"I look forward to this hearing as we take an overall view of the efficiency and the effectiveness of the Federal Government's Hurricane Ian response."
"What would you recommend to Congress to essentially alleviate or to make it far more streamlined the regulatory burden you are under for making these disaster decisions?"
"First of all, Chairman, I really want to thank you and Members of the Committee for coming down to Southwest Florida for this hearing."
"But the level of devastation from flooding in particular is something that none of us really could understand the magnitude of."
"People on Pine Island, as the Matlacha Bridge was washed out, they were on the phone with me 2 days after basically saying, Byron, we are going to rebuild that bridge."
"I look forward to having a blunt and open conversation today, which will ultimately improve disaster relief efforts in the future."
"What are the regulatory concerns surrounding FEMA taking 45 days--not so much regulatory concerns."
"Would Lee County, Florida, have essentially the unilateral authority to make adjustments to an award in CDBG-DR money?"
"I just do not think it should operate that way."
"What--what needs to happen to stop that from occurring, because, when people are in a disaster recovery mode, they do not have time to check every dot."
"We believe the view should be based upon our actual needs."