This month, Congress will likely consider
three bills, two in the House and one in the Senate, that would
reorganize or move the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA). None has much merit. These proposals would impose
costly, time-consuming, and unnecessary organizational changes that
would add to the federal bureaucracy and hamper, not strengthen,
how the nation responds to disasters. Congress should reject
them and allow the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to
continue the reforms it is already undertaking.
Disaster
to Disaster
FEMA is
responsible for coordinating support to state and local governments
in the event of disasters. When DHS was created, Congress folded
the agency into DHS; previously, FEMA was an independent agency. In
the wake of the FEMA's inadequate response to Katrina, Congress
wants changes, but the proposals look like disasters as well.
• A
Bad Blast from the Past. One bill would reestablish FEMA
as an independent agency. This proposal is based on the belief
that, before the creation of DHS, FEMA performed more effectively.
FEMA, however, has always lacked the capacity to deal with
large-scale disasters. An independent FEMA would have performed
just as poorly during Katrina. Moreover, splitting FEMA and
DHS contradicts the rationale for creating the department: the
consolidation of all the agencies with significant responsibilities
for protecting the homeland under a single authority so their
actions can be fully integrated.
•
Destroy FEMA To Save It. A second bill leaves FEMA in DHS,
but it calls for restructuring and renaming the agency, and adding
layers of organization and missions. This recommendation assumes
that more government and more spending solve problems. Disasters
require effective decentralized execution-strong community, local,
state government, and regional responses-not more bureaucrats in
Washington. A new bloated bureaucracy will not make FEMA an
effective national disaster coordinating authority.
• An
Idea Whose Time Has Not Come. Another bill would
consolidate all preparedness activities, such as planning,
exercises, training, grant management, coordination, and response
functions under FEMA. This is a misguided policy. FEMA, an
agency that already has trouble doing its job, would be overwhelmed
with additional responsibilities. Additionally, over time most of
the agency's resources and attention would shift to the
high-profile "response" missions and neglect the unglamorous
"preparedness" tasks.
Last summer, just
before Katrina, DHS announced the creation of an Undersecretary of
Preparedness. After Katrina, DHS proposed reforms to address FEMA's
shortfalls in planning, communicating, and coordinating with other
federal agencies, state and local governments, and the private
sector during large-scale disasters. These concrete initiatives
will fix the problem; congressional meddling that rearranges
government offices and demands disruptive and unproductive changes
will not.
James
Jay Carafano, Ph.D., is Senior Research Fellow for
National Security and Homeland Security in the Douglas and Sarah
Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, a division of the
Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International
Studies, at The Heritage Foundation.