Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) for yielding. Mr. Speaker, as we in California and the West prepare for more scorching wildfires, the Southeast is in the heart of hurricane season, and the Midwest is still drying out from historic flooding. Across the country, natural disasters have taken the lives of loved ones, destroyed livelihoods, and caused irreparable damage to communities and businesses. Disasters are becoming larger, more dangerous and frequent, and significantly more expensive. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, there have been more than 2,400 federally declared disasters since 2000, totaling hundreds of billions of dollars in relief aid. However, when the Federal Government helps communities recover from these disasters, it does not calculate one comprehensive number of how much we spend on disasters per year. Those funds could come from 29 different accounts across 11 different agencies, which exacerbates delays in disaster recovery and hinders future planning and future accountability. That is why I introduced the bipartisan Disclosing Aid Spent to Ensure Relief, or DISASTER Act with Representative Mark Meadows of North Carolina. This transparency bill is common sense. It requires the Office of Management and Budget, OMB, to publish an annual total of disaster- related assistance categorized by disaster type, location, and purpose.…”