The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has recently been in the spotlight of American politics as a ploy between both major political parties. The House of Representatives defeated a bill that would have funded the agency for $3.7 billion as well kept the federal government operating.
Despite its need to stay as far away from politics as possible, FEMA's history shows the heads of the agency are often mired in political upheavals just as much as any other department. The background of FEMA's beginnings and history show the disaster preparedness organization has had some growing pains.
Inception
Several natural disasters in the early 1970s showed the need for a single federal agency to take care of the needs of Americans when natural disasters strike. Fires, earthquakes and hurricanes showed over 100 federal agencies were involved in disaster relief.
President Jimmy Carter signed Executive Order 12127 creating FEMA April 1, 1979, as the central agency to handle times of crisis when it comes to extreme weather and lots of damage from volcanoes and earthquakes. FEMA also was the primary agency to act in the case of a nuclear accident.
First Director
The Senate confirms the head of FEMA as per Cabinet-level position guidelines. Nine directors have been confirmed by the Senate and there have been interim directors at various times throughout the agency's history.
John Macy was the first Senate-confirmed director of FEMA after being with the federal government under Franklin Roosevelt in 1938. Macy oversaw the first major federal disaster involving a volcano when Mount St. Helens erupted in May 1980. Macy served until January 1981 when President Ronald Reagan took office.
Interim directors need no Senate confirmation until permanent replacements have been named. As with all Cabinet positions, the president of the United States nominates a FEMA director first.
Major Disasters
Hurricane Andrew in 1992 was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the United States in 23 years. PBS states the response from the agency was slow and federal troops didn't respond until five days after the hurricane hit Miami in mid-August. FEMA was criticized for its slow response, but it wouldn't be the last time that disaster relief wouldn't come on time to thousands of people.
Hurricane Katrina and its subsequent response led to the resignation of director Michael D. Brown in September 2005. Unlike Hurricane Andrew in Miami, thousands of people died in New Orleans. A lack of a viable contingency plan and competing disaster strategies at the state and federal level led to possible delays in relief from both military and civilian agencies.
Funding
FEMA requested over $10 billion in funding for fiscal year 2012 which starts Oct. 1, 2011. The recent fight in Congress is over current funding levels because FEMA has nearly run out of money to cover all of the natural disasters in the United States this year. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, FEMA came under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security and the needs of the organization changed and more money was allocated.
Since current director Craig Fugate took over in 2009, he has overseen over $4.5 billion in disaster funding allocation, not counting this year. Fugate is in the middle of the most expensive year for disasters in FEMA's history.
William Browning is a research librarian.
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