Can Congress Rescue FEMA?

Calls for Independence Clash With Bids to Fix Agency Where It Is

Ten months after Hurricane Katrina exposed failures at all levels of government, Congress is seeking to avert another debacle the next time the country faces a catastrophic natural disaster or terrorist attack -- and its focus is the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The public debate has centered on calls to take FEMA out of the Department of Homeland Security and allow it to again report to the president. The White House opposes such a move, and many in Congress say it is unlikely. Experts say the argument obscures older, deeper problems that undermine the nation's preparedness.

They cite unresolved questions before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Who should be in charge of domestic disasters in the United States? Should power be centralized in the White House or spread out to civilian agencies, the military and the states? And for what kinds of emergencies should FEMA prepare -- a nuclear strike, terrorists using weapons of mass destruction, or natural disasters?

"Spinning off FEMA doesn't really get to the root of the real problems," said Frank J. Cilluffo, director of George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute and a former special assistant to President Bush. "It's a politically expedient solution . . . that would give a false sense of security that FEMA was 100 percent effective."

Bruce P. Baughman, president of the National Emergency Management Association, agreed. "FEMA's position in the organization is not the issue. It's the leadership within the agency and the empowerment of the agency to carry out its mission," he said.

The latest debate over building a national system of preparedness stems from the abysmal response to Hurricane Katrina. The difficult 2003 Homeland Security Department merger took a deep toll on FEMA's operating budget, staff and voice within the new bureaucracy.

A string of federal reorganizations identified recurring problems in FEMA and its precursors, including weak managers, lack of funding and fragmented authority. In 1999, a congressionally mandated commission on national security led by former senators Gary Hart (D-Colo.) and Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.) proposed creating a National Homeland Security Agency around FEMA.

But problems arose in the way Congress and the Bush administration implemented the changes after Sept. 11. Congress built the department but took away FEMA's power to award billions of dollars in state preparedness grants.

The White House predictably emphasized terrorism. And when Michael Chertoff took over the Homeland Security Department last year, he led another reorganization that dismembered FEMA's disaster preparedness mission, leaving it mainly with response functions, to the consternation of many.

As a result, FEMA's clout withered, and readiness among cities, states and the federal government decayed. Katrina exposed the seriousness of the problem.

Last year, nearly three-fourths of federal Homeland Security grants went to three terrorism-focused programs. Funds targeted at "all-hazards" fell from $1 billion in 2004 to $720 million, while those aimed at terrorism rose from $130 million in 2001 to $2.6 billion, the Homeland Security inspector general reported recently.

Meanwhile, FEMA lost influence over states and cities, which provide police, fire and emergency workers in a disaster. FEMA stopped holding large-scale training exercises in 1998 and lost any big role in state drills as its budget for the office in charge of such exercises fell from $2 million to $196,000.