"Well, the first you can do," Thompson advises, "is elect Democrats in November because they get it; Republicans don't."
"The other thing you can do, is through the committee and hearings process, as well as the legislative process on the floor, is see how serious Republicans are about trying to fix the problem. We're going to offer amendments to put the money back in emergency preparedness in his budget," Thompson said.
"We need to make people understand that a FEMA director should be above politics. So there should be qualifications," Thompson said.
Rep. Thompson does not advocate-given the current political arrangement-making FEMA again into an independent agency. Atlanta Progressive News reported last week that US Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) has joined others in recommending exactly that.
To be sure, if FEMA was no longer under DHS, it would no longer be under the jurisdiction of Thompson's Committee, and so he wants to preserve his Committee's scrutiny power. But there's more reasoning to it than that.
"The issue is, if this Administration was one that demonstrated responsibility and concern for getting it right, then moving it outside of DHS is the right thing to do. But they have consistently demonstrated that they don't care," Thompson said.
"What I've tried to offer as an alternative is [intended] to the extent possible, to fix what they've messed up," Thompson said.
"At this point, I'm convinced that the Bush administration will not admit that they've made an error. That's never going to happen. The second best thing to do is try to fix it where it is."
And what about preparing for disasters, or heaven forbid, trying to prevent them?
Thompson provided enlightening information to Atlanta Progressive News of which we were previously unaware.
"We have to put all the Mission back under FEMA that they used to have that Chertoff has moved away in terms of preparing for disasters. We have an organization that one would think would have the responsbility to do many things, but the Secretary has separated those vital functions. He's created a preparedness division that's separate from FEMA."
Thompson's bill would again reunite the preparedness division with FEMA.
Republicans, in other words, subsumed FEMA under DHS, but separated the preparedness portion from FEMA, creating a recipe for disaster, so to speak.
"This Hurricane season is going to be as worse as the last. And it behooves us to be prepared as we possibly can. Unfortunately, our Secretary of Homeland Security doesn't get it. He's still in denial."
As Atlanta Progressive News reported last week, US Rep. McKinney and a couple other Democrats joined numerous Republicans on a Select Committee study already issued. Most Democrats had boycotted that panel.
Thompson's report and legislation are just another opportunity to provide necessary scrutiny, Atlanta Progressive News has learned.
"The other thing you can do, is through the committee and hearings process, as well as the legislative process on the floor, is see how serious Republicans are about trying to fix the problem. We're going to offer amendments to put the money back in emergency preparedness in his budget," Thompson said.
"We need to make people understand that a FEMA director should be above politics. So there should be qualifications," Thompson said.
Rep. Thompson does not advocate-given the current political arrangement-making FEMA again into an independent agency. Atlanta Progressive News reported last week that US Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) has joined others in recommending exactly that.
"The issue is, if this Administration was one that demonstrated responsibility and concern for getting it right, then moving it outside of DHS is the right thing to do. But they have consistently demonstrated that they don't care," Thompson said.
"What I've tried to offer as an alternative is [intended] to the extent possible, to fix what they've messed up," Thompson said.
"At this point, I'm convinced that the Bush administration will not admit that they've made an error. That's never going to happen. The second best thing to do is try to fix it where it is."
And what about preparing for disasters, or heaven forbid, trying to prevent them?
Thompson provided enlightening information to Atlanta Progressive News of which we were previously unaware.
"We have to put all the Mission back under FEMA that they used to have that Chertoff has moved away in terms of preparing for disasters. We have an organization that one would think would have the responsbility to do many things, but the Secretary has separated those vital functions. He's created a preparedness division that's separate from FEMA."
Thompson's bill would again reunite the preparedness division with FEMA.
Republicans, in other words, subsumed FEMA under DHS, but separated the preparedness portion from FEMA, creating a recipe for disaster, so to speak.
"This Hurricane season is going to be as worse as the last. And it behooves us to be prepared as we possibly can. Unfortunately, our Secretary of Homeland Security doesn't get it. He's still in denial."
As Atlanta Progressive News reported last week, US Rep. McKinney and a couple other Democrats joined numerous Republicans on a Select Committee study already issued. Most Democrats had boycotted that panel.
Thompson's report and legislation are just another opportunity to provide necessary scrutiny, Atlanta Progressive News has learned.
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