From the Washington Post:

Can Congress Rescue FEMA?
Calls for Independence Clash With Bids to Fix Agency Where It Is

By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 26, 2006; A19

Ten months after Hurricane Katrina exposed failures at all levels of government, Congress is seeking to avert another debacle the next time the country faces a catastrophic natural disaster or terrorist attack -- and its focus is the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The public debate has centered on calls to take FEMA out of the Department of Homeland Security and allow it to again report to the president. The White House opposes such a move, and many in Congress say it is unlikely. Experts say the argument obscures older, deeper problems that undermine the nation's preparedness.

They cite unresolved questions before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Who should be in charge of domestic disasters in the United States? Should power be centralized in the White House or spread out to civilian agencies, the military and the states? And for what kinds of emergencies should FEMA prepare -- a nuclear strike, terrorists using weapons of mass destruction, or natural disasters?

"Spinning off FEMA doesn't really get to the root of the real problems," said Frank J. Cilluffo, director of George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute and a former special assistant to President Bush. "It's a politically expedient solution . . . that would give a false sense of security that FEMA was 100 percent effective."

Bruce P. Baughman, president of the National Emergency Management Association, agreed. "FEMA's position in the organization is not the issue. It's the leadership within the agency and the empowerment of the agency to carry out its mission," he said.

The latest debate over building a national system of preparedness stems from the abysmal response to Hurricane Katrina. The difficult 2003 Homeland Security Department merger took a deep toll on FEMA's operating budget, staff and voice within the new bureaucracy.

A string of federal reorganizations identified recurring problems in FEMA and its precursors, including weak managers, lack of funding and fragmented authority. In 1999, a congressionally mandated commission on national security led by former senators Gary Hart (D-Colo.) and Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.) proposed creating a National Homeland Security Agency around FEMA.

But problems arose in the way Congress and the Bush administration implemented the changes after Sept. 11. Congress built the department but took away FEMA's power to award billions of dollars in state preparedness grants.

The White House predictably emphasized terrorism. And when Michael Chertoff took over the Homeland Security Department last year, he led another reorganization that dismembered FEMA's disaster preparedness mission, leaving it mainly with response functions, to the consternation of many.

As a result, FEMA's clout withered, and readiness among cities, states and the federal government decayed. Katrina exposed the seriousness of the problem.

Last year, nearly three-fourths of federal Homeland Security grants went to three terrorism-focused programs. Funds targeted at "all-hazards" fell from $1 billion in 2004 to $720 million, while those aimed at terrorism rose from $130 million in 2001 to $2.6 billion, the Homeland Security inspector general reported recently.

Meanwhile, FEMA lost influence over states and cities, which provide police, fire and emergency workers in a disaster. FEMA stopped holding large-scale training exercises in 1998 and lost any big role in state drills as its budget for the office in charge of such exercises fell from $2 million to $196,000.

Competing bills in the House and Senate to fix FEMA fall broadly into two camps. One would strengthen FEMA within the Homeland Security Department, recombining disaster preparedness and response activities, and restore its power over grants. The other would make it independent. Both would strengthen FEMA's regional offices as part of the agency's sixth reorganization in 10 years.

"In principle, we agree with the idea that there has to be strong connections between preparedness and response," Chertoff said in an interview, but "when the two are joined too closely, money and attention tend to be bled to responders."

Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), who led the Senate committee that investigated the storm response, say FEMA should be renamed the National Preparedness and Response Authority but stay in place.

They plan to introduce a bill by the Senate's August recess that would empower the authority's head to confer with the president in a crisis and serve as his top adviser for national emergency matters, akin to the military role played by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They would give the agency responsibility for protecting critical infrastructure and telecommunications.

Opponents say Katrina revealed a complete breakdown. They note that the White House could not find anyone willing to take over as FEMA director during a seven-month search before it settled on acting director R. David Paulison. Government and military experts doubt that FEMA's chief can suddenly command authority in a crisis.

"That was not the way it was during the 1990s, when FEMA dealt with unprecedented floods in the Midwest, an earthquake in California and many other disasters," said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), who was first lady when FEMA's reputation was at its zenith under James Lee Witt, like her husband an Arkansan. "It was the gold standard for how to respond to emergencies."

Clinton is joined in her view of making FEMA separate by Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), who lost a home to Katrina, and Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the panel that oversaw FEMA before 2003.

In the House, a similar divide has opened between Homeland Security Committee leaders. Reps. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) and Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) agree with Collins and Lieberman, but the panel leaders who oversee FEMA want the agency to become independent.

"You cannot have anti-terrorism grants taken out of DHS. That to me would be forgetting that September 11 ever happened," King said.

"We've seen in DHS that FEMA doesn't work well, and we're going to perpetuate that system?" countered Rep. William Shuster (R-Pa.). He is backed by Reps. Don Young (R-Alaska) and James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.), leaders of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

House leaders are pushing for a vote the week of July 10, after the Independence Day recess. Tentative plans would let a bill for an independent FEMA go to the floor and permit a vote on substituting legislation to strengthen the agency in place.

Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), who chaired the House Katrina investigation and supports Shuster, noted that congressional turf fights persist.

But Davis said: "Leadership has realized that doing nothing is unacceptable and that a majority of House members agree that the only logical course of action post-Katrina is to restore FEMA's independence. The FEMA director needs a straight line to the president."