we need to make sure that it's truly a universal system, not based on who can invest the most

How will you handle that--because, to be frank with you, what we do not want to be is surprised.

I hope that you would take that as an offer that if you are confirmed, that after a couple months you set those metrics.

25 percent is unacceptable.

That kind of crosses over to another role I have here, which is the Chair of the Subcommittee with emergency management jurisdiction.

I know one of the issues we have had, as on grants is the accountability of grants.

So this is something that through Homeland Security or FEMA or whatever the right organization is, depending on who you are dealing with, FBI or whatever those MOUs are with, it is something that they could, change by, sitting down and…

Do you think there is something more that can be done that we could do or that we could encourage to be done?

There is going to be a gap, Senator. No question.

Nothing legislatively prohibits them.

today I wish to recognize Nellen Budd, my longtime office manager and dedicated staffer whose patience, organizational skills and kindness have served the people of Alaska very well for many years. She has listened to thousands of Alaskans…

The point I think Senator Paul is making is: How are these expenditures managed? What are really the capabilities and needs?

In order to take care of the four.

No one would have anticipated what happened in Hurricane Sandy, for example, 10 years ago.

I am just guessing because we have all these reports we love to get, and then we go onto the next crisis.

I think, Mayor, you would probably agree with that in a broad sense, not the specifics, but that last statement.

We live in a time that cries out for innovation, but unfortunately, we have to create the innovation within a bureaucracy.

So the bulk of the money goes here. There is a little bit left. So just spread it.

It may be a terrorist act as we saw in Boston or a natural disaster in Galena.

You have kind of got two pressures going on--the minimums and then the high risk--and then what is left is----

We know that you have not forgotten where you came from, and we know that we have a real friend here in the Senate.

The separation between terrorism and natural disasters--not only is it artificial when it comes to consequences.

That tension is always there, and it is a challenge, I think, to try to navigate that for any issue, including homeland security.

After 10 years and more than $40 billion, if we have not secured Small Town, Ohio, it is time to let Small Town, Ohio take care of itself.

How do we create some consistency?