WASHINGTON, April 13 (UPI) -- A former FEMA chief under President Clinton has expressed fears over the agency's future effectiveness.
James Lee Witt, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency under President Bill Clinton, said Wednesday he was concerned about the future of his former agency, which President George W. Bush is seeking to place in the hands of R. David Paulison, GovExec.com reported.
Witt, who favors removing the agency from the Department of Homeland Security and giving it a direct line to the White House, refused to say whether he supported Paulison's nomination to become the agency's permanent chief. However, Witt called Paulison, who has spoken in favor of keeping FEMA under DHS control, "a really, really good guy."
"He needs to be empowered," Witt said. "I still have concerns about whether he can (run FEMA) where FEMA is right now."
A number of legislators have argued that beyond liberating FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security, it is imperative the agency be given Cabinet-level status. Witt did not go that far. Instead, he said that it was important to ensure that the emergency chief had the opportunity to immediately reach the president during a crisis.
Witt cited the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as prime examples of times the agency was able to circumvent bureaucracy to act quickly during a disaster. Both those events happened well before 2003, when the Department of Homeland Security was formed, and FEMA was placed under it.
Witt said the bipartisan support slowly beginning to grow around removing FEMA from the department and returning it to independent status was encouraging, GovExec.com said.
