Lawmakers seek to sever FEMA from Department of Homeland Security

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which coordinates the federal government’s response to hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters, would gain independence from the Department of Homeland Security under proposed legislation.

The measure was introduced Wednesday by U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Parkland, a former director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and U.S. Garret Graves, R-Louisiana, a trusted lieutenant to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

It would elevate FEMA to a stand-alone federal agency in the Cabinet, something that Moskowitz and Graves said would improve its ability to help prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies.

Currently, they said, FEMA is slowed by the Department of Homeland Security bureaucracy.

“I have seen firsthand the challenges faced when responding to emergencies, recovering from them, and mitigating their impacts,” Moskowitz said in a written statement. “There is no doubt that in the future FEMA will be busier than ever before, and this move will help cut unnecessary red tape and make FEMA quicker.”

The New York Times described Graves as a consigliere to McCarthy and Politico described him this year as McCarthy’s “new wingman.”

Disasters require “action, not bureaucracy,” Graves said in a statement.

“Having FEMA buried within the Department of Homeland Security only contributes to delays, lack of action … This experiment of putting FEMA under the secretary of Homeland Security has failed. They can’t even handle the border. Americans deserve better,” he said.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Department of Homeland Security was stitched together among a variety of federal agencies. Currently, the lawmakers said, the department encompasses 20 agencies, dealing with law enforcement, disasters, border protection and civil defense.

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Facebook, Threads.net and Post.news.