By AMY HARDER
The Federal Emergency Management Agency should not be taken out of the Department of Homeland Security, at least early on in Barack Obama's administration, according to a panel of security experts this morning at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The discussion was part of a two-day conference, concluding Thursday, on how the incoming Congress and new president should confront the country's myriad domestic security issues.
Whether or not FEMA should remain under DHS has been a topic of contention among homeland security experts ever since Katrina. In "Change For America: A Progressive Blueprint For The 44th President" from the Center For American Progress and the New Democracy Project, former DHS Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin suggests that such a move might make the agency more effective by providing it with a more "direct line" to the president. But CSIS panelists today disagreed.
"You can't take FEMA out now without doing too much damage to the system," said Daniel Kaniewski, former special assistant to the president for Homeland Security and senior director for response policy. Kaniewski, now a counselor at the Homeland Security Policy Institute, worked extensively on Hurricane Katrina relief efforts during his time at the White House. He stressed that if FEMA were taken out of DHS, the department would simply develop its own disaster-response capabilities, so, in practice, nothing would substantially change.
Matt Mayer, a former counselor to the deputy secretary at DHS and current visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said that where FEMA is located within the government is not the issue. "I don't care if FEMA is inside or outside DHS. That's not what's key," Mayer said. "The key question is, what does FEMA actually do on a day-to-day basis?" When that question is answered, the placement of the agency could then be addressed, he said.
Michael Wermuth, director of the RAND Homeland Security Program, downplayed FEMA's importance in disaster relief. "Despite opinions to the contrary," he said, "the federal government does not have the primary responsibility." It's the states that first and foremost are responsible, he said, adding that because of the "over-federalization" of disaster response, money and other resources have been disproportionately spread around the country.
Panelists agreed that Obama and the 111th Congress should not make any major changes to DHS right away. "Don't do anything drastic" in the first 100 days that would "create more turmoil" in the department, Wermuth advised, adding that he did not expect that to happen. "I'm guessing it won't change dramatically in the early months," he projected. "There are a lot of other things that are on the new administration's plate that will take some precedence over the organizational structure of the Department of Homeland Security."
Check back later in the week for more coverage on the CSIS transition conference.
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