The Future of Disaster Response: FEMA’s Evolving Role Explained

With all of your experience in Los Angeles County, and in Louisiana with the Governor's Office of Homeland Security, your service to the state, you also are playing a very special role with the newly-appointed FEMA Review Council. So, tell me a little bit about your experience with the council.

Mark Cooper:

Yeah, thanks, Jennifer. It's a pleasure to be with you again. First of all, I was very excited and honored to be part of that when I was tweeted, actually, as the president likes to do, who's going to be on that council is quite a surprise to me, to be quite honest with you. So as far as the practitioners that are on, there's a total of 10. Four of them I would call practitioners. I'm really excited just about what they bring to the table.

We have been given a charge. There was an executive order in January. A lot of talk out there about getting rid of FEMA. That's not going to happen. The council has approached it from being totally objective, looking at all programs. We have painstakingly gone out there to do these listening sessions all over the country. In addition to that, the council's done a number of surveys through NEMA and through the Governors Association, so a lot's being done to make sure that we get input not only from multi-risks, from hurricanes, the wildfires to earthquakes to tornadoes, but also different regions of the country, political perspectives. This is truly a bipartisan effort in what we're doing.

The council, again, is trying to get as much information as possible, looking at the programs that are out there to see what, again, as we all know, all disasters are local. And I think that's the stance the president has taken in putting this executive order and this council together is, how much stuff can you push down to the state and local level, and make federal government more support, and not to be the primary?

Jennifer Butler:

So given your first-hand experience, I wanted to ask you just to give us and our audience just a high-level overview of what FEMA does when a disaster happens.

Mark Cooper:

Well, they've got a number of roles, and certainly it's emergency protective measures and assisting states and locals with that. I mean, initially that's what they're doing. They're approving temporary levees being built. They're approving the resources required if there's an evacuation. So in the response part of it, they play a major role. They also, many people may not realize it, but the Urban Search and Rescue teams that are all over the country, they coordinate that program where you get expertise, like when I came with Los Angeles County to Katrina, that was part of the Urban Search and Rescue. When we responded to Oklahoma City and to the 9/11, that was a team from Los Angeles as well as Florida and others that did that. So, that's a very important role that they're doing, actually, in the response phase.

And of course, in recovery, it's about the individual and individual assistance. What can they do to make people whole? But also as they're evacuating, what can they do to help them with immediate expenses? And then infrastructure that's destroyed, there's a number of grant programs, public assistance that helps with that. And then getting back to the preparedness, are we talking about preparedness? There's a number of grants that have been in the past to help states be more prepared.

I think what's important to know what's happened since Katrina is that, and these are statistics that I've confirmed, is we've seen a lot of power and authority and dollars being spent at the headquarters. For example, before this administration came on, and this is not political, this has happened over time, it's not just over the last four years, the FEMA ... or the headquarters has tripled in size. Whereas the regional offices, the FEMA regions, there's 10 of them. They play a major role. They've hardly grown. The other stat that I found amazing was, as far as their staffing, the staffing levels are about 76% is at the headquarters, FEMA staff. The other 24%, that's in the regions. To me, that needs to be flipped. But again, those are things that are important and things we're looking at with the FEMA Review Council.

Jennifer Butler:

Yeah, and I appreciate you giving us an overview of the Review Council. There's always room for improvement. Continuous improvement in emergency management is always welcome. So, tell us a little bit about what you think state and local governments should start to be thinking about as we're waiting for the Review Council's recommendations.

Mark Cooper:

So yeah, we're waiting for the recommendation. There's a lot of discussions, and it's no secret that what I said earlier about the President wanting to push it down to the state and local level. So, whether it be grants and some of the other responsibilities, certainly a lot of that's going to fall more on the states. I think the region, the FEMA regions, need to have more responsibility. There's a lot of bureaucracy in the headquarters. But I think for states to prepare, obviously the relationship with the region's extremely important. I mean, some regions are more active than others. I mean, ours, Region 6, we have disasters all the time, as do Regions 9 and 4, which includes Florida. I think it's important that as far as those regions are concerned, it's not just Emergency Managers, the State Emergency Managers, also the Governors and their Chiefs of Staff and their staffs need to know those regions as well.

But the other thing, some states are better equipped to take on more responsibility than others. But even those states don't have the resources or the manpower to staff what's going to be required, potentially, if these grants are decentralized from the headquarters to the states. So, certainly relying on consultants and nonprofits to help with that, I think that states can start thinking about that.

Jennifer Butler:

Yeah, I totally agree. Preparing early, making sure that they've got the trusted partnerships, giving them enough time to be able to do that, and I think teaming up with nonprofits, folks that have been in this space, disaster consultants, really thinking about what the trusted advisors look like. We talked last time in our Hurricane Katrina video about consultants and the need for people who have experience on the ground, trusted advisors, they have the technical capability. Tell me a little bit more about, as we think that things are going to be moved to a regional and then also to state and local, what do they need to be looking for when they're thinking about bringing on partners to support?

Mark Cooper:

Well, and you talked about states trying to be prepared for these changes that are coming, but I think disaster consultants and nonprofits need to be prepared as well. I mean, a lot of synergy was at the FEMA headquarters and stuff being done at that level. Now, more is going to be done at the state and local. I think also just having a trusted partner, and a lot of the disaster consultants will have experience. People that have been there, done that. I know, for example, you've been there and done that many times in many of your roles. So, having that trusted partner has to do with experience and what they bring to it.

And also just the reputation obviously plays a major role, but again, it's going to be a whole new thing the way this is being done, and the responsibilities are going to be put on the state and locals if things play out the way that they look like they're going to. So, I think that's going to be extremely important. But again, changing mindset, because dealing with D.C. and the FEMA headquarters at the national level is going to be different than dealing with St. Bernard Parish here in Louisiana. So, I think consultants need to look at that as well, as well as nonprofits need to be looking at that too, to see how their roles are going to change.

Jennifer Butler:

I think your advice is really great too, that disaster consultants need to start preparing for some of these changes. And I think one of the things where we need to do a better job is to be in great coordination with our state and local emergency management communities, and to also for them to be able to understand what our backgrounds are, and to do their due diligence on past performance. So, I think that's one of the things that we've seen during some of these major disasters is everyone wants to come to a community to help and to serve, and sometimes we're in a position where we have pop-up consultant companies, folks who don't have a lot of prior experience who are coming in with good intentions, but maybe don't have the capacity or the technical skills to be able to do that. So, as the former head of Louisiana Governor's Office of Homeland Security, as you guys were making decisions on bringing in other consulting firms, tell me a little bit about what it means for a firm to have that prior performance.

Mark Cooper:

Right. Well, just like the criticism that FEMA's now getting at the national level, I mean, the disaster consultants are an arm of the state and local government. But if they come unprepared or if they make mistakes or if they don't deliver, the focus is going to be on the state and the local government. They realize that, so that's why they're going to want to find a partner that has that experience and not be a pop-up. But I know that is happening, but that's something state locals need to think about, because there is going to be a lot more responsibility and a lot more technical responsibility that they're not going to have.

So, that's why I do think the reputation of the firms that they're selecting is going to play even more of an important role than in the past, because there's going to be higher expectations on the state and locals to deliver. Otherwise, it's going to be the same kind of criticism that's going on right now, and I think obviously that's going to impact the governor, his reputation, the state emergency manager, the locals, the mayors, the counties, the parishes. So, I think that's going to be extremely important.

Jennifer Butler:

Thanks, Mark. This has been really insightful and we appreciate you taking the time. Just to wrap up our conversation centered on FEMA, centered on the FEMA Review Council, what does the future state look like?

Mark Cooper:

Well, first of all, I'll say there is going to be some type of organization like FEMA, and the name may be changed. And to me, that doesn't matter. It's the service that provides, its resiliency, that it helps states to become more resilient and helping them with their responses, and for them to supplement, not to be the primary in responding to disasters. I think we're going to be in a much better place based on what we've done with the FEMA Review Council. What I'm seeing in the discussion, I think we're going to make it easier for states to respond or to recover from disasters.

These grant programs, they're very bureaucratic. They take a lot of time. I mean, you hear stories about years and they're still ... I think Katrina is just finishing up some of the things they've got going on. What we're talking about, and I think what the difference is going to be, by pushing those grants and the authority farther down, and looking at block grants, as far as the recovery, we're certainly going to see more responsive government to people's needs. Regions are going to have to rely on each other even more, so I think there's going to be that cross-state participation in disasters.

Jennifer Butler:

Yeah. Thank you, Mark. I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with me and share your insights. We appreciate your service on the FEMA Review Council, and we're very grateful that you're part of the EisnerAmper team and helping us to support governmental entities after disasters.

Mark Cooper:

Thank you.

Jennifer Butler:

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