Name games: Congress Daily is reporting that Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rules Chairman Trent Lott, R-Miss., have reached an agreement to keep the Federal Emergency Management Agency within the Homeland Security Department but give it enhanced powers and protected status.
If Collins and Lott have their way, our beloved FEMA would be transformed into the U.S. Emergency Management Authority, or USEMA, which, I suppose would inevitably be pronounced use-mah.
The House has been watching this deal-making closely, as it is considering a bill that would separate FEMA from DHS, making it an independent agency again as it was before DHS was created in 2002 — a position Lott had supported. Under the agreement, the FEMA director would report directly to the White House on emergency matters.
House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., immediately seized on the announcement to express hope that it will influence House lawmakers. The House leadership plans to put a bill on the floor the week of July 10 with language backed by House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, and House Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., that would remove FEMA and make it an independent, Cabinet-level agency.
King was going to introduce an amendment to the bill with language almost identical to the agreement worked out by Collins and Lott.
“This has to show the House that legislation taking FEMA out of DHS is an exercise in futility,” King said. “And if we’re serious about reforming FEMA we should do it in a way that we know can be passed into law, rather than just making a statement.”
The White House has opposed FEMA’s removal from the Homeland Security Department.
This whole debate seems to me to be designed to direct our attention away from the fact that FEMA is staffed at only 75 percent and has made few substantive changes in its operations since its disastrous response to the Katrina disaster last year. Whether it’s under DHS or independent, or whether its director reports to George Bush or Bugs Bunny will likely have little effect on whether FEMA can manage a large-scale emergency.
I reckon we’ll find out in the next hurricane or flood or earthquake, eh?
