The Path to Efficiency: Making Fema More Effective for Streamlined Disaster Operations by In Subcommittee on Emergency Management (Paperback / softback, 2015)
Today, FEMA's preparedness, response, and recovery missions are larger, more expensive, and more complex than ever before, and the future is t looking any easier. Extreme and rare weather events are w expected to be the rm and it is very difficult for FEMA to budget and manage in such an uncertain and reactive environment. While FEMA cant control disasters or always predict them, it can work to make sure programs are more effective and efficient. As disaster costs have risen, so have FEMA's administration costs. FEMA's administrative cost percentages have doubled in the last 20 years for disasters of all sizes. Of the $95 billion spent on major disasters from 2004 to 2013, $12.7 billion, about 13 percent, were FEMA's administrative costs. The increasing number, size, and complexity of disasters requires a larger Federal disaster workforce. During Hurricane Sandy, more than 17,000 Federal personnel, including more than 7,000 FEMA staff, were sent to the affected area in one of the largest deployments ever.