SENATORS COLLINS AND LIEBERMAN INTRODUCE LEGISLATION TO REINVENT, PROTECT, AND STRENGTHEN FEMA

WASHINGTON, DC— Senate Homeland Security Chairman Susan Collins and Ranking Member Joseph Lieberman today introduced legislation that would reinvent, protect, and strengthen FEMA, implementing key recommendations of the Committee’s Hurricane Katrina Report, A Nation Still Unprepared.  The bill calls for keeping the new agency, the U.S. Emergency Management Authority, within the Department of Homeland Security as an independent agency, but with special statutory protections similar to those granted the Coast Guard and Secret Service.  It also strengthens the authority of the new agency’s leadership and combines key preparedness and response functions.               The legislation reflects the evidence that the Committee collected and examined in the course of its seven-month investigation that included 22 hearings, 85 witnesses, 325 formal interviews, and the review of more than 838,000 pages of documents.               Senator Collins said, “This bill is an important first step toward implementing the Committee’s major recommendations for reforming FEMA.  Throughout the course of our investigation, we focused on how the federal government can best protect American citizens from disasters, mitigate the impacts, and promote recovery. Senator Lieberman and I believe the best way to achieve these goals is to strengthen and expand FEMA and make it far more effective.”                         Senator Lieberman said, “The failures of the federal government to respond adequately to Hurricane Katrina were caused by negligence, lack of resources, lack of capability, but most of all, a lack of leadership starting at the very top. We cannot legislate leadership.  But we can legislate bold changes at the federal level that are critical for our nation to develop the capacity necessary to protect our people in times of disaster - whether natural or terrorist. ”        The following are highlights of the bill:   ·        The U.S. Emergency Management Authority will be independent within the Department of Homeland Security and will have the same protections currently provided to the U.S. Coast Guard. For example, the DHS Secretary will have no authority to reorganize the structure of the agency, erode its assets or functions, or alter its mission without approval by Congress.   ·        Preparedness functions would be joined with response capabilities so that the organization that works with state and local officials to prepare for disasters is the same one that works with state and local officials to respond to disasters.   ·        The agency would have a strengthened regional focus with federal “strike teams” for faster and more effective responses. These teams would ensure that the USEMA is familiar with regional threats and with state and local emergency personnel and can rapidly and effectively cooperate with first responders and public officials in disaster areas.   ·        The administrator of the authority will report to the DHS Secretary, but will also have direct access to the President to advise on emergency management matters, much as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff does on military issues.   ·        The administrator will also have the authority to make recommendations directly to Congress, an authority not previously provided to directors of FEMA.   ·        A National Advisory Council on Preparedness and Response—made up of state and local officials and emergency management professionals from public, private, and NGO sectors— is created to advise the director of the authority.         Senators Collins and Lieberman will introduce subsequent legislation to implement other recommendations from their Hurricane Katrina report.