Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, today we spend an average of $100 billion a year responding to disasters; $100 billion. This is a number that we can't afford to continue responding, continue reacting to disasters. The National Institute of Building Sciences has done all sorts of analyses looking at the efficacy of making investments on the front end, Mr. Speaker, so we are not in a situation where, as in the chairman's case, we are having to go into Oregon, Washington, California, or other States out West, and pick up the pieces of these communities destroyed by forest fires; so we don't have to go into these communities that have been impacted by severe winter storms, communities living along rivers that have been inundated by floods, or communities on the southern coast, the Gulf Coast, or the East Coast that have been pummeled by hurricanes, such as our home State of Louisiana, with just in recent years, Hurricanes Laura, Delta, Zeta, Ida; some of the most powerful hurricanes to ever make landfall in the United States. The National Institute of Building Sciences has found that for every $1 you invest in natural mitigation solutions, you get up to $13 in savings. By adopting more resilient building standards, building codes, you get up to $11 in savings. Let me say it again, Mr. Speaker. We can't afford to keep doing this. $100 billion a year.…”