medicare affordable? i mean it is really hurting me. >> carol from washington state. she talked in large about that medicare/medicaid issue be doing to respond? what's one thing we've seen recently this past couple weeks is medicare is led to negotiate drug prices which was passed last summer which was a huge issue for democrats are pushing his policy for long time. the government can negotiate with drug companies to try to reducedi prices of medication currently there is only limited list of medication at the moment they're trying to expand that but that's a major victory for people to lower the cost of healthcare. this was opposed by many drug companies but that is one instance the federal government is trying to lower costs. king a punch will not "washington jour" continues. host: joining us now is tom frank who covers requests for

disasters and disaster aid. welcome back to the program. guest: thanks for having me. host: fema has of fun but what does it accomplish? guest: it pays for disasters. it's a separate fund like any federal fund that serves one specific purpose. that purpose is to help communities and individuals recover, cleanup, rebuild after a major disaster. the president declares florida or hawaii a disaster and that basically opens basically opens up the account for states, counties, cities to tap the money to help pay for the key spending items are clean-up, debris clean-up disasters caused enormous amount of debris and also to rebuild roads, police stations, hospitals and so on. individuals in designated

disaster areas is for a few thousand dollars, hotel room for a couple of weeks, emergency supply. the thingng about the disaster fund is that as there are more and more disasters in this country and as they become more and more damaging, a lot more money is being drawn out of them and the budgeting process is very difficult. a lot of guess work. >> this year we will put x amount of dollars ando see what happens? >> yeah, more or less. every year the disaster fund gets funded in the annual budget. the question is how does the administration come up with the request and what they are typically tone taken average in the past ten years. that's tough because you have

sesome years like 2017 when you headed hurricane harvey in texas, maria in florida and irma -- maria in puerto rico. the it'ses were astronomical and you have other years where it's really nothing. that's why there is some guess work into it and part of the way it's just been acknowledged that the disaster fund is going to be funded, on occasion be supplemental requests, in other words, mid-year requests to congress for emergency money and that's understood as part of the process and congress typically has beenss pretty comfortable approving supplemental requests and it's not a partisan thing regardless of the administration because as you hear people say all of the time, tissuesers don't -- hurricanes don't care what party you are or anything. they just -- theyy are just thee to make a mess. >> before the events in maui, idalia, what was the condition

of the fund? >> the condition of the fund has been troubled all year really. that goes back to 20 when president trump opened up for states to pay for covid. nobody was really objecting. it seemed like a reasonable way to get money from the federal government to the states that were on the front lines an that, again, was just a wild amount of guess work. part of the issue is some of those costs came in much higher than are expected. just to clarify, when a state gets approved for a disaster, fema, we will give you 5 billion, 1 billion. we will pay 75% of your costs, whatever they are.

there's a real delay when a disaster occurs and when the federal money, thewh check gets cut because you have to to the work, you to submit the receipts and that can take several years which is why there was a lot of uncertainty about the pandemic costs for several years and plus the pandemic cost, it's not like it was a hurricane, it happened wasn't afternoon and let's fix it. the cost accumulated over a long time. >> our guest with us and if you want to ask him questions about disaster relief fund for those in the eastern and central sometime zones. (202)748-8001. if you were impacted by natural disasters in 2003, you can text us at (202)748-8003.

>> the crisis are affecting more than -- more and more americans andd every american rightly expects fema to show up when they are needed to help in a disaster. so i'm calling on the united states congress democrats and republicans to ensure the funding is there to deal with they immediate crisis. >> the president from last week during his visit in florida put it into context. in august, the president put in a request to congress for emergency funding, $40 billion package, a lot of money going to

ukraine are supposedly going to ukraine and about $12 billion going to replenish the disaster fund. lastly, the president increase the request to $16 billion. the reason he has to make the case to congress this time is because >> the fema money is part of a bigger package that is not uniformly approved usually, no e approving money but the ukraine money makes it more complicated. it's a much more complicated issue, it's not like we will help hawaii and florida rebuild. the question is whether congress will approve the overall package or whether there will be too many people who are opposed to the ukraine portion of the president's request and what that will mean and whether the

package will get voted down or whether they will split the request into. that's why he has to make these kind of public statements. normally i don't think presidents have to make a better request for a few billion dollars extra for the disaster fund. host: how common is it to make these requests from the fund for other requests? guest: it's usually every other year. it's not unusual. the unusual part is blending it with other things. when you do that, you make it more complicated. it was certainly be easier to say i want $16 billion for disasters. host: we have the potential of tropical storm lee making its way and possibly turning into a hurricane. if war comes in weird debating about disasters, what happens?

is there a gap? guest: this gets really deep into the weeds of disaster funding. fema last week basically cut off the credit card. a lot of the fema money from the disaster fund is in the form of reimbursements for these rebuilding projects, reconstruction projects. what fema did because the dollars are getting lower and lower, they said we are not going to do anymore reimbursements for rebuilding roads in texas from hurricane harvey or systems in puerto rico. we are saving our money just for these emergencies like idalia and the maui fires just so we can pay for the most urgent, immediate needs, search and rescue missions, the aids to individuals and cleaning up

debris to keep things functioning. it's as if your credit card got shut off and you are forced for the next few weeks or however long, all you have is the cash in your wallet and maybe money in a checking account. host: ultimately, the decision at the fema level of how much goes where -- if several states from a disaster ask for money, how does fema decide who gets what? guest: the decision to approve -- the practice starts with a request from a governor. for example, governor desantis in florida last week made a written request to the president saying i am asking you to declare these counties in my state a disaster and to approve these categories of funding. that decision is really the president's. fema does a lot of vetting of it and looks at the numbers and

makes a recommendation to the president but the president will usually follow that. it is ultimately up to the president. not just to approve a request for disaster funding but to approve paying for cleanup but we are not going to pay for rebuilding roads or we will pay for cleanup -- it's like in all a cart menu that states can order from and they say we are out of that word yes that's special. that's how it works. host: the lines are on the screen if you want to talk about tom frank and disaster funding and related issues. gary from florida is on with our guest. caller: i was calling because i had read something and looked it up and maybe i might be mistaken but i read about where fema for

the emergency aid has spent $47 billion. guest: 47 billion on what? host: caller, are you there? caller: yes, i'm here. guest: when you say 47 billion that fema had spent, meaning spent it on what? caller: for the spending for the disaster areas that had been affected. guest: fema spends billions and billions of dollars per year. over the nearly 50 years of its existence, it probably has spent hundreds of billions of dollars. i don't know what $47 billion is. just to give you an example, fema's annual budget for the disaster fund is usually about $20 billion. that's with the president has requested for the fiscal year

beginning october 1. it's a gas and sometimes it's more and sometimes it's less. the thing about the disaster fund is is not -- is it is not -- we spend our money and we are done for the year. i'm not sure what the 47 billion is but it spends a lot of money and these disasters are very expensive when you talk about the amount of destruction that a wildfire or hurricane can cause. host: charlottesville, virginia, eric. caller: i finished your book of one market under god. guest: yes, that's the other tom frank. i do get confused with him a lot but i didn't write that book. i didn't write any of those books. host: thank you for the

clarification. when it comes to disaster funding, there's fema but fema also administers the national flood insurance program. guest: that is correct. host: remind people what that is. guest: it's a government program that basically sells flood insurance. it sells flood insurance to anyone who wants to buy it. it's the main supplier, about 90% of the flood insurance policies in the u.s. so it's really crucial. one thing to understand is that flood insurance is not part of your standard homeowners policy that will cover fire damage or wind damage or debris damage. you have to buy a separate policy to cover flood damage. the insurance companies have not been selling those for basically 50 years. fema now sells it. a lot of people, about 5 million

fema policies which is way short of the number of policies there should be. a lot of people don't buy it because it's not cheap. host: the gao puts the program of flood insurance on its high sk list year after year. they say it's experienced difficult chaenges because it's tasked with two competing goals, keeping it affordable and keeping the program solvent. it has led tium rates that that has transferred some of the ncial burden for individual property owners to taxpayers. as of september, 2022, the debt was huge after having canceled $16 billion of debt in 2017. guest: that is changing. the flood insurance program that fema runs has always been a hybrid of an insurance program and a social welfare program.

as you say, there are these two conflicting demands in federal law that say it should be run like a business, like your homeowner insurance reflection rates. the flood insurance should reflect the flood risk of your property and yet there is language in the statute of the insurance should be affordable. it's one of those vague terms that's scattered throughout the united states code. what fema has done since the program was created in 1968 is focused more on affordability. the result has been that the program has never charged the rates it should charge, the rates that a private company would charge. what happened is after hurricane katrina in 2005, there were a norma's claims.

fema just didn't have enough money. this happens to insurers all the time. that's why the insurance companies go insolvent. they go out of business. government programs. go out of business, they just get bailed out. that's with a reference was for forgiving debt. about two years ago, fema undertook this huge restructuring of rates basically throwing away the social welfare part and saying we will act like allstate and farmers and we will be an insurance company and we are going to charge everyone what's called the actuarial rates, the rates you should be charged. the new rates would begun taking effect. it's what they call a glide path so they will be phased in gradually over a decade or more.

that is going to solve the problem of the flood insurance program not having enough money. but it's going to greet a new problem because many people are going to drop their policies when their insurance rate goes to $5,000 per year instead of $1000. so you will end up with a much smaller number of people who have flood insurance. that's dangerous because if you get flooded and you don't have flood insurance, your homeowners insurance won't cover it and you will have to pay for it out-of-pocket. flooding can cause a lot of damage. host: julie from chicago, go ahead. she hung up. this is diane in lakewood, florida. caller: good morning. looking for a suggestion. i have a problem. i am a victim of hurricane irma. it destroyed my mobile home.

i have been on a rebuild florida list for -- since 2017 or whenever the hurricane was. every year, we go through a process in december where you submit your financials in order to stay -- to state your case. i did this and 2021, i was in the process of working with my account representative. i had contracted covid or i thought i did. i was confined to the place where i was without internet connection or anyway to submit my financial paperwork. during that time, the rebuild florida, which they do all the time, downsized.

they took my representative and did not -- they gave me to someone else. they also did not process my paperwork. she left at some point in december. ever since then, i've been on this kind of appeals list. but i have never received an appeal letter. i don't know what to do, honestly. i have contacted rebuild florida. i guess it was in march with my new representative and she said write out an appeal. host: hold on, caller. guest: what is rebuild florida? caller: rebuild florida was the next step that fema passed us into. once you are accepted into fema and you had severe damage, rebuild florida is a program that replaces people who lost

their mobile home. guest: it replaces homes or repairs home? caller: it replaces the mobile home and put a new one on the lot. guest: so specifically for mobile homes. caller: i think it's for anybody. that's the situation i am in. i don't really know. host: i'm sure if you go to florida jobs.org, it says it's created to help long-term recovery from hurricanes. guest: if it's out of the florida department of economic development, it's not a fema program but a hud program, the department of housing and urban development. it also does something similar to fema which gives a lot of money to states and counties to distribute to homeowners such as yourself to repair homes. i'm guessing that you got what's

called disaster relief money from the housing and urban development department because that's the department that deals with the florida department of economic development. host: at least that's what it looks like on the website. guest: also, irma was six years ago so you wouldn't still be waiting for fema aid. have you been rejected? host: the caller is gone. guest: let's move on. i guess the bigger point is that there is this alphabet soup list of federal disaster programs. the one everyone knows is fema but there is an endless list of agencies, the small business administration, the interior, agriculture, they all have disaster aid programs. guest: you bet.

yes, florida has had a major insurance crisis in the past three or so years. i forget with the latest number is, maybe 14 insurance companies in florida -- it's become insolvent. it's like bankruptcy but it means they don't have enough money to pay their claims. there are two things which have been responsible for that. when is florida has been hit with a lot of disasters. the thing to understand about florida is everybody in florida lives on the coast. it's not like texas where you have a small percentage of the state or even louisiana. everyone in florida lives on the coast because that's why they live in florida. a storm i likean last year or urgent -- or irma or ideally will cause a lot of damage. they've been hit with these costs that they can't deal with

than the other issue in florida is there is a system of litigation where people, homeowners and policy owners can sue over claimed settlements there insurance companies offer. the legal structure has been, in the eyes of some, too favorable toward plaintiff's. it's become very costly for insurance companies to defend those claims. yes, florida has a huge insurance crisis and that's something that may get worse as the claims are submitted from my daily a. host: mike from north carolina. caller: good morning. i live in north carolina about the middle of the state but these people that live on the coast all the way from the jersey shore all the way to florida, they know that there is

a strong possibility of a hurricane going to hit along the east coast and sometimes in the gulf coast. our insurance is getting higher to help pay for those people that have insurance that live on the coast. if you can afford to live on the coast, you can afford to live -- you can afford to pay insurance. the fact that disturbs me is that fema has said new york city -- has sent new york city $100 million for the illegal immigrant crisis. that's a thing the biden administration has cause, not mother nature or global warming. that money there should not be allocated to new york city. it's just like california and chicago, all the sanctuary cities, all the illegals are welcome here and they get them in their and they cry for the

government. guest: let me answer your first question because i don't know about the issues with immigration. you said that people living on the coast know that another hurricane will affect them. i don't know if they do. maybe they know it intellectually but they don't know it to the point that they do anything about it. they think maybe it will happen and maybe it won't but to make a good point. that's what has been happening with the fema flood insurance. the people living on the coast whether it's in new jersey, florida or anywhere have been paying insurance rates that are too low. they should be higher. it's too low for the amount of risk those properties face. they been subsidized by people like you who don't live in flood zones and don't live on the coast or in a hurricane zone and that's exactly what fema is

trying to correct right now. that is why you are seeing places like coastal louisiana and some parts of coastal florida the flood insurance cost are going way up. it's a good point. these are what they call cross subsidies. they definitely have been a problem for the reasons the caller pointed out. host: this is from a viewer who texted us -- guest: there is a lot of oversight. the main oversight comes from the inspector general of the department of homeland security which fema belongs to. the inspector general always looks at fema and other spending to look for improper spending and improper uses. there is also congress. fema has plenty of oversight in congress and that's part of the

job of congress is to analyze what fema is doing with its money. host: >> healthy democracy doesn't just look like, this it looks like this where americans with can see democracy at work. get informed straight from the source on c-span unfiltered, unbiased word for word from the nation's capitol to wherever you are because the opinion that matters the most is your own. this is what democracy looks like, c-span power bid cable. >> some insurance companies keyed or cut back providing coverage in florida due to risk of hurricanes. on thursday testimony on challenges on the property insurance market and all rising

costs are making rent and home ownership more expensive. watch the senate banking committee live at 10:00 a.m. eastern. join us as we embark in journey with library of congress to explore key works of literature from american history hear from featured renown experts who will shed light on profound impacts on works and significant locations across the country tied to authors. among featured books, common sense by tomas payne,

huckleberry. books that shaped america on c-span, c-span now free mobile video app or online at c-span.org. ♪ ♪ ♪ join us thursday for a preview of books that shaped america with librarian of congress carla and historian and best-selling author towinglas live from the library of congress auditorium. towinglas frankly teaches at rice university and authored or edited books on several presidents, other famous americans and many other tops. watch the preview of our new series bookshat shaped america thurayive at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now