Improving disaster response amidst budget crunch

As lawmakers struggle to cut the budget and reduce spending, some are seeking find ways to be more efficient with disaster response and recovery funds.

Yesterday the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee held a hearing to explore ways to make the Federal Emergency Management Administration’s (FEMA) disaster response more efficient.

Far from criticizing FEMA’s latest response to the destructive spate of natural disasters, Senators simply sought to find cost saving opportunities given the current fiscal climate.

“I think it’s important to learn a lesson from these storms,” said Senator Rand Paul (R – Kentucky). “We do have to make difficult choices.”

This summer’s tornado season alone was one of the worst in history killing 546 people and causing an estimated $6.5 billion in damage throughout states in the Mid-West and South. Meanwhile massive floods across the Mid-West and Arizona’s largest wildfire forced the government to shell out even more in disaster relief funds.

To help reduce costs, FEMA is considering centralizing all of its technology spending by the agency’s various branches under its chief investment officer. The recommendation comes after a DHS inspector general’s report found that technology had been deployed inconsistently across FEMA’s agencies with little communication between them.

Senator Joseph Lieberman (I – Connecticut), the chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, sent a letter to FEMA on Monday in which he encouraged them to implement the report’s recommendations.

“Given the importance of FEMA’s mission and the integral role that [information technology] systems play in helping to fulfill that mission, it is essential that FEMA properly manage its [information technology] investments,” Lieberman wrote.