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Reform FEMA But Please Keep the Money Flowing to My District

The reason we need federal funding is that states, counties and cities are not investing in emergency management.

The emergency management response system in the nation is built on the premise that you use all your internal resources first; then you request mutual aid (borrowing resources) from like jurisdictions or disciplines; then you contract for resources from businesses and contractors; finally, you look to a higher level of government to help fill needs you can't provide on your own, first to the state and then to the federal government.

I don't agree with much that the Heritage Foundation puts out, but in the case of disaster assistance and federal funding we have bastardized the original intent. It appears that we first want the feds to fund our local programs before a disaster and then when anything happens, to also have them fund the response and recovery phases.  

Who's getting over with this system are local taxpayers who let other taxpayers pay for what they are unwilling to provide. Then there are politicians who are all against these "socialized systems" except when it comes to paying for a disaster in their home district, because there are no other resources or programs available unless there is a federally declared disaster.  

It is a mess! All the special interests (this includes emergency managers, fire, law enforcement, public health, hospitals) will lobby against it. Contractors will cry and moan, but what if there wasn't any pre-disaster help at all? You either build your own state and local programs or you take the risks associated betting that the disaster bird won't come roost in your jurisdiction.

It is a short report, FEMA Reform Needed: Congress Must Act, but don't expect any action by anyone anytime soon. Finally, the first paragraph of the document has little bearing on the issues that follow. This is a great example of wasting your opening statement on an irrelevant issue to the topic you are writing about.

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.