‘They Don’t Want To Put Out The Fire … And Get Rid Of The Fire Breaks’: Chris Van Hollen Slams FEMA Cuts

Forbes Breaking News

During Wednesday’s Senate Banking Committee hearing, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) slammed the Trump Administration’s proposed cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Transcript

00:00testimony here this morning you know it's bad enough that the Trump

00:05administration essentially denies the fact of climate change and doesn't want

00:12to do anything about it doesn't want to take any actions to reduce the emissions

00:19greenhouse gas emissions that help fuel climate change but on top of that they

00:24want to eliminate many of the important federal investments that we use to try

00:31to protect communities from the impact of climate change so they don't want to

00:38put out the fire or help reduce the fire they also want to get rid of the fire

00:43brakes and I'm referring specifically to their proposals to cut back FEMA programs

00:53and specifically their termination of the BRIC program and so I'd like to begin

01:00with you miss Paiska and I heard your testimony on C-SPAN and thank you for

01:09sharing with us the terrible experience that you had but I know now you're

01:16committed to trying to protect others in communities can you describe briefly what

01:22the impact of getting rid of the BRIC program would be on our efforts to

01:27mitigate the impact of climate change and natural disasters generally thank you

01:33senator for that question late county we're not we have not been able to apply

01:40for brick because it's it's too difficult for a county our size and we cannot

01:45afford the match we've been working towards getting brick ready for the last

01:50several years so it this is a devastating loss to the plans that we have put in

01:54motion but my two neighboring counties the Sonoma Sonoma County and Napa County

02:00which were are much more affluent but also have suffered from multiple fires that

02:04have continued to cross our borders between our counties they each have

02:09applied for and been awarded BRIC grants and they only got through planning and

02:16now that they are we're about to start implementing implementing these programs

02:21that would bring resiliency into their community hardening homes educating the

02:26community fuel management programs all of that is now gone so while the planning

02:32was helpful they're dead in the water now and they cannot move forward with

02:36those really critical programs well thank you for sharing that that story we have a

02:44similar situation in the state of Maryland and you know Maryland had about 91

02:51million dollars in federal funding for 51 targeted projects in the state of

02:56Maryland in the case of Crisfield Maryland which is on the Bay and has been very

03:03prone to rising sea levels and additional storm surges they had done the

03:12preliminary work and then you know received a substantial federal BRIC grant

03:17to help them and of course that was terminated altogether so they're they're

03:23kind of left in the lurch because it's a small community they're certainly not to

03:30blame for the rising waters around them and yet here we have the Trump

03:36administration abandoning a program designed to help communities like

03:41theirs mr. Newman I know that you testified just a few years ago in support of the

03:50BRIC program in front of the house transportation infrastructure committee

03:56here in there entitled the benefits of investing in resilience and mitigation you

04:01pointed to the BRIC program specifically is a important way to help these

04:08communities can you can you also talk briefly about the impact of cutting that

04:13program to communities absolutely I didn't have the good fortune to testify at

04:18that time but I'm sure my organization did brick was a good idea during the

04:23Trump administration the first time through when it was enacted and it remains a

04:27good idea now now it's not a perfect program the fact that Lake County has

04:32not been able to access funds from the BRIC program suggests that it can be

04:37improved but when the US Chamber of Commerce and all-state insurance company

04:42put out a report that says every dollar invested in disaster preparedness and

04:46mitigation has a $13 in reduced losses and economic savings we know that

04:53pre-disaster mitigation is the best time to invest in risk reduction BRIC did that

04:58we need more of that not less thank you and and you're right I stand corrected it

05:03was another representative from your good organization thank you thank you

05:06senator mr. chairman thank you sir senator Ricketts thank you mr. chairman and

05:11thank you to our witnesses for

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