I would argue the amount saved by eliminating those disaster declarations certainly would not outweigh the benefit those declarations provide to helping our smaller, remote communities respond to and recover from disasters.

In order to understand why disaster costs are going up, we need to look at the big disasters, since that is where over 90 percent of the money goes.

I have been pleasantly surprised at the level of cooperation and collaboration that has gone on in the last 3 to 4 years.

planning for local and State governments should be--needs to be in terms of weeks, not days.

I want to be prepared for that worst-case circumstance.

I am not convinced that we have connected the dots all the way down to the local government.

Shouldn't the penalties at least be the same?

I think that, in this current environment, in this current threat environment, the potential for fraudulent travel documents is a big concern.

The 9/11 Commission taught us that, to terrorists, travel documents are just as important as weapons.

The first Federal building I went into, they had 1,500 square feet per employee.

I would have a hard time explaining to families in my district, many of whom are struggling to put food on the table, as to why they should be helping to pay for the health expenses of someone who broke the law to get here and has no right…