Fixing FEMA
November 24, 2008
When it stood alone, FEMA was a praiseworthy rampart in the face of catastrophe, notably manned by professionals, not political appointees. Under the Bush administration, and inside the Department of Homeland Security, it degraded into a patronage-ridden weakling. FEMA should be allowed to stand alone, with its administrator reporting directly to the president when disaster strikes, and before.
Written by Editorial, The New York Times
As the new administration ponders how to grapple with the dysfunctional homeland security mega-agency, one fast fix for public confidence would be to restore the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a separate cabinet-level arm of government.
FEMA was subsumed into the homeland security monolith after 9/11 — to disastrous effect, as Hurricane Katrina demonstrated to a horrified nation. When it stood alone, FEMA was a praiseworthy rampart in the face of catastrophe, notably manned by professionals, not political appointees. Under the Bush administration, and inside the Department of Homeland Security, it degraded into a patronage-ridden weakling. FEMA should be allowed to stand alone, with its administrator reporting directly to the president when disaster strikes, and before.
Front-line emergency managers at the state and local levels have made this priority clear, as has, most recently, the International Association of Emergency Managers, a professional group.
FEMA officials insist that they’ve learned their lesson, and that their performance in post-Katrina disasters has demonstrated the agency’s effectiveness. The nation is grateful there’s been no Katrina redux, but there’s stark evidence FEMA remains far from fixed.
The agency fumbled for two years before banishing the formaldehyde-tainted trailers used to house Katrina victims. Most glaringly, FEMA has unapologetically missed the Congressional deadline mandating creation of a new national plan for housing future emergency victims. The public’s welfare demands the restoration of an independent FEMA focused on disaster, not politics.
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