PD Editorial: Congress and the president must fix FEMA

The Federal Emergency Management Agency continues to mismanage disaster contracting, according to federal auditors. To paraphrase the Roman poet Juvenal, Quis procurabit ipsos procuratores? (Who will manage the managers?) If FEMA won't reform willingly, Congress and the president must make it.

A report by the Government Accountability Office calls out FEMA for ineffective management of advance contracts. Those are contracts set up before a disaster with private companies to supply goods and services in the aftermath - food, water, tents, blankets, debris-removing equipment, etc.

During disaster recovery, the last thing anyone should be doing is negotiating contracts. Advance contracts get that out of the way so that, in theory, FEMA and its contractors can react nimbly and cost-effectively.

In 2017, FEMA advance contracts locked in $4.5 billion to respond to the California wildfires and three hurricanes.

With that much money at stake and with the importance of delivering aid quickly after a disaster, performance expectations are high. Yet, the GAO found, FEMA consistently dropped the ball by relying on outdated management strategies, training its contracting officers poorly and not communicating clearly with states and localities. FEMA couldn't even keep its records straight. Inconsistencies about contracts appeared in reports to congressional committees.

Insufficiently trained FEMA managers don't know how to deploy the advance contracts, all but guaranteeing those resources aren't being maximized after fires and hurricanes. Taxpayers aren't getting the emergency response they expect and deserve.

Our region has seen the problems firsthand. Many Sonoma County residents found their properties overexcavated as part of the debris cleanup, and the federal government has been unwilling or unable to provide restitution. That's cost some homeowners tens of thousands of dollars to bring in new soil, all while dealing with everything else they lost in the fires.

The auditors cited those and other debris removal problems after the fires in their report. They identified poor communication and divergent views about what to remove and what contaminants were safe as culprits for the errors. Had FEMA come in with strong contract management and clear communication to all parties, mistakes might have been avoided.

The report offers nine recommendations to improve FEMA. They focus on FEMA's developing new contract strategies and communications protocols. In other words, the agency needs to do a better job managing, training and sharing information.

Here's the thing, though. None of this is new. GAO auditors reported in 2006, post-Hurricane Katrina, that FEMA wasn't handling its advance contracts well. A supplemental report in 2015 reiterated those findings.

Yet the problems remain. FEMA has had more than a decade to fix its systems, but it has failed.

And that means that Congress and the president have failed to conduct adequate oversight. This report is a kick in the pants for FEMA, but it should also be a wakeup call that someone needs to manage the managers better. California's newly empowered Democratic delegation in the House will be uniquely positioned to work across the aisle with Republican delegations from hurricane-prone states to reform FEMA.

Climate experts predict that disasters will increase in frequency and severity as global temperatures rise. America must prepare for their aftermaths, and getting FEMA firing on all cylinders should be an attainable first step.

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