| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
July 4th. | |
| One big, beautiful bill. | ||
| One big, beautiful act. | ||
| The second biggest bill of this year will be signed into law in July, and that is a pro-crypto bill with the Genius Act. | ||
| And then we've got to go build it. | ||
| So the third is market structure. | ||
| But those unlocks happen because of the goodwill created that you all helped create in the last election, the wellspring of support that also puts a little fear and trepidation into the hearts and minds of policymakers. | ||
| And that is a helpful thing, too. | ||
| Well, thank you. | ||
| This was a great chat. | ||
| I could keep going on and on. | ||
| I think there's a million things we could talk about, but we are officially out of time. | ||
| So thank you all very much. | ||
| Thanks to the Texas Blockchain Association and Angel AI for having us up here this morning. | ||
| Have a great day. | ||
| And we'll leave this here to Texas now, where Governor Greg Abbott. | ||
| Flooding in the state. | ||
| They appear to be running just a little bit behind. | ||
| We'll get you there live when it gets underway. | ||
| I want to return for a few minutes to the tragedy in Texas, the floods there. | ||
| This morning, the headlines noting that more than 100 people have now died. | ||
| To talk more about it, we're joined by EE News climate reporter Chelsea Harvey. | ||
| Her story at eenews.net. | ||
| Texas flood forecasts were accurate, but it wasn't enough to save lives. | ||
| Ms. Harvey, why wasn't accurate forecasts here enough to save lives? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I think, you know, forecasts and warnings from the National Weather Service, they only go so far. | |
| So in this case, the science was on point. | ||
| The forecasts were accurate. | ||
| The warnings, they all went out when they should have gone out. | ||
| But, you know, there's also responsibility on the part of local authorities. | ||
| And so, you know, this particular case, there was a very big challenge in that the most urgent alerts were going out in the middle of the night. | ||
| This was also a rural area. | ||
| You know, people have to have their phones on, they have to have alerts enabled, they have to have cell phone service. | ||
| If they don't have service, they have to have a NOAA weather radio. | ||
| And, you know, if there are failures in any of those cases, then, you know, it's on authorities to be ensuring that the warnings are reaching people and that they know what to do and they understand the dangers and they know how to get to safety. | ||
| So, you know, I think that was the issue here. | ||
| The forecasts, they did what they were supposed to do, and there were still people who were not getting the warnings. | ||
| In your story, one National Weather Service employee referred to it as the last mile of communication. | ||
| Explain what that term means. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, exactly. | |
| I mean, so everything starts with the National Weather Service. | ||
| They put the forecast together, they issue the warnings, and then there has to be coordination with local authorities or with emergency managers to ensure that those folks understand what the dangers are, where the dangers are, how to communicate them to the public, how to coordinate evacuations, when and where. | ||
| There's definitely communication at all steps between National Weather Service meteorologists and the people who are out there on the ground making sure that the public knows what to do. | ||
| Yesterday, the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer put a letter out to the Inspector General Office at the Department of Commerce looking into whether National Weather Service offices were adequately staffed ahead of these storms. | ||
| What have you been able to find out on that front? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| So there were two National Weather Service offices that were serving most of the affected communities in Texas. | ||
| Both of those offices did have vacancies in some key roles on staff. | ||
| So, there are certain top positions that aid in coordination between meteorologists and with local authorities. | ||
| So, both offices were missing some key roles. | ||
| They did not have permanent people on staff in those roles. | ||
| That said, what I have heard is that during this disaster, both offices called all hands on deck. | ||
| So, they did have adequate numbers of meteorologists on staff. | ||
| The right number of people were at work when they should have been at work. | ||
| But it is true that there were some key vacancies in terms of those positions. | ||
| And then, that's the forecasting side, now the recovery and response side. | ||
| What do we know about FEMA staffing, FEMA funding, and concerns there by some federal leaders about whether it will be enough? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's a great question. | |
| I think there are big open questions right now about FEMA. | ||
| Of course, over the last few months, the Trump administration has proposed big overhauls of FEMA. | ||
| You know, we still don't know exactly how those changes will shake out. | ||
| If they do, the proposals have generally suggested that states will become more responsible for more extreme weather events. | ||
| You know, in this case, President Trump has approved a major disaster declaration. | ||
| So, that you know, that has already gone through. | ||
| But I think there is a big question right now about, you know, this is the biggest disaster that has happened so far on the Trump administration's watch. | ||
| So, are these overhauls of FEMA still on the table? | ||
| Is this going to change anything? | ||
| And, you know, I think that that does still remain to be seen. | ||
| And then, finally, as a climate reporter at ENE News, as you look at the questions, and it played out in the first hour of our program today when callers were calling in about this topic, what this will mean for debates about climate science, some callers saying that this is not something that will change their views on climate change. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, I think that this is a very prime example of exactly the kind of event that is worsening with climate change. | |
| The science is very, very clear on that. | ||
| Extreme rainfall events are worsening as global temperatures rise. | ||
| This exact type of event is only expected to happen more frequently and to grow more intense in the future. | ||
| The science is very clear on that. | ||
| President Trump referred to it as a once-in-a-hundred-year storm. | ||
| Why do we seem to be getting more and more once-in-a-hundred-year disaster, whether it's a storm or a hurricane or another natural weather event? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I mean, there are all kinds of extreme weather events that are worsened by climate change. | |
| You know, as global temperatures rise, heat waves are getting worse, hurricanes are intensifying. | ||
| In the case of extreme rainfall events, like what caused these floods, it's simple physics. | ||
| A warmer atmosphere can hold more water. | ||
| In this case, also, the Gulf, the water temperatures in the Gulf are growing warmer, and that allows more moisture to seep into the atmosphere and then condense into clouds over Texas. | ||
| And that's exactly what we saw in this case. | ||
| EE News covers all these topics. | ||
| It's eenews.net. | ||
| If you want to read Chelsea Harvey's latest story on this, Texas flood forecasts were accurate. | ||
| It wasn't enough to save lives. | ||
| What are you working on next? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, I'll be continuing to do Texas coverage, so stay tuned. | |
| Eenews.net is where you can go. | ||
| Thanks so much for your time this morning. | ||
| I appreciate it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks for having me. | |
| And now your phone calls in open forum. | ||
| Jane's up first out of Augusta, Maine, Republican line. | ||
| Jane, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, John. | |
| This is Jane, and I appreciate the presentation of your past speaker about disaster preparation because I've been a camp cook a long time ago at a camp up in northern Maine. | ||
| I just wanted to reiterate, I was on the call on June 7th, and I'm a registered licensed dietician, and I've worked in many facilities, nursing home, food service, and fast food restaurants, too. | ||
| And I just wanted to bring up a suggestion about topics, address possible guests. | ||
| Workplace bullying and nutrition both have been really in the news lately, and they both affect individuals. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And my two guests for C-SPAN, I haven't seen them in your log, is the Workplace Bullying Institute. | |
| This is Dr. Gary and Ruth Niami. | ||
| And they've been around since 1997, and they have an estate initiative among the workplace states. | ||
| It's called WBAA. | ||
| It's the Workplace Bullying Accountability Act. | ||
| And my second guest for a recommendation, who I've not seen, is a representative of AND. | ||
| AND is the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. | ||
| I haven't seen anything from them or them as a guest regarding this SNAP and Medicaid and health care debate. | ||
| So thank you very much for your time. | ||
| Jane, thank you for the suggestions. | ||
| Always appreciate it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Bye. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Constance in Chesapeake, Virginia. | ||
| Democrat, good morning. | ||
| It's open forum. | ||
| What's on your mind? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I'm upset at our country right now and everybody because we have not been helping Ukraine. | |
| We need to help Ukraine. | ||
| This brotherhood that Trump seems to have with Putin is disgusting and sickening. | ||
| So, I mean, this, he has, I'm going to thank Trump for one thing, exposing all the criminality that we can see in our own government and the U.N., because Putin should have been dealt with years ago. | ||
| And these oil companies are the reason we're having global warming. | ||
| And they don't want us blaming them, but it is their fault. | ||
| And Dukepont, we've all stood by it. |