James Oberstar: “Mr. Chairman, over the past decade, the Federal Emergency Management Administration has come to be recognized as one of…”

“Mr. Chairman, over the past decade, the Federal Emergency Management Administration has come to be recognized as one of our most effective and widely respected Federal Government agencies. It has helped tens of thousands of our fellow citizens devastated by natural disasters, such as floods, fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes and blizzards. But if we transfer FEMA to the Department of Homeland Security, we run the risk of undermining the mission and the effectiveness of the one agency, I should not say the one, but one of the few agencies of this government that touches the lives of Americans daily, that works effectively and smoothly and responds to the needs of American citizens where they are when disaster strikes. Over the past several years, FEMA has responded to four federally declared disasters emerging from terrorism: the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building, and the attack on the World Trade Center in 1993, effectively, efficiently. Its response was never diminished by its independent status and was, in fact, enhanced by that status.”