TOPICS
TOPICS
House lawmakers seek to remove FEMA from Homeland Security
On Thursday the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved legislation that would remove the Federal Emergency Management Agency from the Homeland Security Department and return it to independent, Cabinet-level status.
The 2009 FEMA Independence Act (H.R. 1174) was first introduced in February by Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., and has 29 co-sponsors. The idea of returning FEMA to the independent status it held in the 1990s, before the formation of Homeland Security in 2003, gained traction after the government's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
"Putting FEMA in DHS hasn't worked," said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., the committee's ranking member. "The department has bled FEMA dry of resources, personnel and the authority to manage a large disaster. Elevating FEMA as an independent agency will ensure a clear and direct chain of command from the president."
It's not clear if the full House will act on the legislation this session, and it faces an uphill battle in the Senate.
Key senators immediately dismissed the idea of moving FEMA out of Homeland Security. A statement released by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee following the House panel's vote said the dispute about whether FEMA should be moved was settled in May, when DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said the Obama administration had no intention of doing so.
"FEMA is exactly where it belongs," said committee chairman Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn. "Hurricane Katrina exposed a number of weaknesses within the agency, but those weaknesses are being addressed through the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act, passed out of our committee, through Congress and signed by [President Bush] in 2006."
Lieberman said FEMA now has a renewed sense of mission, greater stature and more resources.
Ranking member Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said removing FEMA from Homeland Security "would ignore the input of first-responders and unravel all the impressive gains made in recent months since we passed our FEMA reform law."
"It would take us backward, not move us forward," Collins said.
COMMENTS
- In response to longthought: I guess I wasnt clear about the insurance issue I dont care where people build and live just protect your assets. If you dont then be prepared to be wiped out and people should not EXPECT the government to bail them out on anything. Let me rephrase that the taxpayers dont want to have to pay for those that where irresponsible those that are working and being taxed have a hard enough time putting food on the table today. We the people are the government I think that it what folks are missing here. There is no magic place we call government that pulls money out of thin air it is real dollars and it comes from the peoples pockets anyone that resist that comment is one that is taking not giving. LC Posted November 17, 2009 1:50 PM
- I remember my grandpa telling me about the depression and how good people/churches and others would put together soup kicthens and people would just help eachother without government invovlement where is that today? I remember seeing 3 bus loads of ship builders trying to get access to the World Trade Center hrs after they needed gas axes and welding torches and some sort of officials ran them off told them contracts have been let to clean this up besides it was to dangerous for mere men! I remember a story about a man who owned a restaraunt outside New Orleans he paid his own people to prepare food with propane grills and then tried to deliver it to the Dome and was turned away by our military who told him contracts have been let to do this work. To those who have been blinded by the goodness of government that money still rules even in disasters its unfortunate but real. So lee and longthought you hang on to your belief that their is no conspiracies that all is fine in our government/industries and no one is fleecing us for what they can get. I will stand the ground that we can take care of ourselves if they would let us and yes help if they can but let the people help eachother that is what has made this country what it is. But people wanting a hand out are slowly destroying what our forfathers have built. If you beleive the best avenue to fix a problem is stick your hand out then be prepared for the world of the haves and the majority of the have nots. Good luck with people who use agovernment in order to survive I'd rather work for what I get. LC Posted November 17, 2009 1:21 PM
- Okay, lc and ditto, you go right ahead and keep beating your head against a brick wall. Because it's not only death and taxes that are certainties. There's also the fact that no matter how logical your argument might be, you will never get 300 million plus people to agree with you about where they should be allowed to build a home. Leaving that question aside, I would much prefer to see FEMA segregated from DHS, simply to ensure that DHS does not funnel funds originally slated for FEMA into some other perceived priority of Congress'. Regardless of the housing issue, when disaster strikes, people - especially women and children - will be desperately in need of help. And I think we are obligated - not as US citizens, but as caring human beings - to provide what we can. longthought Posted November 13, 2009 6:39 PM
