Senators aim to kill FEMA, add disaster reservists

A Senate committee on Thursday released portions of a report calling for the dismantling of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and creation of a new agency within the Homeland Security Department to take its place.

The panel also recommended that DHS consider training an unspecified number of employees outside of the agency replacing FEMA to act as reservists in the event of a disaster.

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee report, which was issued to select senators and will be re-issued in its entirety to the public next week, called for changes to The Robert T. Stafford Disaster Assistance and Emergency Relief Act and to the National Response Plan, to ensure they address all types of disasters and catastrophes.

The Senate report's recommendations are similar to those in a December 2005 report sent to the DHS inspector general and to the committee from a military official who was dispatched to the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina.

In his unclassified report, Douglas Owens, a veteran disaster relief coordinator and civilian military employee, said FEMA had no coherent standard operating procedures in place when he arrived in Louisiana and that training for relief workers was sub-par.

"It soon became painfully obvious that the [disaster assistance employees enlisted by FEMA] we encountered lacked the fundamental training and experience to be effective managers," he said in the report.

Owens said a major re-evaluation of the agency needs to be undertaken, but stopped short of calling for FEMA's end.

"Unless they completely overhaul the entire agency and system, and get professional-level people on the ground right away, they are doomed to failure," he said.

The recommendations issued by the Senate committee also called for better coordination between DHS and the Health and Human Services, Justice and Defense departments. The panel said the new agency it recommends creating to replace FEMA -- the National Preparedness and Response Authority -- should strengthen ties to state and local officials to better prepare for the next natural disaster.

The committee also recommended additional hiring and training of disaster response employees, and said precautionary contracts should be put in place to be used in the event a disaster strikes. The panel also sought to grant the new agency a direct line to the White House in the event of a disaster, something that proponents of an independent FEMA have supported. However, the committee concluded that the new agency should remain within DHS.

Also, the recommendations included numerous suggestions for how the new agency can avoid being defrauded when the next disaster strikes.

Both White House and DHS officials criticized the recommendations to eliminate FEMA, saying the agency still is being rehabilitated and will be capable when the next hurricane season begins in a little more than a month.

Even as senators call for the end of FEMA, the House Homeland Security Committee announced legislation Thursday that would put the agency's director directly in touch with the White House at a time of crisis.

The Senate report, which is expected to top 800 pages, will not be released until next week. However, the panel posted an executive summary and findings along with its recommendations.

The suggestions did not please some FEMA employees.

"It's time to stop playing politics, because people's lives and livelihoods are at stake, and [to] give FEMA the authority once again to do the job it was created to do," said one employee, who asked for anonymity.