Should FEMA be under DHS or the Executive Branch. Law Paper

FEMA and the DHS
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Should FEMA be under DHS or the Executive Branch
FEMA is a government organization that has been empowered more than the president and the congress. It was born in the thick of cold war through a series of executive orders that have continually empowered the agency to become a ‘secret government’ by itself. By the stroke of the president’s pen, FEMA has the power to suspend laws, move entire populations, arrest and detain citizens without a warrant and hold them without trial, it can seize property, food supplies, transportation systems, and can suspend the Constitution. It is one of the agencies under the Department of Homeland and security. FEMA budget for the FY 2020 is $28.7 billion DHS been awarded $51.672 billion. Over the years, there has been a debate calling for the agency to be put directly under the executive branch rather than being put under the DHS. The issue of whether FEMA should be under the executive branch of DHS narrows down to bureaucracy of running the organization; is the organization better equipped and administered to be under the CS of homeland security or is it better to be on his/her own. The US has many federal emergency situations each year and it is important that the agency is best equipped and positioned to deal with any disaster.
Challenges
First, it is important to understand that this agency is tasked with responding to man-made disasters such as terrorism, wildfires, nuclear disasters, etc and natural disasters like hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, etc. The response to either of these issues is unique and they call for different approaches. In most cases, FEMA’s functions are viewed in the light of the disaster they are helping and from an individual’s subjective opinion, they either support FEMA to be an independent agency under the US Executive branch or note. Some of the most defining disasters of the 21st century in America has elicited different opinions on the position and role of FEMA. First came the 9/11 terrorist attack which prompted led to the agency being put under the department of homeland security. After reviewing response to the disaster, a recommendation to put FEMA under homeland security was made to enable the department to have a more efficient chain of command and flow of information during disaster recovery. After hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and unloaded huge damage, FEMA was faulted for having inefficiencies that eventually stifled the rescue and recovery efforts. Some people proposed that the bureaucracy within the homeland security had limited the efficiency of FEMA.
Having a longer chain of command complicates issues during disasters (Carlin et al., 2017). It was exemplified in hurricane Katrina when boats were not permitted to go and save people in floods because they had not been authorized. Having a longer chain of command will always lead to inefficiencies in the disaster response. For any disaster, FEMA is best working on its own. It should be focusing on developing infrastructure to respond to disasters promptly. Under the DHS, FEMA's voice is often drowned and it is only addressed when the hurricane season arrives or any other disaster that frequently hits the country such as wildfires. With such approach, FEMA is ill-prepared because its efficiency is as good as preparedness and because other ‘DHS issues’ take precedence, FEMA ends up unprepared adequately. These issues can be addressed by making it an independent executive branch. In every dimension that the agency is supposed to work, there is need for very high efficiency and preparedness. Even in the case of war
Strategies to improve FEMA
FEMA is a big agency under a crowded department. The goal of integrating FEMA under DHS was to ease the flow of information during disasters but it rendered the agency less effective (Moynihan, 2009). Being one of the 21 agencies under the DHS, FEMA is and has been increasingly been drowned in bureaucracy. To improve FEMA, ...