Emergency Management Requires Restructuring
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Homeland Security Policy Briefing
In August 2005, Americans witnessed the most devastating natural disaster in our nation’s history when Hurricane Katrina made landfall. During my three visits to the Gulf Coast since then, many residents have told me that there were two disasters that month: Hurricane Katrina, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to Hurricane Katrina. FEMA’s failure to act in the days before and after Katrina led to the loss of almost 2,000 lives and damage of billions of dollars of property throughout the Gulf Coast.
Katrina showed us how truly devastating hurricanes can be when preparedness and emergency management are neglected. FEMA must be reorganized and restructured to correct the deficiencies that were exposed during the storm. However, these reforms must take place while keeping FEMA within the Department of Homeland Security.
Some people have argued for scrapping FEMA altogether and starting over with a new agency. We in hurricane-prone states know that we don’t have time to go back to the drawing board.
In the 1990s, FEMA was the epitome of efficiency and competence. In 1999, I witnessed FEMA in action when areas in my Congressional district were destroyed in the inland flooding that followed Hurricane Floyd. The loss of lives and property was limited, thanks to FEMA’s quick and efficient response under the leadership of Director James Lee Witt. The federal response to Floyd demonstrated how efficient government can make all the difference for our citizens when everyone from the White House on down the line is competent and dedicated to the task.
What made the response to Floyd so starkly different from the response to Katrina was not FEMA’s location on an organizational flow chart. FEMA’s director during Katrina lacked sufficient emergency management experience, and he did not have direct access to the president. The preparedness directorate had been stripped from FEMA’s jurisdiction, preventing the agency from effectively prepositioning resources and personnel. The Republican-led Congress had slashed funding to the agency. Federal, state and local first responders lacked the interoperability to effectively communicate in a large-scale disaster.
Myriad structural problems in the agency led to a complete breakdown following Katrina. By addressing these issues, Congress can once again return FEMA to an effective agency that Americans can count on in a disaster. Removing FEMA from the department would be nothing more than a superficial change, and it would cripple the agency’s ability to coordinate the federal government’s preparedness, response, mitigation and recovery efforts. FEMA benefits from several components of Homeland Security, such as the ability to draw on the Coast Guard and the Secret Service without having to engage in a complex and bureaucratic interagency process each time coordination is needed.
As ranking member of the Homeland Security subcommittee on investigations, I have been working with other members of the committee, both Republicans and Democrats, to reorganize and strengthen FEMA. The Homeland Security Committee is united in its belief that FEMA must remain in the Department of Homeland Security. It is vitally important that the administration and the Department of Homeland Security acknowledge the existing organizational flaws and problems exposed by last year’s disasters and implement the reforms needed to strengthen and improve FEMA.
These reforms will improve communication and coordination at the federal, state and local levels; strengthen disaster preparedness and response capabilities nationwide; and eliminate waste, fraud and abuse. They will ensure that FEMA is led by an experienced emergency management professional with the authority to report directly to the president during a disaster. With these reforms in place, FEMA once again will be able to respond to a disaster with efficiency and professionalism.
It is critical that FEMA maintain an all-hazards approach to disaster response. Whether the disaster is a natural one such as a hurricane, or a man-made disaster such as a terrorist attack, FEMA must be prepared to respond. In the event of a terrorist attack, FEMA must be able to draw on all of the department’s resources. In a post-Sept. 11, 2001, world, FEMA’s role is simply linked too closely to homeland security for it to be taken out of the department.
We currently are in the middle of the first hurricane season since Katrina struck, and these life-saving reforms still have not been made. We have been fortunate this year to have not had another large-scale disaster along the lines of Katrina. However, we can be certain that we again will be faced with damaging hurricanes, and we simply cannot afford to fail to act.
We must begin strengthening FEMA as soon as possible. In North Carolina we know well that we cannot prevent another hurricane, but Congress can and must take steps to reduce the number of lives lost and the amount of property that is lost. The reforms that my colleagues on the Homeland Security Committee and I are advocating will take the steps necessary to ensure that FEMA effectively can prepare for and respond to any disaster — natural or man-made. Let it be said that Congress learned the lessons of Katrina and took action to restore FEMA as an effective agency on behalf of the American people.
Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-N.C.) is ranking member of the Homeland Security subcommittee on investigations.
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