By Contact: Mary Kerr, (202)225-6260
WASHINGTON— The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a study today listing the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) actions in response to the provisions mandated by the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006. The Act was intended to enhance the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) responsibilities and autonomy within DHS.
According to the report, the study was prompted by an Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management Subcommittee hearing on September 11, 2007, which “raised some concerns about the way in which DHS and FEMA were implementing several key directives of the Post-Katrina Act.”
Rep. James L. Oberstar (Minn.), Chairman of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, issued the following statement in regard to the GAO report:
“This report provides further evidence that the roles and responsibilities of the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Administrator of FEMA are still not clearly defined. Congress mandated in the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act that the FEMA Administrator must serve as the principle advisor to the President for all matters relating to emergency management.
“The report provides only a cursory review of what actions DHS and FEMA have taken to implement the will of Congress. Yet even this review shows that the Secretary of Homeland Security controls emergency management in this country, which has had major impacts on FEMA’s ability to do its job quickly and effectively. The Secretary of DHS, not the FEMA Administrator, coordinates the Federal Government’s activities in response to disasters, while the FEMA Administrator merely ‘assists’ the Secretary in meeting the Secretary’s duties. This is not what Congress intended.
“This problem manifested itself during the response to this summer’s hurricanes. While FEMA’s initial actions in response to Hurricane Ike were recognized as a vast improvement over Hurricane Katrina, residents in Texas faced significant delays and shortcomings in the delivery of recovery assistance after the storm.
“Subsumed in the bureaucratic morass at DHS, FEMA is still not functioning as the nimble, effective agency it once was. FEMA must be re-instated as an independent, cabinet-level agency.”
The report titled "Actions Taken to Implement the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006", can be found on the GAO web site.
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