Political Quotes

“The staff really worked diligently and tirelessly to get this bill passed as well. But the bill itself, after natural disasters in this country, we have been relegated to starting a process to accord various areas in the country that are impacted funding to help them rebuild, to help them restore order to their lives. In doing this, we have not codified the methodology by which we would perfect the assistance that is needed. We never codified it. Twenty-six years ago, HUD received the responsibility to respond, but we didn't give any codified rules. The HUD OIG indicated that there was a necessity to codify some rules so that we could respond in a timely manner but, also, do it in an efficacious manner such that we would not reinvent the wheel each and every time, which is what we have been doing, reinventing the wheel. Well, this bill does that. It codifies the whole process of dealing with management after a disaster. FEMA deals with the emergency side of it, in terms of an immediate response, providing persons with someplace to live, providing persons with the necessities of life. But the long-term response is what HUD deals with. Under this long-term response legislation that we passed yesterday, HUD now can work with municipalities directly, in some cases.…”