Senators praise, criticize FEMA's progress since Katrina

Members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee offered different views Thursday on whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency is better prepared now to handle a catastrophe than it was when hurricanes Katrina and Rita wracked the Gulf Coast in 2005.

"I'm not sure we are actually any better off today than we were two-and-a-half years ago when Katrina and Rita struck," said Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Disaster Recovery Subcommittee Chairwoman Mary Landrieu, D-La.

Landrieu was responding to a report by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general that FEMA has not made substantial progress in nine critical preparedness areas since 2005.

"I am not going to stop talking about this until it is fixed or until I am not sitting in this chair anymore. So we'll just keep on going," she added. Landrieu also said she was "frustrated by the lack of apparent urgency" at FEMA to make changes to the government's primary disaster response statute, commonly known as the Stafford Act.

The report from Inspector General Richard Skinner, which was released Thursday, found that FEMA has made moderate to modest progress in eight of nine of the most important preparedness areas. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., offered a different view than Landrieu. "I don't think there's any question but that this is a different FEMA than ... we saw in 2005," he said.

Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., took the middle ground. "Is FEMA better prepared for a catastrophe now than it was in 2005? The answer seems to be a qualified yes," he said. "While this progress has been made, there is much more that still remains to be done before FEMA, and our country, are prepared for the next catastrophe."

Lieberman said the report shows that Congress needs to provide "additional substantial funding increases" for the agency, but did not specify how much would be needed. FEMA Administrator David Paulison said he agrees with most of the findings in Skinner's report. "There is no dogfight over this," he said.

But he said the IG's office should have conducted a more detailed examination of progress his agency has made. "I don't feel that they had the time to really get in-depth with some of the things that we're trying to accomplish," Paulison said. He believes the federal government is better prepared to handle a catastrophe.

Landrieu criticized FEMA for missing another deadline to submit to Congress on Tuesday its new plan for housing disaster victims.

Paulison said the plan will be in place before June 1. He said the plan had to be reworked to align it with the Homeland Security Department's national preparedness framework and to reflect that FEMA will no longer use travel trailers to house victims.

Paulison said FEMA overhauled its of use of trailers after reports they contained high levels of formaldehyde.