House Republicans push competing FEMA bills
One measure would make the agency independent of the Homeland Security Department; other would not.
House Republicans steadfastly remain on a collision course over competing bills that would overhaul the nation's emergency management system.
Senior Republicans are racing to introduce their bills, each purporting to lay out the best way to change the troubled Federal Emergency Management Agency but none apparently having a solid majority of votes.
The dispute is pitting powerful committee chairmen against each other in a jurisdictional tug-of-war, with lawmakers vowing to bring their FEMA measures to the full House as soon as they can, and possibly before the Memorial Day recess.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, and House Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., introduced a bill late Tuesday that would remove FEMA from the Homeland Security Department and make it an independent Cabinet-level agency under the control of the White House.
The bill is supported by House Transportation and Infrastructure ranking member James Oberstar, D-Minn.; Transportation and Infrastructure Economic Development Subcommittee Chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa.; and Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., a senior member of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.
Shuster said the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will mark up the bill next week and that House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, wants to have it on the House floor the following week. "I think if we move this to the floor, we'll get 300 votes," Davis predicted.
Efforts to obtain comment from Boehner Tuesday were unsuccessful.
"I don't think the leadership has taken a stand," conceded Davis, adding, "but I think at this point what they've said is, we're going to work in regular order, we'll allow the House to work its will."
"Not every decision in this House is driven by three people," Davis added.
But senior members of the House Homeland Security Committee plan to introduce a bill this week or early next week that would turn FEMA into a new Directorate of Emergency Management, but keep it within Homeland Security.
That bill is being drafted by House Homeland Security Emergency Preparedness Subcommittee Chairman Dave Reichert, R-Wash., and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, with the support of both Homeland Security Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., and ranking member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.
"I strongly believe that strengthening FEMA within DHS is the fastest, most efficient way to make the necessary improvements within FEMA and improve our national disaster response," Reichert said. "It is in the best interest of the American people." A King aide said the committee will mark up its bill next week.
Wamp said he believes members of the House Appropriations Committee will eventually agree that FEMA should be removed from Homeland Security. "I respectfully say to all of my friends on the Appropriations Committee who are not yet there: I'm afraid ultimately you will be there if we maintain the status quo," he said.
For now, at least, House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Harold Rogers, R-Ky., favors keeping FEMA inside the department, Wamp said.
Wamp added that he does not expect major changes to be made to FEMA using the department's fiscal 2007 appropriations bill, which Rogers' panel plans to mark up Thursday.
But he said appropriators are concerned that FEMA is wasting money. "Are they actually capable of spending the money in an efficient way?" he asked.