A Senate committee's recommendation to abolish FEMA is proper, but the new disaster response agency created in its stead "cannot be just a reshuffling of the deck chairs," says a homeland security expert.
"The new FEMA, whatever it may be called, must be an organization with broad responsibility to both prepare and respond to natural disasters and terrorist incidents," said David Schanzer, director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "And the leader of this organization must have authority and support directly from the president to organize and control the activities of other federal agencies when responding to a disaster. It needs to be clear, from moment one, who is in charge."
Schanzer, the former Democratic staff director of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, said if a new agency is created, it should, like FEMA, be part of the Department of Homeland Security.
"Removing this function from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as some have proposed, would be a mistake," Schanzer said. "We needed a new agency after 9/11 to better defend the United States from a terrorist attack, and that need still exists. Pulling FEMA and other preparedness and response activities out of the DHS would be the first step toward dismantling the agency.
"If FEMA leaves, the line will be very long for other components that would prefer independence or to return to their former homes. It is simply too early to abandon the effort to organize the government to deal effectively with the manmade and natural disasters that, unfortunately, are likely to strike America again."
Schanzer said the Senate committee's report properly concluded that FEMA had descended to such a level of dysfunction that a new disaster response agency is needed. "When the top six disaster preparedness officials in the country turn down the opportunity to lead FEMA, and high-level policy positions at the agency remain vacant for months because no one wants the jobs, you know there is a serious problem that needs to be fixed," Schanzer said.