Emergency Management Relief Bills

Emergency Management Relief Bills

Hurricane Sandy Relief Bill: Wasteful Spending Not Helpful, blog by Owen Graham 31 Jan 13

Reference: http://blog.heritage.org/2013/01/31/hurricane-sandy-relief-bill-wasteful-spending-not-helpful/

“President Obama signed into law a $50 billion recovery package for states hit by Hurricane Sandy. Much of the proposed spending in the law, however, is simply wasteful and will not go toward helping the immediate victims.”

“While providing for some worthwhile items, such as $5.4 billion for repair of tunnels and other damaged infrastructure, much of the act is aimed at either mitigating future events or repairing or replacing federal assets, not assisting the immediate victims. Indeed, the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that at least half the funds will be disbursed after 2015—not exactly time-sensitive, emergency spending.”

“This is unacceptable at a time when the U.S. is running trillion-dollar budget deficits. While the catastrophic scope of Sandy merited a federal response, Congress missed an opportunity to establish clear requirements for when a disaster warrants a federal response. Failure to deal with this serious problem will continue to erode preparedness for future catastrophic disasters.”

“In less than two years, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has issued a stunning 353 disaster declarations—despite the absence of major hurricanes or earthquakes (except Hurricanes Irene and Sandy). This high operational tempo keeps FEMA in a perpetual response mode, leaving little time and few resources to prepare to handle a real catastrophic disaster, such as Hurricane Sandy.”

2. What do you think of the timing of the Hurricane Sandy bill (passed months after), and the amount of the bill (overdone)?
3. Has the number of disaster declarations (353 in two years) overdone?

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