Political Quotes

“I would like to talk about per capita damage indicators and initiating a rule process update. The State of Oklahoma, in the last 7 years, has had more declarations of disaster named than any other State in the country. The standard used to be if we had a disaster that overwhelmed the ability of the State to handle it. We have gotten away from that, and this hasn't been updated since 1986. Under the Stafford Act of 1988, the whole purpose of our emergency response was for us to step in and provide assistance when State and local capabilities were overwhelmed. It is clear in New York and New Jersey and in communities that were affected by this latest storm that State and local capabilities were overwhelmed. It is clearly an appropriate time for the Federal Government, through the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to step in and provide assistance. Unfortunately, FEMA has been declaring an increasing number of disasters over the past two decades, including for many storms and many events where State and local capacities weren't overwhelmed. Let me make that statement again. Many of the disasters that have been declared were declared when State and local capabilities were not overwhelmed at all. So here we are, sitting with this tremendous debt, sitting with tremendous deficits, and we are now applying a lower standard than what we should, in my mind. It is not just my opinion; the GAO has actually so decided.…”