testimony before congress on fema

I picked this up from a LinkedIn posting. You can see what she shared with our federal elected representatives about the future of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). While this is all good and well and shall I say “normal” I don’t think Congress is where the action is at, and where the “action will be taken” except for her suggestion to overhaul the Stafford Act. However, that is not the priority with the Administration of today. Those priorities are: cut federal personnel staffing; cut spending by eliminating “fraud, waste and abuse.” To be clear, “fraud” is anything they don’t agree with as a spending priority. See if you agree with the suggestions made below. Personally, I think the existing grant funds are all at risk. Perhaps there will be push-back by individual congressional representatives, but so far, the party in control is rolling along with all the cuts being made. You just have to note the speech before Congress last night and the reaction to it.

Carrie Speranza Testimony to Congress

Carrie’s hot take on today’s House Homeland Security Committee’s Emergency Management and Technology Subcommittee hearing on the “Future of FEMA”. An overview of the points made during my testimony:

• A comprehensive review of FEMA and subsequent reform are necessary

• Reform MUST sustain FEMA’s preparedness mission. Not only does this mission build capabilities at the SLTT levels, standardization and professionalization of the workforce is critical for mutual aid

• Hazard mitigation pays dividends. Getting rid of this FEMA component would be catastrophic and would cost us more in the long run

• Reform must include risk reduction, investment in EM, and preparedness. FEMA reform needs to incentivize these activities at the SLTT levels

• Want to cut costs? Start with long-term recovery. A thoughtful and transparent federal exit strategy that transitions recovery to the locals (along with providing recovery grants) after a disaster, is a good place to start

• Block grants are a solution the Administration and Congress are considering in place of FEMA response and recovery. If that’s the direction we’re going, financial controls that guarantee money going to the local jurisdictions affected by the disaster are necessary. Minimum pass-throughs are non-negotiable if this is to succeed [Eric here: I think this means the states can’t scoop up all the dollars and not give any money to locals]

• We need to overhaul the Stafford Act, and we need Congress to help