Witt dismisses FEMA rumors, calls for national catastrophe program

James Lee Witt, who served as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency from 1993 to 2001, on Tuesday dismissed speculation that he has been asked to head up that agency again under President-elect Obama. "Those are just rumors," he said, adding that he is "not looking for any appointed position" but has advised the Obama transition team on these matters "from time to time."

Speaking at a press conference for Protect America, a nonprofit consortium dedicated to disaster preparedness, Witt stressed that whoever is selected as director of FEMA should have a great deal of relevant experience and that Congress should not confirm anyone who does not fit that description. Asked about Mark Merritt, president of Witt's consulting firm and another rumored contender for the FEMA position, Witt vouched for Merritt's qualifications and said that "personally, individually I would support" him, but it is Obama's decision to make.

Protecting America, which Witt co-chairs along with Adm. James M. Loy, former deputy secretary of Homeland Security, is calling on the new president and Congress to create a national catastrophe program to protect the six in 10 American families that live in areas prone to natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes. At Tuesday's press conference, held to mark the end of the 2008 hurricane season, Witt and Loy stressed the importance of creating a national approach to disaster protection before the "big one" strikes.

The group hopes to build on successes it experienced during the 110th Congress, when the House passed the 2007 Homeowners Defense Act (H.R. 3355), legislation seeking to guarantee that homeowners -- particularly those living in high-risk areas -- have access to affordable insurance. The bill never made it out of the Senate Banking Committee. Loy and Witt are confident, however, that their chances for getting legislation signed into law are better under the incoming administration, as the president-elect publicly supported H.R. 3355 and, in a Sept. 7 St. Petersburg Times op-ed, pledged to sign it into law if elected.

Protecting America is advocating the development of state and national backdrop programs that would use money from private insurers to guarantee that families and individuals have the resources necessary to rebuild after a crisis. Such backdrops "would eliminate taxpayer bailouts and cross subsidies by standing behind the traditional insurance industry in the case of a truly major catastrophe," the group's press release explains. Funds would also go toward public education and mitigation efforts, as well as first-responder training, with the goal of limiting damage from natural disasters by having a public and an infrastructure that is prepared.

"We have to break the damage-repair-damage-repair cycle," Witt said Tuesday. He and Loy compared the current method of dealing with natural disasters to Treasury's economic bailout plan. Under the current system, taxpayers from every part of the country are forced to share the burden when a federal disaster is declared in the wake of a natural disaster. As environmental cycles and global climate change threaten to bring bigger and more frequent natural events to America's shores, Witt warned that the failure to develop a national approach to disaster management now will result in scenarios that could make the $700 billion bailout plan pale in comparison.

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