About 11 months after deadly Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the US Senate Tuesday decided to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency that was strongly criticized in two congressional reports.
Under an amendment to a bill funding the Homeland Security Department that was adopted 87-11, the discredited FEMA will disappear as such.
It will be replaced by a different body called the US Emergency Management Authority that will be granted expended powers to manage preparations as well rescue and recovery work after natural disasters.
The authority will still remain part of the Department of Homeland Security, but will enjoy enhanced autonomy.
The reform follows a recommendation issued in April by a Senate commission on handling the Katrina disaster that was headed by Senators Susan Collins, a Republican, and Joseph Lieberman, a Democrat.
Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf of Mexico coast of the United States on August 29, 2005, and left more than 1,500 people dead.
Former FEMA director Michael Brown was forced to resign in the wake of the disaster.
"We cannot legislate leadership," Lieberman said after the adoption of the amendment. "But we can legislate changes in government structures to make them more sensible and better suited to protecting people in times of disaster."
Source: Agence France-Presse
