State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Senate Homeland Security Chairman Questions State-Federal Balance in Disaster Response

Route Fifty: WASHINGTON — State and local governments may be becoming too dependent on federal support after natural disasters, the chairman of a Senate committee that oversees homeland security suggested Tuesday at a hearing focused on the response to recent hurricanes.

“More and more often states are looking to the federal government to do what, I believe, is probably more suited toward state and local response. As a result, it puts a great deal of stress on federal disaster resources,” said U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican.

“In these situations, it really should be the state and local governments that take charge and FEMA is really a subordinate,” Johnson told Route Fifty after the hearing, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “We’re kind of turning that structure on its head,” he added. “I would argue inappropriately.”

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