Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) Criticizes FEMA Disaster Housing Strategy at Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery Hearing

Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) today chaired a Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Disaster Recovery hearing criticizing the FEMA disaster housing strategy.

In the poverty and natural disaster stricken regions of the Gulf Coast, Landrieu was adamant about her disapproval with FEMA’s inability to help needy Americans. The panel of witnesses interrogated by Chairwoman Landrieu each took accountability for their respective lack of success in rebuilding the cities of the Gulf Coast decimated by Hurricane Katrina, their delayed responses to helping storm-torn victims, and the fast growing problem of abnormally high formaldehyde toxin levels in such communities.

Landrieu was particularly upset that reasonable deadlines to pass legislation and provide aid for families had not been met. Panel members such as Harvey Johnson, Deputy Administrator and Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, answered her criticisms by explaining that the problems regarding government responses and aid were “complex” and not easily fixable. Johnson, along with Milan Ozdinec, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Public Housing and Voucher Programs in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, insisted that the government is actually doing a respectable job in helping families, paying particular attention to the most needy and elderly families first.

Despite the positive aspects of governmental housing assistance highlighted by Johnson, Ozdinec, and Dr. Howard Frumpkin of the US Department of Health and Human Services, Landrieu remained emphatic in her insistence that FEMA make reforms in its disaster assistance, preparedness, and response methods.