5/5/09 Homeland Security Today: Vitter Places Hold on Fugate Confirmation

http://www.hstoday.us/content/view/8387/333/

Vitter Places Hold on Fugate Confirmation

by Mickey McCarter

Tuesday, 05 May 2009

Homeland Security Today

Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) has placed a hold on the nomination of Craig Fugate to become the next chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Vitter placed the hold on Fugate’s nomination on May 1–not over concerns about Fugate’s qualifications to lead FEMA but rather over concerns about the funding of reconstruction projections in a flood zone.

FEMA has a policy not to fund rebuilding of structures destroyed in a catastrophe, such as Hurricane Katrina, if they are in a V-Zone, a flood-prone area where the structures likely would be damaged again. Vitter has demanded FEMA fund construction for a gym, a library, and a fire station on Louisiana’s Grand Isle.

To date, Vitter has been unsatisfied with a review of his request taken up by acting FEMA Administrator Nancy Ward, so he placed a hold on Fugate’s nomination.

The senator told The Times-Picayune of New Orleans that he would lift the hold once FEMA came to a reasonable decision on the Grand Isle projects. Vitter explained to the newspaper that he would like to vote to confirm Fugate once FEMA has made its decision.

Vitter’s hold on Fugate’s confirmation ultimately is a lost opportunity to press the nominee about the future of FEMA and changes to the agency, Ben Smilowitz, executive director of the Disaster Accountability Project, told HSToday.us.

“At first, I was hoping the senator would use this as an opportunity to ask a number of questions on how FEMA would be improved,” Smilowitz lamented. “But to ask only about V-Zone development on Grand Isle while many people in the rest of the state are still reeling from Katrina and other storms, it’s ridiculous.

“If the Senator were asking about long-term housing for everybody or issues of concern to even the rest of the state, then I would say this is an important part of the confirmation process. But to hold it up simply over a few buildings in one community? It’s politics at its worst,” he remarked.