As the Bering Sea warms up, and it is warmed up very rapidly in the last 30 years or so, it is essentially just thawing those coastal bluffs.

I mean, there's not enough resource we are putting into this kind of research, is that a fair statement?

I get that, but the language does not prohibit the State from paying for it or does it?

So the real-time forecasting, and this is very interesting what you are talking about, because I can imagine NOAA folks are just ecstatic about this kind of information that they can get their hands on.

Do you think that idea would be helpful?

Can I ask you this, John, and then again, I apologize, our clock is ticked here, I have some other questions I will submit for the record, that you can prepare from your office that says, 'Here's what we did in that Immediate Action…

Our greatest risks are the ones that we do not anticipate and for which we do not prepare.

So you think that the tools are there, it is just someone needs to help just facilitate it?

the way that cost/benefit analysis works really for communities of your size and Vivian's communities, they are too small of populations

Can you, for the Committee, at some point, prepare something that explains doing a demonstration project, what it might entail, what kind of agency coordination and what kind of costing would be required?

That would be great.

I wish to speak about the crisis in Syria and the role that one company in one nation is playing in perpetuating the strife. Every day Syria descends deeper into chaos and civil war. Since March 2011, more than 100,000 Syrians have been…

I understand, where they cannot get to their home because they have four feet of snow.

Utility companies hate it, because it costs them money.

I remember when Hurricane Katrina happened, we could not--he had a heck of a time trying to get the coordination.

The SCADA systems are unbelievable now.

They understand the repairs are better, to have them not have to go out there in freezing cold weather.

With our tight budgets--everyone has them--but it seems like the limited amount of money that goes through that program augments what you are doing locally, the private sector as well as State.

So I urge you, Mr. Chairman, and the members of this important Subcommittee to work with other Members of the House and Senate and the appropriators to ensure that the National Capital Region Office addresses the needs that Congress…

This is their last fiscal year----

I would be very anxious--the danger was for the Chairman of the full Committee to put a former mayor as Chairman of this Subcommittee, because I lived this for many years.

They can just push right out the door.

Are we or you measuring them in a way that we can really determine, these grants are working?

It just seems those massive parking lots, and they are empty and everyone is jammed up on the--I call it the war for the parking spaces.

We actually have a bill that I have introduced--the President has taken it up in one of his packages--on mental health first aid for, basically, individuals within educational environments.