From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: Disaster Resilience Framework Description: We're discussing GAO's Disaster Resilience Framework, a guide for mitigating the effects of future natural disasters. Related GAO Work: GAO-20-100SP: Disaster Resilience Framework: Principles for Analyzing Federal Efforts to Facilitate and Promote Resilience to Natural Disasters Released: October 2019 [ Background Music ] [ Chris Currie ] It's critical that we start planning now and taking action to incorporate disaster resilience into our policies so we can avoid bigger losses down the road. [ Matt Oldham ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. I'm Matt Oldham. Since 2005, there has been more than $450 billion in federal funding for disaster assistance. And as natural disasters are expected to become more frequent, and stronger, GAO has developed a guide for federal agencies and policymakers to help mitigate the effects of tomorrow's natural disasters. It's called the Disaster Resilience Framework. And here to talk about this framework is Chris Currie, a Homeland Security and Justice director at GAO. Thanks for joining me, Chris. [ Chris Currie ] Thank you. [ Matt Oldham ] So let's start off with this idea of disaster resilience. Why is this such an important issue? [ Chris Currie ] Well I think you laid the problem out really well in your intro. The federal government spent $450 billion over the last 15 years on disaster assistance extreme weather events are getting more severe. And frankly our infrastructure is getting more expensive to fix and is clustering near water and near the coast. So what that means is our costs are only going to continue to go up, not just for the government but for the private sector, for the insurance markets things like that. there's not many solutions to this problem. Weather is not going to get better and we're not going to stop helping state and local communities respond and recover. So building resilient infrastructure now and in the future to resist the weather that we know is going to come down the road is one of the only solutions we have. [ Matt Oldham ] So, is that why instead of a report, we're talking about a framework? [ Chris Currie ] Exactly, so we do evaluate and do our traditional audits, reports, looking at specific programs but in this case we designed this based on a huge body of work we and many others have done over the years to develop a set of principles that federal decision makers or policy makers, basically anyone who's in a position to affect change, can use these these principles to guide programs, to try to strengthen and enhance disaster resilience. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham ] It sounds like more frequent and stronger natural disasters are poised to bring more risk - risk to safety, to property, and how much recovery and response will cost. And the disaster resilience framework serves as a guide informing federal policymakers of GAO's principles to help mitigate the costs and the risks of future natural disasters. So Chris instead of asking who is the intended audience for this framework, maybe it would be easier to ask who isn't. [ Chris Currie ] Yeah that's a good question we, so as I mentioned we designed this around programs at the federal level, but I see these principles being applicable to state and local governments, even the private sector. The idea is that any time a decision can be made to incorporate resilience into, whether it be an infrastructure project, whether it be zoning laws and requirements, anything where something can be done to reduce future risk from disasters, these principles are applicable. [ Matt Oldham ] And what would you say the key takeaways are? [ Chris Currie ] Well the key takeaways is as much as we may want to act like we're not going to be at risk we're going to continue to be at more and more risk in this country, particularly if you live near the coast. But it's not just the coast. It's also other areas or wildfire Western lands where there could be wildfires and lots of other risks like that. It's critical that we start planning now and taking action to incorporate disaster resilience into our policies so we can avoid bigger losses down the road. [ Matt Oldham ] So last question, what's the bottom line here? [ Chris Currie ] The bottom line is, is that disaster risk is going up and there's no solutions to address this. We have to start planning now to incorporate disaster resilience if we want to avoid calamity down the road. [ Matt Oldham ] Chris Currie was talking about GAO's Disaster Resilience Framework. Thank you for your time, Chris. [ Chris Currie ] Thanks. [ Background Music ] [ Matt Oldham ] And thank you for listening to the Watchdog Report. To hear more podcasts, subscribe to us on Apple podcasts. For more from the Congressional Watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, visit us at gao.gov.