In a statement posted to the committee’s website, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said that FEMA has become a more effective and better managed agency in the past four years, but that questions remain about the nation’s ability to respond to a significant disaster.
She also raised questions about the agency’s use of funds, noting that FEMA’s assistance programs are vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse; she said the committee together with GAO, OMB and the DHS IG identified over $1 billion in misspent funds in the Katrina response, some egregious and blatant.
However, Collins also noted that the DHS IG has reported that FEMA has improved emergency coordination with officials at the federal, state, and local levels, and that regional emergency communications are better.
Nonetheless, the committee ranking member called out FEMA, pointing out that October will mark the fifth anniversary of the Post-Katrina Act, and that she expects the agency "to have made significant progress in improving our nation’s preparedness for the next catastrophe, whenever and wherever it may strike, and to have the safeguards required to prevent fraud and improper payments."