By: G. DALE STEWART

FEMA coordinates the federal government's role in preparing for, preventing, mitigating the effects of, responding to, and recovering from all domestic disasters, whether natural or man-made, including acts of terror.

The idea of fixing FEMA has been on the forefront of the American consciousness since Hurricane Katrina.

Disasters of all kinds have occurred throughout United States' history and for much of that time disasters were dealt with primarily at the state and local level. At the end of the cold war, yesterday’s Civil Defense Coordinators became today’s Emergency Managers. This is no longer the norm. In fact during the mid-1970s, the number of federal intervention requests or declarations, averaged over 37 per year. This is more than twice the average for the preceding 20 years. In 1979, President Carter created FEMA. It merged multiple agencies and various programs into a single federal agency to coordinate federal support following local disasters. According to the U. S. Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency, “Declared Disasters by Year or State”, from 1980 to 1992 the number of requests for FEMA assistance averaged 33 declarations per year and from 1993 to 2000, FEMA was involved in an average of 88 declarations per year. This is almost three times the average of the previous 12 years. FEMA has been even busier the past six years with an average of 126 declarations per year. In March 2003, FEMA became part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

FEMA has in the past had a clarified mission. It was not just to respond to disasters, but also to mitigate them in the first place (don't put inferior structures where you know they're going to get knocked down); to prepare for them (don't wait until the disaster strikes to get ready); and, after effective response, recovery, which includes an immediate focus on mitigating future disasters (don't make the same mistakes all over again). FEMA implemented the plan and became a model federal agency, responding effectively to national disasters in the late nineties. Sadly, key elements of that mission have since been abandoned.

When FEMA became part of DHS in 2003 an opportunity was missed to create an organization able to respond effectively to catastrophic events. Instead little has changed in FEMA leadership and to this day they respond to the latest, routine disaster with no real attention spent building an ability to respond to catastrophic events. No wonder Hurricane Katrina, a truly catastrophic event, was so mismanaged. Thank goodness catastrophic events such as Katrina are rare events. Clearly, FEMA needs a major cultural change. Following the failed response to Hurricane Katrina, people were puzzled and angry, others chastised the government, and rightly so, for not being prepared for this level of destruction and disorder. The Bush Administration and Congress spent much effort developing plans to fix FEMA. The FEMA director has become equivalent to the DHS Deputy Secretary and now reports directly to the President during a disaster. Washington politicians are focusing too much attention on promoting Washington solutions for dealing with our nations disasters. This failure is a lack of ideas and enough people with vision to execute them. FEMA reform is symbolic of the problem and needs to redefine its mission as one that primarily deals with catastrophic preparedness and response.

From the brief historical survey above it is clear a new strategy needs to be implemented in dealing with response to disasters. All disasters are not and should not be federal issues. That response needs to be developed at the local level and grow outward to surrounding communities, the state, neighboring states, and lastly the federal government. The good news is that many state governments agree with this approach.

As most of you know the first 72 hours are the most critical following a disastrous event and moving federal assets into the area involves time. Therefore, local and state response capabilities are vital to save lives and mitigate damage. Local and state governments must learn to improve their capacity for independent action. If the federal bureaucracy continues to release its assets for every type of disaster, no matter size or impact, local and state leaders will continue to divert resources away from disaster preparedness, including training, to other needs. This lack of preparedness by local and state leaders will only result in their continuing request for federal emergency declarations for even the smallest of disasters.

Capable leadership is more important to FEMA than program reviews and management scorecards. The key to successful programs must begin with White House officials and Cabinet heads committed to improvements and to holding agency heads accountable for progress. A process alone gets you nothing. 
          
So, what should the Administration and Congress do?

1. Take a multipronged approach to the issues facing FEMA. Keep FEMA in the Homeland Security Department, but restore disaster preparedness to the agency; combine the function of emergency preparedness with disaster response and recovery; Support an “all-hazards” approach to funding emergency management and disaster preparedness.
2. Reach out to fire, police and emergency managers to get their input on what needs to be fixed and how.
3.  Establish requirements that limit which federal emergency declarations can be issued. Some forward thinking people, including yours truly, believe this can be accomplished with the various scales used for disasters, (e.g. the Saffir-Simpson Scale, the Richter Scale, and the Fujita Scale). A good example would be limiting disaster declarations to Category 1 hurricanes and above. This would eliminate tropical storms that are not of such severity and magnitude that their response is beyond the capabilities of States and local governments. FEMA must downplay expectations that it will continue to respond to every disaster instead of focusing on the critical mission of catastrophic response.   
4. Eliminate completely certain types of disasters from FEMA response. Shift the responsibility for routine disaster response back to the states and local governments. Under our Constitution, the lowest level of government has initial responsibility for any disaster whether a natural disaster or the result of a weapon of mass destruction. This is both a matter of law and a matter of practicality.
5. Require the FEMA Administrator to establish and implement a Surge Capacity Force for deploying individuals to respond to natural disasters.
6. See that the information technology systems that FEMA utilizes are updated. To be prepared for future catastrophic events FEMA needs to be transformed into a 21st century agency with 21st century tools. A year before Hurricane Katrina, information technology used by Homeland Security to support FEMA disaster management was so disconnected and inadequate that employees needed to develop ad hoc, often paper based alternatives to supplement them.
7. Support the initiative developed by Gen. Peter Schoomaker, 35th Chief of Staff, US Army, to convert National Guard armor and artillery battalions to military police battalions. This will make them better able to assist local first responders performing post-disaster security. The National Guard is better suited than regular forces, for a number of reasons. First, although operating under Title 32 they do not require waiver of Posse Comitatus or federal mobilization orders. Second they serve in or near their hometowns, which helps make them more effective. They know the area.
8. Help ensure that local first responders can deal with the unexpected chaos of disasters through better training programs that include common beliefs, common doctrine, integrated training, flexibility, and training in free-play environments. Establish a Homeland Security Training Program in Leadership and Crisis Decision-Making courses to provide opportunities for senior Federal officials and State and local officials with homeland security and emergency management responsibilities.
9. Require States to prepare Catastrophic Incident Annexes to their State Emergency Management Plans that are consistent with Catastrophic Incident Annex of the National Response Plan.
10. Require the Director to conduct a nationwide baseline assessment of emergency communications needs.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is broken; there can be no doubt. But a Senate committee's recommendation to junk the agency completely and start from scratch is extreme, unnecessary and counterproductive. Analyzing and fixing FEMA’s apparent weaknesses is more important than figuring out the best place to put it in the government.

As a final thought, DHS needs to stop emphasizing technology and start focusing on people. Technology does not solve problems; people do.