1/14/09: DAP ISSUES “CEASE AND DESIST” TO FEMA IN RESONSE TO 11TH HOUR, HIGH-LEVEL FEMA HIRES

Contact: Ben Smilowitz – (314) 761-7631

For Immediate Release:

January 14, 2009

Disaster Accountability Project Issues “Cease and Desist” Request to FEMA In Response To 11th Hour, High-Level FEMA Hires

New Orleans: The Disaster Accountability Project is calling on FEMA and the out-going Administration to immediately cease and desist any high-level hiring in its final days.

See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/13/AR2009011302847.html
(Al Kamenís column in today’s Washington Post (“Build a Diverse Staff? Yes, He Can, And Did,” January 14, 2009, A15) reports on a grievance filed by a FEMA employees’ union, AFGE Local 4060, charging FEMA with purposefully listing many top level job openings for mere days, ending on or before January 20th.)

Comments by Ben Smilowitz, Executive Director of the Disaster Accountability Project:

“Every possible effort should be made to avoid a continuation of the out-going Administration’s legacy and pattern of unqualified FEMA political appointments, all too reminiscent of lessons supposedly learned after Hurricane Katrina. It would be a disaster if the next FEMA is stuck with unqualified political appointments and high-level hires made in the final days of the out-going Administration. Disaster survivors have suffered enough due to serious under-staffing at FEMA. Questionable, 11th-hour political hiring in the final days of the out-going Administration is shameful and needs to stop.”

Politically motivated hiring runs the risk of filling FEMA with unqualified management personnel, a move that could prove catastrophic the next time Americans face a major disaster.

Disaster Accountability Project is a nonpartisan organization providing accountability and oversight to the nation’s disaster prevention, response, relief, and recovery systems through monitoring and policy research.

The Disaster Accountability Project’s website is https://disasteraccountability.org . A toll-free hotline (866-9-TIP-DAP) is available as a public service for disaster survivors, workers and volunteers to report critical gaps in disaster prevention, response, relief, and recovery services or planning.

The group is recruiting a national network of Disaster Accountability Monitors and Bloggers to help report, verify, and publicize gaps in disaster services or planning. Disaster Accountability Project is a 2008 Echoing Green Fellowship Organization. For more information: http://www.echoinggreen.org/fellows/ben-smilowitz

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