I think the hierarchy is a local response first, supported by the state and the federal government really comes in. It does provide funding after the fact. And one of the reasons we're holding these hearings is We're going to be asked to probably spend billions that never should have been required to be spent had the state and local officials done their job. I started out with Tom McClintock's op ed there where he talks about California prior to the 1800s, on average, burning about 4.5 million acres had reduced that 250,000 acres by the year 2000. (29:40–29:51)
CLAIM
Asserts that billions in federal spending on disasters could have been avoided if state and local officials had acted properly.
This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.
