Sen. David Vitter, R-La., will keep a hold on President Obama's pick to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency until he receives a satisfactory answer on updating flood maps in his state, his office said Tuesday.
Vitter is seeking a resolution to an issue that has prevented Louisiana parishes ravished by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 from rebuilding. He met Monday with W. Craig Fugate, who has been nominated to head FEMA, but did not get enough information to lift his hold.
According to Vitter's office, local rebuilding efforts have been stalled because FEMA is relying on outdated maps. Vitter has been waiting for more than two months for FEMA to explain its plan for updating the maps.
Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu also has concerns, but said she has been assured the problem is being resolved. "While I share Sen. Vitter's concerns, it is counterproductive to hold this exceptionally qualified and experienced nominee to head FEMA, particularly when hurricane season starts next month," she said in a statement.
By CONGRESSDAILY STAFF
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved nominees Monday to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office at the Homeland Security Department.
W. Craig Fugate, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, was approved as FEMA administrator, and John Morton, a longtime Justice Department official, was approved to be assistant secretary of ICE.
Both nominations were approved by unanimous voice votes and should be on the Senate floor soon.
By CHRIS STROHM, CongressDaily
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joseph Lieberman, I/D-Conn., and ranking member Susan Collins, R-Maine, used the confirmation hearing for a top Homeland Security Department official today to criticize the poor coordination of border security efforts. With John Morton there to answer questions about his nomination to head Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Lieberman complained about "unacceptable turf wars" between federal agencies along the nation's Southwest border. Collins said she fears a recent decision by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to create a border czar will only exacerbate coordination problems and lead to more confusion.
Morton had to navigate through the politically charged topic of how to limit illegal immigration while clamping down on guns and money being smuggled from the United States to Mexican drug cartels. By all accounts, it appears the committee will approve his nomination and he will be confirmed by the Senate.
Lieberman decried turf wars between ICE, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and called on Morton to help bring the problem to "a rapid halt." Morton said he is aware of the turf battles and pledged to focus on solving them immediately. He added that he personally knows key Justice Department officials, who he said will help solve the problems. Morton also said he will seek authority for ICE agents to conduct drug investigations, which can only be done on a limited basis through an agreement with the DEA. He said he would seek legislation for the authority if needed.
Collins expressed concern the Obama administration is relying on a proliferation of czars to address problems. She said she was specifically concerned about Napolitano's recent appointment of Alan Bersin, a former U.S. attorney, to be the border czar within the Homeland Security Department. Collins said she worries his responsibilities will conflict with chiefs of ICE and Customs and Border Protection. Morton said he is not concerned the roles will conflict and described Bersin as an adviser who will not have an operational role. On a related matter, Morton said in answers to written questions that he supports proposals that would require employers throughout the country to use the E-Verify system to confirm their employees are legally allowed to work in the country.
Lieberman's committee also considered the nomination of W. Craig Fugate to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Fugate is widely viewed as a qualified and skilled emergency manager and is expected to be confirmed. Answering the most politically charged question of his confirmation hearing, Fugate expressed support for keeping FEMA within Homeland Security, as opposed to an independent agency under White House control. "That debate, as far as I'm concerned, is over," he said.
By AMY HARDER
Updated at 3:05 p.m.
President Obama today announced the nomination of Craig Fugate as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Fugate is currently the director of the Florida division of Emergency Management. Before being appointed to this post in 2001 by then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), Fugate had a 15-year career in local government as a firefighter, paramedic and emergency manager for Alachua County, Fla. Gov. Charlie Crist (R) reappointed Fugate in December 2006.
Fugate will join Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano at an event Thursday in New Orleans. DHS also announced today that Napolitano has appointed Jason McNamara as FEMA chief of staff. McNamara is currently director of emergency management at Dewberry, a consulting firm based in Arlington, Va.
If confirmed, Fugate will face the task of overseeing an agency widely criticized for its handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which has spurred a debate over whether FEMA should become a stand-alone agency again, as it was before DHS was formed. DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner argued against removing FEMA from DHS in a February report, as did a recent Center for Strategic and International Studies panel.
By KATHERINE MCINTIRE PETERS, Government Executive
Ever since the Federal Emergency Management Agency was absorbed into the Homeland Security Department after its creation in 2003, bureaucrats and elected officials have debated the merits of that decision. After weighing the arguments for and against making FEMA a stand-alone agency again, the department's inspector general found such a reorganization could have significant negative repercussions.
"Removing FEMA from DHS at this point would cause considerable upheaval, to both FEMA and the department," IG Richard Skinner wrote in a report [PDF] released Tuesday.
FEMA benefits from the wealth of resources and capabilities inherent in Homeland Security, such as search and rescue, communications, law enforcement, intelligence, infrastructure protection, and the ability to surge personnel from other DHS agencies during emergencies, the report concluded.
FEMA's response to hurricanes Gustav and Ike last fall illustrated the point: Customs and Border Protection provided security and aerial surveys of the damaged regions; the Transportation Security Administration supported 20 commodity distribution locations with 366 employees; and the Coast Guard performed search-and-rescue missions.
The IG noted in the three years before the department was established, FEMA and the Coast Guard conducted joint exercises 13 times; in the three years after DHS was created, the agencies held 59 such exercises.
By AMY HARDER
Michael Chertoff has helmed one of government's most controversial, criticized and crucial departments for nearly four years. Speaking to a small audience at Georgetown University's Riggs Library this morning, the outgoing secretary of Homeland Security offered a word of advice for his successor, Janet Napolitano, and reflected back on his time in the department.
"Nobody would have predicted that, following September 11, that there would have been no successful attack on American soil the following seven years," Chertoff said in his opening remarks. "I don't think that's an accident." His language echoed a similar argument put forth by President Bush on Wednesday, when he said "it's not a matter of luck" the country had avoided another attack.
Chertoff commended the transition efforts of both the incoming and outgoing teams, calling this the most "dedicated and effective transition" in the country's history. But he emphasized that a "lot of work" is ahead for the department, and for President-elect Obama's incoming administration overall.
"The threat of terrorism and extremist ideologies have not abated, vividly underscored last month in Mumbai," Chertoff said early in his speech. "This reminds us that this threat has not evaporated and we cannot turn the page on this."
While stressing the importance of looking ahead, Chertoff also said that the "past is prologue, and to understand what we must do we must understand where we've come from." To that end, he credited Bush and the policies he put in place, like passing the PATRIOT Act and establishing DHS, for helping prevent further attacks.
"If I learned anything these past eight years," Chertoff said, "it's that swift, strong, unequivocal action is the absolute first requirement" when responding to any type of incident.
While DHS holds an event like this every year, Chertoff said he wanted to take a different approach this time, recounting details from his years in the Bush administration and thanking his fellow employees of DHS. He took time to reflect on some of his experiences, including spending a night on an iceberg with the Coast Guard and riding horses in Arizona with Border Patrol agents. "I would also like to tell my successor," Chertoff said, "that a special treat is in store for her."
At various times throughout his nearly hour-long speech, the outgoing secretary implicitly defended his department, more or less acknowledging the widespread criticism it has received since its founding in March 2003. Disagreeing with critics who have claimed the PATRIOT Act was a "midnight deal," swiftly and discreetly passed in Congress, Chertoff called the legislation "well-thought out and a very, very thoroughly discussed package of measures."
Continue reading Chertoff Offers Advice To Incoming DHS Secretary.
By MARY GILBERT
James Lee Witt, who served as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency from 1993 to 2001, dismissed speculation today that he has been asked to head up that agency again under President-elect Obama. "Those are just rumors," he said, adding that he is "not looking for any appointed position" but has advised the Obama transition team on these matters "from time to time."
Speaking at a press conference for Protect America, a nonprofit consortium dedicated to disaster preparedness, Witt stressed that whoever is selected as director of FEMA should have a great deal of relevant experience and that Congress should not confirm anyone who does not fit that description. Asked about Mark Merritt, president of Witt's consulting firm and another rumored contender for the FEMA position, Witt vouched for Merritt's qualifications and said that "personally, individually I would support" him, but it is Obama's decision to make.
Protecting America, which Witt co-chairs along with Admiral James M. Loy, former deputy secretary of Homeland Security, is calling on the new president and Congress to create a national catastrophe program to protect the six in 10 American families that live in areas prone to natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes. At today's press conference, held to mark the end of the 2008 hurricane season, Witt and Loy stressed the importance of creating a national approach to disaster protection before the "big one" strikes.
Continue reading Witt Dismisses FEMA Rumors, Calls For National Catastrophe Program.
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.
