Ex-FEMA Chiefs Say Agency Must Change

Two former chiefs of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Friday that its new director is destined to fail unless the agency gets better funding and regains independence from the Department of Homeland Security.

James Lee Witt, who ran FEMA during the Clinton administration, and Michael Brown, who resigned after Hurricane Katrina, praised R. David Paulison but said he has been given an impossible job.

"The current structure of FEMA is not going to allow anyone to succeed. It just cannot be done," said Brown, who was briefly interrupted during a panel discussion by a heckler angry about the agency's failures in New Orleans.

The Bush administration has been widely criticized for its sluggish response to Katrina.

But Brown and Witt said the agency lost funding and focus when it was absorbed into a giant Homeland Security bureaucracy, making it difficult since at least 2003 to attract qualified people to top jobs.

Spokesmen for FEMA and Homeland Security had no immediate comment.

Homeland Security officials have acknowledged that several candidates to replace Brown had balked at taking the post before Paulison agreed.

"Unless they pull FEMA out of the Department of Homeland Security and put it back as an independent agency, then he's asking for failure," Witt said during the session at the New School.

In a telephone interview Friday, Paulison said the agency's integration with the Department of Homeland Security is an asset, not a weakness.

Linking the two gives FEMA easier access to a multitude of resources and federal agencies during major disasters, he said. One lesson of Katrina, he added, was that the combination of formerly competing entities helped eliminate some confusion on the ground.

He also said he hasn't seen any evidence of FEMA's budget being drained by anti-terrorism programs.

"FEMA had money last year it didn't spend," Paulison said.

A former fire chief in Miami, Paulison has been FEMA's interim director since September. President Bush nominated him Thursday to be permanent head of the agency. His selection awaits Senate confirmation.

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On the Net:

Federal Emergency Management Agency: https://www.fema.gov

The New School: https://www.newschool.edu

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