New Blueprint Will Restore Power to FEMA

[flashl]

Disaster Plan Is Set for Release

The Bush administration is set to announce an overhaul of the nation's emergency response blueprint Tuesday, streamlining a chain of command that failed after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, sources familiar with the plan said yesterday.

After years of aggressive lobbying by unhappy state governments, the administration chose to restore FEMA's power to coordinate federal disaster operations. That power was undermined in the administration's previous plan -- used just once, after Katrina -- when the secretary of homeland security appointed his own officer to oversee disaster response.

Under the new plan, the head of FEMA will appoint the top coordinating officer, clarifying responsibility and, according to the states, ending confusion that caused critical delays. Congress ordered that change to the plan last year.

State leaders, who condemned an early draft of the 90-page plan as lacking substance and ignoring their input, praised the administration this week for listening to their complaints and reestablishing a federal-state hierarchy that predated the Sept 11, 2001, attacks and DHS's formation in 2003.

Washington Post

The phoenix FEMA rises from the ashes. Now will they make DHS go away?

[OneBlueSky]

1. gotta have someone to run the detention camps/re-education facilities . . . n/t

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[flashl]

2. FEMA is the agency with the longstanding EOs to take those actions. nt