Former FEMA Director Says Agency Less Effective Under Homeland Security Umbrella

Placing the Federal Emergency Management Agency under the Department of Homeland Security has hampered its ability to deal with hurricanes and other disasters, a former agency director said Friday.

The arrangement "has minimized their effectiveness in responding, in planning and training, the national hurricane program, everything," said James Lee Witt, who served as FEMA director under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001.

Speaking to officials at the National Hurricane Conference, Witt said placing the agency under another department has reduced direct communication between FEMA officials and top government leaders and created problems sending funding where it is needed.

In Washington, FEMA spokeswoman Natalie Rule said Friday there are no plans to remove the agency from Homeland Security's structure. She said being included has let FEMA respond more quickly to disasters using Homeland Security resources such as ships, planes and helicopters.

Rule said that in 2002, the year before FEMA merged with 21 other agencies to create the Homeland Security Department, the agency responded to 49 disasters and provided assistance to three declared emergencies.

After the merger, FEMA responded to 68 disasters and seven emergencies in 2004 - the most in any single year in nearly a decade, Rule said.

FEMA has come under fire for distributing about $30 million to about 13,000 residents of Miami-Dade County, which the National Hurricane Center says was not hit by hurricane force winds.

Local officials in Florida, which had four hurricanes last year, have also complained about delays in getting millions of dollars in reimbursement for debris removal and other cleanup costs.

One Republican Florida congressman, Rep. Mark Foley, has threatened to introduce legislation to separate FEMA.

Republican Florida Congressman Mark Foley should include in his legisaltion action to seperate Customs and Border Protection(CBP), back into two sepereate agencies,(1)U.S. Customs and (2)Immigration and Naturalization Service(INS)

Combining these agencies has been a fiasco and waste of your tax dollars.

The dog and pony show at the border continues.

"FEMA has come under fire for distributing about $30 million to about 13,000 residents of Miami-Dade County, which the National Hurricane Center says was not hit by hurricane force winds."

Really makes you proud to read how our tax money is used. (SARCASM OFF) The abuse of these funds is horrendous. I've heard of instant "stations" set up in earthquake areas of CA where all a person had to do was walk up and present a drivers license (showing a residence in the area) and receive a check on the spot for up to $800. No proof of damage required.

Local officials in Florida, which had four hurricanes last year, have also complained about delays in getting millions of dollars in reimbursement for debris removal and other cleanup costs.

You know the FEMA guys got paid right on time. Just last week a friend, who just retired from TVA, was saying that he might go to work for FEMA. Said he could make about 100 grand a year. Also told of some "buddies" who were already doing it. Recently a raise was put in place, but it was only for "new" employees. So these guys said they would "have to quit and then get rehired". Voila! They get the raise.

I think Witt is totally correct. I do emergency management and have done quite a bit of work with DHS and the civilian agencies on homeland security. One of my biggest concerns now that it is under DHS is how the military, law enforcement, and intelligence communities have taken control of most aspects of emergency response including the National Response Plan and NIMS. They only seem to recognize and be planning for these complex WMD scenarios, which are a minute fraction of the emergencies that occur on a daily basis. They are forcing their own models of operation (including some pretty negative behaviors including NON-cooperation and information sharing) upon the civilian response organizations and civilian agencies like FDA and USDA when they don't seem to have a clue how those groups really work or what they do on a day to day basis. Yet where the real bioterrorism emergency is likely to show up is within the surveillance systems of the civilian agencies (FDA, USDA), docs offices, or hospital emergency rooms. The folks in charge of DHS don't seem to get this or care to get it because you have a group of people in charge that don't seem to understand the civilian paradigm. This is a very bad thing because the civilian organizations and agencies have been working very well together and with the states forever and the majority of emergencies are civilian in nature (such as hurricanes, oil spills) and don't need this heavy handed WMD involvement. I do think some of the ideas that are being pushed are very good (as far as integration of plans at all levels, systems, national GIS, etc) and I respect the amount of work the former Secretary accomplished. I am sorry he is gone. I just think they need to split it off somehow and take those three communities out of control unless there is a WMD.

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