Moving FEMA out of Homeland Security could pose risks

[The Straight Story]

Moving FEMA out of Homeland Security could pose risks
By Katherine McIntire Peters [e-mail] February 17, 2009

Ever since the Federal Emergency Management Agency was absorbed into the Homeland Security Department after its creation in 2003, bureaucrats and elected officials have debated the merits of that decision. After weighing the arguments for and against making FEMA a stand-alone agency again, the department's inspector general found such a reorganization could have significant negative repercussions.

"Removing FEMA from DHS at this point would cause considerable upheaval, to both FEMA and the department," IG Richard Skinner wrote in a report released Tuesday.

FEMA benefits from the wealth of resources and capabilities inherent in Homeland Security, such as search and rescue, communications, law enforcement, intelligence, infrastructure protection, and the ability to surge personnel from other DHS agencies during emergencies, the report concluded.

FEMA's response to hurricanes Gustav and Ike last fall illustrated the point: Customs and Border Protection provided security and aerial surveys of the damaged regions; the Transportation Security Administration supported 20 commodity distribution locations with 366 employees; and the Coast Guard performed search-and-rescue missions.

The IG noted in the three years before the department was established, FEMA and the Coast Guard conducted joint exercises 13 times; in the three years after DHS was created, the agencies held 59 such exercises.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=42061&dcn=todaysnews

[ixion]

1. to hell with DHS... it should be disbanded along with the TSA

and bringing FEMA under the roof of DHS has been an unmitigated disaster, IMO.

[librechik]

6. Exactly--what do we need these Bush Bureaucracies for?

He just did it to make things as confused as possible so government would fail--and bring the Pukkkes back to office again next election day.

[DCKit]

2. I don't know enough about the current situation to make an educated comment...

but I will say this just smells bad. Really bad.

[Hubert Flottz]

3. IG Richard Skinner wouldn't by any chance be one of those

BushCo Plants/holdovers we were warned about would he?

Edit...here is what I found...

Inspector General - Richard L. Skinner
Mr. Skinner was confirmed as the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General on July 28, 2005. Between December 9, 2004 – July 27, 2005, he served as Acting Inspector General. He held the position of Deputy Inspector General Department of Homeland Security (DHS) since March 1, 2003, the date that the Office of Inspector General was established.

Prior to his arrival at DHS, Mr. Skinner was with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), where he served as the Acting Inspector General (October 2002 – February 2003) and Deputy Inspector General (1996 – 2002). From 1991 to 1996, Mr. Skinner served at FEMA OIG as the Assistant Inspector General for Audits. In 1998, he received the President’s Meritorious Executive Rank Award for sustained superior accomplishment in management of programs of the United States Government and for noteworthy achievement of quality and efficiency in the public service. MORE...

http://www.dhs.gov/xabout/structure/biography_0112.shtm

[Warpy]

4. Skinner doesn't want to give up one of his fiefdoms

The best argument for the removal of FEMA from the DHS is Chertoff & company's paranoid rewriting of the disaster manuals to reflect a biological attack instead of a natural disaster. Help was sitting on the tarmac outside NOLA for five days after Katrina but the NG had dutifully sealed the city off according to their nice new manual.

I'd like to see the DHS abolished since all it has accomplished besides maximizing the misery in New Orleans is the hazing of airline passengers. It should be absorbed into agencies that already exist.

[Hubert Flottz]

5. DHS is a classic example of "wasteful spending"

[krabigirl]

7. We don't need Homeland Security. Get rid of it!

[icnorth]

8. I think Homeland Security has done a fantastic job...

since it was instituted there hasn't been a single documented attack by klingons, ewoks, narnians or or other unidentified celestial beings.

[YvonneCa]

10. Thanks for the smile...

...:7

[Are_grits_groceries]

9. Move FEMA and put somebody with some sense

in charge. It was bad until Clinton put James Lee Witt in. Then it became awful. Take it out because it can't do much worse.

[peace13]

11. Do away with DHS and bring our National Guard back to the nation!

*Co invented DHS to fleece America one more time! Let's stop the bleeding.

[JDPriestly]

12. peace13, you are right.

Return the police powers within the U.S. to the states. The federal government is not supposed to have so much police power within the U.S. And FEMA should not be a police organization. It should not be too closely affiliate with any federal police organization.

DHS is too big. It is very dangerous to the freedom of the American people as it is set up. For one thing, it is not transparent enough to work well with ordinary people in local communities -- as we saw in New Orleans.