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CQ Homeland Security: FEMA Staying In Homeland Security Department, Says Napolitano

Considering how long the debate over whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency should stay within the Department of Homeland Security has lasted, the first definitive answer from the Obama administration came in a remarkably offhand manner.

“It is my position, it is the position of the administration that FEMA should remain in the Department of Homeland Security,” DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano said Wednesday.

The statement was Napolitano’s very last answer in a three-hour House Homeland Security Committee hearing on her department’s fiscal 2010 budget. There were no follow-ups or discussions.

Her statement came the day after the Senate confirmed Craig Fugate as head of FEMA.