The Federal Emergency Management Agency Was Created By President Jimmy Carter

Short Paper 2
HLSS322
Justin Chatman
16 July 2023

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was created by President Jimmy Carter in 1978 by way of Executive Order. It was responsible for civil defense and response to chemical, biological, and nuclear attacks. This responsibility also encapsulated federal disaster relief responses to natural disasters such as flooding, earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires, and hazardous material incidents. Over the years, FEMA has grown in scope through various Executive Orders. With the attacks of September 11th, 2001, came a renewed look at the structure and mission of FEMA. In response to these attacks, Congress passed the Homeland Security Act of 2002 that reorganized how the country protects it citizens,

Coordination: One of the main benefits that FEMA has is its ability to call upon the almost 200,000 members of DHS and their associated resources. The ability to coordinate inter-agency and leverage their capabilities gives FEMA an upper hand in preparing and responding to disasters. Some of the capabilities include search and rescue, intelligence, law enforcement, communications, and critical infrastructure protection.
2. Homeland Security Focus: Removing FEMA would not make America safer. FEMA plays an integral role in the broader mission of protecting the homeland. Elevating it to a cabinet level position would not make preparation and response any faster or more seamless as it would negatively affect abilities to use partner agencies and their resources.
3. Information Sharing: FEMA has the entire HSE at its disposal including almost seamless information sharing. Being able to rely on the other agencies within DHS allows FEMA to fully prepare and respond appropriately where possible. It was found that a contributing factor to the attacks of 9/11 was the lack of information sharing between federal agencies. If FEMA were to be removed from the DHS structure this would be severely impacted and could cause compounding failures if a disaster or attack were to occur that otherwise could’ve been thwarted or mitigated with accurate and complete sharing of information and intelligence between

Specialization: Since FEMA’s main mission is emergency and disaster preparation and response, making it an independent agency would allow it to focus solely on that instead of the broader DHS mission. As an independent agency, it would be able to operate autonomously and efficiently to fulfill its main mission. Separating FEMA from DHS would remove it from its statutory directives in the war on terrorism as outlined in the Homeland Security Act which labels any type of major disaster or emergency as matters of national security.
2. Flexibility: If FEMA were an independent agency, it would be able to respond to disasters in a more agile and efficient manner. This includes adapting to changing environments and disasters without the typical bureaucratic delay. A direct line to the President could serve critical when it comes to timely response to a disaster and leveraging resource appropriation and approval at a faster pace.
3. Independent Priorities & Budget: An independent FEMA would have an independent budget to be used solely for the emergency and disaster preparation and response. It would negate the potential for funding and resources to the redirected to another agency as it currently faces within the DHS structure. This would also aid in the avoidance of conflicts in priorities with that of current DHS objectives. The ability to focus solely of its main mission without worrying about other directives and objectives would prove vital is the responding to