Tom Harkin: “It has to do with FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's postdisaster Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. This…”

“It has to do with FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency's postdisaster Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. This money is for hazard mitigation. It is used to reduce the likely devastation of future disasters by buying out flood-prone property or by flood-proofing, stabilizing buildings or other structures, building hurricane shelters, seismic retrofits for earthquake or shock absorption, and for drainage improvements. This money helps to reduce what it is going to cost us in the future for other disasters, so it saves lives and it saves money in the long run. In 1993, I and some other Senators led an effort here to ensure that the grants would provide an additional 15 percent in FEMA money for whatever was provided for both in public and individual assistance. So it has been at 15 percent since 1993. In 2003, that percentage was cut in half, to 7.5 percent.”