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Dec 6, 2023
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The Political Economy of FEMA Disaster Payments
APA
Jonas Louisaime
Emergency Disaster Management/APUS
EDMG530: Economics of Disaster
Dr. Brian Pasquale
January 01, 2023
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When hazards strike a vulnerable community and the occurrences exceed the local and
state government capacity, to respond accordingly, the federal emergency management agency
(FEMA), as the nation's first governmental entity, supports first responders and affected
individuals by providing the most needed resources. Created in 1978 under the administration of
President Jimmy Carter, FEMA held a
dual mission which is: managing all emergency and
disaster related occurrences, and defending civilians
(Garrett & Sobel, 2021). The main purpose
of the agency is to save lives and properties while responding to the nation's disaster occurrences
that overwhelm the state and local leaders' resources. Different agreements come up with various
misinformations regarding the role of the agency. This paper tends to analyze various factors
associated with this subject in a way to determine why many people consider FEMA funds
distribution during disaster occurrences to be more political than a way to support communities
in the recovery efforts.
Presidential Declaration and Stafford Act in Disaster Response
President Carter, to effectively respond to the nation's need in times of crises, in 1979
signed an executive order that regrouped all the Nation’s disaster assistance agencies or
organizations into one entity which is FEMA. Right after the reorganization, the President gave
the agency full responsibility to distribute federal funds in major disaster events such as:
hurricane, earthquake, tropical storms etc. For many, those funds are used in the intent of
providing disaster victims with safe, hygienic, temporary lodging or shelter and also augment the
state assistant asset in the entire country. For others it was different.
Primarily, the order at this time did not determine the concrete circumstances in which
disaster should be declared and the President through the Stafford acts retained the power to
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personally make a disaster declaration. It seems clear for certain individuals that the funds
distributed by FEMA in disaster occurrences were more related to political orientation rather
than responding to the most needed victims (Garrett & Sobel, 2021). However, analyzing various
disaster occurrences, the agency intervention result may prove different scenarios.
A second reason that makes people believe FEMA funds are more politically oriented
than supporting the most vulnerable communities is that the Stafford Act which was
signed into
law in1988
gives the president the full authority to independently declare a disaster without
obtaining the approval of congress. In this situation the President may intentionally prioritize his
political party while making a disaster declaration. He may also abuse his authority to penalize
whoever opposes him while rewarding individuals sharing his political views.
Non-Stafford Acts and Local Government Influence
While Stafford acts give full authority to the President to implement disaster declaration,
non-Stafford acts more likely focus on how the funds should be distributed. In comparison to the
Stafford act, legislators members who are part of non-Stafford acts and commissions may see
their states receiving fewer funds. For instance, the two branches of the legislative are differently
considered. According to Garrett et al, the members of the House are more likely to have an
impact on their district than the senate members due to this hardship (2007).
Transferring funds from the federal government to states requires congressional influence
since prior for the President to make a disaster declaration and funding the local government, a
state emergency declaration is necessary. After the state's emergency leaders tried and failed to
respond accordingly to the state disaster occurrences, the governor should make the emergency
declaration prior to requesting support from the President. After following all the processes
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related to this matter, the President may declare a state of emergency if he decides to do that
(Garrett & Sobel, 2003). In coordination FEMA and congress will determine how much money
the state should receive after a presidential disaster declaration is implemented. Imagine if the
State congregational leaders and the President are from different political affiliations, this
situation may lead to catastrophe. Which means the most needed individuals may suffer
throughout a disaster if leaders choose to focus on their political affiliation instead of supporting
the response and recovery processes (Garrett & Sobel, 2003).
Additional Reason, Individuals Associated FEMA Funds with Politic
Responding to disasters requires training and experiences. Another reason that makes
FEMA support to be considered as politically influencing is that some governmental leaders tend
to recruit individuals with lack of experience and place them in charge of the emergency
management processes. Lack of experience in the emergency management efforts may lead to
catastrophe. The 2005 hurricane season can be considered as a great example. FEMA, based on
their political affiliation, had placed officials with no sufficient experiences in the response and
recovery efforts and they provided wrong information to the public (Garrett & Sobel, 2021).
Some Federal organizations and entities were not accustomed to the National Incident
Management System (NIMS) and National Response Plan (NRP). This led to a big confusion
over command, deployments, and mission assignments structure among the agency's officials.
This confusion had considerable impact on the 2005 hurricane victims (Morris, 2006). Aside
from those various factors, few individuals believe corruption also may play its part in this
matter.
Conclusion
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Even Though the main purpose of FEMA funds is to support disaster affected
communities and individuals, studies prove in many cases, funds allocated to support the most
vulnerable states or individuals in a disaster occurrence, are being used to assist different states
as a faver to their political leaders. Many complain about how politics influence the emergency
management process since in some cases political leaders rather used their political influence to
prevent communities from obtaining what they needed the most in the most difficult times
instead of working together to respond accordingly to occurrences.
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References
Garrett, T. A., & Sobel, R. S. (2003). The political economy of FEMA disaster payments.
Economic inquiry, 41(3), 496-509:
https://www.proquest.com/docview/200907890/fulltextPDF/E5FD692549534975PQ/1?
accountid=8289
Morris, J. C. (2006). Whither FEMA? Hurricane Katrina and FEMA's response to the Gulf
Coast. Public Works Management & Policy, 10(4), 284-294:
https://journals-sagepub-
com.ezproxy2.apus.edu/doi/epdf/10.1177/1087724X06290218
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