unfiltered congressional coverage for 45 years. here is a highlight for making moment. >> let this flag stay with you, ladies and gentlemen. this flag is a symbol of this war. we will stand, fight and win because we are united. ukraine, america, and the entire free world. >> c-span. powered by cable. coming up, fema administrator

deanne criswell talks about the role of emergency managers and cyber threat during natural disasters. this portion is about 45 minutes. >> good morning and welcome, everyone. i am the executive here at the atlantic council. on behalf of the atlantic council good morning and l welcome, everyone. my name is jenna. i am the executive vice president here at the atlantic council. on behalf of the atlantic council as well as our formal defense program within that

scope cross center for strategy and security, i am delighted to welcome all of you to the latest event under our future of dhs project titled: resilience in u.s. communities. to our esteemed speakers, thank you so much for joining us here today. the future of dhs project convenes leaders and divides recommendations to assist u.s. national security officials as they transform the department of homeland security to protect the u.s. homeland from threats such as natural disasters, pandemics for terrorism and other future threats. today's event is the final installment of the future of dhs project series. over the course of the project, we have had the honor of hosting a series of really important convening's, all of which you can find online. these include hosting three former secretaries of dhs. for a conversation exploring how the agency should realign their priorities to meet today's pressing threat to the

homeland. we hosted former chairman of u.s. house of representatives committee on homeland security, bennie thompson, to discuss streamlining congressional oversight at dhs. we had customs and border protection commissioner troy miller for a conversation on how the vp can measure biometrics at u.s. borders and most recently posted the undersecretary for intelligence and analysis for a discussion on the current challenges facing homeland security enterprise. in today's event, we are going to do a deep dive into another side of dhs within the federal emergency management agent the index or its role in working with federal, state, and local governments to prepare u.s. communities to withstand and recover from disasters. we are truly delighted to host the administrator, as well, so that she can discuss the

agency's goals surrounding the 20 ,24 resilience initiative. the 2024 year might not be the only year of resilience. i think it's something that we will need for some time to come. perhaps the administrator agrees your so grateful for you spending time with us here today. i am really looking forward to hearing your insights over the next half hour. after we hear from the administrator, she will be immediately followed by a panel consisting of federal, state, and private sector emergency management expert. tom warrick, senior fellow with us malik the future of dhs, will moderate the panel. you will all be in excellent hands. with that, it is my pleasure to introduce alex haseley, who will make a few announcements and further introduce our s and guest. alex is a principal at deloitte. responsible for helping for their relationship with fema.

he and his team are focused on getting communities to a place where they're not just bouncing back from disasters but jumping forward after the fact. he started his career in the army 20 years ago and has since been focused on addressing key challenges from cyber attack to national -- natural disasters and mass migration. he is a big lever in using the latest tech like generative ai to ensure that the u.s. is not just ready but ahead of future threats. we are delighted to partner with you. please join me here at the podium. it's wonderful to have you. thank you. >> thank you for the warm introduction. i could not agree more that 2024 should not be the first and only year of resilience. i'm thrilled to join you at the atlantic council representing deloitte. to kick off today's forum on a crucial role of the emergent management of community bolstering resilience. this is a challenge for leaders at all of role of government. local, tribal, territorial, and

private sector. a special thank you to the administrator deanne criswell. we also have the region 10 administrator. strickland, secretary of the maryland department of emergency management and president of the national emergency management association. gary o'neill, president of the national hazard mitigation association. the deloitte managing director, internationally recognized on climate disaster and resilience. and senior climate reporter from axe us. your insights are valuable to our discussion today. as we witness increasing climate related extreme weather events like the malley fire last august and the fires in texas and oklahoma, alongside increasingly expensive hazards and mission set, it becomes more urgent to elevate our national resilience. the focus on how we build resilience, especially in marginalized and disadvantaged communities, cannot be

overstated or it i am honored to introduce deanne criswell, fema administrator, at the home of these efforts. her extensive background leading the nation through emergencies. her roles have spanned from emergent the manager in aurora, colorado to the new york city commissioner of emergency management, culminating in her historic confirmation is the first woman fema administrator. she stands on top of an ecosystem with an evolving mandate and mission of bending beyond just traditional emergency management response and recovery. while those roles are enduring, the emergency management community and its workforce are shifting to instill preparedness, mitigation, information sharing and technology into its responsibilities with a mission set that also includes natural and person made events. cyber, biological and more.

today's discussion focuses on resilience, which is fundamentally about our ability to adapt and recover from adversity. however, building resilience is an increasingly complex task due to the fast changing pace around us redan 2022, the report underscores this challenge, noting the evolving roles of regulators and leaders fostering national resilience. as we dive in today's topics, administrators like our esteemed panel members. our goal is to transform the dialogue into actionable strategies that enhance community safety and resilience against these challenges. we are grateful to the atlantic council for providing platform to this critical work. please join me in welcoming administrator deanne criswell. >> good morning, everybody. it is really exciting to be here. i think this is just a nice way

to cap off a really amazing week where we hosted all of our state direct is, territorial direct is here for the week, talking about some of these important topics. i'm really excited to be able to be here today at my very first official atlantic council event. and i'm equally excited to see how many people are so interest did in this topic and you are interested in building resilience across america. it's something i think as you heard alex to say that i think a lot about grid while 2024 is our year of resilience, i think that a big piece of that is that when you think about fema and our emergency managers, you think about us as a response and recovery agents. we have such an important resilience role and we want to use that as the platform to left that up. this event right here is really like a book and to the national emergency management association event that we held earlier in the week.

the top of my keynote at that event was really around these resilience building efforts, but also about the evolution of emergency manager meant. the i'm really excited to have an opportunity to further discuss some of these topics today. we start by setting the scene for all of you. the theme today, emergency management profession in general, is a far cry from where we started, back in the 1970s. i talked a lot about this evolution earlier this week. let me just give you a quick summary of that. since fema was created nearly 45 years ago and nina created 50 years ago, fema has evolved from being an agency solely focused on civil defense, to one focused on response to those that include homeland security and to one that is essential in recovery. we hold all of these truths simultaneous wave. because that's what it means to

be an emergency manager. we are chief problem solvers. you will hear me say that a lot around the community. we are expert conveners. we are first responders. in recent years, we've also had to learn how to engage in public health and cyber security. the list can continue and go on and on. the reality is our operational tempo continues to increase. the scope of our work continues to expand. the title of emergency manager continues to gain new definitions. just look at the weather events of the past year, and i think you will understand why. atmospheric rivers. fires in the tropics. hurricanes in the desert. drought. extreme heat. extreme cold. 2023, the hottest year on record. permafrost is melting in

alaska. 10 feet of snow just blanketed the sierras in march. the severe weather events of today defy these historic models that we have been used to. still, there are other threats that continue to lurk at the periphery that ed to those we face. the fbi recently testified before congress about china's ability to strike our power and transportation infrastructure. the fbi has even warned about the potential for foreign influence in the 2024 elections michael. so why do i tell you all of this? the moral of the story is we have a lot on our plate. all of us. so what is it that we should be able to do? what can we do together? the answer is work together to build a more resilient nation. 2024, as you heard, fema's year of resilience your kid is an

opportunity for us to increase individual community and household readiness. to train and better resource the emergency management workforce. to build up local capacity, enhance response capabilities, and enable effective and efficient recovery strategies. we want communities across america to inc. of fema and know that we have the resources that they need that they can use to do this important work, to make their communities more resilient. and we want them to invest now today, so that if and when -- and this should just be when an emergency occurs, the and respond faster and recover more effectively. it sounds pretty simple, right? what does this all really mean? what actually is resilience?

it's not a new concept. that's for sure. but it's kind of a buzzword, it seems, these days. it can mean different things to different people depending on the length that you are approaching it from. let me explain a little bit. i met a woman on a visit to saipan recently whose home was mostly destroyed by a typhoon. she sheltered under her recently replaced roof, waiting for the rest of her home to be rebuilt. she moved her bed into her kitchen and did most of her cooking on an outdoor stove, while the rest of her house was pretty much unusable. while i was there that week, the repairs on her house were finally wrapping up. when i asked her why she did all this, why she stayed and she never left, why she did not seek out the resources that were available or her, like temporary housing, her answer was very simple. this is my home. this is where i want to stay. she was determined to stay and she did. i tell this story because to

me, this is what personal resilience can look like. grid, determination, and a willingness to make it work regardless of the circumstances. i also heard another great example of community resilience a few weeks ago during a meeting that i had with tribal leaders. there i heard a story about how the native village in alaska not only has a newfound understanding of what the resilience programs offer, but is leveraging resources now to invest in preparedness and resilience back home. to them, as i said earlier, they always thought of us as a response for recovery agency, but they are using the resources we have like direct technical assistance to become better prepared for their greatest threat, tsunamis, which is a huge threat in their

area, and now they have the ability to protect their people. they analyze the risk, understand that they need to take steps to mitigate it. then they find the resources needed to become more resilient. we need more communities across the united states to think like this village. to take a hard look at the risk that they face, and find ways that they can be more resilient in the future. this is one of my biggest priorities. as the administrator of ima it also is heart of the entire biden harris administration. president biden has invested historic levels of funding towards building a more resilient nation. he even created the first ever national climate resilience framework to help guide all of our efforts. the framework unites the entire federal family and this and working work and it spells out how we should collaborate with

nongovernmental partners while building state and local, tribal and territorial capacity. because the truth is government from the federal level to the local level cannot do this all on our own. we need to widening our circle and include partners from all sectors of the economy in this critical work. from academia to nonprofits, from the private sector to philanthropy, we need to work together in lockstep to create a more resilient nation. and i have seen this work begin to take root around the country on all the trips that i take. in florida international university, scientist have created a wall of simulator to test how buildings can survive a category 5 hurricane. in guam, there are organizations, volunteers and local government s&l who came together to form guam strong

and help reconstruct homes and build resilience after the typhoons. look at the work from the walmart foundation. they are really doing some amazing work in this space. they regularly fund resilience hubs and communities to help residents navigate power, housing and communication challenges stemming from these types of severe weather events. the foundation is even referencing our newly released community disaster resilience zones to help inform them on where they should build these new hubs in the future. these are the partners we need at the table. partners who understand that for every dollar that we invest in mitigation and resilience, saves six dollars in recovery. partners who are ready to pull up a chair, help us connect the dots and extend our reach into the corners of communities that we had a hard time reaching.

many partners who can help us meet the poor they are at instead of making them come to us. we need them to help us build capacity. help us inform communities across america about the importance of understanding their risk, their unique risk. making a plan and taking action. because like i said before, we cannot do this all on our own we need all of you with us at the table. so before i close, i will leave you with this. broader. you are all here today, so i know you are already interested in this work. but look around you and see who is missing from the room today. what other partners, one of the collaborators and voices do we need to have at that table, in the rooms where the decisions are being made? and then think ahead. what will our future look like

five, 10 or 15 years from now? what can we do today to improve tomorrow and have and we do it together? and then consider the individual. with all of this talk about coming together, making big change, i want to ensure that we never forget that this work is about people. it's about the woman in saipan who lost the majority of her home, but resilience and determination, now has a stronger foundation and a roof over her head. it is about the tribal citizens in the last who will be safer things to the action that the village took to help mitigate their specific and unique risk. it's about your neighbors, your loved ones, and your friends coming more resilient, building a resilient community, and together with our help, becoming more resilient as a nation.

thank you for your dedication and your commitment to this ongoing important work. one that will last long beyond 2024. and i look forward to the rest of our conversation today. thank you. >> well, thank you for that. that was interesting and enlightening in terms of how your thinking about this this year and beyond. i guess my first question is a broad question. probably one that an emergency manager get set every single experience. what keeps you up at night? >> is a lot of things that keep me up at night. when it comes to the space of resilience right now, there's a couple of things that i focus on. one is you know, we have so many communities today that are having repetitive climate related events.

in their ability to recover, you know, makes them weaker for the next event that is following them, but they also get this response fatigue. especially in small jurisdictions, in our emergency management offices and with our first responders. you know, they are having a hard time keeping up with the repetitive nature of so many different event that are intensifying more rapidly, getting more complex recoveries, that they don't have, always, the capacity to do all of the important work, to think about how do we make the community more resilient or invest the time and making them more resilient? that's what i've been focused on how we as an agency can help build state and local capacity. i also worry about this connection, or this opportunity

for bad actors to take advantage of one of these events. when we are at our most vulnerable, when we are at our weakest. then add, perhaps a cyber attack to the middle of our response. we don't know if the power outages because of the storm or because something else. it will really impact our decision-making as we go forward as emergency managers, and planning to be able to understand the root cause of some of the issues and how long it going to take to recover. further taxing the limited resources that are already out there. >> having heard you speak before and hearing that mentioned just now, to what extent has the job of administrator, even in just the past decade, evolved into needing to be a cyber act for in addition to storm response and earthquake response and all the other disaster areas that

were on your plate before. >> i think as you heard me talk in my remarks, it not so much about being a cyber expert read our role is to manage the consequences of these events. where our expertise comes in, and we were starting to see emergency managers brought to the table more is because we have the expertise in the power of convening. the power of collaboration, truly looking at a problem and understanding who is not at the table that needs to be at the table, bring them together. that's the expertise our emergency managers bring to the table. we don't have to be the public health expert or the cyber expert. we need to be able to be the planning expert to manage consequences and understand what the cascading impact could be. we also have the power of meaning and bringing the right people to have those conversations. that's where the value of our emergency managers really shines through. that's really one of the things

that i've been trying to help people understand about our role as emergency managers. >> tell me about some of the changes to fema's individual assistance program, which i believe goes into effect today. >> they do. >> what difference might this make for someone who just lost their home in a wildfire, or who just incurred significant damage in a hurricane, for example? or if you think there is a better example, go for that. but i'm really curious as to what this does what was different yesterday. >> this is really an exciting time for us. these are the most transformational changes we've made to this program in 20 years. and it has allowed us to truly take all the information that we hear from people and the barriers that they have trying to access assistance from our

state and local emergency managers and the struggles that they have in trying to help people get this distance that they need, and really breaking down those barriers and removing them so we help people on the road to recovery faster. a couple of examples, i think the biggest one i get the most applause when i talk to people about is in the past, yesterday, we will just say yesterday, yesterday, if your home was damaged for a certain part of the programs, i would actually make you apply for an sba loan, have you get denied and then come back and then you would be eligible for fema assistance for it >> sounds like healthcare. >> perhaps. but i think the biggest part of that is that we are asking the people we know are the most vulnerable, the most resourced -- resourced efficient to go through this extra step just to be told yes, you are resourced efficient and then you and get

federal help. to me, it was a bit demoralizing. now we have taken that away. now we decoupled those two programs, so any of fema's programs, you don't have to go through that process first. you can apply for grants, but you can also apply for an sba loan at the same time, which some people will use. it is a really great resource. our programs help jumpstart the recovery, and there are things like insurance or loans that really help provide additional resources. that is one big example of one of the barriers that we continue to hear that people were not applying. there's a large number of people that we would send their that when you needed help but never came back because it was confusing. we've added some new programs on how to help people in their first few weeks that they've been displaced in a way that we have not been able to before, because we know some people will go stay with family and friends. maybe they hope pay for power bills or buy some extra food,

so this money will -- the displacement assistance will help them with some of those costs. but not jeopardize their ability to get rental assistance once you get tired of your family and friends staying with you. now you decide you will go get some place to stay in a rental while your home is being repaired. in the past, it wouldn't act your ability to get the rental assistance. now it is two separate programs, which i think will make a big difference. many other things in there, but those are two really big ones that are going to make a big difference. >> what are you hearing regarding early indications of how act give the hurricanes season might be? because from talking to science sources, hurricane scientists are not exactly quiet about their concerns for this season. record high north atlantic

ocean temperatures. and an incoming la nina event, both of which could converge to create an extremely active season. how does that complicate or direct the work that you are doing now into the early or middle of spring? >> i think about this in a couple of ways. one is we always prepare for a really busy hurricane season, and regardless of how busy it is, it takes one significant event to really bring all of the federal government to have to come into play. we always want to keep that in mind. we partnered closely with the national hurricane center to understand what they think the prediction models are going to be. we have staff that are embedded with them. they will release their official prediction in the main timeframe. and i actually get more excited about their update that they put out in the july and august timeframe because that is when

it is the busiest. it's just one. it does not matter how many. it just takes one. what we've seen in our operational tempo from a fema standpoint is that while we use to foster our agency to make sure we had enough resources for the peak hurricane season, our operational tempo is like that year-round. from the atmospheric rivers of january to the wild fires on december 30th, it does not slow down for us now. now we have had to restructure how we approach our staffing and our resources to make sure that we are ready any time of year because we are eating it all year long. in fact, last year, we had a type of disaster declaration. we had one every three days last year. that's only the ones that made it to that threshold. there is still those that we denied or those that state and local jurisdictions did not even submit because they were handling them on their own. so we have to have this posture

year-round, not just hurricane season. >> speaking of state and local, you know, decision-makers, state and local resources, what does fema intend to do about the funding gap for mitigation projects as announced yesterday? i believe that a record $8 billion in requests came in. you only had one $.8 billion available in funding. are you going to publicly release how the agency decides which communities receive break funding? and for those that don't get the funding, will fema help those communities understand why, and suggest alternative funding sources? >> we have a couple different mitigation modems. the brick funding you are talking about, building resilient infrastructure and communities is the predisaster mitigation program. while it's incredibly overprescribed, we had historic levels of funding during the biden administration.

we were able to fund more projects than ever before. the other part that i get excited about is that the legacy program, the predisaster mitigation program only allowed for a $5 million federal cost share. this program allows up to $50 million which means we can do better communitywide project. the fact that we continue to be more and more oversubscribed. one, this tells me people are understanding what their future risk is going to be and they are putting the work and to actually draft these project. and while we do have a limited amount of funding here, these are projects that could also be used for some of our other programs like hazard mitigation grant programs which is a post- disaster mitigation program. or we can work with federal partners to see if they fit into one of the other programs and funding sources out there well with our profit partners. i want to continue to work with communities. please continue to oversubscribed, because it also lets congress know the need that is out there, how much

demand there is to build these types of resilience project. so we will work with all of these communities to help connect them if possible. we will release the select these later but it is a competitive process. there is a very thorough review that goes through with how we score them. the scoring criteria as listed as a funding opportunity. >> so they're making me multitask here, which my wife can tell you i suck at. so this is a question that has come in from the audience either here or on line. how do you create resilience in communities when certain responsibilities lie outside of fema and dhs authorities? >> i have to better understand

which responsibilities they might be talking about. for us, our regional administrators, we have 10 regions. each administrator has built strong relationships with state and territory directors. they work with them to understand what the greatest needs are because it is the staple territory direct is that know their communities the best. and again, we have real expertise that i think emergency managers went to the table is this power of convening. we want to be able to help connect the dots. we want to be able to connect them to programs that are within our authorities and we have the funding to some sort, or if there is another federal agency or other partner that can help support it, that's what we do, right? we are the chief problem solvers, trying to bring in the right partners. so this conversation about partnerships is so incredibly important. no one federal agency will be

able to have all the different resilience things that are out there. i feel we are really positioned well to be able to bring in those partners for that specific community. understanding what their needs are and help them get on the road to resilience. >> you're going to love this question. what a bigger hindrance to fema's worker? being lumped into a massive agency like dhs, or congressional dysfunction when it comes to funding? >> you think i'm going to love that question? >> yep. yup. >> you know, there's challenges across the board in there. listen to secretary mayorkas talk the other day when he was speaking at the nemo conference. it's really interesting, his perspective where he talks about how the department as a whole is now very fit for purpose. and there is so much injured

dependency and interconnection between the work that we do in the work that the rest of the department does. and it gives us the opportunity to really leverage those resources. tary mayorkas the other day when he was speaking at value in being able to tap into something bigger than just our agency that helps support the increasing demands that we have. as far as the second part of the question, it is a work in progress. >> very deftly handled. by the way, i saw secretary mayorkas speaker earlier this week. i have no idea how funny he is. >> he is. >> the moderator referenced him being a little bit controversial . he said something about, i have no idea what you are talking about. so that was pretty good. one fun question i wanted to

ask you. you are into triathlons, i hear. that is my own personal version of a total disaster. do they help you think more clearly? process what you do every day and maybe i as therapy in a certain way? >> 100%. the time i can get outside alone with my own head and not a lot of people around me as an opportunity to think clearly. i remember even writing my master's thesis and it would all just come to me while i was on a bike ride for a run. it really does clear the mind and allows you to get focused on one specific thing. i would go back to my car and even just write notes of things to me -- that came to me and i just loved to have that release

and loved to be outdoors. i'm no good at one of the events individually but i do finish and that's the important part. >> that is very true. i wanted to ask one more question. i am still looking through. >> multitasking. >> how confident are you that the agency projects such as flood maps fully count for climate change, which is necessary for the resilience work. many maps lack influences and inland flooding for you are setting the flood zones lack context from the shifts and heavy downpours we are seeing. i know there has been progress i don't know the extent to

which you describe that as being done. >> i think it is important to remember we have different types of maps. when that gets referenced a lot of flood maps. those are regulatory. those are regulatory maps that are based on current day risk, not future risk, to define your insurance premium today. we also have other maps that do incorporate future risk. you can go to the national risk index and some of the other flood smart products. those are designed to help an individual or community better understandnd what the overall risk is, what the future risk my. when it comes to a regulatory map you don't want to pay a flood premium today for a threat you might paste 10 years from now. it's important to differentiate the specifics between the two. we have a lot of work to do being able to explain that

better and be able to drive people to a place on our website where we can just look at them, what is the risk? click on them and you can see the risks they face today, five years from now, 10 years from now, versus looking at the current regulatory map. so we have work to do to their. we are not where i want to be but we are continuing to push forward. >> that brings me to something that i have been reporting a lot on and many of the reporters also, some of them a lot better than me. the insurance crisis that we have in the u.s. right now y because of the pace and extent and damage in disasters, climate worsened disasters. california, louisiana, florida, increasing parts of these states are becoming uninsurable.

does that enter into famous consideration at all when it comes to trying to create a more resilient country? because we have people who are moving to these states and just not buying insurance because it goes from $500 one year check $15,000 the next year. >> that is something that we think about a lot. how we inherited the flood insurance program was because the insurance industry was not ensuring that catastrophic risk. we are starting to see other catastrophic instances that even if you want insurance you can't get the insurance. that is why this resilience is so incredibly important. if we can invest in resilience and make resilient communities, resilient communities are insurable communities.

we have to continue to get out there and celebrate the stories of resilience so more communities can see the different types of projects that are within the scope of possibility and how they are actually impacting the insurance and insurability. the communities i invested and created in resilience and still have adequate insurance coverage. how do we model that in how other communities do the same thing. >> one last question that comes through the magic of the ipad. this is from nate. extreme heat cost the u.s. thousands of lives and billions of dollars across the country each year. this has not been treated as a disaster in the same way as floods or wildfires. does the lack of inclusion in the stafford act tie fema's hands on this issue?

will the biden administration be supportive of legislation to insert heat as an additional hazard? >> i get this question a lot. it's a good question because 2023 was the hottest year on record globally. this is a current issue, but the stafford act does not preclude us from a disaster related to heat. what has to happen is the costs that are incurred by the local jurisdiction have to exceed their capacity. if a jurisdiction is incurring a significant amount of cost to help respond to a current heat event that is beyond the operating budget and the things they do every day then they can absolutely submit the request. if they can demonstrate that it is beyond their capabilities certainly would be considered for disaster declaration.

i think the part we really need to focus on is, it is march. what are we doing today to educate communities for the summer that we know will experience extreme heat and teaching them the things they need to do or how do we help communities invest in these projects or help urban islands i that are created more heat. we had a break project last year to build more tree canopy. it will create cooler spaces. we've had other projects that built roofs. this is the most important contribution fema can have in this conversation. the regional administrators are in contact with the state and

territory local directors when they are having these events. we are communicating with them to see what kind of costs they d are incurring. they are shortened nature and it's not exceeding what they normally do. that's why we need to have the n conversation and pivot to build better preparedness for individuals and more resilience in the community to get some relief. >> thank you very much for your perspective and your insight today and for being here. >> think you. this was great. s [applause]

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