Executive Order 12127

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

Executive Order

By: President Jimmy Carter

Date: April 1, 1979

Source: Federation of American Scientists. "Executive Order 12127—Federal Emergency Management Agency." <http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/eo/eo–12127. htm> (accessed May 26, 2006).

About the Author: Jimmy Carter was the thirty-ninth president of the United States, serving from 1977 to 1981. Prior to his presidency, he served as a Naval officer and as governor of Georgia. In 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

INTRODUCTION

In 1803, fire virtually destroyed the town of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Local and state officials found themselves with few resources to cope with the disaster. In response, the United States Congress, less than thirty years after its creation, passed the Congressional Act of 1803, providing a variety of forms of assistance to the Portsmouth area. This legislation marked the first time the young federal government had stepped in to financially assist citizens in times of disaster.

As the federal government grew, it began intervening in local disasters more and more frequently. Over the following century, Congress passed an average of one piece of legislation per year intended to help victims of earthquakes, floods, and other natural disasters. Numerous government relief agencies were created, including one responsible for making disaster recovery loans. The Disaster Relief Act of 1974 also gave the president the authority to declare federal disasters.

This collection of disaster relief agencies responded to hurricanes and earthquakes throughout the 1960s and 1970s, but it soon became evident that the more than 100 separate agencies charged with assisting citizens in the wake of disasters were struggling to coordinate their efforts. In 1979, at the request of state governors, President Jimmy Carter issued an executive order merging many of these independent agencies into one new agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

FEMA's formation reflected the growing role of the federal government in disaster assistance. While private sector agencies, such as the Red Cross, still provided aid to victims, federal agencies were increasingly seen as the first line of relief. The formation of FEMA served both to streamline the various operations in order to improve relief efforts and to reduce overlap and improve efficiency.

FEMA's abilities were tested in a wide variety of circumstances. In 1979, a nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island near Middletown, Pennsylvania, suffered a loss of coolant and a partial core melt-down, requiring FEMA's assistance for clean-up and public health efforts. When Hurricane Andrew blasted through Florida in 1992, causing $26 billion in damage, FEMA coordinated rescue and recovery efforts.

PRIMARY SOURCE

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, including Section 304 of Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978, and in order to provide for the orderly activation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, it is hereby ordered as follows:

1–101. Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 (43 FR 41943), which establishes the Federal Emergency Management Agency, provides for the transfer of functions, and the transfer and abolition of agencies and offices, is hereby effective.

1–102. The Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall, in accord with Section 302 of the Reorganization Plan, provide for all the appropriate transfers, including those transfers related to all the functions transferred from the Department of Commerce, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the President.

1–103.

1. The functions transferred from the Department of Commerce are those vested in the Secretary of Commerce, the Administrator and Deputy Administrator of the National Fire Prevention and Control Administration (now the United States Fire Administration (Sec. 2(a) of Public Law 95-422)), and the Superintendent of the National Academy for Fire Prevention and Control pursuant to the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974, as amended (15 U.S.C. 2201et seq.), but not including any functions vested by the amendments made to other acts by Sections 18 and 23 of that Act (15 U.S.C. 278f and 1511). The functions vested in the Administrator by Sections 24 and 25 of that Act, as added by Sections 3 and 4 of Public Law 95-422 (15 U.S.C. 2220 and 2221), are not transferred to the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Those functions are transferred with the Administrator and remain vested in him. (Section 201 of the Plan.)
2. There was also transferred from the Department of Commerce any function concerning the Emergency Broadcast System which was transferred to the Secretary of Commerce by Section 5B of Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1977 (42 FR 56101; implemented by Executive Order No. 12046 of March 27, 1978). (Section 203 of the Plan.)

1–104. The functions transferred from the Department of Housing and Urban Development are those vested in the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development pursuant to Section 15(e) of the Federal Flood Insurance Act of 1956, as amended (42 U.S.C. 2414(e)), and the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, as amended, and the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4001 et seq.), and Section 520(b) of the National Housing Act, as amended (12 U.S.C. 1735d(b)), to the extent necessary to borrow from the Treasury to make payments for rein-sured and directly insured losses, and Title XII of the National Housing Act, as amended (12 U.S.C. 1749bbbet seq., and as explained in Section 1 of the National Insurance Development Act of 1975 (Section 1 of Public Law 94–13 at 12 U.S.C. 1749bbb note). (Section 202 of the Plan.)

1–105. The functions transferred from the President are those concerning the Emergency Broadcast System which were transferred to the President by Section 5 of Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1977 (42 FR 56101; implemented by Executive Order No. 12046 of March 27, 1978). (Section 203 of the Plan.)

1–106. This Order shall be effective Sunday, April 1, 1979.

SIGNIFICANCE

Following the terrorist attacks of 2001, FEMA was merged with more than twenty other offices including the U.S. Customs Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Office for Domestic Preparedness, and the Nuclear Incident Response Team to form the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In the same way that FEMA's creation brought together multiple government agencies, the new Homeland Security structure was intended to improve communication and coordination among various government relief agencies. Today, FEMA is one of four branches within DHS.

In the years following the creation of DHS, FEMA lost a significant number of key staffers; some were replaced on an interim basis and others were replaced by employees with little disaster management experience. FEMA director Michael Brown, in particular, had no formal disaster response training and little experience. FEMA's focus also shifted, as many of its resources were directed toward preventing and recovering from a potential terrorist attack. Critics charged that natural disasters remained far more likely than terrorist attacks, and that FEMA's focus was misguided.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of New Orleans. It caused $40 billion in damage and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Television viewers watched as days passed with little visible response from FEMA, creating an impression that the agency was unresponsive and disorganized. Though the debate still rages over who was at fault, FEMA's director Michael Brown resigned two weeks later, shortly after being removed from his oversight position on the recovery efforts. After his resignation, Brown lashed out at critics, shifting the blame from his agency's 3,000 employees to state and local authorities. Emails released several months later portray Brown as out-of-touch with the scope and seriousness of the disaster as it was occurring.

While Michael Brown had no significant disaster recovery experience, his replacement, David Paulison, brought three decades of firefighting and disaster preparedness experience to the job, including experience with Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Paulison formally accepted the director's position in 2006, at which time he faced the difficult task of rebuilding FEMA even as rumors swirled that the agency might be scaled down or completely reorganized.

FURTHER RESOURCES

Books

Anderson, C. V. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Hauppage, N.Y.: Nova Science Publishing, Inc., 2003.

Binns, Tristan Boyer. FEMA: Federal Emergency Management Agency. New York: Heinemann, 2003.

Brinkley, Douglas. The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. New York: William Morrow, 2006.

Periodicals

Singer, Paul. "Brown's Flood of Criticism." National Journal 38 (2006): 27–29.

Starks, Tim. "Senators Say Scrap FEMA and Start Over." CQ Weekly 64 (2006): 1168.

Strohm, Chris. "Collins, Lieberman Suggest FEMA Remain As Part of DHS." CongressDaily (March 8, 2006): 7.

Web sites

Center on Congress at Indiana University. "Disaster Relief." <http://congress.indiana.edu/radio_series/disaster_relief.php> (accessed May 25, 2006).

USA Today. "Exposed by Katrina, FEMA's Flaws Were Years in Making." September 7, 2005 <http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-09-07-our-view_x. htm> (accessed May 26, 2006).

Williams, Bob. "Blame Amid the Tragedy." Wall Street Journal Online, September 7, 2005. <http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007219> (accessed May 25, 2006).