By Jacqueline Ruttimann
Capital News Service
Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2005

WASHINGTON - Sens. Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., Tuesday introduced bills to investigate the handling of the Gulf Coast hurricane disaster and to restore independence to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"The people of these states were victimized twice," Mikulski said at a Capitol Hill news conference. "First they were victimized by the hurricane. Second they were victimized by the ineptness of the government response."

Their first measure calls for removing FEMA, the chief agency in the federal government's response to disasters since 1979, from the Department of Homeland Security, where it was moved under the current Bush administration. The legislation would return its status as a Cabinet-level, independent federal agency.

Under the senators' bill, the FEMA director would report directly to the president and would be in charge of coordinating other federal agencies in relief and rescue efforts for any national disaster. In March 2003, under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, FEMA was relegated to a subagency of the Department of Homeland Security reporting to the Homeland Security secretary.

Their second measure creates an investigatory commission to probe the handling of relief efforts. The Katrina Commission, named after the hurricane that last week wreaked so much damage across four states in the Gulf Coast region, will be modeled after the one established after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"I hope that we will send a clear message through these two efforts that we know America deserves better, that our government failed the people of this nation and that we can't afford continuing failure or future failures," Clinton said.

Both senators encouraged the resignation of Michael D. Brown, undersecretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response and head of FEMA.

"The agency is so dysfunctional right now. I don't know what's left," said Clinton, adding that she couldn't understand how the agency could continue under its current leadership.

Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., who attended the news conference, also criticized FEMA's leadership.

"FEMA has lost its way. FEMA has been submerged in a sea of bureaucracy," said Dingell, who with Mikulski, made references to Brown during their speeches, calling him a "political crony," "hack" and "bumpkin."

Said Mikulski about FEMA's untimely response to Hurricane Katrina, "There were guys in wingtips that just didn't fly."

Banner graphic by April Chan, incorporating photo from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Newsline Web content edited by Chris Harvey; Capital News Service stories edited by Adrianne Flynn and Tony Barbieri.  

Copyright © 2005 University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism