
in there in regard to sea levels, in regard to where we've seen 
flooding. And I think we have a really important responsible 
role in not saying let the locals do it. And I know I hear that 
a lot and it is something that I'm learning.
    But, you know, Administrator, please, I'm asking you, let's 
change that culture and let's not, you know, kind of wash our 
hands in regards to the flood mapping. I think we have a role 
here and there is enough information out there that says we can 
do more.
    Ms. Criswell. Yes. I think what you speak of really 
amplifies what I've been saying, is this is the crisis of our 
generation. And we all have a shared responsibility to make 
sure that we are better understanding what the risks are that 
we're going to face in the future. I mean, so, yes, we have a 
lot of work to do, and FEMA has a lot of work as well, to 
support our communities in helping to understand what those 
risks are.
    Chairwoman Maloney. The gentlelady yields back.
    The gentlewoman from Florida, Ms. Wasserman Schultz is now 
recognized for five minutes.
    Ms. Wasserman Schultz. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Administrator Criswell, it's good to see you. And I would 
really be remiss if I didn't start off by thanking you so much. 
You and your incredible team, you personally, Tom McCool, who 
could not have represented FEMA better, nor done more, you 
know, hands-on work than anyone could during the Surfside 
disaster in my congressional district. As you know, we're still 
dealing with that crisis. Families have been torn apart and are 
in crisis. And I appreciate the President's quick reaction, 
your team's help. But just would ask for an opportunity to talk 
with you, because there are some things that we continue to 
need to sort through. And I just have some questions, so if we 
can could followup afterwards, that would really be helpful.
    Ms. Criswell. Absolutely ma'am.
    Ms. Wasserman Schultz. But, primarily, thank you. Thank you 
so much on behalf of my community.
    Shifting to Hurricane Ida, which made landfall in 
Louisiana, and that was a Category 4 hurricane, and then it 
quickly became, as we discussed this morning, one of the most 
devastating natural disasters in U.S. history. And being from 
the state of Florida, I'm obviously quite familiar with the 
experience of the impact of natural disasters and the 
aftermath.
    But in this case, over the course of 24 hours, Ida 
strengthened from a Category 1 to a Cat 4 storm. Winds 
increased to 150 miles per hour, leaving so many people, as we 
heard today, in Louisiana unable to safely evacuate. And that's 
a story that my constituents in Florida are all too familiar 
with.
    As the storm moved across the southeast, up the mid-
Atlantic, to the northeast, as we know its intense rainfall 
brought dangerous conditions to the communities in its path. I 
want to show on the screen a picture of the flooding in 
Louisiana and the flooding in New Jersey.
    So my first question is really just, can you underscore why 
Hurricane Ida caught so many people off guard?
    Ms. Criswell. Congresswoman, I'll start with the fact that 
it intensified so rapidly, as you stated, it went from just a 
tropical wave into a Category 4 hurricane in a very short 
amount of time. And this is what we're starting to see more 
often. And it's giving our state officials less time to be able 
to put their plans in place where they normally, you know, had 
several days to put those plans in place. And that timeframe is 
continuing to get shorter and shorter as these storms intensify 
more quickly.
    Ms. Wasserman Schultz. Yes. And it feels like that, that 
window of opportunity is shrinking so quickly. In New York, 
although the area was bracing for the storm, the city was 
unable to predict the severity of flooding that would hit. And 
FEMA does have an integrated public alert and warning system 
that works in connection with our local alert authorities to 
send out warnings and other alerts related to disasters.
    As the storms came through, emergency alerts blared through 
cell phones and warned residents of dangerous flash floods, 
that they should head for higher ground and stay out of flood 
waters. One of those alerts said, and I quote: This is a 
extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation.
    Do you believe that that system and other warning systems 
worked as intended for Ida? Are there steps that FEMA or local 
governments can take to improve the way information is shared 
about the risks of a pending disaster? Because this was the 
first time that New York had ever issued a flash flood 
emergency.
    Ms. Criswell. Our IPAWS system is an excellent tool that 
really helps to warn individuals across the country for a 
variety of disasters. And it has worked successfully across the 
country. I think when you're in an area that you haven't had to 
use it before, it's hard to really understand what the 
significance might be. And so I think we all have a lot of work 
to do to continue to educate our communities, when we're doing 
our public preparedness campaigns, about the importance of when 
you do get an alert like this, that you need to take it 
seriously.
    But at the same time, we also have a lot of work to do to 
continue to educate our communities about what their risks 
might be so they know, when something happens, what are your 
unique risks to you where you live and what type of alerts 
should you be looking out for.
    Ms. Wasserman Schultz. And then just one last question, 
because there's so many long-term strategies that we need to 
take, but investing in climate resilience is definitely one of 
them. And as a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, I 
always use my position to push for greater funding for the 
Weather Service, the Hurricane Center programs like the 
National Mesonet.
    How does FEMA work with NOAA and the National Weather 
Service to get the scientific data and forecasts and translate 
those into public warnings? And is there more that can be done 
to encourage residents of our most vulnerable communities to 
prepare for storms or other severe weather events?
    Ms. Criswell. NOAA and the National Weather Service and the 
National Hurricane Center are such amazing partners of ours. 
And, you know, we have a morning daily operations call that 
they are part of to let us know what the current threats are. 
But we also work with them, and we are working really closely 
with NOAA right now as they are trying to identify what the 
future risks from climate change are going to be, to develop 
tools for local communities to better plan for what these 
impacts are going to be so that they can put the proper plans 
in place.
    So we will continue to work closely with them to try to 
develop these types of products so we can get additional 
information into the hands of these communities.
    Ms. Wasserman Schultz. Thank you so much.
    And, Madam Chair, I thank you for having this important 
hearing.
    Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you. The gentlelady yields back.
    The gentleman from Georgia, Mr. Johnson, is now recognized 
for five minutes.
    Mr. Johnson?
    Mr. Johnson. Thank you, Madam Chair, for holding this 
hearing.
    And it's well documented that natural disasters exacerbate 
inequality. Communities of color are disproportionately 
vulnerable to the harmful effects of flooding, wildfires, and 
tornados. Moreover, people of color are more likely to die from 
the negative effects of climate change.
    When Hurricane Ida struck New Orleans, predictably, Black 
Americans and non-White communities suffered the brunt of the 
devastation. Hurricane Ida is yet one more example in a long 
history of poor marginalized communities getting 
disproportionately hurt by natural disaster. That's why when it 
comes time to rebuild in the wake of a natural disaster, the 
Federal Government should prioritize rather than deprecate 
historically marginalized neighborhoods.
    It's common for many Black families to hold title to what's 
known as heir property. When a property owner dies without a 
will, their home and land is passed down over generations to 
their heirs and land title becomes cloudy. Because of an array 
of racist policies in the past, Black Americans particularly in 
the South were precluded from the legal system and unable to 
obtain deeds and titles to their land.
    How is FEMA meeting the needs of historically oppressed 
communities who are unable to abide by existing guidelines 
which were designed to exclude them? And what changes have been 
made to ensure that those who can't show clear title to their 
homes can receive disaster assistance from FEMA?
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman, you raise such an important 
question. And it's something that, when I came into office, I 
started to hear about, and I knew that we could do better. And 
so I challenged my team here to see how we could better provide 
assistance to survivors. And we made some significant changes 
going into hurricane season to better help with the issues that 
you raise about heir rights.
    And so what we have done is we have changed and expanded 
quite significantly the types of documentation that we will 
accept from individuals to prove homeownership or even to prove 
occupancy. That can range from paying your tax bill, to utility 
bills, a statement from your landlord in a mobile home 
community, a wide variety of types of documents that can be 
accepted now.
    The other big change that we have done as well in part of 
my effort to try to bring services to survivors to bring our 
help to where the people are instead of making them come to us, 
in the past, if somebody didn't pass that verification through 
our online system or on the phone, we would immediately send 
them a denial letter. Now what we're doing is if they can't 
pass on that first step, if they haven't been able to identify 
the type of documentation, even with this expanded amount, we 
will still send a building inspector to them personally. And if 
they can see the type of documentation upon arrival, then 
they'll just check that off in the system.
    And so that has--what we're seeing in Hurricane Ida has 
increased dramatically the amount of people that have not had 
to go through the laborious process of trying to appeal their 
determination that they did not own the property or they were 
not a resident or an occupant on the property.
    This is just the beginning. We're going to continue to make 
changes for how we can equitably deliver our programs, meet 
people where they're at, and understand that we can't have a 
program and a process that's a one-size-fits-all approach.
    Mr. Johnson. Thank you, Ms. Criswell.
    Georgia has the sixth highest population of renters and 
ranks among the top 10 for states most at risk for a natural 
disaster. And renters applying for assistance through FEMA have 
to go through a very long process before they can get 
assistance. What's being done to reduce the wait period for 
renters who are displaced?
    Ms. Criswell. I think, Congressman, some of the things that 
may have delayed their process is, again, being able to prove 
that they are occupants or renting a certain residence. Those 
are some of the changes that we made to our program. If there's 
anything else that's specific that you're aware of that's 
slowing down their process, I'd be happy to have my team get 
with you to better understand the challenges your constituents 
are facing in Georgia.
    Mr. Johnson. All right. Thank you so much for your 
testimony today and for your actions in streamlining the 
process so that more people can receive assistance.
    And I yield back, Madam Chair.
    Chairwoman Maloney. The gentleman yields back.
    And the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Cloud, is recognized for 
five minutes.
    Mr. Cloud. Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Administrator 
Criswell, for being here today.
    I come from a district that was dramatically affected by 
Hurricane Harvey. And so we've spent the last four years 
working to help our communities recover from that. I know 
today's about Ida, but I think some of the lessons we've 
learned from FEMA or some of the questions we have certainly 
would be applicable to any disaster that we're dealing with. So 
wanted to thank you for appearing here today.
    One of the issues I wanted to ask about was the definition 
of ``resilience.'' One of the major issues Congress intended to 
address in the Disaster Recovery and Reform Act of 2018 was 
that under the law at the time, the public assistance program 
was designed to assist communities rebuilding and to rebuild 
back to--at the time, it was to the precondition of what it 
was. And what we found ourselves was kind of in a loop where we 
would rebuild to a standard that would not withstand 
potentially the next storm.
    And so Congress directed that we begin to rebuild toward 
resiliency for future disasters. But there was supposed to be a 
rule for what resiliency met that was to be defined by April 5 
of 2020, and final guidance for 90 days after that. To date, 
that has not been issued.
    Could you let us know, in writing within the next 14 days 
or so, when we can expect that rule to be finalized so we have 
the critical definition of ``resiliency''? I know some people 
are having their claims denied based on resiliency, but that 
term is still left undefined. And so could you commit to get us 
a timeline for that?
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman, I'll have to get with my team. 
But, yes, I commit to getting you a timeline for what the 
status is on that.
    Mr. Cloud. OK. I really appreciate that. That would be a 
big help.
    And one issue that has been, you know, probably an issue 
for decades it would seem, but for a long time has been just 
the staffing and the turnover. I know many of the people in our 
district, some are on there in the matter of four years on 
their twelfth program delivery manager. It's made dealing with 
these applications very, very difficult. For example, the 
Refugio ISD superintendent wrote us a letter saying: As you're 
aware, the rebuilding of the school facilities has been slow, 
tedious, and frustrating. Two Refugio ISD employees, the 
District's architect, and I have spent nearly four years daily 
navigating the FEMA process, and, to date, have received only 
$382,488 of the between $15 million and $20 million in damages. 
With 12 program delivery managers cycling through our case, 
this has been an--there has never been an opportunity to really 
make any ground.
    And so, I've heard of similar cases. Oftentimes, we've had 
a recovery--or a team come and do a site visit at a particular 
site, seven different teams, for example, come up and show up.
    Will there be--do you foresee any sort of solution, or 
what's FEMA doing to deal with the employee turnover or at 
least to deploy the employees we have for a longer term than--
for a longer term in the field?
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman, I appreciate your insights. You 
know, and part of it is, especially when we're talking about 
four years, there will be some change in staff as we go through 
the years. And these complicated projects that you're talking 
about do take a long time to get through the recovery process. 
But I understand the concern, as a previous local emergency 
manager, how frustrating it is when you have to start over in 
explaining your story and where you are at in the process. I 
will work with my team to figure out if there's----
    Mr. Cloud. Right.
    Ms. Criswell [continuing]. A way to provide greater 
consistency for your folks down there as they're continuing 
their recovery process from Harvey.
    Mr. Cloud. Well, thank you. And do you know if there's been 
any sort of report on how--you know, it would seem to me that 
we're taking a much longer time processing these claims and 
that there's kind of a built-in waste, a built-in cost increase 
in recovery due to some of the staffing issues and how we're 
deploying them. And I would be very interested if FEMA could 
look into that and maybe provide a report to us on what we can 
do to streamline that. Not only will it provide better customer 
service, so to speak, but it would also, I think, help us be 
mush more efficient with taxpayer dollars in administrating 
this recovery program. So is that something that you all could 
work on?
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, Congressman. I think anything we can do 
to improve the customer experience is worth our research, and 
so I would be happy to have my team look into that.
    Mr. Cloud. OK. Well, thank you.
    Chairwoman Maloney. The gentleman's time has expired. Thank 
you so much.
    And now the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Raskin, is now 
recognized for five minutes.
    Mr. Raskin. Thank you, Madam Chair. Can you hear me now?
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, sir.
    Mr. Raskin. All right. So, Administrator Criswell, thank 
you very much for your intense focus on this civilizational 
emergency that we're in. It is clearly a code red for humanity. 
And as President Biden said in touring the damage of Hurricane 
Ida, the Nation and the world are at peril.
    We are seeing an increasing frequency of natural disasters 
but also an increasing destructive velocity of the natural 
disasters that are coming. NOAA began tracking billion dollar 
extreme weather events in 1980. Since then, they have visited 
more than $1.975 trillion in damages on the country. And here's 
the amazing thing to me: Between 1990 and 1999, the average 
number of billion dollar extreme weather events was five per 
year. But in the last five years, between 2016 and 2020, as you 
can see on this chart, that number has jumped to 16 per year. 
So the number of extreme weather events has tripled just in the 
last two decades.
    Now, you've made climate risk reduction one of your top 
priorities. What is FEMA actually doing now to measure our 
progress in efforts to reduce the risks posed by climate 
change?
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman, that is such an important graph 
that you showed, and it demonstrates how we are now in the 
crisis of our generation, that the climate crisis is going to 
continue to get worse, and I think that we'll continue to see 
that number of billion dollar disasters only increase as we go 
further.
    We are investing in mitigating, in reducing the impacts. 
The President has authorized close to $5 billion this year to 
help communities reduce the impacts that they're seeing from 
climate change. And we have to continue on that path forward. 
It takes a long time for the mitigation projects to get 
completed. And so we have to continue to work with our 
communities to better understand their risks and ensure that 
we're getting this money in the hands of those people that need 
it the most.
    Mr. Raskin. Will you help me understand this: When we say 
``mitigation,'' what are we talking about exactly? Are we 
talking about the kind of things that my friend, Congressman 
Higgins, is talking about, which is the aid that comes after a 
disaster has hit, or are we talking about readiness, about 
getting ready in advance, knowing that, you know, there will be 
another hurricane coming to hit Lake Charles soon?
    Ms. Criswell. It is a combination of both. Our Building 
Resilient Infrastructure and Communities Grant program is pre-
disaster mitigation funding, but our Hazard Mitigation Grant 
program is funding that's available after a disaster, but it 
can be used for any type of risk that they're facing. It 
doesn't have to be directly related to the incident that they 
had just experienced.
    What we have to do is help communities understand the best 
way to make these communitywide investments to reduce these 
impacts from future threats.
    Mr. Raskin. I want to ask you a rather odd question, 
Administrator Criswell. I want to ask you about polarization 
and division in American society. I know that's not directly 
under your jurisdiction, but in some sense I think that FEMA 
can be the place where we bring America back together.
    Do you agree with me that the risk in extreme weather 
events, both the new frequency of the events and the extreme 
velocity of these events should be bringing people together 
across geographic lines, sectional lines, political party, and 
ideology lines?
    And related to that, extreme weather is obviously the 
problem being caused by climate change, but as my friend, Mr. 
Higgins, said, there is a problem of extreme bureaucracy that 
Americans have complained about from the beginning of our 
Republic and we want to make sure government is working for the 
people. But there's also a problem, isn't there, of extreme 
propaganda and extreme denialism around climate change? And 
can't we all gather together through the good work of FEMA, 
through hurricane and disaster readiness, to bring the country 
together? Is there a way that this can be the source of unity 
for us?
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman, I think that we all have a 
shared responsibility to help ensure that we are protecting our 
Nation from the risks from future events so our children, our 
grandchildren, and future generations will not have to go 
through what we're going through now.
    Disasters don't discriminate where they're going to land. 
They're not red or blue. And we do have a shared responsibility 
to work together to make sure that we have the environment that 
we need to support our future generations.
    Mr. Raskin. Right. Well, I appreciate that very much. I 
thank you for your hard work. And, you know, there was an 
attempt to say that the disasters that have been inherited by 
the Biden administration were caused by the Biden 
administration. I was glad my friend, Mr. Connolly from 
Virginia, corrected that. I will resist the opportunity to say 
that the entire last Presidency was a disaster and hope that 
the situation we're in will bring all of us together as a 
country.
    I yield back, Madam Chair.
    Chairwoman Maloney. The gentleman's time has expired.
    The gentleman from Wisconsin, Mr. Grothman, is recognized 
for five minutes.
    Mr. Grothman, you're recognized.
    Mr. Grothman. Yes. Here I am. Can you hear me?
    Chairwoman Maloney. You're here. OK, good.
    Mr. Grothman. OK. Couple of general questions. You know, 
one of the criticisms always is the degree to which are we 
rebuilding or, you know, rebuilding the same areas again and 
again and again. I want your general opinion, do we have a 
problem here in that, you know, some--there's some building 
going on in areas that you could anticipate are going to have a 
problem again in the next 10 years?
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman, we need to take a concerted 
effort at making sure we know where the risks are. And people 
understand, if they choose to build in a place, they understand 
what the risks are going to be and what the potential impacts 
might be. We need to help provide that information and educate 
our population on what those risks are.
    Mr. Grothman. Well, I think the thing I'm looking for is, 
is it reflected in premiums? Are we doing something to make 
sure that people are in particularly precarious areas, that we 
are not rebuilding there? Are you doing anything along those 
lines?
    Ms. Criswell. What I can say is that our new Risk Rating 
2.0, certainly the risk of where people build is reflected in 
their insurance premium in a way that it hasn't been before. 
And so those that are in greater risk areas will have a higher 
premium.
    Mr. Grothman. On the other side, in my district, I'm dating 
back to my days as a lawyer, we always felt that there were 
people who did have very high premiums, and just subjectively 
looking at it, there's no way anything was going to happen 
there in 100 years. But for whatever reason, lack of common 
sense or whatever, they were considered to be in the flood 
plain.
    Are you doing anything in which some people are peeling off 
from that or not?
    Ms. Criswell. I don't know that I completely understand 
your question.
    Mr. Grothman. OK. As I understand it, they require flood 
insurance if you're in a flood plain. Correct?
    Ms. Criswell. Correct.
    Mr. Grothman. And there are areas designated flood plain 
that, you know, you could talk to somebody, they go back to 
their grandmother, who never remembers any floods in that area 
or close to floods. Nevertheless, somebody, when they drew the 
line said this is a flood plain. So they're stuck paying for 
this insurance on something that everybody in the area believes 
will never happen in a million years.
    Have you guys, over time, taken into that account and tried 
to remove people from flood plain who perhaps were erroneously 
put in it over a period of time?
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman, again, I think that goes to the 
new release of our Risk Rating 2.0, where it takes an 
individual homeowner's particular risk into effect. And so if 
somebody does not have a risk that they were paying for before, 
then their rates would go down.
    Mr. Grothman. I understand. I mean, the question is, have 
you peeled anybody out of flood plain that in the past was 
considered flood plain?
    Ms. Criswell. I'd have to get back to you on the specifics. 
But as our flood maps are updated, those types of data are 
incorporated into the risk premiums.
    Mr. Grothman. I would like for you to get back to me.
    Now, I think Representative Higgins has a very interesting 
question, a spellbinding question.
    Representative Higgins, I yield my time.
    Mr. Higgins. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
    Ma'am, regarding Risk Rating 2.0, respectfully, members of 
the Louisiana delegation have written several letters to your 
agency. And this may predate your service, and I respect that, 
but would like some answers on this. The quote from a FEMA 
document stated that 97 percent of current policyholders' 
premiums will either decrease or increase by about $20 a month 
under Risk Rating 2.0.
    We know this is not true. We're seeing example after 
example after example of extreme variances in policy expense; 
sometimes going from maybe $500 a year to $2,000, $3,000, 
$4,000, $5,000, $7,000 a year. There's some incredible 
disparities between reality of the implementation of Risk 
Rating 2.0 and what was expected and projected and communicated 
by FEMA as that legislation was passed.
    So I ask, can you respond to that, please, to this 
committee, like, formally? And can we get a commitment from you 
today that FEMA will consider delaying the implementation of 
Risk Rating 2.0 until we get solid answers about the realities 
of what it really means to American citizens that carry 
National Flood Insurance Program policies.
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman----
    Chairwoman Maloney. Time has expired. The gentleman's time 
has expired.
    You may answer his question.
    Mr. Higgins. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman, we can certainly get back to you 
with any of the specific information, but Risk Rating 2.0 has 
been implemented, and already individuals are seeing decreases 
in their insurance rates, which is the first time that this 
program has taken equity into account to make sure people are 
paying for the risk that they have.
    Chairwoman Maloney. The gentleman's time has expired. He 
yields back.
    The gentlewoman from Missouri, Ms. Bush, is now recognized 
for five minutes.
    Ms. Bush.
    Ms. Bush. I thank you, Madam Chair, for convening this 
important hearing today.
    Hurricane Ida was yet another graphic example of how 
unprepared our Nation is for increasingly dangerous climate 
disasters driven by fossil fuels. For communities like mine 
that have already been hurting for decades, we do not have the 
room for these new challenges of flooding and heat waves and 
more. Like those that were destroyed or severely damaged by 
Ida, our community faces more and more climate risk every day.
    Administrator Criswell, numerous FEMA disaster programs are 
not targeted to those in greatest need. Poor program design 
combines with unequal access to resources to worsen every 
single climate disaster that hits this country. For example, 
when FEMA conducts damage assessments after storms, they are 
measured based on proper ownership. This focuses relief 
programs on wealthier parts of a community as opposed to the 
renters and unhoused neighbors most in need of support. 
Similarly, the National Flood Insurance Program only supports 
people who can afford to buy flood insurance; almost precisely 
the opposite of how this program should work.
    Transforming this program would mean saving lives. FEMA's 
relief program that is available immediately after a disaster 
is out of reach for frontline communities. FEMA's National 
Advisory Council described their program as being, and I quote, 
more accessible to those with time, income, and access.
    Thank you for being vocal about your commitment to 
improving equity in FEMA programs. I was very, very glad to see 
the recent change in FEMA policy that would allow Black 
families in the south who did not have a formal deed or a proof 
of homeownership to access disaster assistance.
    But can you explain how this policy change will 
specifically help Black, Brown, and indigenous families?
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, Congresswoman. It's so important that we 
don't overcomplicate the system that is already complicated and 
that we don't try to use, again, this one-size-fits-all 
approach, because everybody's situation is specific to them and 
unique to them. And it's so important for us to make sure that 
we understand that and that we put people first.
    The changes that we have made so far, we're already seeing 
big improvements in the number people that are deemed eligible 
for our programs, meaning that they didn't have to go through 
that laborious process of trying to appeal what we would have 
normally denied. These are only the beginning of the changes.
    We're continuing to look at our program. So the heir 
rights, the property ownership is just the start. We're going 
to continue to see where have we taken this cookie-cutter 
approach and need to adjust it so we can better understand the 
unique needs of specific communities as we deliver our 
services. And I'd be happy to work with your team on any 
suggestions you have in things that you've seen.
    Ms. Bush. Thank you. Well, it's an excellent policy change 
that we know will benefit many people. We need to expand it to 
St. Louis, my home, and across the country, as we develop 
further fundamental reforms to problematic FEMA programs.
    What other examples of changes that FEMA has made or 
intends to make that will improve equity in disaster relief? 
Can you give us some examples?
    Ms. Criswell. I think the other example that I would give 
is that we also change the cost threshold for determining 
whether or not you would be eligible for direct housing. We 
used to have a fixed dollar amount for that threshold which 
left many homeowners that had a smaller amount of damage 
ineligible for our program. And so now we've changed that to a 
cost per square foot, which is really starting to effect our 
lower-income populations and so they become eligible for our 
direct housing program. Again, just one small example of how 
we've taken this cookie-cutter approach that we've been in the 
past and made it unique and specific to the individuals' needs.
    Ms. Bush. Thank you. Thank you.
    The Biden administration also launched an important 
initiative by selecting two of FEMA's predisaster programs to 
be piloted under the Justice40 program. Justice40, you know, is 
the whole-of-government effort to ensure that Federal agencies 
work with the states and local communities to deliver that 
minimum of 40 percent of the overall benefits to frontline 
communities. The stakeholder engagement plan and plans have 
maximized benefits among those that are supposed to be 
developed already. So how will engagement with impacted 
disadvantaged communities inform your assessment?
    Ms. Criswell. We are very excited to be part of the 
Justice40 initiative. And it's part of our BRIC program and our 
Flood Mitigation Assistance program that we are incorporating 
that into.
    We have adjusted our scoring criteria to give greater 
points to underserved communities. And we're working with our 
state partners and through our Technical Assistance Program to 
get the message out there and reach out to our stakeholders so 
they understand the importance of having more individuals that 
are part of these communities apply for this type of 
assistance. We're looking forward to seeing where we can 
include this in additional program in the future, but very much 
looking forward to seeing how the results of this round of our 
BRIC funding and FMA funding go.
    Ms. Bush. Wonderful.
    Chairwoman Maloney. The gentlelady's time has expired, 
regretfully.
    Ms. Bush. Thank you.
    Chairwoman Maloney. She yields back.
    The gentleman from Vermont, Mr. Welch, you're now 
recognized for five minutes.
    Mr. Welch. Thank you very much.
    And welcome, Administrator Criswell. Thank you. You have 
one of the most important jobs. And we've benefited here in 
Vermont during tropical storm Irene with the extraordinary work 
that FEMA did. So we're grateful.
    Actually, what Jamie Raskin said too is something I think 
all of us feel, at the time we need them, FEMA shows up. It is 
something that can unify us; obviously a good thing.
    The topic I want to discuss is the grid. It's not directly 
under your control, obviously, but the breakdown in the grid 
and the challenges to the grid and the necessity for upgrading 
the grid. I want to ask about what the impact would be with 
respect to the scope and scale of what you have to contend with 
after a big storm, an event like Ida.
    So maybe you can start by describing what the impact was on 
families and communities after Ida because of the long-term 
shutdown of the grid and how that impacted them and how it made 
the challenge you and your folks at FEMA had to contend with.
    Ms. Criswell. Yes. Congressman, the power grid is so 
important to keep the communities moving, and the sooner we can 
get the power turned back on, the sooner their recovery begins. 
And so what we see is that, as it continues to delay getting 
the power turned back on, these communities have such an 
increased amount of time for their recovery.
    What we saw during Hurricane Ida was hospitals having to be 
evacuated, communities having to be evacuated, and that all 
puts a toll on their families and on their communities. And so 
we need to be able to, you know, work with our private sector 
partners to help them get back online quicker, if we can.
    But it's also an example of how our infrastructure in many 
places is so outdated. And we have to invest in improving our 
infrastructure so it can withstand this increasing number of 
severe weather events that we're going it to continue to see.
    Mr. Welch. So this power outage situation we faced in Ida, 
how long did that last in some communities?
    Ms. Criswell. I think that there's some communities, some 
smaller communities, that are still without power in southern 
Louisiana, but many parts of the state, they were without power 
for several weeks.
    Mr. Welch. So just on a practical level, if a family can't 
go back to its house, they can't stay in the house once the 
storm subsides, that's an added burden for the resources of 
FEMA to just help those folks have shelter and food and warmth 
or cooling, whichever the case may be?
    Ms. Criswell. I wouldn't state that it's a burden for FEMA. 
That's the type of support that we provide the communities to 
help them during their recovery process. It's certainly a 
burden on the family that's been impacted. But we do have the 
resources and the tools necessary to provide that temporary 
lodging to assist them.
    Mr. Welch. Yes. And you were good to correct me on the use 
of the word ``burden'' with FEMA, because whatever the need is, 
that's your job, and I get that. But it does mean that the 
needs that that family has and that community has are greater, 
because they can't get back into their house and get things put 
back together, correct?
    Ms. Criswell. Absolutely. And it just delays their overall 
recovery process, making it that much longer for them.
    Mr. Welch. You know, let me ask you about that. Because I 
think great resilience and modernization is essential, but, you 
know, when we had Hurricane Irene, the families were able to 
get back in, even though the house was a mess, there was mud 
there, they had to start digging it out. My observation was 
that there was a lot of hope that they had that they're on the 
road to getting back to normal. Whereas, if somebody's out of 
their home for, not two days, but two weeks or two months, then 
that hope begins to fade.
    Tell me whether that's a fair assessment, in your 
experience.
    Ms. Criswell. Sir, I would think that that is a fair 
assessment. You know, people want to be able to start 
recovering quickly. And when they are prevented from doing 
that, it causes additional despair for those families.
    Mr. Welch. OK. I thank you very much for your good work.
    And I yield back.
    Chairwoman Maloney. The gentleman from Maryland, Mr. 
Sarbanes, is now recognized.
    Mr. Sarbanes.
    Mr. Sarbanes. Thanks very much, Madam Chair. Can you hear 
me OK?
    Ms. Criswell. Yes.
    Mr. Sarbanes. Yes.
    Thank you, Administrator Criswell. I really appreciate the 
testimony, as I know everybody does, today. And thank you for 
your good and important work.
    As you know, Hurricane Ida, obviously, it did huge damage 
in many parts of the country, but that included Maryland as 
well. On September 1, it came through the state of Maryland and 
damaged hundreds of homes and businesses. Unfortunately, it 
even claimed the life of a resident of Rockville, Melkin 
Cedillo.
    I'm very grateful to the President and to you for granting 
the Maryland delegation's request to FEMA for Federal disaster 
assistance through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program, which 
you spent a lot of time today talking about. That was granted 
on September 13. And last week, I joined the Maryland 
delegation in urging the President to approve the state of 
Maryland's request for Presidential disaster declaration for 
individual assistance to Anne Arundel County, which I represent 
in Congress, and to Cecil County, which were hit by severe 
flooding and a tornado, in fact, and Hazard Mitigation Grant 
Program assistance for all jurisdictions in Maryland, so that, 
you know, our residents, like many others in these various 
states, can get the assistance that they need. This is Federal 
assistance. It's very necessary. It's warranted. I hope it can 
be expeditiously reviewed and granted.
    But I want to talk about the grant program a little bit, 
because as I understand it, FEMA provides for up to 75 percent, 
it's a cost share situation, so the Federal Government provides 
75 percent of eligible project costs, and then states and 
communities cover the remaining share.
    Do you know--has there been discussion, do you know what 
the capacity is--I mean, obviously, there's a budget dimension 
to it, but can you give us some insight into the potential for 
FEMA to increase the Federal cost share to pick up more of the 
tab for the HMGP program, which would make it more likely that 
states and localities who have budget crunches could respond to 
current disasters and better prepare for future ones?
    Obviously, this may not be critical in every instance, but 
there's going to be situations where communities are going to 
be either reluctant or incapable of accessing the program's 
benefits because of the cost share obligation. And I wondered 
if you could speak to any kind of thinking or review on that 
front.
    Ms. Criswell. Thank you for raising that question.
    The HMGP program is such an amazing tool to help 
communities again fight against the risks that we are seeing 
and prevent future damages from the severe weather events. I 
have heard from many people across the country that they do 
have a struggle meeting the cost share requirement.
    That cost share requirement is set forth in the Stafford 
Act, and so, that's not something that we can change. However, 
I think that there's work that we can do to figure out how we 
can help communities partner and try to find other funding 
sources that, perhaps, could be available to help them with 
that. And, you know, I'm going to be meeting with state 
directors to have this same conversation on how do we help 
communities take advantage of this critical resource so they 
can start to invest in their future risk.
    Mr. Sarbanes. I appreciate that. I mean, any 
recommendations? I mean, there may have to be statutory changes 
there to make it work better, but any recommendation that you 
can offer us based on the data that you're gathering up from 
across the country that may show an uneven opportunity to take 
advantage of the Hazard Mitigation Program I think would be 
very, very helpful.
    And, again, I just want to thank the President for 
committing an historic amount to this Hazard Mitigation Fund, I 
think about $3.5 billion, to reduce the effects of climate 
change, which we know is the most pressing factor in all of 
this.
    You know, Annapolis, over the last 50 years, has 
experienced an incredible increase in nuisance flooding, which 
closes road, it overwhelms storm water drains, damages 
infrastructure. It's one of the most extreme impacts we see in 
the country. In fact, today, Annapolis expects over 50 flooding 
events every year now, up from an average of four annual 
flooding events just 50 years prior, so we are very focused on 
this.
    Thank you for your good work. Thank you for recognizing 
that climate change is this huge impact that we have to both 
prepare for, and have resilience for, but, obviously, take 
proactive steps to curb that trajectory.
    And with that, I yield back. Thank you.
    Chairwoman Maloney. The gentleman yields back.
    And the gentlewoman from Massachusetts, Ms. Pressley, is 
recognized for five minutes.
    Ms. Pressley. Thank you, Madam Chair, for convening this 
important and timely hearing.
    Certainly, natural disasters are disruptive and traumatic 
life events. To suddenly lose your home, your savings, family 
heirlooms, or even the lives of loved ones has devastating 
impacts on survivors' mental health. When this trauma is left 
unaddressed, survivors can develop drastic mental health 
consequences. In fact, experiencing a natural disaster by age 
five is associated with six percent--a 16 percent increase in 
mental health or substance use issues in adulthood. Again, 
experiencing a natural disaster by age five is associated with 
a 16 percent increase in mental health or substance use issues 
in adulthood. A large-scale study of earthquake survivors found 
that one in four had PTSD.
    Fortunately, Administrator, FEMA already does have a 
program in place that assists territories and tribes after a 
disaster to address the immediate mental health impacts. 
Administrator Criswell, can you please tell us what the Crisis 
Counseling Program is, and how FEMA has worked with localities 
to help survivors in communities across the country?
    Ms. Criswell. Thank you, Congresswoman.
    Our mental health is so important, both for disaster 
survivors, as well as I stress it for my employees as well, and 
our Crisis Counseling Program is definitely a tool that is 
available to help disaster survivors manage the stress and cope 
with the losses that they've experienced from this disaster. 
It's a program that's available under the Individual Assistance 
Program when that is authorized for major disaster declaration, 
and executed by the state, a really important resource 
available to help individuals that have been impacted by a 
disaster.
    Ms. Pressley. Thank you.
    And I thank you also for including your staff in that. You 
have to heal the healers as well.
    This lifesaving program has been deployed nationwide in 
response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in Puerto Rico following 
Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and in New York, following September 
11 terrorist attacks, to name a few. However, there are many 
people who survive disasters from terrorist attacks to mass 
violence and natural disasters that can't take advantage of 
this program.
    Administrator Criswell, can you--as you know, there are two 
types of disaster declarations, major disasters and emergency 
declarations. Is the Crisis Counseling Program currently 
available following emergency declarations?
    Ms. Criswell. Congresswoman, no, it is not currently 
available for emergency declarations.
    Ms. Pressley. OK. Well, I would like to, you know, implore 
you to make that change. I think it should be available under 
both declarations. Over the last decade alone, there have been 
more than 4,000 emergency declarations in the United States. 
And I represent Boston, and the Boston Marathon attack--you 
know, the ripple effect of that trauma, some of it was 
immediately manifesting, but some manifested later, and I think 
it's time to ensure survivors of all disasters can access 
counseling and be connected to long-term mental health 
services.
    I appreciate your agency has worked with me already on my 
proposal to expand the program to emergency declarations and 
that FEMA does not foresee any hindrances to providing crisis 
counseling to help more people.
    We would love to followup with you beyond this hearing and 
would love to hear your response to that.
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, ma'am. We would be happy to continue 
providing technical drafting assistance on making that change, 
again, so important that we're taking care of the mental health 
of those people that have been impacted by these traumatic 
events.
    Ms. Pressley. I did also want to ask you, because I always 
seek to engage those closest to the pain, Manya Chylinski, 
who's a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing, she shared her 
story in May that she wishes the assistance provided under the 
Crisis Counseling Program had existed for her eight years ago. 
So it really is time, again, to ensure that survivors of all 
disasters can access counseling and be connected to long-term 
mental health services.
    So look forward to being in touch with you about that.
    In what little time I have remaining, if you could respond 
to, you know, what are the provisions and what are the plans 
for those that are disabled, those that are incarcerated, and 
those that are hospitalized when it comes to a major disaster 
or an emergency declaration. Are there any protocols in place, 
any plans?
    Ms. Criswell. I don't know that I'm understanding 
specifically what you're asking, but our disaster response 
programs, when we respond to incidents, it's to help all people 
that have been impacted by those disaster. We do have an entire 
unit here that focuses on the planning and preparedness for 
individuals with disabilities, and we work closely with our 
state partners through our regional offices to understand the 
unique situations within each of the communities once a 
disaster has happened, like those that may have been 
incarcerated.
    Ms. Pressley. OK. All right. Well, we will followup on that 
as well.
    Thank you so much.
    Ms. Criswell. Thank you.
    Chairwoman Maloney. The gentlelady yields back.
    And without objection, Mr. Troy Carter from Louisiana is 
authorized to participate in today's hearing. Mr. Carter's 
Louisiana was greatly impacted by Ida.
    You are now recognized, Mr. Carter.
    Mr. Carter. Chairwoman Maloney, thank you the opportunity 
to participate in this hearing. As a nonmember, I greatly 
appreciate the opportunity to present.
    On August 29, Hurricane Ida made landfall as a Category 4 
hurricane with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour. Coastal 
Louisiana experienced 16-foot storm surges and significant 
flash flooding 16 years to the day, 16 years to the day of 
Hurricane Katrina. Of course, the Federal Government made 
substantial investments in shoring up our levee system, and it 
made a big difference in this hurricane, and we are hopeful 
that going forward under Build Back Better and other resources 
will do the same, like burying our grid to make sure people 
never have to suffer weeks of being without power. It's very 
difficult in the sweltering months of August to be without 
power, for senior citizens, for people with disabilities, for 
our young people. It adds insult to injury.
    And so we are hopeful as we build back better, we continue 
to buildupon mistakes of the past. We know hurricanes come 
every year. We don't know the name yet. We may not know the 
intensity. But we know with climate change, warmer waters bring 
stronger storms, and we should endeavor to do better than we 
did from previous years as we did after Katrina.
    Administrator Criswell, I want to thank you, President 
Biden, Senior Advisor Richmond for coming to my district, for 
coming to Louisiana, walking the streets of the community and 
seeing firsthand. I cannot tell you how much that meant to the 
people of Louisiana to have you on the ground to see firsthand 
the level of devastation.
    Hurricane Ida caused major damage in my district and 
communities across Louisiana, devastating homes, knocking out 
the electric grid, and leaving trails of damage along the Gulf 
Coast.
    There are two points I would like to get across quickly 
before my time elapses. The storm showed the value of Federal 
investments in protecting communities, areas like New Orleans 
and the river parishes. Storms and flood protection systems 
stayed dry after the investments after Katrina. We know now we 
have to do better going forward to make sure that these 
communities are weatherproofed for the future.
    Having lived through my fair share of storms, I've seen 
recoveries that work and recoveries that don't. The biggest 
factor in recovery is how fast we get money back into the 
pockets and start people getting back to some semblance of 
normalcy with their lives. We need Federal recovery process 
that recognizes this. Far too many of our programs takes months 
to kick in.
    So turning to my question, as a part of the FEMA recovery, 
you instituted several policies and granted waivers for people 
that mischecked the box, and as a result, many people were 
denied, I should say, for mischecking the box. What can we do 
to create an appeal process for a person that may have made an 
innocent mistake or accident in their filing are not summarily 
rejected?
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman, the program that we implemented 
that you're talking about is our Critical Needs Assistance 
program, and it's an amazing tool that helps us get money into 
the hands of survivors quickly, and we were able to get money 
out into the hands of survivors faster than we have in any 
other disaster. And we did hear that some individuals were 
having difficulties with how they answered the questions, and 
so we did go back and take a look at what we were using as 
criteria to approve those for Critical Needs Assistance, and we 
were able to give funding to an additional 120,000 families. We 
are now taking a look at our systems to see if there's anything 
else we can do to improve that moving forward, as we are always 
trying to improve the delivery of our services to help give 
money to those that are eligible for it.
    Mr. Carter. And I want to take time to thank you, too, 
because you and your people have been incredible. We've 
challenged you in every possible way. We've pushed the envelope 
to try to make things more seamless for people, and we've been 
on the 1-yard line of FEMA to make sure they do that. And I 
want to thank you as well as your people on the ground for 
doing a great job in that regard.
    Real quickly, blue roofs, the Blue Roof Program, while it's 
very effective, can you share with me ways or things that you 
are putting in place to advance or move them more quickly? As 
you know, we continue to have rain, and the ability to mitigate 
the existing damages would be very helpful if we could do it 
faster.
    Chairwoman Maloney. OK. The gentleman's time has expired, 
but you may answer his question.
    Mr. Carter. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Ms. Criswell. Yes, Congressman. The Blue Roof Program is a 
partnership with FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers, and it's 
a great program to provide some temporary repairs to homes, as 
you know. I did speak with Lieutenant General Spellman directly 
to talk about the status of the program, and he has assured me 
that he's made some improvements into how they're executing 
their mission. And I think from the numbers that I've seen, 
they have already significantly increased the number of blue 
roofs that they have installed.
    But I'll tell you that that's never fast enough, and I'm 
pushing our people, as well as the Army Corps, to continue to 
find ways to get those on the homes as quickly as possible so 
we can get people back into their homes sooner.
    Mr. Carter. Thank you.
    Chairwoman Maloney. Thank you.
    I now recognize Mr. Higgins for a closing statement.
    Mr. Higgins?
    Mr. Higgins. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Administrator Criswell, thank you for being here today. We 
have more work to do. My office will be delivering a letter to 
you and your senior staff by the close of business today 
documenting specific urgent requests to FEMA on behalf of my 
constituency who has been suffering for over a year from 
Hurricanes Laura and Delta. I would like your personal 
commitment, ma'am, that you will receive our letter and be 
involved. You have been very gracious today and professional, 
and I thank you for that. So I'm going to lean on you for a 
commitment to personal involvement in the letter that we 
deliver today.
    And, finally, regarding rural areas and small towns, I beg 
of you, madam, to let's make sure that our small towns, rural 
areas, poor communities get adequate attention and 
compassionate response, that they don't get left behind. Can I 
get your commitment on receiving our letter documenting 
specific requests, urgent requests? And can I get a commitment 
that our rural areas and poor communities don't get overlooked 
and left behind?
    Ms. Criswell. Congressman Higgins, you have my commitment 
to be personally involved in that response to your letter. And 
I would like to thank you and Congressman Carter for your 
leadership in supporting the people that have been impacted by 
these recent events in Louisiana.
    Mr. Higgins. Thank you, ma'am.
    And to my colleague, Representative Carter, he's been an 
amazing complement to the Louisiana delegation. I commend him 
for the work that he does and continues to do. He had big shoes 
to fill with our friend and colleague, Congressman Richmond, 
who is now in the White House as a senior advisor. We are 
Louisiana strong in Congress and in the White House, so we are 
joined together.
    Madam Chair, thank you for your gracious allowances of time 
during this hearing.
    Thank you very much, madam. I yield.
    Chairwoman Maloney. The gentleman yields back.
    And I now recognize myself.
    In closing, I want to thank Administrator Criswell for 
testifying today, and thank you and all of the FEMA employees 
who are working tirelessly to respond to disasters around the 
country and really visiting the sites personally to oversee and 
help.
    I want to emphasize that survivors of Hurricane Ida, as 
well as previous disasters, still need help. They need to know 
how to apply for financial assistance. They need clear 
information about what qualifies for assistance, and they need 
quick processing of their responses.
    Administrator, I appreciate the commitment that you made 
today to work with all communities to update their flood maps 
so that they can be more accurate with community input.
    I also think it's important to emphasize your testimony 
that communities can apply for FEMA grant money to invest in 
mitigation even when they are in an area that has not been 
declared a disaster.
    As we heard from you today, Administrator, we need to 
invest in climate and resilient infrastructure, ensuring that 
we are investing in frontline communities who are 
disproportionately impacted by severe weather.
    I urge all of my colleagues to support the Federal Agency 
Climate Prep Act, the bill I introduced today that would ensure 
that the Federal Government has a comprehensive plan to tackle 
climate change, coordinated by the White House, and in 
partnership with local communities.
    I also call on my colleagues to support the Build Back 
Better Act, which would make critical investments to upgrade 
our infrastructure so that we can be better prepared for future 
disasters. These investments are critical so that states and 
local governments are not left dealing with the immense cost of 
recovering from disasters on their own.
    In closing, I want to thank all of our panelists for their 
remarks, and I want to commend my colleagues for participating.
    With that and without objection, all members have five 
legislative days within which to submit materials and to submit 
additional written questions for the witness to the chair which 
will be forwarded to her for her response. I ask our witness to 
please respond as promptly as you're able.
    This hearing is adjourned. Thank you so much to everyone 
who participated. We are adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 1:16 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]

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