House lawmakers seek to remove FEMA from Homeland Security

By Katherine McIntire Peters kpeters@govexec.com November 6, 2009 Full Story HERE

On Thursday the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved legislation that would remove the Federal Emergency Management Agency from the Homeland Security Department and return it to independent, Cabinet-level status.

The 2009 FEMA Independence Act (H.R. 1174) was first introduced in February by Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., and has 29 co-sponsors. The idea of returning FEMA to the independent status it held in the 1990s, before the formation of Homeland Security in 2003, gained traction after the government's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Full story at http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=43991&dcn=e_hsw