reform effort. in addition to that we also believe that real stories as opposed to the harry and louise ads ever in 1993 having real stories are going to be much more powerful than having actors with a tv commercial. but we really believe that and the president has said this before as well that he is going to play out broad principles and ask congress to address those principles in the legislation man dressed and we're going to continue to take the same tax and matched in the industry form ever act. >> thank you. and i concede that that is going to be part of the dynamic between the groups that have a m.r. appointed jenna and of the necessity to be broader in the messaging of the democrats. ,. as i think deepak talked

about the short-term and the long-term, if we were going to have actually a couple years ashopping cart, whether we are going to transform this, it really does come to whether we can actually do things that make a huge difference. and i think that, you know, some -- a poll we are going to release later today shows 80% of americans think we need to have quality affordable health care for every man, woman, and child now and the public plan is a piece of that. flaus -- [applause] and because, because it makes it affordable. it makes it a way of being able to control costs and as you think about the different pieces about a quality affordable health care plan that covers everyone, we need to be able -- make sure that we can actually hold down costs and one of the best competitors we can have to the private industry is to be able to have a public plan that actually does that and is holding them accountable. >> what about single payer? >> sisters sisters and brothers i don't believe it will have been in this year. >> we will have a

discussion on that later this afternoon. but i will say this stuff across the country is making sure people understand what it means a and the stories they are doing or what we are doing, a town hall meetings, phone calls, all of a discussion about what it means it is all there. at the end of the day we need to make sure voters feel whenever we have adopted with health-care reform has made a difference in people's lives that is what people will look at. do they have health care they can afford? or that makes a difference in their lives? that is what people will vote for at the end of the day i just happen to think people in the room to think we can i get there unless we have a public auction -- option. >> i think many of us respond to the question that we have a single payer system would be the best system.

[applause] that includes the public statement that president obama himself made. the question in my view is what are the mechanisms, the steps we can take to get there? the reason the public plan option is important it is a structural change how our health-care system operates in this country that will fundamentally put a lid if we do it right on the role of private insurance companies. that is why if we lose that battle we will be in trouble. and the point* is right it is a step if and as congress redrawn managed to deliver health care for every single american as the president has laid out and we will have a lot of trouble going back and pushing for more far-reaching 342011 or 2013. >> i was going to put out because the challenge we're facing a health care we are

facing on a nut but a priority issues. move on is proud we have moved on at 5 million members the last two years. one thing we're thinking actively about is how to utilize our entire membership base. we have all lot to do. one of the core missions as a broad progressive movement, and this applies to afghanistan as well, one of the core missions with the progressive movement is to show there is a deep political will for transformational change. that is absolutely broad brush. beyond that in the wake of that if we don't keep that momentum going we will not get anywhere but in the wake of that we have to take a segment of members who are passionate about the public plan or passion at about the specifics of the energy bill and

employed them at strategic moments to make their voices heard. also have a challenge to define the opposition with the segment of our members were absolutely critical to the opposition. for example, talking about the chamber of commerce. most people do not think of the chamber of commerce that is a benign force. they're opposition to the clean energy economy is one of the main obstacles we're facing to pursue that agenda. what we have been able to do is segment 22,000 small business leaders among our membership to a taken a vocal stand against the chamber of commerce in support of president obama clean energy bill. [applause] this issue of segmentation both in terms of constituency, a strategy, tactics is critical for measurable gain. we cannot do it in the absence

of continuing to show the broad political momentum for transformative change. [applause] >> as a responsible moderator i need to cut this off but i want to know to the commitment of all of the group's up here. throughout the buildup to the election campaign, throughout the election and now is to broaden the activity and the engagement with the american people and not the intent to sit with our base and complain or simply focus on the people that we all betty talk to. the goal of all of these groups is to reach out to the american people and to engage them in a serious discussion about the future of our country. if we do at and do it well as these groups are committed to doing, we will truly keep the change going that we have started and this past year. thank you very much for all of

your work. let's go get lunch. we will come back to the rest of the conference. i believe a lunch is in the display area.

>> and now a hearing on hurricane preparedness for the upcoming season we will hear from the head of fema as they discuss the forecast that talks about 14 tropical storms for 2009 season and seven of which could be become hurricanes. this is too hour. >> afternoon at the hearing nine hurricane preparedness will come to order. thank you everyone for joining us for a very important hearing of what is one of a series of hearings that will

have have been are happening today or will continue to happen as we strive to gets our nation's response in the very best possible shape for hurricanes and of disasters that is the subject of this hearing today to see where we are and have the opportunity to have on our first panel the new spt audits administrator testifying for the first time since his confirmation well, mr. craig fugate. let me say that this hearing is focused on hurricane response because we started hurricane season the this week. but we will be examining issues that affect not just the hurricane region but all regions of the country in this hearing today and we will be

focusing on plants and processes that actually have applicability across the board for many different types of threats the hurricanes, earthquakes, , etc. the ranking member and i both represent states that have seen a large portions of our states, a major cities and very important role areas devastated by recent hurricanes. 2004, 2005 and 2008 were particularly hard years for cities and communities throughout the gulf coast from florida to texas. but the last century has been difficult for many, many states. i would like to put the first chart up. >> host: number of hurricanes that have hit this

particular region of the country, which is the hurricane belt 1955 through 2005. the blue line is hurricane katrina which was the greatest among all of these storms depicted by a significant amount in terms of size of damage a thin hurricane retek which ranks second in the storm's among damage. i would like to show you the next graph and which is even more startling are the storms since 1851 to the present so when we in the gulf coast talk about the threat, it is real, it is frightening, and

it is important for this committee and all committees of this congress to continue to focus as best we can on the sure thrashed of hurricanes that are getting more and more predictable. we know and can be better focused where they will hit and when they are hitting, unlike earthquakes although science is getting much better on earthquakes, and five years as well. we have gotten pretty good at predicting where the storms will hit. there is very little we can do immediately to stop them the most certainly we can prepare our people better for the threat to that they are facing. it is important for us to understand our capacity to deal with these real and on going and in some people's

minds, ever strengthening threats and this 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 wanted to make sure the science necessary to make sure more scientific based predictions and warning so people can move out of the weight of the powerful storms. make sure they have the evacuation routes clear and secure and the rules and regulations of involving evacuation's are clear to the millions of people that have two use them as well as to those of us organizing the evacuation. what they will or rum not be reimbursed for is of particular interest to me. and stabilizing water, food and medicine to all of the people athletes from the storms like this is important and we have not gotten that right yet.

where do these people live in the event they cannot go back to the house or the shelter or the apartment or the place, and nursing home, hospital that they evacuated from? where do we shelter them? who pays for that and how long? what do we do to recover? these communities whether big cities come a large metropolitan areas of multimillion people, how do we help the small rural communities that don't get any attention from anybody wants the wind and waves are gone how we help them to recover? i suggest we have a lot of work to do probably to say a few words about the devastating hurricanes that struck louisiana and texas last year because it demonstrated progress that has been made as well as demonstrated the requirement for significant improvement. the evacuation four gustav and

i core the largest in u.s. history. louisiana moved to maybe but of harm's way including the elderly, disabled and those without transport and yet some people were left behind. texas kept houston residents of household growth could be clear for people on the coast to flee from ike as they did when rita approached. communication and coordination between different levels of government was better. fema declared prelim fall disasters and a surge resources into the area before impact and in most instances the federal levees howled however insufficient quantities of generators force hospitals in baton rouge before nursed them to evacuate patients come in sufficient supply of generators cost gas stations to shut down which almost caused a panic in a

major metropolitan area as for weeks people could not access and the gasoline. and people cannot access gasoline they cannot get to work is shut down the economy and people get laid off of work even within a week of the storm that can happen. we cannot afford a loss of jobs right now i remind people testifying today. local governments waited days for commodities like ice and water. the state of louisiana contractor failed the evacuees were forced, thousands were to take care of -- school buses without air-conditioning except it is 100 degrees and a bus ride is 10 hours it is an issue for people who are sick or elderly or small children to sit still it is very heart and do so without a bathroom. evacuees from texas and

louisiana are riveting in shreveport just to give examples i walked through these shelters myself that were inadequate. there are no cots, no blankets, inadequate showers, people were forced to sleep on the floors because the costs and towels did not arrive as 17 days later. it was an interesting couple of days for the mayors of those town which did their level best to make a bad situation better. local levies in the south louisiana failed again, a failed with katrina, a failed with rita, gustav, ike, as the said mr. ritter knows because he is from florida of south florida is concerned about their water management issues and whether the dikes and levees will hold that is the subject of another hearing. was continuing to be a cumbersome process despite

many improvements which i well mentioned we are still relying mr. fugate to much nine trailers to jump-start recovery and we will be pressing hard on new housing and shelter options broken to new to say to provide these communities with $5 million in the community long-distance is probably not what charleston or savannah or miami or new orleans or atlanta or batteries are in a number of committees that can do much with $5 million and that is all the law allows them to borrow. the administrator 55 from fema will discuss the 2008 response and the agency's work on an alert system evacuation plans

and from his perspective if we are better situated in it 2009 season opens. major general from the northern command will outline the department of defense support mission for hurricane response including ariel storming civilians comair medevac, a search and rescue, communications support of logistics coming hurricane response, exercises, no., coor dination for the state and national guard. it is a lot but we will try to get that in. we are very proud to have it general with us from the misery of national guard which is of particular interest to senator mccaskill. in our final common next panel we will have george foresman former dhs official to talk about the private sector role because this committee chair and ranking member recognize it is not just the federal

government, state and local governments, individuals, priv ate sector and a nonprofit sector bree want to give them voice breck we're happy to hear from the director of operations, at armand mascelli they have went three major transformation since katrina we're very interested in hearing about the fact they have increased volunteer base from 23,000 up at 90,000 it is not only a bigger but a better red cross and we are excited about hearing, because i think americans look to the red cross to give them particular strength and comfort at times of disaster and that of course, is a key role of the at united day shrek cross for many years. janet durden joining us of a community of northeast louisiana. my husband's home town and with katrina they did the good

job as the office is dropped off, north louisiana picked up as i am sure what happened in texas, alabama, mississippi, f lorida the northern part of the state picks up a great amount of help and we want to hear about the increased activity of the 211 operation which is they go to operation when people need help and assistance they do not call 911 come with a call 211 and we want americans to understand that. the like to ask mr. fugate good to see you, senator. out by to ask mr. fugate to begin the may ask senator burr i know you were just coming in, welcome, do want to make and a brief opening statement or should we go right to the panel? thank you.

we're happy to have craig 85 with us the new administrator from fema and man who i gave my whole hearted support they give for the work to have done but we look forward to hearing from your administrator 35 because we have made progress there is a tremendous amount of work that has to be done we're looking to you for leadership and guidance and may i say migrate banks to nazi war who came in on the election of president obama and appointment of secretary janice napolitano step did in the interim and was immediately able to make a tremendous difference of improvement. i know you are happy with what she was able to do but i want to read knowledge that and thank you for being the formal an official director and look

forward to your remarks. >> thank you, madam chairman, senator landrieu, there is always the first time to testify a lot of formalities i have submitted written testimony by walt try to keep the short because i would rather have the questions and have the dialogue. i am pleased to be here to represent homeland security and the federal emergency management agency for preparations for 2009. i appreciate to come before you the leadership, the committee work in identifying as a nation where to go. that talks about changing how we want to approach things. we at fema believe our role is to ensure we are working together resignation to build and sustain and improve our capabilities, prepare for, respond to, recover from against all hazards the key

thing is recognizing fema by itself cannot be successful. many groups you have representing a are part of that team more britney is the local and state officials and volunteer organizations but ultimately it is our citizens a part of the team. if nothing else i'm trying to get people to recognize public is not a liability but the resources to help us be more successful but we have to be there for their needs when disaster strikes. post katrina emergency reform act established the position of the if minister to provide for the authority of additional functions we now have at fema, more tools that began to show the improvement. we still have a way to go. allows us to further strengthen the relationship with state partners, a tribal and local governments as part of that community has it contributed to the increase

capacity for as you remember one of the challenges of katrina was not being able to move four release items until there was a declaration and said declaration to provide the assistance because of the work the committee did to enable the administrator and it seemed to support governors more proactively. we continue that work, as you point* out with a variety of hazards via also instituted this morning exercises we simulated a major earthquake in california at 6:00 a.m.. to make sure we're reinforcing these procedures so as you point* out we are not subject to hours after a disaster strikes to get resources. the process of building this team and enhancing as it would you have given us us as tools is what we is focused on. there's tremendous capability that has been built in the legal construct that

oftentimes your work and the legislation has passed has addressed. now in is our responsibility to make sure we can implement that fully presley go through this and build the interco partnerships, i cannot say enough great things have been worked with ms. ward two hell but that role and service a transition know a strong regional administrator as the part of the family she brought a lot of common-sense approach and got a good team to approach the challenges we face in the recovery. it is a continuing commitment that we have. as they serve in this capacity coming from a state director and working with secretary napolitano be very much bring experience that we were customers of the federal family and the challenges we face and we continue to work towards that. working with our partners to

give them more ownership. as you point* out temporary housing for how we house people after the disaster? and is not a solution to bring from washington we really want to work with the states as we have developed ideas and concepts and say what other ideas have you come up with? how do you make sure we're able to capture what resources are there? what is the best way to address the? there is no one solution that fits every scenario and we want to make sure we work with the states to build the housing task force has unfortunately these may occur in a four chip -- future we have four options. it is a multi disciplined and multi team approach we need to have that body and at all levels. when i said working together, a lot of times a look at the planning process we forget the key amenities warn of government as you have

volunteer agencies representative our partners at the american red cross, and united way to 11, to broker those resources is critical we bring about the team approach and worked as not just representing government but what the private sector does. it is a talent doesn't make cents when we have an opening grocery store others that are not served? our focus is a government centric team we have two build a team that has all of the partners that can serve and support our citizens to make sure they understand they have role to me as prepared as they can sell when disaster strikes we can focus on the most vocal citizens because we have done our part to be ready and last, if we could just ask folks all of this work your committee is doing we could do more if you and your family are okay check on a neighbor. we can do a lote