Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, following a natural disaster, electric utilities work tirelessly to restore power to their customers. However, because of FEMA's problematic interpretation of section 403 of the Stafford Act, once power is restored, even with temporary measures, electric utilities are deemed ineligible for reimbursement for permanent work and mitigation efforts. As a result, electric utilities are treated differently from all other critical infrastructure, even though building mitigation into our power systems reduces the costs of future disasters. H.R. 164 is going to address this by clarifying that electric utilities may build in mitigation measures that provide essential assistance and that it does not disqualify electric utilities from permanent work eligibility later in the disaster recovery process. Mr. Speaker, I urge support, and I reserve the balance of my time.”