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National Windstorm Impact Reduction Act Reauthorization of 2015

Floor Speech

Date: Jan. 7, 2015
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: National Security Environment

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Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I rise in support of H.R. 23, legislation to reauthorize the National
Windstorm Impact Reduction Program.

First I want to thank Representatives Neugebauer and Wilson for their
hard work on this important legislation that will benefit our
constituents.

Americans face significant exposure to windstorms. According to the
National Weather Service, between the years of 2003 and 2013, thousands
of Americans lost their lives from the impacts of windstorms. Along
with the loss of life, windstorms during that time caused billions of
dollars of damage to property, including a severely negative impact on
agricultural crops.

Although we cannot stop a windstorm from happening, there is much we
can do to save both lives and property when windstorms and other
natural disasters do happen. In addition to responding quickly and with sufficient resources in the aftermath of a natural disaster, we must also invest in preparedness and resilience.

Studies of FEMA's Pre-Disaster Mitigation program have shown that for
every dollar invested in mitigation activities, $3 to $4 in recovery
costs can be saved.

The National Windstorm Reduction Program Act is primarily a
mitigation program. It has the potential to lessen the loss of life and
economic damage by supporting research and development on windstorms
and their impacts and helping to ensure that this research is
translated into improving building codes and emergency planning, but
this program needs robust investment to achieve that result.

The bill today includes a lower total authorization level than was
authorized for this program in fiscal year 2008. We can and we should
do better than that. One of our responsibilities as a government should
be to assist our constituents with disaster mitigation and response and
preparedness, and that means investing in programs we already have in
place to carry out these responsibilities. Nevertheless, I understand
the need to reauthorize this important program, and I thank my
colleagues for agreeing to maintain the authorization levels negotiated
last Congress.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this
important bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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