On the recordSeptember 19, 2012
I want to thank the chairman for the bipartisan measures this bill contains, measures like the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System and a number of others. I rise in support of H.R. 2903. This bipartisan measure reauthorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA; authorizes an Integrated Public Alert and Warning System; and includes many provisions that were incorporated into similar legislation in past Congresses. I am pleased to see them, once again, come to the floor. Perhaps we can get them through the House and the Senate at some point in the near future, because these are not controversial matters. Despite our broad support for this measure, we are disappointed in the authorized levels of funding for FEMA and the disaster assistance programs. Instead of evaluating the needs of the agency and its programs and then establishing the maximum amounts that would be appropriate, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, through this bill, is essentially deferring to the Appropriations Committee to tell the authorizers how to do their jobs by only authorizing amounts equal to the last appropriated amounts. Let me be clear, however. If we authorized the maximum that could be needed, the budget deficit would not be increased. The amount authorized merely specifies need while only the actual amounts appropriated can affect the amounts spent. It is the authorizers who are to speak to need.…
