Finally, Bush gets serious about fixing FEMA...

...by insisting on waiving minimum requirements for the Director of the Agency!

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-6/1160206764253020.xml&coll=1&thispage=1

(From the New Orleans Times Picayune)

Bush rejects minimum experience to lead FEMA

Democrats, Republicans alike blast president's stance on law

Saturday, October 07, 2006
By Bruce AlpertWashington bureau

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers from both parties criticized President Bush on Friday for saying he won't comply with a homeland security law that sets minimum qualifications for future directors of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The law requires the president to nominate a FEMA director with "a demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management" and "not less than five years of executive leadership." The qualifications are included in a spending bill the president signed into law Wednesday and aimed at the federal government's ineffective response to Hurricane Katrina.

That response was initially overseen by FEMA director Michael Brown, who had only limited experience in emergency management before coming to the agency in 2001, initially as the agency's attorney before being named by Bush as its top official in 2003.

In his signing statement, Bush said he also won't comply with a provision in the homeland security spending bill that authorizes the FEMA director to inform Congress about the nation's emergency management needs without first getting permission from the White House. The president has used signing statements much more than any of his predecessors to signal his intention to ignore provisions of laws he considers unconstitutional, or an infringement on executive authority.

Bush said establishing minimum standards for the director of FEMA could rule out a "large portion of those persons best qualified by experience and knowledge" to run the agency. The president, he added, has the constitutional authority to supervise the executive branch and recommendations to Congress should be subject to "appropriate executive branch review and approval before submission."

"The president's signing statement addressed a number of technical aspects of the FEMA provisions, making sure the government implements the provisions in a manner consistent with applicable constitutional provisions," White House spokesman Blair Jones said Friday.

State's delegation unhappy

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., was working Friday on getting Senate colleagues to send a letter to the White House protesting the signing statement.

"Under the fig leaf of 'constitutional precedent,' the statement rejects Congress' call that future FEMA directors come to the job with a bare minimum of basic experience to qualify them for the position," Landrieu said. "And despite having seen several investigations into FEMA's failed response be hampered by constraints on the agency's cooperation, the statement also now rejects Congress' right to receive unfettered counsel from the FEMA director on the emergency response needs of the nation."

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said he doesn't see how the White House can argue that it is improper for Congress to set minimal standards for a position as important as director of FEMA.
"I really think the president should rein in his lawyers and their very frequent issuance of these signing statements," Vitter said. "The statements have absolutely no legal authority. If Congress passes something that's unconstitutional, it's invalid whether the president has issued such a statement or not."

"Given the horrendous shortcomings of FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina," Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-Kenner said, the administration should have chosen "another battle."
"We saw what happened when we didn't have good leadership at FEMA, and this is common-sense legislation to ensure that problem doesn't occur again in any administration, whether Republican or Democrat," Jindal said.

Matter of experience

Brown served as FEMA's general counsel and later its deputy director. His only emergency management experience, according to his White House biography, was when he worked for the city of Edmond, Okla., between 1975-1978 with duties that included oversight of emergency services. Before joining FEMA, Brown was commissioner of the Arabian Horse Association.

By comparison, his successor, David Paulison, was U.S. fire administrator in the Department of Homeland Security when he was appointed to replace Brown in September 2005, and before that he had 30 years of experience in emergency services, including chief of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department with 1,900 employees.

Norm Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said that for the administration to object to minimal qualifications for the director of FEMA shows that the administration is unrelenting when it comes to protecting executive prerogatives -- even if it has a point about the nominating process.

"He can appoint a chimpanzee if he wants, and the Senate can reject that chimpanzee if it chooses," Ornstein said. "But to argue that Congress can't ask officials in his administration for information or recommendations without his permission on an issue like homeland security, in which it has clear jurisdiction, is just plain wrong."

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said Congress acted only after investigations found serious shortcomings at the top management levels of FEMA.

"This is not unprecedented," Collins said. "Congress has established qualifications for numerous executive positions, such as the solicitor general and the director of the Fish and Wildlife Service."

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Bruce Alpert can be reached at bruce.alpert@newhouse.com or (202) 383-7861.