00:00Pennsylvania, Representative Bresnahan. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Mr. Richardson,
00:05for being here. I represent northeastern Pennsylvania, which has been privy to flooding
00:12over the years dating back to 1972, slightly before my time, but still as I drive around with
00:18my family, my grandmother, she'll occasionally point to different areas about how high the water
00:23actually was. And then back to 2011, northeastern Pennsylvania saw some flooding in an area
00:30outside of a levee system, which totally decimated a community, ultimately redrawing the flood maps
00:36and making it extremely challenging for various different homeowners to be able to get
00:41flood insurance and created some additional strains on the school districts. So actually back to 2021,
00:48we also saw a flood that actually claimed the lives of at least one person in Lackawanna County. And
00:54this past May, the city of Scranton was finally able to complete 40 projects, totaling 5.5 million
01:00to improve eight waterways and infrastructure damaged by severe flooding in August of 2018.
01:07In April, I sent a letter to then acting administrator Hamilton asking for the BRIC program
01:12to be reinstated. And Mr. Chairman, I asked for unanimous consent to enter that letter into the record.
01:18Without objection, so ordered. Thank you. My question would be, I've heard some evolution
01:25relating to the BRIC program. And there were a few different programs, actually levy projects that
01:31were slated to take place inside of my district. And unfortunately, because of the cancellation of
01:37the BRIC program, though, about $10 million of levy construction was unfortunately canceled,
01:42as well as another $2.5 million in the city of Scranton for buyouts for properties that were
01:47ravaged by that earlier flooding that I mentioned. My question would be, have you given any thought
01:53or has there been any dialogue relating or circulating around the BRIC program or the possible
01:58reinstatement of the BRIC program or something to the likes or similarity of it?
02:04So thank you for the question. And a bit on BRIC first. As I think you might have alluded to,
02:10BRIC originally was during the, 2018 during the Trump 45. And then went into the Biden administration
02:22and kind of BRIC went off the rails. And it went off the rails because we were funding things like
02:27bus stops and bike paths. So right now, it's under litigation. And what I can, so I can't really speak
02:35about what I can tell you, is that resilience is a priority for me. And it's a priority for FEMA.
02:41So even though the BRIC program is under litigation, resilience is important, a top priority for me.
02:50And I would like to stay engaged with you on that regarding BRIC. I mean, regarding resilience.
02:56Really appreciate that. And I'll use this as an opportunity to invite you to Northeastern
03:01Pennsylvania and see some of the communities that have unfortunately suffered dire consequences
03:06because of flooding where levees were never even projected. Some of these areas never even
03:11had received water in 1972 that ended up being decimated in 2011, just because of different
03:17dynamics and landscapes with inside of the river. But I definitely want to continue to stay in touch,
03:22work together on some different systems and solutions for my community. So I appreciate you being here.
03:27I yield back.
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