Senate panel approves FEMA overhaul measure

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee moved Thursday to vastly overhaul the nation's emergency response agency, giving it exclusive status within the Homeland Security Department, formalizing a channel-but not reporting-to the president and requiring the agency to draw up preparedness plans to deal with catastrophic natural disasters.

The legislation (S. 3595) responds to the "serious failures in leadership and urgent need for broad reform" of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said during the markup.

Collins said the sweeping legislation, which was approved on a voice vote, was a direct response to the weaknesses found in FEMA as a result of last summer's Hurricane Katrina.

The chairwoman also noted the bill included many of the recommendations offered by the committee's report evaluating the response to Hurricane Katrina, and said the bill "puts forth a careful and comprehensive program for improvement of our emergency management system. It is a concrete, nuts and bolts plan designed to rebuild and strengthen a broken system."

Katrina's high winds and waters flooded and destroyed homes, businesses and public structures along in the Gulf Coast late last August, affecting several million residents from eastern Texas to the tip of the Florida panhandle, but especially Louisiana and Mississippi.

FEMA came under a hail of criticism, including inadequate preparation, slow implementation of aid programs, poor coordination with local authorities and problems controlling fraud. Its fair share of blame in relation to local and state authorities is still unclear.

FEMA used to be an independent, Cabinet-level agency, but was subsumed by DHS after its creation. Detractors of the bill have criticized it for not restoring its status, independent of a department focused on combating terrorism, not Katrina-style emergencies.

Supporters point out in turn that a provision of S. 3595 does give the FEMA administrator a "direct advisory role" with the president for emergency management, in similar fashion as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Reporting lines still go up to the DHS secretary, however.

The measure establishes the overhauled emergency response agency as a distinct entity within DHS, similar to the U.S. Coast Guard, and makes it responsible for all natural and man-made disasters. An amendment to the bill by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, which was accepted by the committee by voice vote, would also require the agency to respond to erosions resulting from natural disasters.

The bill charges the agency's administrator with overseeing all phases of emergency response, including mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery; and requires the administrator have a minimum of five years of executive leadership and strong experience in crisis management. (Michael D. Brown, FEMA's director during Katrina, since resigned, was ridiculed in the press when it came to light that his previous employer was the International Arabian Horse Association.)

The administrator would also have to work alongside state and local authorities, as well as the newly created National Advisory Council composed on government officials, nongovernmental agencies and emergency response providers, to draft emergency response and critical infrastructure plans. The council would also have a sub-based Regional Advisory Council to work with the 10 FEMA regional offices authorized in the bill.

The agency administrator would also be tasked with creating a credential system for first responders at the state and local level to ensure capable emergency response teams. The bill also formally authorizes a Chief Medical Officer under the administrator to serve as the point person for all medical issues, and creates a Homeland Security Academy for DHS employees to prepare for emergency situations.

Although the original bill changes the name from FEMA to U.S. Emergency Management Authority, or USEMA, the committee approved an amendment from Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., to keep the FEMA name. Coburn made the case that creating a new agency name would be an expensive endeavor, and require unnecessarily spending money to change building signs and business cards. The amendment was accepted on a voice vote.

The bipartisan bill authored by Collins and committee ranking member Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., creates a centralized National Operations Center for situational awareness, and authorizes search and rescues teams dedicated solely for the agency's response efforts. It also creates an Office of Emergency Communications to ensure smooth dialogue among levels of government and FEMA. The bill requires the office to develop a backup communications system, and conduct assessments and annual reports on communication operability.

Lieberman said "the goal is to save people's lives and ease the recovery of survivors by bringing together the skills, resources and missions for effective preparedness to catastrophes."

A key section of the legislation clarifies the president's authority to direct federal agencies to assist in response through a governor's request and the declaration of a major disaster. It requires the president to conduct an assessment to determine damages during a catastrophic event, and after doing so, allows the chief executive to authorize rent and mortgage assistance, reimbursement of communities for emergency relief costs and 39 weeks of unemployment payments.

Lieberman offered an amendment to extend unemployment payments to 52 weeks, noting that 39 weeks "may not be adequate for these affected victims," but the measure was voted down 9-7.

The ranking member also proposed making Hurricane Katrina victims eligible for the individual assistant programs created under the bill, which Collins rebutted as "simply not reasonable for FEMA." The chairwoman said "the cost of this amendment is potentially staggering," noting that nearly 3.2 million would become eligible under the proposal, which was also defeated, 9-7.

The legislation caps total funding for a single disaster at $3 billion.

A provision also increases mitigation funding from the current 7.5 percent to 15 percent. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., attempted to pass an amendment that would allow the president to provide even more such funding, but the measure was voted down along party lines, 8-7.

The bill includes a section targeting waste, fraud and abuse, and prevents contractors working on rebuilding efforts from assigning more than 90 percent of their work to subcontractors, which Collins said would limit "the excessive tiering of contracts that was so prevalent in Hurricane Katrina." Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., offered an amendment, which was accepted on a voice vote, requiring the Government Accounting Office to conduct an assessment on the small business contracts awarded in the aftermath of an emergency.

The legislation includes a provision to set up a separate resource within the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to reunite families following a disaster; and per a voice-accepted amendment from Lautenberg, allows emergency-response teams to rescue animals in addition to human victims.

The bill authorizes an overall 10 percent funding increase for FEMA's two financial accounts, starting with the amounts granted in the fiscal 2007 Homeland Security Appropriations bill, which passed in the Senate earlier this month. Additional 10 percent increases in funding were authorized for fiscal 2008 through fiscal 2010. The legislation approved in committee does not include a total authorization figure.

The bill now heads to the Senate floor for consideration.