Pentagon seeks earlier emergency declarations
At least a week is needed to prepare for major hurricanes, Defense officials say.
Federal officials must issue emergency declarations faster this hurricane season, to allow military, homeland security and state and local response authorities more time to mobilize, Defense Department officials said at a hearing Thursday.
Paul McHale, the Defense Department's assistant homeland defense secretary, said he and Homeland Security Department Secretary Michael Chertoff both would like to have as much as a week to begin federal preparations for a major storm. But McHale cautioned members of a House Armed Services subcommittee that taking precautions before accurate forecasts are available could lead to overpreparation.
"We may have one or more [disaster] evacuations that turn out to be false alarms," he said.
One lawmaker expressed concern about federal authority to trump local and state mandates. In a discussion of how federal officials would deal with a local or state official who becomes unmanageable or recalcitrant, subcommittee member Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Mich., said federal officials may have to prove that they have the authority to override an individual.
McHale told him "local opposition can lawfully [be] overcome" by the White House's "federalizing" National Guard units and, if necessary, by invoking the Insurrection Act to extend federal authority.
House Armed Services Committee member Gene Taylor, D-Miss., was a guest at Thursday's hearing. Taylor, whose house in Bay St. Louis, Miss., was obliterated by Hurricane Katrina, said the Defense Department needs to use additional methods of transportation to guarantee that supplies will be delivered on time.
"One of the things that was lacking was a water-borne strategy" of delivering key goods, like food, ice, fuel and water, he said. "You've got to have the contracts in place" to avoid price-gouging, he added.
One Defense official expressed concern that DHS has gone out of its way to help southern states with their emergency response, while failing to keep northern states at the same pace.
Principal federal officers, responsible for helping Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff coordinate with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials, already have been assigned to southern states, like Louisiana, which were grossly underprepared when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast last August. But officers have yet to be appointed in some New England states, said Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau.