During Wednesday’s Senate Banking Committee hearing, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) spoke about the need for jurisdictions to comply with resilience and mitigation efforts to combat effects of natural disasters.
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00:00I have to start. Mr. Epstein, that's a first for me. Thank you so much.
00:05So I was actually researching what I was looking into what had happened with the tariffs,
00:09and it brought up that crazy language, because I do agree with Senator Warren on one thing.
00:13I think the tariffs are making this problem much worse.
00:16If it's any consolation, I was in the middle of a serious meeting when I was abroad last week,
00:20and for some reason, a theme song from Wicked came up on my phone.
00:24It was very embarrassing, because I didn't even know it was until somebody told me what it was.
00:27But anyway, back to the matter at hand.
00:31You know, North Carolina, we get hurricanes now in the east and the west.
00:37We had the Helene Impact, which was near a Category 1 hurricane that has killed 106 people,
00:44151,000 homes damaged, 500,000 small businesses in disaster-declared counties,
00:495,000 miles of roads, including a 20-mile segment of I-40, which is still not up and running.
00:55We know storms.
00:56I heard you all talking about mitigation.
00:59We talked about that for the last 10 years that I've been here and for the eight years that I was in the legislature.
01:03We always talk about it just around a storm, and then we forget about it and do nothing.
01:09The president was roundly criticized for saying that there should be conditions attached to FEMA aid.
01:16I disagree, incidentally, with the president if he meant individual assistance.
01:22You know, you've got to give people food, shelter.
01:24There can't be conditions for that.
01:26You move it out the door.
01:27They shouldn't suffer the consequences of bad policy decisions.
01:31However, Mr. Gordon made a great point.
01:35I am perfectly satisfied with the notion of having conditions attached to any resiliency and recovery to states and local jurisdictions that fail to make their communities and their land more resilient and more able to respond.
01:53So I think that it would be great.
01:56I've mentioned I did not know specifically, Mr. Gordon, what you said.
01:59I think it's perfectly fine to say that we come up with some sort of way to index state and local governments based on the extent to which they've really implemented best practices for forestry management, for tributary clearing within environmental norms, whatever a best practice looks like.
02:18Depoliticize it.
02:19And if you're in a jurisdiction that hasn't not only passed the law but implemented the rules and we're in a world of scarce resources, then the state and local governments that actually are listening and executing and implementing all of these words that we talk about every time a storm comes through, I think they should get first right.
02:40We're in a world of scarce resources.
02:42I believe that there should be a point where if a state or local government no longer has demonstrated law, procedures, and money to prepare for resiliency and mitigation, they shouldn't get a dime of federal dollars.
02:53Give it to the jurisdictions that do.
02:55What's wrong with that concept, Mr. Gordon?
02:58Senator, I think you're making an incredibly important point.
03:01And there's extremely effective mitigation, cost-effective mitigation that can be done that just isn't happening out there.
03:10And certainly it's a burden on the federal taxpayers to keep providing post-disaster funds for things that could have been mitigated.
03:18But it really is a bipartisan issue.
03:21We can work together to improve that mitigation.
03:24And it's so important.
03:25The most cost-effective time to do that is either new buildings or rebuilding.
03:29And so it's so important to build back better when you have disasters.
03:33Except for the build back better part.
03:34I got everything else.
03:35But Mr. Newman.
03:39I've got two words for you, Senator.
03:40Building codes.
03:41Yeah.
03:42It is basic, low-hanging fruit.
03:44We know that building codes work.
03:45The Florida building code, we believe, prevented about $1 to $3 billion from additional losses associated with Hurricane Ian in Florida.
03:54And to the point that Commissioner Peiske made, Altadena will not be rebuilt using California's wildfire codes unless there is action taken by Los Angeles County.
04:06That can't be the case.
04:07We need to apply the tools we know work to both new construction and rebuilds.
04:12I absolutely, you know, I know we're talking more about insurance strategies.
04:17I'll put some questions for the record.
04:20But, you know, folks, we've got to stop talking about resiliency.
04:24And then you go home, you get political pushback, you don't do it.
04:29People are dying.
04:30Businesses are being lost.
04:32I can take a look at a lot of the communities in North Carolina that were impacted by nearly $50 billion in damage from Helene and probably attribute some of them for past mistakes and not moving forward on mitigation.
04:47And I'll leave you with this.
04:48It was in one of the small towns where I had a former mayor who had been in the town for a long time said, you know, these buildings here, I own them all.
04:58And I got really mad when the town council made me elevate those two buildings back there that are about 12 foot higher than they were before.
05:07Now they're the only ones standing.
05:09We need local and state officials to have the courage to tell their communities what they need to do to be more resilient.
05:18And the federal government needs to reward those who will and deny funding for those who don't.
05:25Perfect.
05:27Senator Smith.