David Rouzer Stunned By Acting FEMA Director David Richardson's Response To His Question On Grants

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During a House Transportation Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. David Rouzer (R-NC) asked Acting FEMA Director David Richardson about the agency's grants.

Transcript

00:00Now recognizes Representative Rauser from North Carolina.

00:06Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Mr. Richardson, thank you for your service.

00:10It's not an easy job that you have, by any means, but a very, very important job.

00:16Just to finish that line of questioning, or your answer, rather, you mentioned BRIC.

00:21The BRIC program was funding bicycle paths, and then what else?

00:25You got cut off.

00:26I was just curious what else you were going to say.

00:27So there was bicycle paths, it was trees surrounding bus stops, and you know, these grants have

00:35been used for a lot of rather, what I would call odd things.

00:39For example, we put people up in the Roosevelt Hotel, or illegal immigrants up in the Roosevelt

00:44Hotel with some of the grants.

00:47That wasn't necessarily a wise thing to do.

00:50We also have funded projects that made DEI ambassadors for the New York City Police

00:58Department.

00:59Yeah.

01:00So not exactly mitigation efforts.

01:02Right.

01:03During the Biden administration, it seems like a lot of the grants, a lot of the grants sound

01:08good.

01:09And then you dig into them, and they're not so good.

01:12I've got a note here on a handful of them, but so, yeah, if you're housing folks in the,

01:19or illegal aliens in the Roosevelt Hotel, that's probably not the best use of the American

01:26taxpayers' money.

01:27Okay.

01:28It looks good on the surface, but when you get into it, it's not.

01:31I got the answer there.

01:32Let me move on to my questions before I run out of time.

01:36So, the Review Council.

01:40When does FEMA anticipate the Review Council will finalize and share its recommendations

01:44for Congress?

01:45Do you have an idea of a timeline on that?

01:48The FEMA Review Council is working now, and there's, you know, in the late fall, I believe

01:56that's when, or when are they planned to give their recommendation to the President?

02:02Thank you for that.

02:06Hurricanes Matthew and Florence, they affected my district pretty significantly.

02:10Matthew was in 2016, Hurricane Florence was in 2018.

02:15In 2018, Brock Long was the administrator, and I have to say, in both, in both of those

02:21storms, the FEMA response was, was very, very good.

02:25But we still have, those cases are still open, we, they've not yet closed, and in other words,

02:31there's still need there, and there's still reimbursement that's waiting to be signed,

02:38or I'm not sure where it is in the bureaucratic process.

02:41And, of course, those storms were seven and nine years ago, respectively.

02:46Any, can, or let me just put it this way.

02:50Can you get me a report on exactly what's, what's left to be finished up on, as it relates

02:55to those two storms?

02:56Not right now, but soon after this hearing, when you can.

03:00Yeah, thank you for the question.

03:02Each day, I get a snapshot of the open disaster claims, and it's, it's shocking to see how

03:10many of them are still open.

03:12And no doubt, we need to reduce the number of open declarations.

03:17And yes, I can get back with you, and I'd be happy to get back with you on that.

03:21Yeah.

03:22Is, is that an issue of resources, or administrative time, or what, what is the holdup there?

03:26Or regulatory burden of some sort?

03:28Yeah, I, my, my gut feeling is, it's just how it's developed over time.

03:33Uh, probably at one point, a handful of people, you know, touched it, and by this point, there's,

03:39there's many more people than necessary to touch that.

03:41Okay, one, one last thing, uh, Hurricane Helene, uh, didn't hit my district, uh, but it did

03:46hit my friend and colleague, Chuck Edwards, and, uh, Virginia Fox, really, really hard.

03:51Uh, their districts in Western North Carolina.

03:53Uh, obviously, you have, uh, every, and every storm is different, uh, every locale is, is

03:59different than, in Western North Carolina, you have a lot of private roads.

04:03Uh, you know, FEMA traditionally doesn't help out with private roads, but if those private

04:07roads don't get rebuilt, uh, you can't, um, you know, get debris.

04:11Uh, and other, uh, and other items that are necessary, uh, for recovery.

04:16Uh, and I think that's been one of the big issues, uh, for Western North Carolina.

04:20Uh, Chuck Edwards had tried to get, uh, some clarifying language, uh, included as part of

04:25the CR.

04:26That didn't work out.

04:27Uh, but, uh, flexibility in terms of addressing need, uh, because again, not every place is the

04:33same, I think is crucially important.

04:36Is that, um, uh, a lot of thought, uh, that you are, all are pursuing at all?

04:41Uh, the, the question involves private roads, and then thanks for the question again.

04:46Um, right, private roads is an issue, uh, particularly for some reason in North Carolina.

04:53And we're, we're working for a way where we could, can resolve that and, and try to, try

04:59to provide a resolution to that.

05:03And, and, and I'll keep in contact with you and make sure you kind of stay abreast of that.

05:07Well, until that, uh, aspect is handled, it's just hard for that area to make any kind of

05:11substantial recovery.

05:12That's the bottom line.

05:14And, and it's somewhat unique to Western North Carolina, which speaks to the need for flexibility

05:20when you're dealing with these, uh, disasters in response.

05:22Yeah, my heart goes out to the people of North Carolina and that whole region, Tennessee,

05:28uh, Western Virginia that had to, uh, suffer that strategy.

05:31Thank you, sir.

05:33I yield back.

05:34Gentlemen, thanks.

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