Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman for yielding. Madam Speaker, I have a background as an engineer. I actually have a master's degree in systems engineering. I understand the need for understanding how systems work and for understanding what can be done in preparation so that, in the case of Mr. Wu's bill, we can do the best that we can to mitigate, to avoid the problems, and to deal with what happens in the aftermath of earthquakes and windstorms. I thank Mr. Wu for this bill, and I thank Chairman Gordon also for moving this bill forward and for bringing it to the House floor. I thank the Republicans for their work, and I thank Mr. Broun here today. I think this is something that we often forget about until after a disaster strikes. With the earthquake in Chile, we've heard so much talk about the planning beforehand, about the requirements that buildings have to be designed in a certain way to withstand earthquakes, and about the lives that were saved. Probably tens of thousands of lives were saved from this. This was all through a type of planning that can come through this bill. I think it is also important--and I see this so often, not just in the NSF, NIST, USGS, or NOAA. We see all these silos--all these departments, agencies--which are doing separate work, and they don't oftentimes enough coordinate the work that they are doing.…”