Ex-FEMA director: Restore agency's independence

Congress' top priority in dealing with the nation's emergency response system should be to move the Federal Emergency Management Agency out of the Homeland Security Department and give it back control of its own budget and staff, former FEMA Director Michael Brown said in an interview Monday with National Journal Group reporters and editors.

Brown, who resigned in September amid mounting criticism over how the federal government handled the response to Hurricane Katrina, said he fears FEMA is being dismantled within Homeland Security and will not be ready for the next major disaster, especially with a new hurricane season coming June 1.

"I sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, believe that we are worse off," he said. "And I believe that from what people inside FEMA are telling me."

Both the House and Senate have investigated what went wrong at all levels of government during Katrina, and lawmakers have said they plan to introduce legislation in the coming months to enact reforms. Brown said his top recommendation would be to make FEMA an independent agency, which it was before being put into DHS in 2003.

He said FEMA's responsibilities get "short shrift" compared to anti-terrorism activities within the department.

"If you have a $40 billion budget, and 90 percent of your job is to prevent acts of terrorism, where's the bulk of the money going to go and where's the mindset going to be and where's the bureaucracy going to push toward? It's going to be to the detriment of that other part, which is the cleanup part, the mop-up guys," he said, referring to FEMA's response role.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has resisted calls to remove FEMA from the department. Instead, last month he announced a series of reforms at FEMA, including the hiring of 1,500 new employees.

Chertoff has argued that the agency benefits from being part of DHS because it can draw on the resources and expertise of other agencies, such as the Coast Guard. He also has rejected criticism that the department is too focused on counterterrorism activities.

"I want to tell you I unequivocally and strongly reject this attempt to drive a wedge between our concerns about terrorism and our concerns about natural disasters," he said.

Chertoff decided last summer to remove all preparedness activities from FEMA, leaving the agency responsible for response and recovery operations during disasters. He established a Preparedness Directorate to consolidate all preparedness activities within the department. According to the secretary, such activities include areas that are outside FEMA's scope, such as law enforcement and critical infrastructure.

But Brown said Chertoff is missing the point.

"You have two types of preparedness," Brown said. "It seems that no one wants to accept this . . . You have preparedness to prevent things, and you have preparedness to respond to things."

There is "a whole different protocol for how you respond to something," he continued. "And that's where you have to train and exercise to respond, which is different from training and exercising to prevent something from happening." The new Preparedness Directorate also might sever the relationship between FEMA and state and local governments, Brown said, because the more that state and local governments turn to the Preparedness Directorate for funds, the less interaction they have with FEMA.

Brown also recommended that Congress closely examine what role the Defense Department should play in disaster preparedness and response. He cautioned against giving the Pentagon too much responsibility, saying that doing so might lead state and local governments to become too dependent on the federal government for help.

He added that he fears FEMA slowly is being dissolved. He said he has heard speculation that the job of providing temporary housing is going to be transferred from FEMA to the Housing and Urban Development Department, while the Coast Guard is going to be given more responsibility for response efforts.

"At the end of the day, you'll look around and you'll go: well, there is no more FEMA," he said.