During a House Science Space and Tech Committee hearing in July, Rep. Mike Haridopolos (R-FL) spoke about some Democratic lawmakers' responses to the deadly flooding in Texas last month.
00:00Now recognize my colleague from Florida, Mr. Herodopoulos, for five minutes.
00:03Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:04This is a very thoughtful meeting, and I'm glad we're having this opportunity to have a positive discussion,
00:09and I appreciate you bringing the folks before us.
00:11But let's also take a look at this with this tragedy in Texas and understand where we are on the factual side of this.
00:18And as I think everyone in this room knows and people watching, as just mentioned on C-SPAN,
00:22is that the National Weather Service did provide timely and accurate forecasts.
00:26They're challenged. I think we all recognize it happened between 12 o'clock and 4 o'clock in the morning.
00:32And it's a tragedy of what happened, and this is where we kind of move forward to solve problems, not to play politics with it.
00:38These are lies we're talking about, not political gambits.
00:41And there was no lack of staff, as we've all looked at, whether it be the Austin-San Antonio offices or the San Angelo office.
00:49And there has been authorized a situation to hire 126 staffers before this happened.
00:54And so, again, I get frustrated as a new member of Congress that everything has to be political.
01:01And I think that what we need to focus on is solving problems.
01:03But in the case here, it was done by the book.
01:07They had the right personnel there.
01:08They put the warnings out.
01:11And it happened, unfortunately, at a very untimely hour.
01:14And, of course, we also have to mention it was 36 feet high.
01:17I mean, this is a huge thing that happened, I think, in less than 45 minutes.
01:23And so this is why what we should take from this is what better preparation can we have, especially as we think about nighttime events like this as we move forward.
01:34And so I'm glad to see our chairman.
01:36And being from Florida, we recognize not only floods, but, of course, we face hurricane threats.
01:40But that's nothing we can prepare for, as we know because of the excellent work by the National Weather Service and NOAA and others, we can better anticipate the storm.
01:50And thus, we can be prepared.
01:52Of course, this was a middle-of-the-night event like never before.
01:56And to see the absolute destruction in less than 45 minutes is a true tragedy.
02:00And that's why we were all on the floor yesterday to recognize the heroic acts of so many people who literally not only put their lives on the line but lost their life trying to save others.
02:10And that's the thing that we should be focusing on.
02:12And as I mentioned before, we've already talked about restaffing some of these folks before this happened to make sure that the numbers are right.
02:20And this is what I think solutions are about as opposed to playing politics.
02:23And so a lot of these narratives have proven to be false, but everybody's always in a rush to play politics, as we saw.
02:31Immediately after this tragedy, people are pointing fingers.
02:34And that's not how we solve problems in Washington, D.C.
02:37I'm glad to see that hopefully we have meetings like this and we look at our budget and do it right.
02:43And the other thing I think I want to make clear to everyone before us is that a lot of these cuts are proposed cuts.
02:49And the way you stop proposed cuts is you do what you do today.
02:52You advocate for programs you believe in.
02:55I've been in a situation where I happen to be the chairman of the subcommittee for space.
03:00And there's a lot of discussion about space adjustments.
03:04The sky is falling, there's X cut or that cut.
03:06And what has happened in the big, beautiful bill, we added $10 billion to the space program to help make sure that not only Artemis III, but IV and V are now funded.
03:16And we have made ourselves space dominant because we put those dollars in place, recognizing the situation we're in.
03:22And now between now and roughly October 1, when we actually get our budget moving forward, we're going to be looking at these very programs and make sure you put the right people and the new technologies that are emerging.
03:33We have some of those new technologies actually in the state of Florida to make up for some of these gaps that we have in weather activities.
03:39And I think we can also use that across the country.
03:42And so, Mr. Chairman, as I serve on this committee, of course, our chairman is here for the full committee.
03:47I think this is an opportunity for us to explore how to best utilize the most modern technology and move forward in a positive way.
03:55And clearly this administration, as they've inherited a very unique situation from the prior one, can look at where we're at and go out to solve problems with the latest technology and make best use of those 126 people that they talked about before this incident took place in the state of Texas.
04:11So, hopefully it never happens again.
04:12And, of course, with the good work of the leadership, especially from our members from Texas, I think they'll come up with some creative solutions so that when those literally the middle of the night situations take place, we might have a more accurate and effective system to help those people who are truly in need.
04:28And my focus right now is really applauding those people who are going out there every single day to try to bring some closure to some families.
04:38And I love what you have done, Mr. Chairman, in focusing on solutions as opposed to pointing fingers.
04:43And so, with that, I won't ask any questions because I know we're running out of time, but I'm glad we're focusing on solutions instead of politics.
04:50That's what this institution should be all about.
