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FEMA's Fate Remains Unclear

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By BILLY HOUSE

bhouse@tampatrib.com

Published: February 19, 2009

WASHINGTON - With President Barack Obama urged by some to reinstate the Federal Emergency Management Agency to separate Cabinet-level status, a new federal report argues that such a move would hurt the nation's homeland security "apparatus."

The debate over FEMA's fate comes amid reports that Florida's disaster management chief, Craig Fugate, is one of the leading candidates to head the much-criticized federal agency.

The White House was not commenting Wednesday on Fugate's chances or what, exactly, Obama intends to do with the disaster-relief agency that was absorbed into the huge 22-agency Department of Homeland Security after the Sept. 11attacks.

During his campaign for president in 2008, Obama repeatedly criticized FEMA's botched response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and seemed to indicate he would reorganize FEMA into a free-standing agency.

"The director of FEMA will report to me," Obama declared in a campaign speech in New Orleans.

But in his report this week, the Homeland Security inspector general, Richard Skinner, argues that taking FEMA out of the department would cause "considerable upheaval, to both FEMA and the department."

Skinner's "white paper" also argues that FEMA benefits from shared resources of other department agencies.

Rep. Gus Bilirakis of Palm Harbor, top Republican on the House Committee on Homeland Security subcommittee on management, investigations and oversight, said Wednesday that he agrees with Skinner that FEMA should stay put.

"Taking FEMA out of DHS could do more harm than good by restricting its resources and bringing back the bureaucratic barriers that impede coordination and sharing of information necessary for effective responses to man-made and natural disasters," Bilirakis said.

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