U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, spoke with local business leaders at a roundtable hosted by the Buda Chamber of Commerce Friday morning.

Smith answered questions from local Buda and Kyle business owners. He called local businesses “the undergird of our economy.” Small businesses, especially those that are Hispanic-owned, "form the nucleus of the middle class,” Smith said.

Buda City Manager Kenneth Williams asked Smith about how he’s working to assist cities with mitigation against flooding, like the kind that hit Buda last year.

The United States lags behind Europe in being able to predict dangerous weather like hurricanes and flooding, Smith said. European countries consolidate their information and make it accessible to all, a feat the United States hasn’t been able to pull off.

Smith said that last year the Science, Space and Technology Committee that he chairs passed a bill that would help small municipalities better prepare for events like floods. Experts who testified said the bill would give 48 hours more notice before dangerous weather patterns hit.

The bill opens up more data sharing between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the National Weather Service, and the private weather forecasting industry as well as academic sources.

About $227 million will be appropriated to carry out the act, known as the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2015, in fiscal years 2015-2017, according to the language of the bill.