FEMA Bailing Out HHS Once Again — This Time at the Border

It was a not quite a year ago that the nation's stockpile of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) was not getting distributed quickly enough to those organizations that needed it in states and local jurisdictions. It was at that point that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was tapped by the president to come in and help coordinate the distribution, and in the end acquisition of new supplies of gloves, masks, ventilators, etc.

Now again, FEMA is being called upon to help out Health and Human Services (HHS) with the flood of unaccompanied minors on our Southwest border. What role they will play is not totally clear at this writing. The issue is housing children and not having them held at the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) field stations beyond the mandatory 72 hours for them to be processed.

It is a positive form of affirmation that FEMA is being recognized, as are other state and local emergency management agencies, for their ability to coordinate across agencies and help with logistical challenges. In this particular case it does draw FEMA away from its primary missions of disaster prevention, mitigation, response and recovery. If there is one agency that needs to grow more in size, it is FEMA.

Given climate change challenges and more frequent and significant weather-related disasters in our future, the cavalry will need more troopers!