paul: welcome to ""the journal editorial report"" i'm paul gigot. the scope of the devastation from hurricane harvey continues to unfold. harvey will go down as one of the most of destructive and costliest storms in history. my guest this week gets a response from state and local authorities high marks. he's author of the book "shall we wake the president?"

you literally wrote the book on the history of disaster management. why do you give this effort so far good marks? >> thank you for having me. i notice you said so far three times which is important because things can often go off the rails. but the first initial phase of response in terms of getting materials to people who need it and you have people on top of it who have practice and know what they are doing. what we have seen thus far is these things are coming together, and you have a top leader in brock long over at fema who did have table top exercise with his cabinet on the first day after he was confirmed. you had the governor of texas, governor abbott, saying he gives an a plus to the federals.

paul: getting resources on the ground as the storm is approaching. so once it gets you don't have to scramble. they are listening and can respond faster? >> that is one key. necessity did do that in this case. once the storm hits, it's hard to get stuff in there. you see people on the roads and on the river backed up trying to get their boats there to help out. you also said listening. there is a social media component to this. they are using electronic tools listen to what people are saying, snapchat, facebook, twitter. paul: they are listening to social media and watching and

they can pint point where some people -- pinpoint where some people are. which brings up the point about communications. one of the things that's interesting, the cell phone networks have stayed mostly up. why is that? that seems crucial when it comes to communicating with people who are strands and need help. >> we just have better technology and it's more advanced. but there have been investments in hardening the system so they are more resilient. i remember work in bush administration during 9/11 and all the cell networks went down 367. paul: you had to use packet switching on the internet to communicate. this is something private companies have made an investment in. >> the private sector plays an important role. the government is doing a good

job in this case. but it's not just the government's job. private sector companies like twitter and snapchat, and companies like at&t and verizon have hardened their neat works so the cell towers stay up and are more effective. paul: the national guard and fire and police in houston. i have seen fewer reports of criminal behavior and looting. relatively few compared to previous disasters. >> the national guard deployment depends on coordination between the state and federal government. in katrina you had large percentages of the new orleans police department not showing you have and being mia. here in houston, we saw that terrible incident who was killed. his wife and father-in-law

begged him not to go. he wanted to do his duty and unfortunately he passed away. paul: where do we go from here in managing this? the cameras are going to leave and the water will recede. but the damage, the mess will still be there. what happens next? >> we go from the response stage to the recovery stage. as you said, that takes a lot longer. it's a lot more expensive. you have a lot of people who are displaced from their homes. they are destroyed. and you need to get them assistance to see how we can get them back into making houston the vibrant city it has been again. it will be costly and expensive. you will see a package going forward in congress the next month that will provide assistance.

sandy, $60 billion. some of that money did not go to sandy itself. which was unfortunate. paul: temporary housing will be part of this. you have 30,000, 40,000 people in houston who are displaced. >> i hope they have come up with better solutions than the fema trailers. there was some real learning from the katrina failures that are making this a more successful response. paul: when we come back, federal, state and local authorities continue to respond to harvey victims. progressives look for someone or something to blame for the storm's wrath.

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paul: even as rescue and relief efforts continue, progressives are looking for someone or something to blame for hurricane harvey. the he morning theme is texas itself and especially the city of houston are partially at fault for the storm's devastation. let's bring in kim crossle, james freeman and jason riley. let's start with you. you share his view that this is a relatively good effort in emergency management so far? >> i think it's one of the best efforts we have seen since the history of emergency management. great cooperation between the state and federal authorities. and that is key to this. and just the people of houston and the people of texas who used all the technology and everything else at their

disposal to help each other out. paul: that's an interesting part of this. the cooperative spirit of texas. >> it has thrown trump critics off their game. they were anticipating and were ready to go to school on it. we have seen cooperation between the local official, the labor tech scary of transportation. we are talking about the first lady's footwear on the left. paul: you have got to give credit to the mayor and the governor. the coordination does start with the local officials. they had security people out in force, and you don't see a lot -- there is a a little bit of not evacuating.

but it seems it saved lives. >> it's a perfect storm of liberal annoyance where you combine good management at the federal level and see an amazing example of volunteerism. you see these guys in fishing boats carrying their weapons just in case there is any problem. but they are helping people regardless of color or creed and an inspiring example example and distorts what we have heard about people in that part of the country. paul: this is what happens after disasters. you can regret it and say we should preplan. the sandy bill was $60 billion. this might be better. will it change what republicans do in the fall?

>> it will have to be their first priority. when they get back they will be expected to write that check. there will be support on that from right and left. the big question from republicans is how do they use that moment to try to also accomplish some of their agenda. you see discussions about perhaps attaching to a spending bill emergency relief bill, the debt ceiling increase that paul ryan needs to get through the house. by the way which i think is totally legitimate. america is about to run out of its ability to boor oh. i think that will be one thing. they give a little bit of a boost because the republican administration has managed things well and potentially a little bit more unity and momentum behind these big agenda

items they need to accomplish. paul: it's a chance to govern. >> it's a chance to govern and so far the administration seems to be making good use of this opportunity. we'll see how long that lasts. paul: what about this narrative we are seeing on the left. a couple days already casting the first stone, blaming the oil and gas industry in houston for contributing to global warming which they say contributes to more hurricanes and zoning laws in houston. it has relatively fewer building restricts and that contributed to lower housing prices and faster growth. is any of that legitimate? >> there were floods in houston a century ago when there was he singly no building like we have now. when you get a once in a

millennial storm, you are going to have a problem. paul: what about the global warming business? >> the predictions that global warming would lead to more hurricane and tornadoes have been proven false. the obama era was the most of benign in that sense for decade and decade. so this isn't part of a pattern. as written in our pages friday we have had fewer of these storms in recent year's. >> there is no evidence there has been an increase in flooding. it's due mostly to the soil. you had superstorm sandy here in new york where there has been plenty. smart growth policies that didn't seem to help much. we need to put this in context. this was a freakishly intense and slow-moving storm.

there was going to be a lot of devastation no matter what. paul: the federal flood understand program which is in trouble already, will it take a big check to bail this out? >> it will. i hope they put to real reforms in there. this has been in place since the 60s, it's using taxpayer-backed funding to provide subsidized understand giving people incentive to build in flood-prone areas. paul: do you want risk-based pricing for insurance? >> i know this is a tough time to argue for spending restraint. but everything they are doing without government is an example of what can be done without government. paul rsh the cost of rebuilding will be easier and cheaper because they have a resilient

economy based on oil and gas and fewer zoning restrictions. president trump makes his pitch for tax reform. can congress deliver a bill before the end of the year? >> i don't want to be disappointed by congress. you understand me. you understand. ♪ ah, my poor mouth breather. allergies? stuffy nose? can't sleep? enough. take that. a breathe right nasal strip of course. imagine just put one on and pow! it instantly opens your nose up to 38% more than allergy medicine alone. so you can breathe, and sleep. better than a catnap. shut your mouth and say goodnight, mouthbreathers. breathe right.

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>> this our once in a generation opportunity to deliver real tax reform and i'm committed to working with congress to get this job done. the president calling it a once

in a generation opportunity that he expects congress to take advantage of. we are back with kim strossel and mary o'grady. what do you think of the president's pitch? >> i think it's good went out there and he's talking to the american people and talking about tax reform. i wish he would talk more about growth instead of focusing on this is what middle class families need. he tended to sort of lean a little bit too much in my opinion toward the idea of middle class thanks cuts and what this country needs are cuts in marginal rates that will spur growth. that should be his main message. he's not doing enough of that.

paul: what we need is to make the american public, voting public, to make this work for them. >> he talked about how he wants 3% a year and more than that. he said i don't see why we can't grow faster. that's his goal. and he talked about the benefits to the average worker by lowering the income tax rates. when you reduce the corporate thanks rate, corn races invest more in their businesses and that makes workers more productive. paul: you don't think a corporate tack cut like the left does goes to share hold hers and capital? >> i agree he has mentioned these things. but he hasn't put the emphasis

enough on growth. this will be a fight in congress between those people saying that the tax reform has to be about fairness and taxing the rich, and people who believe in growth. the president should be out there talking about growth all the time and the importance of lowering thanks on the wealthiest because they are the ones with the money and they are the ones who create jobs. >> i think the president's job -- he did not do this on healthcare. this was one of his big failures. he did not come out and make a public address and back republicans on the healthcare effort. this is good to see. i'm told by people in the white house they are going to make sure he stays on task and makes the case for tax reform. they see his job to be selling this and drumming up public support for it. i think the real question you

have is in fact the views of those in the senate and house ask on the republic cab side whether they have the ability to ignore the democratic class worker argument and follow the nod of paul ryan and the head of the house ways and means committee which are pushing for the policies mary is talking about. those are the weak links out there. i think the president the job is to make the case to the public. paul: will they be able to hold up? the left is going to its usual playbook, this is for the 1%. >> one of the problems is president trump allowed the discussion to get into the area of revenue neutral.

once you go down that -- once you get trapped in that, it's going to be very tough because then people will start saying who is going to pay for this cut? of course it will return to the class warfare argument. >> one of the things we want out of this is someone to pay for it in the sense we want to get rid of some of these loopholes. some corporations pay 12% while others pay the full rate of 35%, james. >> i think cutting the rate is the goal here. paul: to cut the rate to the 0% you or i want, to get there you have to get rid of some of these loopholes. >> i think this is maybe a track for republicans if they are thinking of fixing all the

problems in the american tax code the next three months. i think that will be a challenge. we are fairly late in the year. i would focus on tax relief and getting the economy moving. paul: still ahead, with the effort to repeal and replace obamacare still stalled on capitol hill. some much-needed good news from the food and drug administration which is moving to lower the cost of prescription drugs for patients across the country. the fda commissioner joins us next.

paul: with the effort to repeal and replace obamacare stalled on cap til, some welcome news from the food and drug administration which is on target to approve a record number of generic drugs that could lower the cost for millions of patients. joining me is the commissioner scott gottleib. you have been making generic approvals a priority. >> we don't do drug pricing. but we do increase competition

by facilitating access to more drugs. what we are look at is ways to bring generic drugs to the market. there are policies preventing generic drugs from the market. we have seen generic companies have difficulties getting access to the drugs they need to do the samples they need. paul: i have been told they use fda safety as an excuse not to provide the samples. >> there are things we can do. these are risk management plans we put in place to protect certain drugs that are risky to use. branded companies use those rules to block the generic companies from going into the

market to prove sameness. branded companies use those measures to keep them from getting the samples they need. that's what we are focusing our attention on. paul: one of the priorities you have written is to improve drug approvals and make public when the fda rejects something. make that letter of rejection public. >> those are the complete response layers that explains the rationale why the fda rejected a drug. we'll probably be making public more of the data with drug approval. so people have access into the under lying data to approve

drugs. there will be additional steps around the overall review process. paul: the cures act is suppose to let you look at randomized clinical trial to the say how can we introduce more evidence into these trials to provide faster approvals. >> this is a false dichotomy in washington that there is a choice between speed versus safety. i think you can make the process smarter and more efficient. learn more and make it go more quickly. we have a more efficient process overall. paul prr particularly in this world where drugs will be patient specific. there are smaller pools of patients they can hit. it might work for those people but not for a larger pool of a

randomized trial. don't you have to change trials to meet that change in medicine? >> we are going to allow approval. let's say a drug treats a certain target. rather than having to get approval for the cancer a lung and separate approval for the cancer and liver. if the drug works for a molecular tumor in all those organs. paul: the right to try legislation passed the senate. in 30 states i think they passed some version of it. patients who are dying are look for treatment that gives them faster access to an experimental treatment. are you in favor of that? >> we'll allow patients to get access to more drugs.

these drugs can reach market more efficiently. we'll take steps in the coming months to help facilitate the ability to use the drug. congress might pass this legislation. paul: some of the frustrations patients have, you have compassionate use ability now. by the many very difficult particularly if the obstacle of efficacy of the drug is put in front of patients over safety. i understand safety. but on the efficacy ground, if somebody is dying, isn't it immoral to deny them to an experimental treatment? >> we do that now. some of the expanded access you see right now where the efficacy isn't established for the drug, and there is a plausible reason to think the drug might work. a lot of companies don't make

these drugs available. how obviously you can't force the companies to do that. >> it makes it easyier. trying to compel companies to make drugs available like an accelerated approval it's a big enough break through, why not also ask the company and make the drug available for people who have no medical options. so we couldn't do that as a matter of policy. paul: thank you. still ahead. americans celebrate labor day weekends. a closer look at the growing

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paul: just in time for labor day weekends, a closer look at the state of the american workforce. a new report shows the economy adding 156,000 jobs in august with the unemployment rate ticking up to 4.4%. this as companies reporting they can't find enough workers to fill available slots. jason, a big labor day story. kinds of a moderate increase in jobs? august. but overall. still a very, very -- around the country employers tell us they are having a hard time finding workers. >> there is a mismatch problem.

they are having problems finding people with the skills they need. it is on an industry-by-tribasis it's also regional. arizona, california, wisconsin, agriculture is another area and construction. we have an aging workforce. we have 77 million baby boomers retiring the next 15 years. 10,000 a day. it's not just if there are enough newer workers coming in to replace them. fewer americans are going to college, fewer are being trained in the trades. paul: the labor participation rate, the share of the working-aged population is back at levels in the 70s. it's no longer falling, but it's

not where we would like to see it. >> i think there is a whole group of baby boomers in their late close to retirement. they have given up because the salaries they are offered to go back into the workforce aren't worth it. paille the labor participation rate for young men is not what we want to see. >> the government benefits are too good. staying unemployed. they say i can't afford to take this job because i would lose my benefits. jason mentioned the skills mismatched. employers say they can't find people who pass the drug test, say please and thank you and show up on time and do what the boss asks them to do.

there is something going on in education k-12 more than getting people going through college. a lot of employers will hire someone from high school with simple path mattics skills and -- mathematics skills and train them. paul: 25% of the people companies try to get can't pass the drug test. >> month after month. single most of important business problem is not being able to find qualified workers and part of being qualified is being able to act in a professional manner in a professional environment. so you do have that issue. and you have the issue of not pulling people back into the workforce. employers are having a hard time finding workers. but we haven't seen wages go up much.

you would think they would need to do that. i think part of that is the confidence to spend more on your workforce if you think revenues are going to be good and the government is going to take less of your profits. >> there is some evidence on the wage issue that part of it is aging baby boomers retiring. they were highly paid. and younger people coming into the workforce are not earning as much. i think we just have to let the recovery play out. this has been a slow depressed economy. even thought it's been growing for 9 years, it's been growing slowly. you are seeing a change, i think think. paul: what do we do about the workforce? >> we should open the market to more foreign workers. president trump's going for

fewer legal immigrants is a way to exacerbate this problem. if they can't find them in native workers they can find them in guest workers. paul: they fill needs when they are open then go back to where they came from. >> maybe, maybe not. some groups have gone back, some have come and stayed. but let the market make that decision. the market will do a much better job of allocating the market including labor. paul: a call for u.c. berkeley to cancel a planned free speech week later this month. ♪ it's time for the biggest sale of the year with the new sleep number 360 smart bed.

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paw report mayor of berkeley, california is urging the university to cancel plans for a free speech week on campus following last week's violent attack antifa and right-wing demonstrators. he wants the university to halt plans. it says it will give protesters to create mayhem. a speech by milo yiannopoulos was canceled earlier this year when rioters smashed windows and

lit fiefers. what happened this week in berkeley and what is antifa. >> there were two conservative rallies that were going to be held that ended up being canceled that ended up being justified. they crashed the group. 15 people arrested. i went the last week interviewing several antifa activists and researchers. their beliefs are surprisingly. they came out of the punk rock culture. they view words as violence. they want to use this tactic of showing up using grenades and molotov cocktails to shut down

ideas they think are violent. paul: ideas are a form of violence so it's okay to use rhetorical violence but it's okay to use physical violence to prevent that. >> they believe you have meet those words with violence in a preventative violence. these are anarchists, they don't want state censorship. but they believe they should be the censors. paul: jason, you have seen this around the country. i was glad to see nancy pelosi the former speaker of the house denounce this kind of thinking. what do you make of it? >> it was the right thing to do. the problem is she is the exemption, not the rule. she took her time getting around to doing it. i don't recall similar delays when the right wanted to

denounce right-wing bad behavior. the other thing is the message they are sending to kids on campus. it's not only right to silence people you disagree with, but to use violence to silence people you disagree with. they claim to be opposed to fascism but their definition of who is the fascist is anyone that disagrees with them about anything. paul: on berkeley, this next month could be interesting. we have a new chancellor who wants to have multiple vices on congress. contrasting with the mayor saying no, no, no. how is this going to play out? >> it will be ground zero for these free speech wars. we are seeing the chancellor say the right things.

that it's her moral and legal obligation to protect free speech on campus. but having to stand up to the mayor is her first challenge. standing up to the students is the second and standing up to violent antifa protesters, i can see that coming. paul: when we look at the white supremacist neo-nazis. we know who they are. but these people on the left, antifa, they wear masks, you don't see them quoted by name. why not? in the 60s we knew tom hayden and the radicals. >> they are borrowing black block tactics. they say they are not only afraid of law enforcement and also right-wing activists. i think it's a law enforcement problem.

when you post all of someone's information onlight's easy for someone to show up at their door oh contact their parents. >> a group of ivy league professors sent out a letter telling them to avoid group think and think for themselves. but common sense is in short supply on college campuses. paul: great letter, but there were not that's professors who signed it. we have to take one more break. when we come back. hits and misses of the week. you know who likes to be

in control? this guy. check it out! self-appendectomy! oh, that's really attached. that's why i rent from national. where i get the control to choose any car in the aisle i want, not some car they choose for me. which makes me one smooth operator. ah! still a little tender. (vo) go national. go like a pro. and the wolf huffed like you do sometimes, grandpa? well, when you have copd, it can be hard to breathe. it can be hard to get air out, which can make it hard to get air in. so i talked to my doctor. she said... symbicort could help you breathe better,

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paul: time for our hits and misses of the week. kim, start us off. >> not long ago the usual critics were complaining the

u.s. drug industry had run out of ideas. but you take a look at this week's buy of gilian sciences. kite developed a revolutionary new cancer therapy which uses a person's own cells, reengineers them to go back and fight cancer. this is a hit to american financial newt and risk taking. >> a taco week was canceled, they ran out of tacos. but more accusations of cultural appropriation. here is why i think this is hate. enough portlanders didn't care about p.c. sensibility, they just wanted a taco. the founders errandsed up defending it saying this gives

you and opportunity to enjoy it. >> a $25,000 settlement was thrown out on whether a foot long sandwich is actually 12 inches. on appeal it turns out at the dough before it's cooks is 12 inches long and the court says customers could use their common sense. if common sense gets into court rooms we are in trouble. >> the trump administration announced it will reinstitute tougher work requirements for welfare. a big part of welfare reform in 1996. they believe able-bodied people should be encouraged to work. you don't help people by making them more dependent on government.

paul: that's it for this week's show. thanks to my panel. thanks to all you for watching. i'm paul gigot. hope to see you next week. >> the new "wall street week" ." spirit welcome to "wall street week," the program analyzes the week that was and held position you for the week ahead. i am marie bartiromo. coming up in just a few moments, some of the biggest vos is in the start of will joint our round table talking about companies. and first dagan is standing by with headlines. dagan? >> maria, the u.s. economy putting on 100,000 jobs. with unemployment rate taking up to 4.4%. the strong jobs numbers pushes the markets higher. and the dow and nasdaq and s&p 500 closing in positive territory. they posted the fiftstig