FEMA acquisitions chief pushes recruiting program

The Federal Emergency Management Agency's recently arrived acquisitions chief is backing an agency program to recruit workers for two- to four-year stints as the hurricane season looms.

Thousands of Cadre on-Response Employees, or CORE workers, are being brought in as the agency continues to provide relief to victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita and boosts staffing elsewhere. Part of FEMA's goal is to have an emergency response infrastructure already in place in hurricane hot spots, said Deidre Lee, who serves as the agency's deputy operations director as well as the head of acquisitions.

"We are doing more pre-positioning," Lee said Thursday, addressing private sector attendees of an event hosted by the Northern Virginia Government Contractors Council.

Former FEMA director James Lee Witt, who headed the agency during the Clinton administration, told reporters last week that he thinks more contingency contracts should be established to prepare in advance for disasters.

Lee said on Thursday that over the past decade, FEMA has tried to create such advance contracts. The General Services Administration helped during the Hurricane Katrina response by awarding similar contracts, she said.

"You will see FEMA trying to do that as well," Lee said.

FEMA's goal is to add 700 CORE workers to its payroll to aid in Katrina rebound efforts while permanent staff prepare for this year's hurricane season, beginning June 1. In addition, the agency is converting more than 4,000 disaster temporary employee jobs into two-year CORE positions in order to be better staffed for the next disaster. Some of these positions will become full time.

The agency also will be training 3,000 more "cadre surge employees," though it is unclear how long these will remain with FEMA.

About half of the agency's 700 two-year work positions have been filled, said James McIntyre, a FEMA spokesman.

"FEMA is working aggressively to fill the remaining positions," he said. McIntyre said FEMA will meet its 95/95 goal to boost its staff to 95 percent of capacity in 95 days, in time for the start of this year's hurricane season on June 1. One official said CORE workers often join the agency full time, entering FEMA at senior positions.

"I've yet to see a CORE leave," said the FEMA employee, who spoke under the condition of anonymity. Veteran FEMA workers are upset at the agency's apparent routine hiring of CORE workers over more experienced workers, the employee said.