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The Incredible Shrinking FEMA
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is shrinking again. On July 13, 2005, new Secretary Michael Chertoff, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), announced his reorganization plans as a result of his “Second Stage Review” (the first stage belonged to former Secretary Ridge). (1) Included in his six imperatives is #1: “To increase overall preparedness, particularly for catastrophic events.” To accomplish this, Secretary Chertoff dismantled the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate, of which FEMA comprised the bulk and FEMA’s leader was a full under secretary. He then split FEMA into two parts. One part, which will retain the name FEMA and have a director, not an undersecretary, will report directly to Chertoff. Its mission will be stripped of any preparedness functions, and refocused on response and recovery alone [a sea of blue tarps on houses with missing roofs will remain as FEMA’s response signature]. What about the second part of FEMA? Another huge change proposed by Chertoff is the creation of a new Directorate for Preparedness to consolidate and enhance preparedness assets from across DHS, which, in addition to FEMA's preparedness activities, will include the infrastructure half of the Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Directorate, elements of the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness, and the U.S. Fire Administration. This new directorate will be tasked with facilitating grants and overseeing nationwide preparedness efforts supporting first responder training, citizen awareness, public health, infrastructure, and cyber security. As a result of this reorganization, FEMA’s mission, as it has for more than 20 years, must change from “leading America to prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disasters with a vision of ‘A Nation Prepared,’” to “leading American to respond to and recover from disasters…” (2) Secretary Chertoff’s July 14, 2005, testimony about enhancing the preparedness function in his department follows below. Note his laser focus on a true risk-assessment approach to disaster management, i.e., Risk = Hazard * Vulnerability. His words are a little different: Consequences = Threat * Vulnerability—same meaning. Chertoff’s Own Words: “First, preparedness. In the broadest sense, preparedness addresses the full range of our capabilities to prevent, protect against, and respond to acts of terror or other disasters. Preparedness is about securing America’s critical infrastructure, which is not a government asset; roughly 85 percent is privately owned or operated. “At the outset, we must acknowledge that although we have substantial resources to provide security, these resources are not unlimited. Therefore, we as a nation must make tough choices about how to invest finite human and financial capital to attain the optimal states of preparedness. To do this we will focus on objective measures of risk and performance. “Our risk analysis is based on these three variables: (1) threat; (2) vulnerability; and (3) consequences. These variables are not equal—for example, some infrastructure is quite vulnerable, but the consequences of attack are relatively small; other infrastructure may be much less vulnerable, but the consequences of a successful attack are very high, even catastrophic. DHS will concentrate first and most relentlessly on addressing threats that pose catastrophic consequences. Some of the tool needed to prevent, respond, and recover from such awful scenarios are already in place; but others need significant improvement.” (3) Shaun Waterman of United Press International on July 13, 2005 predicted that Chertoff’s diminution of FEMA “is likely to draw howls of protest from state and local emergency managers and FEMA’s allies on Capitol Hill [that] the agency is being stripped of its preparedness functions to concentrate on what some in the department see as its core competencies -- disaster response and recovery. ‘It's going to be very difficult to argue the case that it makes sense to spilt up preparedness and response,’ said one former FEMA official. ‘It's difficult enough [to plan responses to major disasters] when both those functions are in one place. It's unclear how separating them will bring them into better sync.’ The former official said preparedness activities accounted for probably about 25 percent of FEMA's budget, but said that did not reflect the extent of its activities. ‘Preparedness is what you do all year-round to get ready for the hurricane and fire seasons," the official said. ‘It's a pretty substantial proportion of the agency's work.’” (4)
Some dissatisfied constituents have a different point of view about FEMA’s performance. On April 27, 2005, Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) renewed a call for FEMA Director Michael Brown’s removal, citing “ FEMA's Failure to Account for Hiring of Ex-Cons as Inspectors and Erroneous Disbursements Following Hurricane Frances.” The article follows (5): April 27, 2005 ( Washington, DC)- Today, Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL) sent a letter to the Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff requesting that he remove Michael Brown from his position as head of the Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Under Secretary Brown's agency erroneously disbursed over $30 million in disaster relief money to over 10,000 Miami-Dade claimants after Hurricane Frances, which made landfall more than 100 miles away with no more than a heavy rainstorm actually affecting the county. Subsequently, news reports have continued to uncover a litany of problems with FEMA's disbursement of funds, all of which have been ignored or dismissed by the agency. On January 24, 2005, Wexler sent a letter to President George Bush, calling for Brown's resignation; however, his call was ignored by the White House. On April 24, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported that FEMA relied on inspectors with past criminal records such as embezzlement, drug dealing and robbery to inspect victims' homes after the hurricanes. To date, there have been fourteen Miami-Dade residents who have received aid from FEMA and have been indicted for fraud. Of those individuals, three have pleaded guilty. (Please find a copy of the letter below) Congressman Wexler is a senior member of the House International Relations Committee and is a member of the House Judiciary Committee. April 27, 2005 Michael Chertoff, Secretary United States Department of Homeland Security Washington, D.C. 20528 Dear Secretary Chertoff: I am writing to request your assistance with regard to an issue of growing concern, the continued mismanagement of hurricane recovery assistance by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). I remain deeply troubled by the accounts of corruption and fraud, which have surfaced about FEMA's disbursement of funds during hurricane recovery efforts in Florida. I strongly urge you to assist myself and other concerned Floridians in shedding light on what appears to be blatant mismanagement and to make public information pertaining to inspectors and aid recipients given the magnitude of this problem. As you are aware, I have worked closely with FEMA officials since the initial siege of hurricanes this past summer to this point. While I greatly appreciate the work FEMA has done in helping Floridians recover from last years unprecedented series of hurricanes, I am deeply concerned about what appears to be the incompetent administration of federal assistance, including both the funding of fraudulent requests as well as the refusal of funds to legitimately impacted communities. News accounts have reported that over $30 million in disaster relief money was dispersed to residents of Miami-Dade after Hurricane Frances, which made landfall over 100 miles north of the county. At the same time, Palm Beach and other affected counties have been waiting in line, struggling to get the funding they rightly deserve. As you know, rather than work constructively to fix these problems, FEMA continues to deny any wrongdoing and blames their illegal reimbursements on a computer glitch rather than owning up to mistakes and working to correct the fraudulent payments. While some sort of computer error may have contributed to the problems, it is difficult to believe that this alone was FEMA’s only error. In response to this continuing refusal to address the growing problems, on January 24, I sent a letter to President George Bush, calling for Brown's resignation; however this request was ignored by the White House. Since that time the reports of mismanagement and fraud have only increased. There are new and disturbing reports that FEMA relied on inspectors with past criminal records such as embezzlement, drug dealing and robbery to inspect victims’ homes after the hurricane. Additionally, there have been fourteen Miami-Dade residents who have received aid from FEMA and have been indicted for fraud. Of those individuals, three have pleaded guilty. Given the litany of problems that have surfaced, I am writing to renew my request that Under Secretary Michael Brown be removed from his position as head of FEMA. In short, the public in South Florida has lost confidence that FEMA can fulfill its mission of assisting communities recovering from disasters. Secretary Chertoff, it is critical that you immediately address FEMA’s monumental mismanagement and waste of taxpayer monies. To this end, I urge you to hold Under Secretary Brown and FEMA officials responsible for their actions, particularly as the legitimate needs of countless Floridians still recovering from Hurricane damage are being denied due to lack of funds. I look forward to working with you to shed light on these problems and ensure that such glaring mistakes are never made again. With warm regards, Robert Wexler, Member of Congress Secretary Chertoff’s decision to give preparedness a front seat in his department probably was well informed as his attorney wife Meryl Chertoff helped with FEMA’s transition into the new DHS in 2003. http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/20_11/federal/26343-1.html. FEMA’s History What are FEMA’s origins anyway? FEMA traces its beginnings to the Congressional Act of 1803.This act, generally considered the first piece of disaster legislation, provided assistance to a New Hampshire town following an extensive fire. In the century that followed, ad hoc legislation was passed more than 100 times in response to hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters. By the 1930s, when the federal approach to problems became popular, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation was given authority to make disaster loans for repair and reconstruction of certain public facilities following an earthquake, and later, other types of disasters. In 1934, the Bureau of Public Roads was given authority to provide funding for highways and bridges damaged by natural disasters. The Flood Control Act, which gave the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers greater authority to implement flood control projects, was also passed. This piecemeal approach to disaster assistance was problematic and it prompted legislation that required greater cooperation between federal agencies and authorized the President to coordinate these activities. The 1960s and early 1970s brought massive disasters requiring major federal response and recovery operations by the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration, established within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Hurricane Carla struck in 1962, Hurricane Betsy in 1965, Hurricane Camille in 1969 and Hurricane Agnes in 1972. The Alaskan Earthquake hit in 1964 and the San Fernando Earthquake rocked Southern California in 1971. These events served to focus attention on the issue of natural disasters and brought about increased legislation. In 1968, the National Flood Insurance Act offered new flood protection to homeowners, and in 1974 the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief Act firmly established the process of Presidential disaster declarations. However, emergency and disaster activities were still fragmented. When hazards associated with nuclear power plants and the transportation of hazardous substances were added to natural disasters, more than 100 federal agencies were involved in some aspect of disasters, hazards and emergencies. Many parallel programs and policies existed at the state and local level, compounding the complexity of federal disaster relief efforts. The National Governor’s Association sought to decrease the many agencies with which state and local governments were forced to work. They asked President Jimmy Carter to centralize federal emergency functions, which he did in a 1979 executive order, which merged many of the separate disaster-related responsibilities into a new Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Among other agencies, FEMA absorbed: the Federal Insurance Administration, the National Fire Prevention and Control Administration, the National Weather Service Community Preparedness Program, the Federal Preparedness Agency of the General Services Administration and the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration activities from HUD. Civil defense responsibilities were also transferred to the new agency from the Defense Department’s Defense Civil Preparedness Agency. Editor’s Note: Not much else to be said here—only to be aware that accountability for performance is becoming increasingly important as a measure of agency survival. Sources: 1. For more information about these and other proposed changes, read the 2. For FEMA’s mission statement, see last sentence of FEMA text at: http://www.fema.gov/about/history.shtm. Accessed July 23, 2005. 3. Testimony: “Statement of Secretary Michael Chertoff U.S. Department Of Homeland Security Before the United States Senate Committee On Commerce, Science and Transportation” Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C., July 19, 2005. Available at: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=4643. Accessed July 23, 2005. 4. Shaun Waterman: “FEMA to be split in restructuring” at: http://www.all-hands.net/pn/news_index2076.html. Accessed July 23, 2005. 5. Wexler’s letter at: http://www.house.gov/wexler/pressreleases/042705.htm. Accessed July 23, 2005. |
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