“As Hurricane Wilma quickly approaches American soil, I fear that our federal response to emergencies is still lacking.  I am very disappointed in Secretary Chertoff’s over-confident stance on the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  From his testimony, I could not gather that much has changed about where FEMA stands today as it stood at the time Katrina struck. He said that the problem was in planning, not in execution. The weight of the evidence is that it was both.” 

 “Secretary Chertoff’s testimony is in direct conflict with former FEMA Director Mike Brown’s testimony: Chertoff says FEMA received increased funding but would not address Brown’s comments that FEMA was ‘emaciated’ from continued internal fund transfers that reduced the agency’s budget; FEMA employees have testified that the agency is approaching a pre-1990 capacity but Chertoff seems to believe the agency is stronger because of the added support the Department of Homeland Security provides.

 “Further, the Secretary’s inability to respond to questions about extending the deadline for federal funding of debris removal, FEMA’s response to temporary housing needs and awarding contracts to local companies was completely unacceptable.  These are issues that demand attention immediately and should have been addressed before today; yet, the Secretary could not provide sufficient guidance on any of these issues.

“Today’s hearing further confirms my belief that our federal emergency management should have a cabinet level position, equal to that of the Department of Homeland Security, and should not be bogged down in another level of bureaucratic red tape.  FEMA’s role in our federal government needs to be revisited immediately.”