Acknowledging that FEMA had made significant progress within the past four years to become more capable than ever before in its history, the senators yet posed the following queries to Fugate:
1. What lessons do you believe our government can learn about recovery and rebuilding from Hurricane Katrina? How will you implement those lessons?
2. The Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act (Public Law 109-295) required that FEMA complete a National Disaster Recovery Strategy, which still remains incomplete. When does FEMA plan to complete this strategy?
3. During Fugate's confirmation hearing, he told senators that FEMA must provide "active and stronger" leadership to muster the full support of the federal government to states recovering from disasters. How should this be done? Does the United States need a National Recovery Framework similar to the National Response Framework?
4. Bureaucracy at FEMA has slowed down recovery processes. Fugate told senators during his confirmation hearing he would conduct a review of these processes to eliminate such red tape. When will such a review be complete? Does Fugate believe changes are necessary to the Stafford Act (Public Law 100-707) to strengthen FEMA?
5. The Post-Katrina Act also mandated that FEMA issue a National Disaster Housing Strategy. Although a final strategy was completed in January 2009, it produced a National Disaster Housing Task Force to review it and fill in any missing details. But FEMA has not yet attempted to hire members for this full-time task force. When will FEMA do so and when will the task force complete its work?
Meanwhile, FEMA and the rest of the federal government must not forget that thousands of disaster victims remain displaced from Hurricane Katrina, Lieberman and Collins wrote.
"On this fourth anniversary, we must ensure that they are not forgotten and that our nation is capable of helping survivors recover from disasters," they said.
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