Brad Stanton Asks Witness To Explain How Natural Disaster Relief Would Change ‘If FEMA Were Eliminated’

2 days ago

During a House Transportation Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Brad Stanton (D-AZ) questioned witness Kevin Guthrie about potential impacts of eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you very much Mr. Chair. My first question is for Mr. Guthrie, Florida's Executive Director

00:06for Emergency Management. Florida is arguably one of the state's most capable of responding

00:11to disasters on its own, but you do rely on federal assistance from FEMA and the Emergency

00:16Management Assistance Compact, EMAC, system when responding to catastrophic events. At yesterday's

00:23cabinet hearing, Secretary Nome did indicate her desire to eliminate FEMA. The President indicated

00:29support for that plan to eliminate FEMA. From your perspective, how would post-disaster

00:35outcomes for Floridians be impacted if FEMA were eliminated?

00:42Thank you for the question. At the end of the day, we need federal support. I go back to

00:51what you mentioned in your opening statement, sir. Federal support, state managed, locally executed.

00:58We need to focus on the state managed part. That has been a part of that phrase since Brock Long

01:05was a FEMA administrator. But we haven't focused on the state managed piece. We keep going back to

01:12the federal government. We need to focus more on that state managed piece and actually make sure

01:17that we're managing disasters at the state level. We're allowing local levels to execute

01:24in a common sense approach while we need federal support. Now, if that looks like a FEMA of the

01:31future, which I think all emergency managers nationwide would agree, FEMA needs to be

01:37reformed. That's a task that takes, obviously, presidential and congressional action to

01:45eliminate FEMA. So we want to work with the federal government. We want to work with the

01:50president. We want to work with the legislature on what that looks like in the future. But to the

01:55point, we do need federal support. Florida can probably handle 95 to 97 percent of what we do

02:02on a day-to-day basis. But for example, in Hurricane Helena Milton, we needed a million gallons of

02:06fuel. We went to FEMA, who went to the Department of Defense and the Defense Logistics Agency to

02:13meet that need. So again, even a highly capable capacity state like Florida from time to time

02:19needs federal support. I appreciate it. Mr. Curry, the federal law is very clear about the

02:28qualification requirements for the FEMA administrator. The president has named

02:33Cameron Hamilton the senior official performing the duties of administrator. In your opinion,

02:38does he possess the qualifications that are legally required to run the agency?

02:43Well, we've actually been asked to look at this and the legality of him serving in that role

02:47under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which GAO has a role in that.

02:52And so we'll do that and have that result pretty quickly. But I will say that the

02:57post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act is pretty clear about the requirements

03:00for FEMA administrator. It requires two things. One is the person to have significant emergency

03:05management experience. And the other thing is at least five years of the executive's experience.

03:11So that's what the law says. But I want to be very clear that the ideal state is to have a

03:18Senate-confirmed administrator. The Senate confirmation process is the process for

03:25vetting a candidate's experience and their ability to do that job effectively.

03:32We saw in Katrina just how horrifically wrong it can go if you have someone who's the head of FEMA

03:36who doesn't have experience in emergency management. It is critical. So we want to

03:42get that done as soon as possible. Ms. Curry, in your role at the GAO,

03:47you understand the risks of overhauling federal programs without proper consideration. FEMA

03:52underwent significant reorganization without proper input from emergency managers before

03:57Hurricane Katrina. And that did contribute to those tragic outcomes. What should this

04:02administration and this Congress consider to ensure that we don't cripple FEMA's life-saving

04:07responsibilities when attempting to reform this critical agency?

04:10Thank you, sir. Yeah, like I said in my opening statement, we can't break what's not broken. And

04:14the only people that can tell you that are our first-line emergency managers and responders.

04:20There are things that work well in the current system. The problem is you don't hear good news

04:24often. There are things that work. We want to keep those. We want to fix the things that don't

04:29work. The other thing I'll say is we have to fix the root causes. If we just move agencies,

04:36rename agencies, rename programs, but don't fix the root causes, none of this is going to change.

04:43We appreciate it. I want to go next to our local elected official, Mr. Garcia. Can you also

04:47explain how disaster response in your county would be impacted without access to federal

04:53resources or support after a disaster? Thank you, member. Without access to federal

05:00resources or funding, our county's disaster response would absolutely be severely compromised.

05:06Local governments simply don't have the financial capacity or staffing to manage large-scale

05:12recovery efforts, meaning vital services like debris removal, infrastructure repairs, emergency

05:18sheltering would be delayed or inaccessible. Federal support is essential for ensuring a

05:26coordinated and effective response, allowing us to restore public safety and meet the needs of

05:31our residents as quickly as possible. Thank you very much. Mr. Chair, I yield back. Thank you.

Brad Stanton Asks Witness To Explain How Natural Disaster Relief Would Change ‘If FEMA Were Eliminated’

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