Manatee Review

Congressman Vern Buchanan co-chaired a bipartisan Florida delegation hearing to address hurricane recovery efforts and the enhancement of Florida's infrastructure to better withstand future hurricanes. This meeting comes in the wake of three consecutive hurricanes that struck Florida in 2024.

Testifying at the hearing were Mark Wilson, the President and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Ken Graham, the Director of the National Weather Service and Assistant Administrator for NOAA's Weather Services, and Dr. Wesley Brooks, the Chief Resilience Officer for the State of Florida. The speakers underscored the need for collaboration between federal, state, and local governments to provide disaster assistance. They emphasized the necessity of streamlining resources to support small businesses facing additional challenges post-hurricane.

Congressman Buchanan highlighted the need for a coordinated response for small businesses: “In terms of the Chamber, one of the areas that really got impacted by the storms all over the state is small business, and a lot of them, in St. Armands Circle, in different places, they got hit by multiple storms. What more can the Chamber do at the state or even the local level to help these businesses get back on their feet quicker?”

In response, Mark Wilson elaborated, “Florida is mostly small businesses … and small businesses have to make pretty quick decisions about whether they’re even going to stay in business or not. … Florida has the largest Small Business emergency loan program in the country by far. ... The coordination, whether it’s block grants or otherwise, the coordination needs to be faster, and it needs to be clearer. We’re getting loan requests from small businesses so they can stay in business, and the state of Florida is trying to say ‘yes.’ It is sometimes weeks or months before FEMA and other federal agencies can come in and make a decision on any of this stuff. If a small business is trying to decide whether to stay open or not, they need a decision today or this week, and can’t wait months and months. And so what we need is, in a nonpartisan conversation, we need to say keeping small businesses in business is a priority. And before a storm, we need to educate them on what their options are. After a storm, we need to give them a quick decision about whether the state and federal government are going to be there. Right now, the state is there, and right now, sometimes months later, whether it’s the SBA or whether it’s FEMA, we don’t have answers that are clear, so we need to work on that.”

Congressman Buchanan also discussed the value of investing in resilience: “One quick thing: resilience. Longboat Key’s got an effort going on. How many cities or counties are making the investment? ... I’m just curious where that is at and what more we can be doing because you could probably save a lot more money by doing some things upfront. ... It’s the right thing to get ready for not just the last storms but new storms going forward if possible.”

Dr. Wesley Brooks provided insights on Florida's efforts: “Florida has been really pushing proactive planning efforts in particular to understand flood vulnerability so we can guide better flood mitigation projects. And right now, all 67 counties are doing a comprehensive flood vulnerability analysis. And again, around 380 of our 411 municipalities are funded by the state to do so as well, and we’re going to get those last holdouts this year.”

Buchanan was joined in the hearing by Co-Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and various other delegates, each emphasizing the need to bolster Florida's preparedness against future hurricanes.

Last year, Buchanan advocated for Florida communities impacted by hurricanes. In October, he led a letter signed by the entire Florida delegation urging President Biden to approve Governor DeSantis' request for an Expedited Major Disaster Declaration after Hurricane Milton. In November, Buchanan spearheaded a bipartisan letter endorsed by 32 members to congressional leadership, seeking funding to replenish the Small Business Administration's disaster loan program.