On the recordJanuary 14, 2013
The Sandy Recovery Improvement Act will speed up recovery efforts and reduce costs. I want to just touch on one important piece of this legislation. It will allow greater flexibility to reduce rebuilding time and lower costs. This gives the local governments greater flexibility to consolidate or rebuild facilities by allowing FEMA to issue fixed grants on the basis of damage estimates, instead of a traditional reimbursement program. Why that's important--in my area, in the Central Valley of California, we had huge flooding; and as any emergency, you're not prepared. You didn't anticipate it, especially where we have such a huge shortage of water in the Central Valley. When the flooding hit, there was a lot of miscommunication and misunderstanding among local, State and Federal Government, who pays for what, a lot of delays and waiting. With these cost estimates up front, we basically just say spend the money on those estimates, and the FEMA money is there immediately. So we not only help to reduce costs; but most importantly, when you've got a devastated community, what you need is speed of recovery. I reserve the balance of my time.
