OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency that once gained respect with its responses to the Oklahoma City bombing and natural disasters has become ''a shell of its former self,'' the head of Oklahoma's Department of Emergency Management told Congress on Thursday.
Albert Ashwood, who also is the vice president of the National Emergency Management Association, told a House subcommittee that FEMA ''got lost in the shuffle'' of agencies reorganized under the Department of Homeland Security after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
FEMA today has its responses delayed by a huge bureaucracy at the Department of Homeland Security, lost its state and local coordination unit, saw its preparedness funding transferred to the new Transportation Security Administration and even was forced to freeze hiring in recent years, Ashwood said.
''The post-9/11 FEMA is a shell of its former self,'' Ashwood said. He said the agency should be reestablished outside the Homeland Security Department.
A former governor of West Virginia and other state emergency management officials agreed, saying FEMA had lost precious resources the past few years, including hundreds of experienced workers, a story from the Washington bureaus of The Oklahoman and the Tulsa World.
The subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management also heard from FEMA's chief operating officer, Ken Burris, and Homeland Security Department Inspector General Richard Skinner, who sought to assure lawmakers that contracts issued after Hurricane Katrina are receiving proper scrutiny.
Numerous committees on Capitol Hill have been holding hearings the past two weeks about the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, which killed more than 1,000 people and destroyed communities along the Gulf coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama in late August.
Lawmakers already have provided more than $60 billion in federal relief, and legislation aimed at restructuring FEMA is expected to be considered.
It's not the first time FEMA has been criticized for its response to a natural disaster. The agency faced scrutiny in 1992 for not responding adequately to Hurricane Andrew's destruction in Florida, but the agency earned praise and confidence under the leadership of James Lee Witt during Bill Clinton's presidency.
FEMA now is back to where it was when Hurricane Andrew hit, he said.
''We cannot afford to repeat history with the opportunities we have before us today to fix emergency management at the federal level,'' Ashwood said.
Former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise said Witt and President Bush's first FEMA director, Oklahoma native Joe Allbaugh, were effective because they had a direct link to the White House and functioned at the same level as cabinet officers.
''I'd put Joe Allbaugh back first of all,'' Wise said when asked what he would if he could wave a magic wand and fix FEMA.
Allbaugh's deputy, Oklahoma native Michael Brown, was elevated to FEMA director after Allbaugh left in 2003, but he resigned last month after being heavily criticized for his performance after Katrina hit.
Ashwood and others testifying Thursday didn't criticize Brown by name, but echoed remarks Brown made to Congress last week _ that the agency had been deprived of necessary resources.
Information from: The Oklahoman and the Tulsa World
Copyright 2005 Associated Press
