This Thursday’s upcoming event at The Heritage Foundation will discuss why Congress should leave the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) under the leadership of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  With  recent disasters such as the Midwest floods, the California wildfires, and Hurricanes Ike and Gustav demonstrate that FEMA has excelled under DHS leadership.  Recently, however, some critics have called for FEMA to be taken out of DHS jurisdiction and elevated back to cabinet-level status.

           Jena Baker McNeill of The Heritage Foundation disagrees with these critics in her web memo entitled: Removing FEMA from DHS Would Be a Terrible Mistake. In the paper she states that, “FEMA’s mission is interwoven with all of the other directorates under the DHS jurisdiction…such as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the United States Coast Guard for supplies, manpower, and expertise.” She continues on to say, “Removing FEMA from DHS would simply breed confusion between DHS/FEMA roles…and increase response time by adding more steps to the process.” For more on the upcoming event please see: http://www.heritage.org/research/features/nationalsecurity/events.cfm and to read more on the issue please see: Removing FEMA from DHS would Be a Terrible Mistake.