DHS inspector general criticizes FEMA oversight of search and rescue teams
Many task forces rated themselves below 50 percent readiness; few complying with training, maintenance, and record-keeping requirements
At least Lassie’s dog food should be covered. According to a recent report by DHS’s inspector general, FEMA’s urban search and rescue (US&R) teams are not only grossly underfunded, what is funded suffers from inadequate oversight. The National US&R Response System consists of twenty-eight task forces in nineteen states, many of which have been involved in rescue missions ranging from the destruction of the space shuttle Columbia to the devastation of Hurrican Katrina.
FEMA is authorized to activate the teams—made up of 210 members with nineteen different specialties and twelve canines—for any real or potential “Incident of National Signifigance.”
After auditing seven of the teams, the inspecter general listed a number of operational failings:
[MICHAEL: BULLET POINTS BELOW]
1. Five of the seven task forces reviewed rated themselves below 50 percent for operational readiness, including one task force that rated itself at 13 percent
2. Many forces either did not conduct required exercises or did not require an adequate number of team members to participate
3. Some task force members had not received all the training required by
FEMA, including WMD training and functional or specialty training based
on the member’s position description
4. Many canines did not meet US&R System requirements, nor did many have necessary medical certifications
5. None of the task forces surveyed performed comprehensive physical inventories or maintained perpetual inventory records of cache equipment. Maintenence records for major equipment was haphazard
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Oversight could clearly be improved, but without adequate funding it is hard to see how the US&R teams can live up to their potential as “a rapidly deployable federal source for first response to nationwide emergencies.” As detailed in the inspector general’s report, “After September 11, 2001, Congress provided substantial increases to US&R System funding. Federal preparedness funding for the US&R System reached a high of $65 million in fiscal year (FY) 2004, or about 550 percent higher than FY 2001, but fell to $30 million in FY 2005.”
-read more in Jonathan Marino’s GovExecreport; read the inspector general’s PDF report
