your book on katrina came out when? >> that came out in 2006. >> have you been working on this? >? >> i've been working on this book at the same time. roosevelt's papers helped me a great deal. the library of congress had some of his papers on microfiche. he wrote over 150,000 letters. what traditionally happens is people are looking as correspondents for issues about panama canal and farm policy. when he would write a lot, which she wrote most on about birds, people would look at it as a hobby. i took his writing about animal life very seriously, because he did. an example, we know him as the roughrider of the spanish- american war. he trained in san antonio and had three mascot, a cougar cub named josephine from arizona. a gold eagle named teddy. and a dog named kuba. trained as many had three animals with him all the time. he would write letters about the cougar fighting -- biting a man's foot. he found all a bit funny. this menagerie of roosevelt continued in the white house. he had a pony in the elevator. a pet badger he picked up on this trip in the picture above where he wou

market and it's contributed an enormous amount of money to refinancing after 9/11, after hurricanes katrina and wilma. after the hurricanes last year it's been a very responsible market in paying its claims. >> mr. chairman, i didn't say they weren't responsible, and i didn't say they didn't pay claims. i said they all had the same rate in my state which seemed coincidental. >> thank you very much. the chair notes some members may have additional questions for this panel which they may wish to submit in writing. without object the record will remain open for 30 days for members to submit written questions to these witnesses and place their responses in the record. before we adjourn, the following written statements will be made part of the record of this hearing. the center for insurance research, the property casualty association of america and the cea, a trade association of european insurers. without objection, it is so ordered. i want to thank this panel for their contribution today and taking all the -- we did it in three hours which is pretty good. maybe next time we can keep it for f

faith and a government that is not at the root of the republic since the dismal aftermath of hurricane katrina. >> i promise you i will lead america to the 21st century and make you proud. i will restore your trust and confidence in government. >> that is what the votes are saying. help us to believe in the american future of again. [cheering] >> 46, 47, 48, 49. [applause] >> i saw all citizens going to the polls in doubles the members of the last election. it is odd in a country obsessed that history, the epic figure is treated as a living and breathing thing. >> we are not a collection of red states and blue states. we are the united states of america and in this moment, in this election we are ready to believe i again. thank you, iowa. [cheering] >> it has never ridden more alive than now. is their anyone in america who doesn't call this the election historic? a candidate that doesn't reach out to history? ♪ i want to explore this haunting by the past. i want to follow america deepak to the conflicts of its history to understand what is at stake right now. ♪ ♪ >> ladies and gentlemen,

that the same people who cleaned up after katrina can run your health care system that the personal touch that we all want. they do. they think you're stupid and not paying attention. they think the media is stupid and won't report this. the fact is if you look at the uninsured it is exaggerated to exaggerate a crisis. you have a lot of folks, noncitizens who could sign up for government programs. to get those people insured with private policys is a fraction of the costs of a government takeover. we can win this if we engage american people. they are not stupid. they are alarmed at what this government is doing. they are ready to stand up and speak out. we need to get every american insured so every american has access to health care. thank you. [applause] >> senator demint, congressman tom price, thank you for those presentations on legislation. now we're going to call on the panelists here to talk about various aspects of reforming health care and the debate over reforming health care. if i can is them to come up first to discuss how the media has been covering this debate. >> well, i

i know as a former mayor, when the katrina disaster happen, we spent the whole conference on because of the importance of safety in our communities. so as to talk about the ideas and suggestions, it is on you, and i can only look at what has been done in your comments today. i want to take a couple of steps, and if you want to quickly come to the convention, that is great. i am not going to read the agenda, because you know the kind of things that were covered. it seems to me that should have been in the four brought -- in the forefront. it seems such an important issue. >> to that point, senator, reason why raa was created, and every year for the last 34 years has been to promote safety within the industry. the safety directors of our member airlines meet for the entire length of that conference. that is a meeting at which everything is shared, again, to protect these issues, with the faa, with members of the ntsb that are there, and it is not a public meeting, so that they can share those experiences. so you are exactly correct. that it is not on the public website. they meet for 1

i read that one of the intentions of the working with the subject matter is that you wanted to use katrina s an analogy to the federal government's performance as regulating the financial crisis? >> that sounds so didactic as a room clearer. i think there is an analogy that needs to be made. if any character would to say anything that directly, it would be cut out of the script. new orleans was hit with a category 2, not even a category 3 hurricane. if you tell anybody from new orleans and say they were drowned by a hurricane, they will get mad at you. their city was drowned by shoddy workmanship and bad decisions in terms of transportation policy and the ineffectiveness of congress in terms of dealing with mississippi river issues. this is our country and you compare it to the dutch which has been able to keep their country out of the north sea for generations. it is humiliating. if you think about those canal walls, how badly they were built, how much corruption went into the poor maintenance and poor planning of them, and you think about the sec and all of the regulation that was not th

i think everyone along the coast is more ready than they were before hurricane katrina, but we have a long way to go. here are a couple of examples. you can look at a map of all the shelters -- the majority are red cross shelters and they are school. if you have a catastrophic flood and people have to flee to shelters, let's say schools better on this map, what happens two or three weeks down the line when you want to open the schools for the children who should be going to those schools? there is no backup plan. number two, unfortunately, the bush administration was stuck on trailers. why? i do not know. if they just could not come up with something else. the obama administration has inherited this plan with trailers. if a hurricane five hits manhattan as it did in 1938 on long island, i don't know how many troops can fit in times square, but it will be interesting to see. -- how many trailers can fit in times where. we finally have a good fema director and has a vision and leadership ability. we finally have a very excellent homeland security director who was a governor and had to d

working at the holocaust museum after spending a year in new articles in the aftermath of hurricane katrina. those who knew mr. johns called him "big john," a genera gentle, friendly and helpful. even those who did not know him are deeply saddened by the loss and inspired by hi the heroism. it is our duty to keep alive his memory. today the holocaust museum is closed. flags fly at half-staff. when it opens tomorrow it will continue to serve as one of our nation's most poignant reminders of the inexcusable racism, hatred, violence and cruelty we must never stop working to erase from the world. when it opens tomorrow, and every day thereafter, stephen johns, courage and courtesy, will be mixed. madam president, our plan to fix america's broken health care system is based on a simple premise: when it comes to keeping ourselves and our loved ones healthy, people -- not corporations -- should be at the driver's seat. we have a land to right that rock. that plan is guided by three goals. the number one, lower the high cost of health care. number two, ensure every american has abscess to quality,

a lot of discussion and politics particularly after katrina and the 2005 and again the 2006 season there's a lot of discussion that came up about it and the book sums it up very nicely prepare also point* out the book does go back in time to notice, a 270 years of eight -- hurricane history, 800 years, 5,000 years, looking at the leo tub histology would is a fancy word for looking at the historical extreme events. chapter for the sea level rise and the great unfreezing world. but is also a very big chapter and also done very well. and i will point* out why i think chapter three and four are so big. here you can see one of the things that my old college to be has produced. this is what it will look like ultimate the 2100 we are a small archipelago by lends at that point*. this is obviously ridiculous extreme scenario but it even scientist portrayed as being correct. delaware shoreline if the seat level rises to free. fink for one moment, a two ft. what is the normal tidal range of delaware? it is six we so at high tide there should be the area that it is inundated and then it is less than t

one of the things i wanted to of wait and work very hard to do was make sure we don't have a techno katrina. when this money is spent at the end of the day we have a system that does work that promotes the interest of patients, the interest of better acknowledgment of cost, acknowledges civil liberties in the right of privacy, and be able to accomplish those objectives but to deal with the three issues that quite frankly my own maryland medical society said barbara, make sure you were dealing with cost, make sure its center of her ability and lookout for the physicians in terms of obsolescence so we listened. we listened very hard. so that was on the health of t aspects and on the quality we also listened very hard and tried to do it in a very thorough way. we looked at the basic issues that impact quality. medical errors, simplification, hospital readmission within 30 days and the need to better manage chronic illness. we focused on that and built on the existing structures so mr. chairman i would like to oppose the colburn amendment and if there is no further debate i would like to vote.

read that one of the intentions of you working it that subject matter is youd to -- you wanted to use katrina as making analogy with the federal government's response in writing ahead a a financial crisis? >> that sounds so die deck tick as to be a room clearer. >> no, true or no? >> i think there's an analogy to be made. but if any character were to say anything that directly it would be cut out of the script. but it is true. new orleans was hit with a category 2, a high category 2, not even a category 3 hurricane. the hurricane, if you tell people from new orleans that their city was drowned by a hurricane, they'll get very angry with you and rightly so. their city was drowned by the corps of engineers and by shoddy workmanship and stuff that wasn't built to code and bad decisions in terms of transportation policy. and the ineffectiveness of congress in terms of dealing with mississippi river issues. you know, this is our

we faced a similar challenge with relief funding related to hurricane katrina. in the wake of that storm, we created a task force to investigate cases of fraud and corruption, and to identify areas of abuses -- abuse was most likely to take place. for the work of that task force, we have 246 convictions in mississippi and louisiana. today, we face a much different kind of storm, but the opportunities for criminal behavior and indeed the underlying greed remain the same. we have trillions, trillions of dollars at stake. from the purchase of troubled assets to improvements in infrastructure, healthcare, energy, education, even a small percentage of fraud would result in substantial, substantial taxpayer losses. we must collect the intelligence necessary to target the potential waste and abuse at all levels, and we must do so before it fully developed. to that and we must be able to follow the money all the way down the line. we are working with the sec, the inspector general for the tarp, other multi- agency task forces and inspectors general to identify where the

there's a lot of interest in hurricanes and discussion and politics particulate after katrina and of the 2005 and 2006 season there's a lot of discussion and the book sums it up nicely. also the book does go back and time. if you notice from one of the chapters 270 years, then 800 years, then 5,000. a lot of people look at paleozoic time histology which is a famous word for looking at historical events looking at sea level rise you can see their lot of sub cuttings at of that under that. i want to point* out why chapter three and four are so big delaware interested and one of the things that my own college to be has produced this is what will look like ultimately 21 o hundred we are a small archipelago by lends at that point*. this is obviously a ridiculous extreme scenario but nevertheless the scientists portrayed as being correct. the delaware paper said of the sea level rises two feet, a think for a moment, a two ft.? what is the normal titled range of delaware? it is six feet so at high tide there should be the area that isn't inundated because that would be less than the tidal r

lost his nirm in katrina and fought to bring telecommunications to the residents. we boast the youngest member of this, aaron shock, illinois state republic and a member of congress, with whom we are privileged to serve. i thank the gentleman for joining me this evening. i thank our speaker, the gentleman from virginia, who was very patient with his fellow freshmen colleagues from the other party and look forward to the opportunity to have a bipartisan freshmen discussion at an early opportunity. with that, mr. speaker, i move that the house adjourn for the evening. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is agreed to. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> these are president obama's remarks from cairo. after that, a ceremony at the capital march the 20th anniversary of the tiananmen square protests and the violence that followed. later, a house budget hearing

the same people that cleaned up after katrina can really run your health care system with the personal touch. [laughter] and they do. they think you're stupid and not paying attention and 18 then media is stupid and will not report this progress you look at the uninsured it is being exaggerated two exaggerates the crisis. you have a lot of folks, non-citizens, those who could sign up that have not, you can get the number down at 20 or at the most 25 to get those insured with private policies is one fraction of the cost of big government takeover. we can win this if we engage the american people. they are not stupid they are alarmed at the government and ready to stand up and speak out if we give them the plan to get behind so we need to stop a government takeover and get every american insured to every american has access to healthcare. thank you. [applause] senator demand, congressmen tom price they give for those presentations on legislature. i will now call out the panelist to talk about various aspects of reforming healthcare if i could ask seton motley to compare first to discuss

swine flu and food-born salmonella and health threats of natural dezaires such as what we saw with katrina and rita. the epa, the coast guard, the indian health service, just to name a few. despite their vital role, the commissioned core faces a work shortage. in the last year alone, the number of physicians serving as public health service officers declined by 5%. the dental officer core has lost one fourth of its workforce in the last six years. the pharmacy and nursing corps face similar workforce shortages. so given this need, the creation of this public health sciences track has been strongly endorsed by the commissioned officers association of the u.s. public health service. and this committee, senator kennedy has received a letter from former surgeon general c. everett coop urging us to include this provision in the health reform package. i introduce this bill, or these provisions as a free-standing bill earlier this year, several months ago. students in the public health see sciences track will receive a tuition stipend. they're accepted as commissioned corps officers with a two-ye

the crippling tragic because by definition these are folks who were flooded by one of our hurricanes, katrina or rita or gustav or ike. that is why they are ripping out old drywall and putting in this new stuff, so by definition virtually every one of those folks were hard hit by a hurricane or just recovering or finally have put their house back together and then they discovered this and they have to start all over. and their house is a loss, sometimes complete loss yet again. so it's doubly tragic for folks in that situation. i am certainly continuing to work with senator nelson, senator landrieu and others on legislation and funding, which has thus cpsc studying this issue and has it on a more accelerated timetable to study three things in particular. number when the relationship between the drywall and health sometimes. so what's the bottom line on health, number one. number two, the relationship between the drywall and electrical and fire safety issues. and number three, the tracing of the origin and distribution of the drywall. so i know that's going on. the big issue is timing. even --

book and it will be coming out on august the ninth which is the four year anniversary of hurricane katrina. and they may also have a book which is a young adult narrative, he is the cousin of emmett till's. he was there during the emmett till's line and this is his story as written for young adults so they understand the historical importance for the civil rights movement. and justice and peace. >> when is that coming out? >> that will be later on this fall just-in-time for our january for black history month. >> what is boomtown? >> it is a really interesting case study the way wal-mart change bentonville, arkansas. the way the sociological expiration of those economic expiration, how it immigration changes from within a class society, have gone through with large corporation and how it is actually brought a lot of diversity to the company. >> and finally i want to ask you about one more book over your shoulder, absent. >> this is our best selling author. he writes for make magazine and does a lot of dy i. he is known as mciver. in fact the founder of mciver says if you want to know where

the columbia shuttle recovery efforts in 2003, as well as serving in louisiana following hurricane katrina. kyle was commissioned in the united states army as a second lieutenant on the eve of his college graduation ceremony and subsequently deployed to iraq on october 3, 2006. in addition to his dedication to his unit and his country, kyle is equally remembered for his devotion to his family. and to his friends. as recalled in a may 31, 2007, article in "the austin american statesman," kyle was a devoted son, a protective big brother and a loyal friend who was still known in his old neighborhood for rounding up friends to take care of a local problem while all the adults were at work. mr. speaker, first lieutenant kyle west's life stands as a testament to the bravery and devotion of the heroic men and women who have served and continue to serve our nation at home and abroad. it is my sincere hope that we can honor this young soldier through the passage of h.r. 2422 and rename the georgetown, texas, postal facility as the lieutenant kyle g. west post office building. i urge my colleagues t

. >> caller: to talk about corporate greed and what happened during katrina. i studied state farm for four years, eight to nine hours a day, reading court documents, absolutely blown away by what i was finding out. so i blog all the insurance journal. i wrote the untouchables, and it's heartbreaking to me to find out that we can have the worst thing happen in this country and in the courts, our judges, the insurance industries, it really doesn't matter. they raped these poor people and nobody cares. and i'm sorry i'm -- i'm not sorry i'm upset. i am shocked. i'm sickened by it. i have culled over 800 numbers to try to get them to write the untouchables. nobody would do it. i talked to a reporter at the sun herald in mississippi. anita lee. she knows what is going on with storm farm and nobody cares. they can fill up records in the courts it's okay. now they're telling people we're moving because we had to pay you so much movement i'm thinking where are the real reporters in the world? i did a story about darfur and i was shocked the amount of people in this co

deal with or even escape from, if necessary, these dangerous and avoid tragedies such as hurricane katrina. funding for this amendment seeks to strike -- would be used by san jose university to complete the development of a field experience curriculum to supplement the existing bachelor of science meteorological program. this allows the university to better train the next generation and helping to ensure that government can plan and respond properly. this is a one-time shot that will be used over and over again as instruction goes on. the field expense will improve the quality of the graduates by exposing them to a wider array of weather fen no, ma'am none. this will enhance their ability to recognize and forecast the wide array of weather that is likely to be experienced across california and the nation in the next 30 years as we experience climate change. i know the gentleman often asks, why is this project and others are not worthy projects. well, the department of meteorology at san jose university is the only meteorological department in the public university system in the state of ca

assuming to the discussion of the conference you had conversations, i know as a former mayor wendy katrina disaster happened we spent a whole conference on it. because of the importance of safety and our communities are and so as you talk about the ideas and suggestions, i want to and i think senator johanns said it very simply gets on you, and i can own a look at what has been done and your comments today. so i want to take a couple of steps. if you want to quickly comment on the convention, that's great. and i'm not going to read the agenda because you know what was there and the kind of things you covered. it just seems that should have been, maybe it was in your agenda that's on your website doesn't show that. it seemed such an important issue. >> if i might, to that point, senator. the reason why ira was created and every year for the last 34 years has been to promote the safety in the industry. the safety directors of our member airlines need for the entire length of that conference. that is a meeting at which everything is shared again to protect -- to protect these issues with the

i would equate this to sending diplomats to katrina-destroyed new orleans in 2005 instead of the national guard. we're going to send diplomats to louisiana. we aren't going to send national guard or emergency service, we're going to send diplomats. as opposed to giving general petraeus, as the president asked for, funding to help out in pakistan and afghanistan, we're going to send diplomats. so they can talk to taliban and talk to al qaeda, they can talk to the madmen who cut off people's heads, that's what the state department's going to do. this is the wrong move. the republicans have it right this time. give the president full authority, let him come up with a plan and let general petraeus implement that, this substitute the republican substitute is the right way to go. we need to make sure that pakistan is fighting for pakistan and that pakistan doesn't think it's only fighting for american dollars. that's what we need to do. as once more a united states marine that saw state department ineptness and cowardice, while i was in afghanistan, it's almost personally insummitting we're goi

million service hours have been spent helping gulf coast communities recover and rebuild after hurricanes katrina and rita. that's a four million -- that's four million hours of service made possible by the organizations and the individuals who choose to participate in the americorps programs. this resolution recognizes one week where we salute current and former americorps members for their important work. it also allows us to thank all community partners who make it possible for americorps members to serve. i want to take this opportunity to thank my fellow co-chairs of the national service caucus, representatives matsui, ehlers, and price. i ask my colleagues to support this and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. tonko: does the gentleman have further speakers? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. mr. platts: i yield the distinguished gentleman from georgia mr. broun as much time as he may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new york reserves the balance of his time and th

we know the international help that came to us during hurricane katrina, we know what we ask with the tsunami, this is a terrorist tsunami. and i want to say that the government, albeit we disagree with its strength, i believe they love democracy. these conditions that may be opposed will workity way through congress but if we didn't -- work its way through congress but if we didn't act today we would continue to have the burials of so many people that are going on in this country. the kind of massive bombing that the terrorists think they can do to intimidate the people of pakistan. so as a co-chair of the pakistan caucus, i am grateful that we made a first step. i want the american people to know that your neighbors are pakistani-americans, they are doctors, they are lawyers, they are entrepreneurs, they are retailers, they love this country and they want to help their country as well. i am glad we made this first step. let me move quickly to a domestic issue and put an exclamation point on what we did right for pakistan and say that i stand here today and support a restoration and

did i read that one of the intentions of you working with the subject matter is you want to use katrina as a bit of making an analogy to the federal government's performance with let's say regulating the head of the financial crisis? is that correct? >> that sounds so it didactic as to be a room clearer. [laughter] >> we're still here. >> i think there is an analogy to be made in of a character to say anything that directly it would be cut out of the script, but it is true. new orleans was hit with a category two, high category two. not even in category three hurricane. the hurricane, if you tell people from new orleans their city was john by a hurricane there will get very angry and rightly so. their city was drowned by a corps of engineers and by shoddy workmanship and stuff that wasn't built to code. in bad decisions in terms of the transportation policy. the ineffectiveness of congress in terms of dealing with mississippi river issues. this is our country and you compare to the dutch to have managed to keep most of their country out of the north sea for generations. it is humiliatin

they're the ones that make things happen, because there's a reference to katrina earlier. we already have doctors on the ground who are getting it done. we have doctors who are actually taking no insurance or government programs now. and you know what they're offering? they're offering $35 medical office visits. they're offering $10 lab tests. those doctors are really taking care of patients. if we have government plan and mandatory insurance that these doctors are forced to participate in, they will not be able to practice medicine that way an they will be gone. they will be out of the system. so our response to abc is that tomorrow night, doctors are holding their four-hour town meeting for you to hear about what they really think about government medicine and i hope you'll join us for that. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. now joined by rick scott, the chairman of conservatives for patients rights to discuss rationing. >> thanks for the opportunity to be here. my background is i've been if the health care business for years. i started a hospital company, built that u

two-year period, i think the public needs to understand those 14 million are people, and during katrina those were people whose lives were being saved by the volunteers and the staff on the phone of 211. we did rooftop rescues, we did connecting people to the appropriate governmental entities, and the most vivid example happened with someone you know quite well, joe thomas' wife robin was serving as a volunteer and took a call from a man who went back into his home and found his mother's body. there was no one for him to call but 211. i think that your urgency to continue this funding and this legislation speaks to the need of american people, and i want to thank you for that. >> thank you very much. all right. any closing comments? >> senator, i just want to make, also add the thanks to it. you know, having spent a few years doing this, i've gotten pretty good at realizing there's not been a lot of advocacy on the hill on the issues of disaster response and recovery. and to your point and one of the things that we've seen with the ready communities initiative is i know you're focused o

going back to the pain of katrina and standing up for the right of people, this pro-democracy movement has been growing and building and developing and it got to the point that barack obama was able to see that there was something the posters were missing. the conditions were missing. they were missing you. and he stepped forward. but barack obama did not create this movement. this movement created the opportunity for barack obama. and the best thing that we can do is to keep on moving. keep on fighting. nexium o more green, more inclusive, a better begin than it is right now for the right way forward. and if we do that work, of light and well, we will not only be inspired by barack obama, we will inspire the best in him to deliver on the great promises. thank you, seattle, very much. [applause] >>> our special presentation of book tv continues "after words" featuring joe scarborough, host of msnbc morning show on his thoughts of the bush administration in his book, "the last best hope: restoring conservatism and america's promise." this is an hour. >> host: >> coming up next book tv p

and my wife and i had endured katrina so we ended up saying let's bring our kids and let's go out to the reagan library, nearby, we moved to thousand occasion california. >> you were living in new orleans. >> yeah. we came back to new orleans. i was professor attu lane and even named my american studies center attu lane, the theodore roosevelt center and i was teaching classes attu lane on theodore roosevelt and conservation. at rice university now i teach a class on theodore roosevelt and conservation meaning when you say when you start writing a book, i have been informing myself on the research part of this story for a long, long time. it always was in my mind the main thing i wanted to do as a historian with my life is to write the history, of first off, t.r., but f.d.r. and the c.c.c., carson and the u.s. fish and wildlife, the beautification during the 1960's up until the present time global warming and the modern green movement. i wanted to see that all that through the presidency meaning using people like t.r. and f.d.r. and truman and lyndon johnson and jimmy carter and clin

your book on katrina came out when? >> 2006. >> had you been working on this book? >> i was. i have been working on this book for a long time. it's been a passion. i have been collecting -- roosevelt's papers are divided up at harvard where wallace daly helped me a great deal. library of congress has his papers on fish, but we're looking at a man, t.r., who wrote over 150,000 letters. what has traditionally happened, people are looking in his crohn's for issues of panama canal and trust busting. t.r. would write a lot, he would rightmost on birds, people would skirt over it. it's a hobby. i took his writing about animal life very seriously because he did. i'll give you an example. we know him as the rough riders, spanish american war. t.r., when he trained in san antonio, had to have animals around him. he had three mascots. he had a cougar cub named josephine from arizona. he had a gold eagle, teddy, and a dog, cuba. so to train his men, he had three animals with him all the time and would write letters about the cougar biting a man's foot and he would find all this funny. t

cyberattack so that people are not guessing so we don't have the kind situation and confusion we had with katrina or 1911 where there is confusion between the national decision makers and the local and state authorities. it's about trying to make sure that organically there's an understanding of who does what and i feel we are stating the obvious in an extreme cyber emergency or attack that the president ultimately has constitutional authority to protect the country. it wasn't meant to go beyond that and this kind of discussion is something we've been having in conference rooms since we introduced the bill and it is very helpful in this interim process that is legislation so that by the time that we got to actively moving the legislation i'm hoping more warmly received. >> i think a core part of the report was exactly that, defining what the lanes of the road are and how the agencies on the government side work together and how they work with the private sector. we've known this was a problem for sometime but haven't had a response plan and that the word is only one part of the public-private par

think you don't know that government does not work well, that the same people who cleaned up after katrina are the ones who can really run your health care system with that personal touch that we all want. they do. they think you're stupid and they think you're not paying attention. they think the media is stupid and won't report this. the fact is, if you look at the uninsured, it's being exaggerated to exaggerate a crisis. again, you've got a lot of folks and noncitizens, those who could sign up for government programs who haven't. you could get that number to 20 or at the most 25. to get those people insured with private policies is a fraction of the cost of the government takeover. we can win this if we engage the american people. they are not stupid. they are alarmed at what this government is doing. they are ready to stand up and speak out, if we give them a plan to get behind. we need to stop a government takeover, we need to get every american insured so every american has access to health care. thank you. [applause] >> thank you for those presentations on legislation. i'm going to

back after hurricane katrina fema was, rightly so, criticized for issuing sole source contracts to three very large companies. unfortunately that pattern seems to be repeating itself. now we agree that updating the nation's flood map is critical to managing and reducing the nation's flood risk and operating the program under a fair and an open competition, i think, will produce the best results for the district, the state and the country as well. and i yield. mr. price: i thank the gentleman from new jersey for highlighting this issue. i agree that the flood map program is an instrumental tool in reducing the loss of life and property from floods. this subcommittee will work with the gentleman to review the recent contract solicitation. i'm committed to ensuring the d.h.s. puts dollars in projects that are well planned and competitively awarded and well managed and closely overseen. mr. garrett: i appreciate the chairman's comments on that. this is not just about the fifth district or even the state of new jersey who has had a number of flooding problems in the past but this is an import

strengthening and that is what this committee we'll focus on and has focused on since the wake-up call of katrina which will be four years august 29. we want to be sure that desai is necessary to make more predictions and warnings for people so they can move out of the way of these powerful storms. . . ççÑçÑÑÑÑÑÑççÑçÑç

as you remember one of the challenges in katrina was not being able to move and release items until there was a declaration and the challenges of providing that assistance, that clarity has been brought because of the work your committee did and the findings that said we needed to enable the administrator and the team to support governors more proactively. we continue that work and empower fema to do that. we face a variety of hazards. we've also instituted starting this morning exercises to begin testing the team. we stimulated a major earthquake this morning at 6:00 am. no notice to the team to see and make sure that we are reinforcing these procedures so that as you point out we're n