Brad Schneider

It is now my privilege to yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Kim), my friend and colleague who is a sponsor of this bill.

I want to emphasize that addressing climate change will require an all-of-government response.

As my colleague Marcy Kaptur spoke earlier about the effects of climate change and algal blooms in Lake Erie, we are seeing impacts across every great lake.

I believe this committee must make sure funding for natural disasters is examined through the lens of climate change.

The fact that we are falling short is a misuse of taxpayer money because we are not living up to the potential.

We should be here today celebrating the SBIC program. We should be honoring those small business entrepreneurs...

I couldn't agree more with all that you said, but in particular with the need to address this issue and not just the issue of flooding in the Des Plaines River.

Thank you for illuminating the permitting process of the Foxconn project and laying out the shortcuts taken in environmental review.

It seems that it is going to be increasingly important because businesses are facing a greater probability, an increasing risk not just of a chance of a flood but the significance of a flood.

What we are hearing is an egregious example of shortcuts and skirting responsibilities with Foxconn.

Thank you for explaining the threat of flooding in our district and how Foxconn development is poised to make the situation worse.

So that is, I think, the emphasis, that we are seeing increased frequency and intensity in our storms.

The prior assumptions of what is an area with a 100-year flood possibility, a 100-year floodplain, is sort of antiquated at this point.

So saying that the 500-year flood is now at the level of the 100-year flood, it means that a flood that had a .2 percent probability of occurring in any given year is now five times more likely to occur.

These were decisions, shortcuts that were made, like the county decision to study assessing the likely consequences that might follow.

Let me pause you for a second just to make sure, this is for me as much as for everyone else here.

The metaphor I was going to use is instead of ready, aim, fire, it seems like we did ready, fire, aim.

If I can summarize, I am thinking of my background in business. It is assessment, it is analysis, and then it is decision-making.

There is a process that should have been followed.

If you know that global climate change is going to lead to more torrential rainstorms and flooding, as you are describing, then let's do everything that we can at the local level, at the county level, at the district level, to try to avoid…

Just to put an exclamation point on that issue, two years ago we saw Hurricane Harvey, 50 inches of rain in one location.

It is tough to see all that advancement and then kind of have to see a couple of steps backward that is happening upstream.

I will come back to it later, but part of it is during the assessment, the environmental impact studies, tell us what the impact will be so we can make the adjustments and maintain it.

When corners are cut on environmental reviews, our local communities pay the price.

I will say as far as logistics, yesterday O'Hare was kind of socked in because of the rains.