Today’s Washington Times (January 14, 2009) features an editorial by US House of Representative Homeland Security Committee leaders calling for FEMA to stay within the US Department of Homeland Security.
Reps. King, Souder, Lungren, Rogers, Reichert, McCaul and Dent have added their voices to those of House Homeland Chair, Bennie Thompson and Senators Lieberman and Collins stating loud and clear to the ne Administration that FEMA needs to stay right where it is.
The entire piece is well-written and succinct in its arguments further stressing the need for an integrated team for homeland security and I encourage you to read it all of it but the home run lines are as follows:
“Those calling for a stand-alone FEMA often cite the agency’s failures during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, an emotional response three years out of date that fails to acknowledge recent progress by the agency. To fairly judge if FEMA should stay in DHS, we must look at the events of 2008 and not 2005. This year has been the busiest the agency has seen in 12 years, with 74 declared disasters, ranging from hurricanes, wildfires, and tornadoes to once-in-a-century flooding in the Midwest. Overall, the assessment of FEMA’s current performance is overwhelmingly positive.”
Gentlemen, I couldn’t have said it better myself! Nicely done.
