Senator criticizes plan to strip all-hazards planning from FEMA

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has successfully merged disaster response agencies with assets of other security agencies as part of a unified national response capability in the Homeland Security Department, Michael Brown, undersecretary for the emergency preparedness and response directorate at the department, testified before a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security hearing on Thursday.

However, ranking member Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., criticized the administration's plans to move all-hazards planning out of FEMA into a new Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness.

"Yet this new office does not have the expertise or regional staff experience in all-hazards planning. FEMA has that expertise," he said.

Byrd also criticized federal cuts in fire grants and emergency management performance grants.

"Where do these policies leave a small-town fire department in West Virginia that needs to purchase breathing apparatus or equipment to deal with a chemical spill?" he said.