Key Republican lays out ideas for FEMA reform

Rep. Dale Strong (R-Ala.) outlined several possible ideas for overhauling the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during a House hearing on Tuesday.

Strong, the chair of the emergency management subcommittee of the House Homeland Security Committee, put forward ideas including moving FEMA out of the Department of Homeland Security and “making it an independent agency with direct access to the President of the United States.”

He also suggested narrowing the agency’s mission away from assisting with immigrant and refugee resettlement. 

And he floated finding a “more appropriate structure of burden-sharing between federal government and state and local government” as states become “increasingly reliant on FEMA” after disasters. 

Strong noted in his opening statement that he was looking for feedback from stakeholders during the hearing on the “future of FEMA.”

It’s not entirely clear how such FEMA reforms could come about — given that most legislation passed by Congress requires some Democratic approval in the Senate.

President Trump, meanwhile, has set up a “FEMA review council” that seeks to assess reform proposals.