Landrieu: FEMA regulations need to be rewritten for better preparation

2007-08-16

Source: Gonzales Weekly

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., speaking to the chamber during its monthly luncheon event held at the Gonzales Holiday Inn, highlighted efforts both she and fellow senators are making to improve the federal government's emergency preparedness and response programs, such as FEMA.

"Don't even get me started on FEMA," Landrieu said. "I'm not going there, because it's just mind-numbing. I've seen it work well for a garden-variety disaster. (For) a big tornado or a moderate hurricane, it will work."

Landrieu said that she is working with fellow senators including U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., to change more than 50 items they felt were wrong with the federal government's emergency response to the storms that struck Louisiana almost two years ago. The senators are working to re-write the Stafford Act of 1974, which created the system in place today by which a Presidential Disaster Declaration of an emergency triggers financial and physical assistance through FEMA. The Act gives FEMA the responsibility for coordinating government wide relief efforts. The Federal Response Plan it implements includes the contributions of 28 federal agencies and non governmental organizations, such as the American Red Cross. It is named for Robert Stafford, who helped pass the law.

In October 2000, Congress amended it again by passing the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000.

"It's still sitting on the floor of the Senate," said Landrieu, who chairs the U.S. Senate's Homeland Security subcommittee that oversees FEMA. "We can't get the administration to give a final green light. We're pushing hard to get this bill passed."

Another recovery aspect Landrieu said she is working to change involves the distribution of loans to homeowners and businesses to rebuild from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

"They would award loans of $200,000, but would only send about $10,000," Landrieu said. "The minute you received the $10,000 check, you had to start paying them back every month based on a $200,000 balance. That is being changed."

Landrieu also said that she "lost her temper a little bit" when she read that FEMA staff was ordered to reject a loan application if it came filled out in black ink rather than in blue ink.

"One day, in committee and on C-SPAN, I ripped it (the regulation) up and threw it into the air and I said, "We're not doing this,'" Landrieu said.

Landrieu said that rewriting the bill will take "a long time," perhaps as long as 10 years, but that retooling the legislation is necessary to ensure that the entire country will be prepared if disasters on the scale of hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit elsewhere.

"There are many, many risks and we are not prepared as a nation," Landrieu said.

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