Panel Says to Scrap FEMA
WASHINGTON — The Federal Emergency Management Agency should be dismantled and restructured to deal with the problems exposed by its response to Hurricane Katrina, Senate investigators have determined after a seven-month inquiry.
"We have concluded that FEMA is in shambles and beyond repair and that it should be abolished," Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who heads the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said Wednesday night in a statement.
Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, the committee's ranking Democrat, faulted President Bush as well, for lack of action during the crisis and for not cooperating with the committee investigation.
"For Hurricane Katrina, the president failed to provide critical leadership when it was most needed, and that contributed to a grossly ineffective federal response," he said in a statement.
The committee's report, scheduled for release to senators today and to the public next week, recommends replacing FEMA with a new National Preparedness and Response Authority, which would remain in the Department of Homeland Security. Its director would have direct access to the president during disasters, much as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff provides information and advice during a military crisis.
FEMA was independent -- and highly regarded -- until March 2003, after the Department of Homeland Security was created because of the Sept. 11 attacks. Designed to put all domestic security programs under a single umbrella, the new department combined 22 agencies employing more than 170,000 people.
Although the Senate inquiry calls for a restructuring of disaster operations, it concludes that keeping such a relief agency within Homeland Security is necessary because it "allows the new organization to take full advantage of the substantial range of resources DHS has at its disposal," including the Coast Guard and national communications systems.
Restoring FEMA to its independent role -- as many critics of the Katrina response have advocated -- "would do nothing to solve the key problems that Katrina has revealed, including a lack of resources and weak and ineffective leadership," the committee found.
Several House members -- including Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee -- have called for FEMA to stand alone. Asked about their proposal, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters Wednesday: "We support [FEMA] being where it is."
