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What type of investigation into the federal response to Hurricane Katrina do you favor?


 

An independent commission of experts

 

With Republicans in Congress investigating themselves

 

No investigation is necessary



 
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FEMA Funding

After the attacks of September 11th, the Bush Administration decided to strip FEMA of it’s cabinet level status and throw it in with the hodge-podge mess that is the Department of Homeland Security.  Since that time the agency has been under funded and mismanaged.

 * Total funding for FEMA will go up and down each year depending on the funding level for disasters.  To understand what has happened to FEMA funding you need to subtract out disaster relief and look at funding for FEMA’s base programs.  Base FEMA funding has been cut by almost 10 percent since 2003, when FEMA was rolled into the Department of Homeland Security.

 * In FY 2004, Bush requested $868 million, slashing the budget by $159 million (15.5 percent).   Congress provided $960 million, an increase over the President, but still a cut of $67 million (6.5 percent).

 * In FY 2005, Bush requested a FEMA base budget of $796 million.  This request represents a $231 million (22.5 percent) cut to FEMA relative to 2003 and a $164 million (17.1 percent) cut from the previous year.  Congress ended up providing $928 million, $99 million (9.6 percent) below 2003 and $32 million (3.5 percent) below the previous year.

 * For FY 2006, the President requested a FEMA budget of $994 million, $33 million below 2003.  The FEMA budget is virtually a repeat of last year’s Bush request.  Other than inflationary increases, the following changes are made in the Bush request:

  • Urban Search and Rescue teams are cut from the $30 million appropriated in 2005 to $7 million.  The administration believes that no additional training or equipment is needed for these teams.
  • 128 additional full time personnel are requested for FEMA, far short of the 500 that have been cut since formation of the Department.  The additional personnel requested would only get back one-fourth of that staff. 
  • Bush requests an additional $50 million (for a total of $150 million) for pre-disaster mitigation, consistent with last year’s request. 
  • The authorization bill enacted last June called for a $70 million increase in flood mitigation, but the Bush request only asks for $8 million, to be transferred from the flood insurance fund.  We see the need for substantial flood mitigation efforts in New Orleans. 

 * Bush requested no funding for the Metropolitan Medical Response System in 2005 and 2006.  $50 million was provided by Congress for this program in 2004 and $30 million was provided in 2005.  This program helps metropolitan areas prepare for medical disasters, including providing caches of medicine.

 * In addition to the budget cuts, many FEMA programs and staff have been transferred out of FEMA and into other parts of the Department of Homeland Security.  The Metropolitan Medical Response System, the Emergency Management Performance Grants, Community Emergency Response Teams, and Firefighter Grants programs were all transferred from FEMA to the Office of State and Local Government Coordination and Preparedness.  This has diminished FEMA’s role in these important disaster preparedness programs and the State and Local Office has had limited staffing and expertise to lead in these areas.

 * As a result of the budget cuts and the reorganization efforts, we are left with an agency that has fewer resources, less experience, and less of a mission to deal with natural disasters.

 * Perhaps the most damaging thing is that the agency is headed by a Director with no prior experience in disaster management before he joined FEMA.  His only qualification is that he was the college roommate of the prior Director.


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