U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz offers bill to help speed up recovery after natural disasters

U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who formerly led Florida's emergency management division, has offered legislation he said will reduce bureaucratic red tape for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in responding to natural disasters.

The Parkland Democrat, who led Florida's emergency management agency during the COVID-19 pandemic, proposed a bill Sept. 20 to make the federal FEMA its own cabinet-level agency. It would be the 16th federal agency that forms the president's Cabinet.

Currently, FEMA falls under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which has a total of 22 government agencies under its supervision. Moskowitz said his bipartisan legislation, co-introduced with Louisiana Republican U.S. Rep. Garrett Graves, would make it so that administrators in FEMA would not have to get approval from officials at Homeland Security. Instead, they would go straight to the president for approval, cutting out a middleman during time-sensitive emergency responses.

"Right now, if FEMA wants to change something they first have to go to the folks at Homeland," Moskowitz said. "Sentiment, in general, that Homeland has too many agencies underneath it is shared by many members across the aisle in Washington."

Moskowitz said he believes the agency should have a secretary who reports directly to the president instead of an administrator who reports to a department head. This would speed up response to natural disasters because, Moskowitz said, these types of threats become more "frequent, stronger and in areas that it wouldn't used to be."

He said it wouldn't cost additional funds to make FEMA its own cabinet-level agency and it would have the same employees. The only cost would be moving costs for an office change, Moskowitz said.

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FEMA in Florida and its role in disasters nationwide

FEMA has been more present than ever this year with wildfires in California and Hawaii, hurricanes and flooding in Florida, severe storms in Mississippi and Vermont and flooding in Alaska.

Most commonly in Florida, FEMA responds after strong hurricanes, which have been increasing in intensity every year during the hurricane season, which lasts from June through November.

While leading emergency management in Florida, Moskowitz oversaw disaster recovery from Hurricane Dorian and Hurricane Sally, which were in 2019 and 2020 respectively. Experience with those storms, Moskowitz said, convinced him that FEMA needs to have its own seat at the table in the U.S. Cabinet in order for the agency to be effective not just in responding to storms but in providing innovative efforts to improve readiness.

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For example, Moskowitz said he supports building resiliency in communities. He also supports financial mechanisms to reimburse interest paid on loans taken out during disaster recovery. Hurricane Ian in 2022 alone caused about $109 billion in damages across Florida.

"FEMA sits at a table with 19 other agencies," Moskowitz said. "There are programs and innovation that needs to happen, and it's never going to happen so long as they're an agency within an agency."

Stephany Matat is a politics reporter forThe Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY-Florida network. Reach her at smatat@pbpost.com. Support local journalism:Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: U.S. Rep. Moskowitz bill would add FEMA to the Cabinet, report to president