Chertoff warns senators against an independent FEMA

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff offered an impassioned argument Thursday for keeping the Federal Emergency Management Agency within his department, saying that removing the agency would cost billions of dollars and undo efforts made in reorganizing the government since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Chertoff told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee during a hearing that removing FEMA would create a "schizophrenic" government response to disasters, where both the agency and the department would move into action in an uncoordinated fashion.

He argued that problems in the government's response to Hurricane Katrina last year were caused, in part, because then-FEMA Director Michael Brown tried to operate independently. "It seems to me to do this would have a huge budget impact [and] would invite precisely the kind of ... bureaucratic obstacles that were a problem last year," Chertoff said.

Lawmakers in both the House and Senate agree that changes to the nation's emergency management system are needed, but are divided on what to do with FEMA. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, and ranking member Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., have sponsored legislation that would replace FEMA with a new preparedness and response directorate, but keep it within the department.

For the first time, Chertoff publicly said trying to make FEMA an independent agency would cost billions of dollars. The Congressional Budget Office recently calculated that a bill in the House that would make FEMA an independent, Cabinet-level agency would cost about $1.1 billion from 2007-2011.

CBO originally estimated the cost to be $9.8 billion over five years, but readjusted that calculation after sponsors of the bill protested. Comparatively, CBO estimated that a competing bill in the House that would restructure FEMA but keep it within the department would cost $1.3 billion from 2007-2011.

Chertoff's appearance before the Senate struck a nerve in the House. Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., and Transportation and Infrastructure Economic Development Subcommittee Chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa. -- sponsors of the bill to remove FEMA from the department -- issued a statement late Wednesday in response to Chertoff's prepared testimony for the Senate hearing.

"To say Katrina's lessons learned merely point to a minor personnel problem is like attributing the Black Plague to a few rats," they said. "On the theory that all essential elements of the national response must be within DHS to function, half of Health and Human Services and large chunks of the Defense Department should be moved into DHS as well."

Chertoff said the argument being made by Davis and Shuster was "completely illogical."

House Homeland Security Emergency Preparedness Subcommittee Chairman Dave Reichert, R-Wash., put out a statement praising Chertoff's remarks. Reichert is a key sponsor of the bill that would restructure FEMA but keep it within the department.

There is also disagreement among members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on how best to overhaul FEMA. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., supports making FEMA an independent agency. He noted that no witnesses at the hearing supported removing the agency, and asked for another hearing with witnesses who do.

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Government Management Subcommittee Chairman George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said he is not convinced that another major reorganization is needed, adding that the billions that would be spent on it could be put to better use funding interoperable communications.