testing one two three testing one two three testing testing testing one two three testing one two three four five committee on transportation infrastructure will come to order apologies for the delay we had consultations underway i want to begin by expressing support for does ignition of nov twenty ninth of this year as dr safer sunday g s a capital investment and leasing resolutions h r three three seven seven the disaster response recovery arisen in the last few days that should frankly have been addressed in the four months since we reported the bill from the subcommittee but as is characteristic of the live up process those who have those outside interests who have concerns wait until the last minute come with incomplete or is not a good thing in some cases misleading information we've attempted to address  as chair announced at the markup conclusion of the subcommittee markup that we addressed those issues before full committee markup we have not been able to reach agreement on those issues those of the field hearing and the subcommittee action will not be tolerant to people waiting until the night before america bring issues that could have been resolved and addressed long before this is this committee has an open process i have endeavored that over back it's to include members concerns done successfully when things wait until the last minute and say oh my goodness we don't have time to consider this you've got four months since june twenty fourth i'm exasperated with that disrespecting of the and i just want to say over the past four months staff did have conversations our side with your side and unfortunately much of it wasn't documented but i think the gentleman the chairman knows far better than anybody on the committee that the pressure point comes when the when the legislation is about to roll and it seems to me that as if as i said the chairman has full well that's when we're able to make deals that's when we're able to be able to adjust the language in a bill so again our staff in the future i've talked to the subcommittee staff making sure that we document what we ask for so that this situation arise again so that i can i can show the chairman that what we've asked for and what we've been denied are on this case so again we understand the importance of getting these things worked out but as i said in the legislative process it's it's occurred to me and i've seen over the past eight years that pressure point comes when do rise i do want to thank mr oberstar last night we spent a considerable amount of time you try to resolve issues and issues do come up at the last minute so i think everybody is going to work in good faith to see that we can do the best possible job and bring some positive legislation forward and i know there's concerns on your side of the aisle and on our side of the aisle so you know will work with you i'm sorry we couldn't get it resolved last night mr brown worked very hard now on this and others that we want we want to do things that that in this committee that we can reach a good consensus on and i think that by this step the stafford act which we've tried to work on the last a year or two together and that cooperative cooperation the bipartisan agreement that was reached absolutely top top forman michael brown and first of all thank you mr ovah star for your leadership on this committee our say that you the transportation guru and mr mica one thing i like about being on this committee and been on this committee for sixteen years is  bipartisan nature that this committee operates and we work together one team one fight we all want to make sure that the traveling public is this safe as possible but we need to make sure that we get all the issues on the  table this committee will do our due diligence i've already talked to mr elijah cummings about coming over to baltimore we're going to have a real hearing on the sixteenth and we're going to work together and you know the members that would like to go we will go over on the train probably and look at the facility over in baltimore and then come back and have a hearing and report back to the full committee thank you for your leadership and for chairman and ranking member mike and i simply will say that i want to commend our colleague the gentleman from pennsylvania for using this resolution to raise the profile of highway safety during what is the most heavily traveled day during the entire year last week this committee held a hearing on distracted driving and during the hearing we discussed of the various ways a driver can be distracted and in addition to  talking on cell phones and other ways we also discussed possible legislative options to address the problem i hope we can come to a consensus on how to address this issue and other highway safety issues this resolution to get at the heart of this issue by encouraging the education community the trucking industry clergy and law enforcement and others to remind their community to drive safer on the sunday after thanksgiving when over thirteen million drivers hit the resolution as we on the subcommittee on highways and transit heard during last week's distracted driving hearing the issue of distracted driving has been getting a lot of attention lately and rightly so on september thirtieth of two thousand and nine secretary ray la hood announced new research findings by the national highway traffic safety administration that shows nearly six thousand people died in two thousand and eight in crashes involving a distracted or inattentive driver and more than a million were injured while the most recognised form of distracted driving is talking or texting on a cell phone the term distracted driving actually refers to anything that takes your eyes hands or mind away from driving including food and beverages traffic accidents adjusting the radio children pets objects in the vehicle moving about the vehicle smoking putting on makeup shaving or reading all of these behaviors need to be highlighted as chairman to fazio said at last week's hearing it's clear that cell phone conversations using help how devices texting and emailing are a major problem for drivers but distracted driving is more than that g p s units that help us find we're going and p three players eating and even reading are all causes of distraction behind the wheel more research needs to be done so we can fully understand the extent of this problem but the research that has been done shows a growing consensus that requires a driver to divert their eyes from the road and or their hands from the steering wheel pose a serious distraction undermines the driver performance department transportations recent distracted driving summit put a spotlight on this issue as well most car accidents are caused by drivers not paying attention according to the ministration improving road safety is a top priority for this committee and while we are still in the formative stages of establishing a federal legislative policy consensus it is important that we not delay in deploying important important educational and awareness outreach efforts and this resolution attempts to just that the resolution called dr saper sunday simply doesn't nate's nov twenty ninth the sunday after thanksgiving and the busiest highway traffic day of the year as driver drives safer sunday and encourages all people united states to use this as an important opportunity to educate themselves and others about the dangers of distracted driving and highway safety if enacted it would encourage schools trucking firms clergy and law enforcement to launch educational campaign started students members and citizens to be careful about safety when driving i urge the passage of this resolution by committee and again thank the chairman and ranking members for their help in getting this to the to the committee and i would also like to add if i may mr chairman into the record a letter dated november second from the trip way also in support of the resolution and you'll back without objection the letter will be included in the record at this point i thank the gentleman for as i can use chairman and thoughtful presentation the european union  reduced fatalities from fifty three thousand a year to forty two thousand in five years a major portion of that reduction is crack down on distracted driving in portugal is this a crime by itself not incidental to something else to use a cell phone while driving we can take a page of the european union's experience and i certainly hope that every every member of the committee and all the staff will refrain from distracted driving texting cellphone ing while driving got all set good examples to other members wish to be heard on the resolution if not  two thousand and seven i made it clear the g s a has to reverse the trend of housing federal employees at least not government owned space something mr duncan for years he served on that subcommittee advocated and and which  for renton washington and fort worth texas require g s a to include purchase options in each lease part of our process of correcting this problem really cost the government cost the taxpayer a lot of money that we couldn't avoid by government ownership or an option for government ownership lease resolutions for n t s b for department of agriculture and the small business administration in washington require g s a to provide the committee with long term housing plans for these agencies that will include moving them to government owned space those  have jurisdiction over three hundred sixty seven million square feet of federal civilian office space and we have to squeeze the best we can out of that for the public interest and these resolutions are part of that i just want observe that  e resolve the san diego courthouse issue including a hard cap on the number of courtrooms for senior judges and requiring courtrooms sharing for senior judges that is going to save the government and the taxpayer sixty million dollars compared to the resolution we otherwise would have done and which the senate adopted senate there's now conceding to the house position so resolutions and i'll read it because it's common to many of them it says that to the maximum extent practical and in consider and considering life cycle cost appropriate for the geographic area g s a shall use energy efficient in renewable energy systems including photovoltaic systems in carrying out the project i think that is very important that we lead by example with our federal building stock have these high performance buildings and looking at the overall lifecycle cost of the buildings and getting beyond initial acquisition and building cost i think it's just smart for us to do that in the long term and i applaud that effort and i thank the gentleman we initiated that at the outset of the hundred tenth congress made it part of our contribution to the energy bill something i've insisted on lifecycle cost analysis from the time when i was sitting at that staff table in front of the com just thirty seconds mr chairman a disturbing trend for me is that when g s a do all of the leasing when they come into an area at one point it was encouraged that they look at the downtown area but now they are putting more emphasis on the suburbs are not when it and doing these tough economic times it would be encouraged if they could you know former administration o be an anchor for the development in that area of washington d c ms edwards thank you mr chairman and i just very quickly i hope that as we move forward and i've expressed concern with the with the chairwoman that  really begin to ask some very important questions of g s a about how they make valuations and determinations about where to locate lease versus new build or existing owned space because i represent a congressional district just outside of the district of columbia and we know that a lot of these opportunities come up in the metropolitan area but there are severe deficiencies i think in terms of the way that the g s a looks at and values the entire metropolitan area and i would like to you know get your assistance in the chairwoman in really exploring this and ways that we can codified certain things like proximity to transportation infrastructure and and those kind of considerations that actually would endure to to some greater considerations by g s a in terms of where they locate these not so much the leases i'm interested in g s a saving the taxpayers amendments if not to recognize mr costello for a motion mr chairman i move the adoption of the twenty general services administration capital investment policing program resolutions and block questions on the motion those the committee on transportation infrastructure will come to order and resumed its setting with consideration of h r eleven seventy four the fuel independence act of two thousand  drastically change the funding formula matching funds from seventy five percent federal to mostly zero and no more than twenty five percent and at the together the disaster relief agencies from all across the country from every region of the country i should say for hearings in washington and then we did a couple to this republican member to introduce and why are you doing that i'm i'm in the minority because you have the courage to stand up to your own president raise this issue congress went on to be governor of pennsylvania in the first secretary of homeland security and when he was designated  coordination with the department of homeland security but as stablish with it a national advisory council disability coordinator within this newly established entity and reaffirm its mission to reduce loss of life and property and protect the united states from all hazards and and continue to have an administrator and a deputy administrator with experience in emergency preparedness response recovery and mitigation from  come from a state that has to confront them from time to time we've seen what works and we've seen what does not work and i think i was he one one female was included in the h s i think everybody believes that it would eliminate and improve the some of the problems solution we have tried other solutions we have tried frankly to see if we could be fixed within there within that to a huge agency and it has not worked so the time is now this is one of those issues as you know mr chairman that is crucial is crucial to get  i i thank the chairman for his leadership this is an issue that the chairman has been looking at working at trying to improve and working hard to improve over some time as he said i think the chairman that this is this is the solution and i also in the proper time would like to briefly speak on the manager's amendment because i think there you also refine it further and you make a good bill much better so again i thank you for your leadership i urge this committee to vote to report this very from july two thousand to the house floor when i offered the amendment to remove fema from homeland security and reestablish it as an independent agency and i said this is july two thousand and two let's fast forward to july two thousand and three the majority prevail is a box in the mammoth bureaucracy of the department of homeland security the floodwaters are swirling around new york city you call for help you get the department of homeland security the switchboard sends your call to the under secretaries office which looks up disaster on the organizational chart and sends you to the congressional liaison office and then promises to get a message to you in twenty four hours then surely they find fema by which time you are stranded on the roof of your house waving a white handkerchief and screaming for help  the word comes back sorry is looking for suspected terrorists someplace and we'll get back to you as soon as we can i didn't know that hurricane katrina was going to strike know that our television screens would be filled with people standing on their rooftops waving white cell phones in hand calling for help but it happened we don't want that to happen on this very very important issue and the chairman was calling himself when he was before katrina illustrating what could happen and then we saw what did happen we have to remember that this is a very very important issue we deal with very important issues in this body but this is an issue that in many cases is an issue of life or death and it can be determined a member will reestablish the my as an independent agency as it had been for many as before and again i want to commend the chairman for very carefully and a very detailed fashion defining the roles and the response of the responsibilities of both fema and homeland security the line at this moment draws is very clear da just will be responsible for terrorism prevention and protection and fema will be responsible for preparing for responding to and recovering from the consequences of any disaster which could be a storm it could be a terrorist attack so this proven model is familiar to federal agencies state and local governments as well familiar with it first responders also because i exactly how the federal government responded to every terrorist attack that we have experienced family as an independent agency has has a proven track record for success as an independent agency as we saw after the oklahoma city bombings and nine eleven and unfortunately the since fema was placing of the h s we have not seen that level of performance of responsiveness that it had in the past again the structure that the chairman as outlined in and i think very carefully is not something that's on tried it's not new the bill as amended would reestablish a proven record a proven model that has shown success so i want to thank the chairman for examining this issue so carefully so thoroughly in crafting language that ensures that there is a clear definition and clear responsibilities with prevention and protection remaining in the h s and preparation response and recovery the responsibility of the of agency that's supposed to be doing that which is  know mr chairman that this controversial but not because of the merits but because of turf issues this issue is too important this issue is too too important for so many people  states to be left to the whim of turf issues and that's why i thank you for being so thorough so thoughtful so deliberative this amendment i obviously i strongly support as i also strongly support the bill that it's going to hopefully be passed on to thank you thank you very very much for that thorough analysis you've expressed very well save me the time of doing it myself do other members wish to be heard on the manager's amendment and i just want to underscore that as mr just valar pointed out so well one of the issues we want to be clear about the department of homeland security would continue to provide financial assistance for and oversight of terrorism prevention and protection programs law enforcement intelligence activities related to security preparedness is a separate issue and to further state urban areas continue to be eligible for preparedness funding and to ensure that clear channel clear path we have established a new urban area all the current staff or disaster relief and emergency act long ago should have been called the ridge act as i said earlier there really was the inspiration for  e best course of action is to remove the agency as we've just voted to do until that is accomplished there are a number of issues brought to the attention of the committee and the and committee staff in bringing us to to this point a bipartisan bill proposals from members on both sides of the aisle expands on the bill expands on requirements placed on prior legislation disaster mitigation act of two thousand the post katrina reform act and and builds on some actions that fema has undertaken but we will now with this legislation establish firm deadlines to complete and remedy complete that action and remedy the deficiencies reauthorize the pre disaster mitigation program at a level of two hundred  fifty million a year the disaster mitigation has already paid for itself many many areas of the country to seattle fifty million dollar investment say five hundred million dollars in disaster that would have appeared had the city not use those funds to protect buildings in my own district in the north shore of lake superior after a blow down of twenty six million trees resulting from a one hundred mile an hour straight line wind the fire hazard was enormous that would have been a fireball fifty thousand feet in the air should lightning strike and fema came in with pre disaster mitigation support for residents in the area adjacent to the wilderness to install sprinkler systems which mitigation works not just in those areas but but elsewhere we also establish a national urban search and rescue system twenty eight teams and state local emergency responders working together to react to local incidents major disasters and emergencies we will also codified the worker compensation other programs for the urban search and rescue system  the disaster relief fund as administers under titles four and five of the stafford act this legislation will cost of those actions and give authorizing committees in the house and the senate an appropriate role not leave management of those funds so the vagaries of the appropriations process we further restore the mortgage and rental and involving us and this important legislation as well as obviously the ranking member mica who is a true champion for these issues i'm pleased to be a co sponsor of this legislation which includes a number you know i've been working on and i could just i just can't speak highly enough of his efforts of his hard work of his dedication and his knowledge and expertise as well as the integrated public alert and warning system which is a  brainer that has to happen but and i'm hopeful that it will now happen because it is in this bill mr chairman and again thank you for allowing these initiatives to be part of this bill  dollars which is easier said than done as we know this process of stalled recovery funds for louisiana i worked hard to try to get it done and got it done and in the manager's memon includes amendments really several of his provisions to speed up the recovery i want to to thank you for your leadership and for your understanding with respect to the many issues and many needs that my constituents  in in louisiana and i just want to convey to you my deep appreciation of your support of me as well as your support of the people of the second district as well as the people of the gulf coast i believe that in the u s congress we need more leaders who are willing to look at the problems of the country to look at the needs of the people and  decide and to make decisions based on the issues based on the needs rather than on party politics so again i just want to convey my deep appreciation and respect for you and for your leadership i also convey my strong support of h r thirty three seventy seven and as i've mentioned previously we are now four years on from one of the greatest these asters in the history of this country when hurricane katrina destroyed my district many major institution like our universities and small and large employers were literally closed for business for the several months after the storm many remain close after waiting years for recovery assistance many of our critical institutions like charity hospital and basically the entire health care infrastructure in the hardest hit northeast have never reopened basic services like hospitals police fire libraries and schools were wiped away by the floodwaters and today many of them remain  empty in the immediate area around new orleans eighty percent of the building and fifty percent of the housing stopped were damaged in some way recovery has been too slow going and this is due in large part to the red tape that is fema the stafford act it's currently set up to provide recovery dollars on a project by project basis for the gulf coast states that were hit by hurricane katrina and rita this is not optimal due to the extent of destruction after talking with my constituent federal officials local officials and fema i mean wait a few gate about what changes need to be made to  introduced the bill would streamline operations and increase accountability entrance and transparency at fema by calling for review of fema regulations and requiring a report to congress within eighteen months of  enactment requiring regular reporting to congress on the status of the speed with which public assistance project worksheets and other contributions are being made for open disaster requiring fee much a shift to a cost estimate model by dual role at both the recovery and response agency in the immediate aftermath of a disaster sabotaging the federal interagency disaster recovery task force with the purpose of ensuring federal agencies with a role to play in recovery and coordinating before it is asked or and full federal resources are identified and ready to be activated at the time of a disaster formally direct feed much you consider a lump sum settlement for projects that are similar in nature shifting from a project by project approach to one that reflect the realities faced by louisiana and elsewhere on the gulf coast in the aftermath of two  catastrophic storm ensure critical information both to prepare for storm and immediately before the storm being officially disseminated by commissioner study to determine how emergency motion is reach its reaching populations with limited english proficiency and increasing the percentage of financial assistance that can be used to inform communities about medication technology the chairman i am pleased to say that virtually all of the provisions of my bill have been incorporated into h r thirty three seventy seven that we are debating today today is a good day for my constituents in louisiana second congressional district because we have brought progress and change i'm grateful for your consideration and collaboration and that of your staff and with this bill we have taken a comprehensive relook at the staff at and the regulation that support it and we have made it better i am project been part of this effort i look forward to our continued cooperation and finally i would like to especially recognize mike herman than matthews and joe and a hearty of our staff who continue to work tirelessly on behalf of the people of louisiana and those who might find themselves in harm's way some day so with that idea about my time work of mr cory and i richardson was seeking recognition yes thank you mr chairman in light of your opening comments this morning i'm glad that i did not approach you last night with with major changes and concerns i'm happy the to say that i did not i completely support the legislation before us today however before it comes to the floor i would like to have my staff work with yours on a few things that i learned in my recent trip to american s where i had an opportunity to view firsthand some of the things that are in here let me point out just a couple one section one zero two which has to do with the alert and warning system as was reported by c n n unfortunately in american samoa they didn't even have an alert and warning system and from the time of the earthquake to the tsunami it was only ten minutes and many of the people who died died because of the fact that there was not an alert system so i in no way want to suggest of changing anything that's been brought forward today but i would like to supply you with some firsthand information what i observe that might enhance in some small way as we come before the full floor the second thing i want to point out was section two zero five the housing units you have people samoans who were given some flimsy tent that is not big enough for two people to live in and they currently are in their hurricane season so whatever we need to learn from situations of trailers versus tents whatever the still work to be done there the third thing section three o two the mutual state aid my state california was working to assist and we were having difficulty trying to do so and then section three zero three which is the accepting of gifts and donations and finally i want to build upon what my colleague said that i found firsthand and that is maybe it's not in this legislation but something we do in the next congress but really the line of who is in charge i think through what happened with hurricane katrina has identified that the governor is in charge well sometimes as we learned in hurricane katrina the governor or the state people or the federal people or local people the governor may not necessarily be the only person who should be considered and what they're fighting to do and i think there's still some areas of how we can improve so i wholeheartedly support what we're doing today and unfortunately i've only been back for a few days and so we're compiling will incorporate your suggestions into a manager's amendment for consideration other members wish to be recognized if not we'll i'll consider the bill for amendment copy the members available for each member in their packet the amendment was developed with both sides of the committee participating in the  eleven and a consideration of the eleven provisions proposed by republican members of the committee and they are all agreed upon one of the most important additions is the report of the national commission on children and disaster and the report of the national council on disabilities subcommittee held a hearing on these two reports compelling testimony given by these organizations result of which is that the manager's amendment that i offer in the nature of a substitute requires the federal emergency management agency to consider key recommendations from these reports in developing and updating the national response plan in developing the national disaster recovery strategy and the national disaster housing strategy and  incorporate these recommendations in the regulations and the courses at the emergency management institute  additional considerations are programmed to provide special procedures to expedite recovery fema administrator to donate or transfer excess temporary housing units men the stafford act to allow fema to access temporary housing units increase the amount of pre disaster mitigation grant program funds state may use to disseminate information about cost effective mitigation technologies requires a president within one hundred eighty days to issue regulations to implement two provisions from two thousand act that the most not yet implemented cars g a o to undertake a study on the ability of existing alert and warning systems to provide information to persons with limited english proficiency and persons with disabilities clarify the role of the federal coordinating officer who is typically appointed after a major  disaster in both short term long term recovery established federal interagency disaster recovery task force increase the cost share by five percent for states that have a management plan require the president to review regulations policies for disaster assistance within one year not those things trail on endlessly observed and change the deadline for decisions on appeals on disaster assistance from ninety days to sixty days to speed up that process and to lower the reporting requirement to congress and this committee for large projects from twenty million to five billion dollars so as you mentioned sir on a particular thank you chairman for working with us to give flexibility to the president to speed up the rig the reconstruction of public facilities fixing that area alone would be one of the most important things that we could do and  those areas where that has happened and i want to thank you and look you know work on those issues was a german you mention for example the improvements to the public alert and warning system and we just heard from a colleague of ours who just experience hearings on that issue the things that we heard in those hearings you have incorporated in your men and again i wish the american people could see that because with all of the issues that we have up here this is one committee where it's the  merits and we don't always agree on the merits but but but the disagreements don't tend to be partisan here which is very interesting we may have some regional disagreements but again that's an area where we can see that the proof is when you have a process an open process where people are able to speak come up with the recommendations and then those recommendations in many cases like those specific ones that you mention that i just also read it reiterated are in this amendment and so i want to thank the chairman for once again being open to ideas being able to discuss argue debate those ideas and then the chairman always is willing to incorporate things that improve a good bill and those are just other examples and i think it's important for the people to understand that this is a committee and this is a very difficult process but this is a committee where not only are the members listen to by the chairman but those who come to speak and testify events of hurricane katrina and we are still arguing with fema over door knobs and whether a building that was flooded gutted and falling down was more or less than fifty percent damage  we suffered a catastrophic macca disaster where the existing project by project model is not sufficient to resolve these issues that we have in such circumstances as you and i have discussed we need to give the government the flexibility the flexibility to rethink and replan their recovery and hazard mitigation plan they need to have the flexibility to decide whether rebuilding in the pre disaster footprint is the best solution for the communities long term while the current section three twelve would provide some of this flexibility to fema by by allowing them to create project and we have had some extremely productive discussion on this topic and i'm going to withdraw this amendment and respectfully request that you will continue to work with me on this issue so that we can incorporate this language into your manager's amendment so with that to your back about my time i thanked the job of raising the issue in the very specific financial procedures of financial assistance repairing and rebuilding public facilities after a disaster amendment would mandate that the repair and rebuild would be done at one hundred percent federal cost share of the current laws no less than seventy five percent and require a one hundred percent lump sum up front payment to the state raises a number of and specifically section three twelve requires fema within one hundred eighty days of an act and to develop special procedures to expedite repair restoration reconstruction replacement of eligible public facilities and ported favorably to the house chair thanks to all those who said such kind things work and thank the members for their continued input i ask unanimous consent the staff be authorized make necessary technical clarifying and conforming changes to bills or resolutions order for the day that would cause a sequential referral to another committee or cause the bill to be subject to a budget act or rule twenty one pay as you go a point of order without objections ordered pursuant to clause one of rule twenty two i unanimous consent that the committee authorize a chair or his designee to offer such motions as may be necessary in the house to go to conference with the senate on the following bills that were ordered reported by the committee or similar set of bills h r eleven seventy four as amended h thirty three seventy seven as amendments to the two rule five a and b of the rules of the committee on transportation infrastructure the chair and the presence of a corporate each of the actions taken by nature as eight forty one