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Updated: Friday, Apr. 28, 2006 - 9:08 AM
By Corbett Daly, Federal News Radio
There's no shortage of reactions to Thursday's call to abolish FEMA. The White House is rejecting the Senate committee plan. However Frances Fragos Townsend, homeland security adviser to President Bush says with storm preparations underway for the hurricane season, they don't really have time to think about it. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff endorsed several of the recommendations, but opposed making FEMA an independent agency. Several members of Congress say it doesn't go far enough. Jane Bullock worked her way through the ranks of FEMA until she became James Lee Witt's Chief of Staff and served in that roll for five years. She left FEMA in 2000. "No one wants to be held accountable for the failures in FEMA," she says. Bullock says the agency should be removed from the bureaucratic tethers of Homeland Security. "What does Michael Chertoff know about running a disaster?" And she says disaster officials need to make decisions quickly, often with little information at their fingertips. "You can't wait for every last piece of evidence which is what someone with a legal background is looking for. The basic mistake is that underneath the DHS umbrella, FEMA has no clout and it never will." Bullock blames Congress and the White House for refusing to admit they had made a mistake and she says voters are going to have to be responsible for making changes. Witt is widely credited with turning around a struggling FEMA in the early 1990s. (Copyright 2006 by FederalNewsRadio.com. All Rights Reserved.)
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