Confirmation of Deanne Bennett Criswell

Floor Speech

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Mr. PETERS. Madam President, I rise to recognize a historic confirmation that took place last week. On Thursday, the Senate confirmed Deanne Criswell to serve as the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. I would like to thank Senator Portman for his support and for working closely with me to see that Ms. Criswell was swiftly confirmed for this critical position.

Ms. Criswell is an experienced, crisis-tested leader, well deserving of the unanimous bipartisan support that her confirmation received. As she takes the helm of FEMA, Ms. Criswell brings more than 25 years of emergency management and disaster response experience at the Federal, State, and local level.

Having served as an emergency management commissioner for one of the largest and most diverse cities in America, Ms. Criswell knows what it takes to ensure the coronavirus vaccination distribution is efficient and effective and that every community has the resources that they need to recover from this pandemic.

As a former member of the National Guard and a firefighter, she understands the needs of our heroic first responders as they continuously protect Americans on the frontlines.

However, the pandemic is just one of many challenges that FEMA faces, and Ms. Criswell understands that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to disaster response and every crisis, from hurricanes to historic flooding and wildfires, to the COVID-19 pandemic, requires a coordinated strategy.

There is no doubt that Ms. Criswell's experience in emergency management, extensive record of tackling crises on a local and national level, and the desire to work on a bipartisan basis to improve our Federal disaster response in every community are exactly what is needed to meet the challenges that we are facing now and those challenges that lie ahead.

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