Executive Summary
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was created in 1979 to help protect American lives and property from the consequences of all emergencies and disasters. During the 1990s, under the leadership of James Lee Witt, FEMA evolved to become a model Government agency with high employee morale and a strong sense of mission.
But since 2001, FEMA has been on a downward spiral, due initially to cuts in mitigation and other effective programs, and later to the diversion of funds to the newly created Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and to corresponding policy and resource shifts toward the department’s focus on security. The heavy departmental shift toward terrorism prevention and security, and the corresponding and misplaced agency reliance on defense and military expertise, detracts from FEMA’s critical mission to coordinate the national response to a disaster – in partnership with other Federal agencies, State and local governments, and the non-government sector – when security efforts fail, or when natural disaster strikes.
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