() Michael Brown, who led FEMA during Hurricane Katrina, believes the agency should be rid of unnecessary bureaucracy and independent from the Department of Homeland Security.
Brown joined “The Hill on ” to discuss a report from The Hill that said an internal memo warned “FEMA is not ready” for this hurricane season.
President Trump said in January that he wanted the states to oversee disaster relief as opposed to FEMA.
“Get FEMA out of Homeland Security, that’s just a bureaucracy on top of a bureaucracy,” Brown said. “Make the FEMA administrator under the Stafford Act, like it has always been, directly reportable to the president of the United States.”
“And then, make certain that we start strengthening state and local response … we have actually weakened state and local governments by throwing so much money at them, and then they use that money to offset budget shortfalls they have,” he added.
When asked if there would be tension should hurricanes damage the United States again, Brown replied, “Absolutely,” before admitting that he did not have much hope of addressing or resolving the future of FEMA.
“It’s Washington, D.C.,” he added.
