WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman John Dingell (D-Dearborn) introduced legislation to remove the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and make it into an independent cabinet-level agency. Congressman Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) signed onto the bill stating that under the new structure authorized by this bill, disasters like Hurricane Katrina would be given the attention they deserve.

 

“Over the past week FEMA was not prepared to respond to the disaster caused in the wake of Hurricane Katrina,” Stupak said. “Based on reports that several necessary pre-hurricane emergency needs were not adequately funded and the testimonies of slow response, mass chaos and confusion that ensued afterward, I more than agree with the critics. This bill will force FEMA to get their act together.”

 

The bill would move FEMA out from under DHS to an independent department of its own where the top executive would have cabinet-level accountability to report directly to the President. The bill would also create two deputy administrators; one would be assigned to man-made disasters and the other assigned to natural disasters. Each would be required to have significant experience related to their positions. Dingell cited the recent critique of DHS “shifting FEMA’s focus and funding to terrorism at the expense of natural disaster management.”

 

“Many of us felt helpless as we watched news reports of stranded people dying of heat exhaustion, lack of food and water, and disease from human and toxic waste. We may have been helpless but those responsible to provide needed relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina were not helpless,” Stupak said. “FEMA had the resources, but because of bureaucracy, they were slow to the punch causing countless numbers of America’s most vulnerable to suffer. I support cutting the red tape of the only agency designated to provide this needed relief so a similar outcome can be prevented in the future.” 

 

“The reorganization of FEMA is one answer to many still unanswered questions related to how unprepared we were as a country to deal with Hurricane Katrina,” Stupak said. “Future preparation like emergency funding, evacuation procedures, medical response and interoperability for first responders to communicate, are among that long list of issues I plan to work toward investigating.”