deanne criswell. she spoke before the house oversight, and reform committee. >> the committee will come to order. without objection, the chair isu authorized to declare a recess of the committee at any time. i now recognize myself for an an opening statement. the committee is holding this hearing to address the serious and growing crisis imposed by ed natural disaster and extreme tr weather events driven by climatn change. between august 29th and september 1st, hurricane ida devastated the u.s. from the louisiana coast to new jersey, and my home state of new york. this deadly hurricane resulted e in over 100 deaths, including 13 in new york city. in new york and new jersey, mor than a thousand miles from wheri this storm first made landfall catastrophic flooding trapped people and flooded basement apartments and stranded ra vehicles. in louisiana, hurricane ida took down the electric grid, knocking out all eight transmission lines that deliver power to new york through orleans and downey, more than 30

administrator criswell, welcome. my friends just talked about crises when the biden administration began, and he's absolutely right. the biden administration inherited endless crises from the trump administration. i mean, everything from an insurrection at the capitol to a pandemic that was made so much worse by the response or lack of response by the trump administration and by the president himself, mr. trump. by the way, if we want another crisis, fema. we just voted for continuing a resolution of $28 million in natural disaster relief, and 175 of my republican colleagues voted against it. so, director -- administrator criswell, your budget is out as some of my colleagues would have. would that create a crisis for you and could this create a crisis for america in response to disasters? >> congressman, i do appreciate the passing of the continuing resolution so we can continue to support the american people. any disruption in funding to our mission would certainly have an impact on our ability to protect the lives

criswell: thank you. mental health is important for both disaster survivors and my employees as well. our crisis counseling program is a tool available to help crisis survivors manage the stress and cope with losses they experienced from this disaster. it is available under the individual assistance program when that is authorized for major disaster declarations, and executed by the states. it is an important resource to help individuals impacted ia disaster. -- impacted by a disaster. representative: i thank you for including your staffing that. we have to heal the healers as well-paid this program has been deployed nationwide in response to covid-19, and in puerto rico following hurricanes and in new york following the september 11 terror attacks, to name a few. however, many people survive disasters, terror attacks, violence and natural disasters that can't take advantage of this program. there are two types of disaster declaration -- major disasters and emergency declarations. is the crisis counsel pr

i look forward to knowing what headway administrator criswell has already made because i know that has been a concern. sen. scott: do you think states that don't have any skin in the game are going to watch the money? mr. hooks: i think it is also added with the complexity that a lot of local communities may not have the financial wherewithal as other communities. i think that with honest conversation and never making promises that you certainly are not able to and not authorized by legislation to keep, that we can effectively move forward and address those issues. but we have to encourage states that they have to have some skin in the game. sen. scott: the disaster relief fund has been redistributed to find areas not related to disaster emergency merit -- mr. hooks: thank you for the question. i'm not specifically familiar with the reference that you make. however, i do believe that fema and any other organization has an obligation to expend funds as they are authorized and are permitted by law. sen. scott: i think we talked about what i watched in the debris pickup, if a local agency

manchin and kyrsten sinema, for the latest on all of us let's start with nbc news correspondent heidi criswell a, at the white house, and nbc news reporter gary graham back on capitol hill. so heidi, the administration clearly wants his money's worth when it comes to touting this big achievement. >> yeah lindsay, it has been a running punchline now for two administrations, but as the president said, it is finally infrastructure week. this is what he promised during the campaign, it is a historic investment in the nation's infrastructure, roads, bridges, airports, broadband. the president said it will be a, quote, blue collar blueprint to rebuilding america, which is really on par with a major investment that we made in the 19 fifties to build the interstate highway system. here's the president. >> we took a monumental step, for our organization. reminder that armand country made 5.6 million jobs since he took office in january 20th. we've reached an unemployment rate of 4.6%, two point -- than the vast majority of economists project that would happen. and we're just getting started. we are doi

. ♪♪ >>> next testimony from fema administrator deanne criswell. she spoke before the house oversight, and reform committee. >> the committee will come to order. without objection, the chair is

[laughter] for more on that you can ask travis criswell and his drinking envisions it. however, harrison hall had relatively humble beginning. by the 1830s, a gentleman by the name of henry taz well harrison moved into this improper date with his second wife mary jones harrison it is he who added on the addition we see here tonight making up the core of the building. the structure we see here and the second of the two outbuildings behind it and of course the land we are sitting currently on our chairs and back to the block behind you. he built the house ostensibly so he and his growing family could fit into less cramped quarters because they did have eight children. it's not that easy to fit eight to adults in this building here they be more comfortable having the larger estate available to them. they did have enslaved workers living at the household with them as well as working on their properties. now, henry was a prominent harrison of virginia and his wife mary was not only a jones, her father was a prominent attorney. she also is the granddaughter of charles lee. he

deanne criswell. she spoke before the house oversight, and reform committee. >> the committee will come to order. without objection, the chair isu authorized to declare a recess of the committee at any time. i now recognize myself for an an opening statement. the committee is holding this hearing to address the serious and growing crisis imposed by ed natural disaster and extreme tr