ON THE FEDERAL FRONT
BY BILL MANNING
USFA reorganization. George Haddow, deputy chief of staff to Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt, reports the wheels are in motion at FEMA to restructure the United States Fire Administration and the National Fire Academy. Actions/plans include the following:
Conduct a USFA/NFA management review: strategic planning for future services and delivery of those services, funding increases, management structure, etc., based to a large extent on recommendations from the Blue Ribbon Panel, the “Panel of Two” (see Editor`s Opinion, October, 1998), and other fire service sources. FEMA received and analyzed public comments on the BRP report; more than 100 endorsements of the report were received from the fire service at large. The suggestion that the USFA would best be run not by a single administrator but by both a chief fire advocate (FEMA associate director) and a chief operations officer is, according to Haddow, “being given serious consideration.” He says this management review will be completed “hopefully by August.”
Starting in April, “revive” the Government Performance and Results Act (public law requiring federal agencies to develop performance plans linked directly to their budgets) with respect to FEMA and through it, Haddow says, “heighten the presence of fire” within the Agency.
Recommission a third America Burning study, beginning mid-June, to analyze the fire problem in America and present solutions. Haddow anticipates this to be an 18-month process.
Hold an annual “stakeholders” meeting of the fire service organizations to solicit input.
Conduct an analysis of the structure/implementation of the National Fire Academy Board of Visitors, FEMA`s NFA review body.
And what`s the status of USFA Administrator Carrye Brown, our “top fire official in the nation”? It remains unchanged, says Haddow, and she is involved in the restructuring process.
National Guard Power Play. It is said the National Guard is an army without a war. A principal role in the area of response to incidents of domestic terrorism would secure for it both a new mission and federal monies.
Recently, the National Guard was handed $10 million for a study to define its role in terrorist response and identify the gaps in technology, training, money, and so forth needed for effective response nationwide. Several fire service representatives were invited to the meetings. Top brass assured the fire representatives that the Guard was seeking strictly a supporting role to the local fire departments that in most cases would be in charge of terrorist incidents.
When the report was completed, fire officials were shocked at its conclusions: Not only was the National Guard to take over first response to domestic terrorist incidents as the lead responding agency, but it would take control of the National Fire Academy and the Emergency Management Institute as well. The report did not recognize fire departments as the lead first response agencies to such incidents.
Fortunately, this power play was foiled. By Presidential directive, responsibility for WMD training now is in the hands of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and existing systems will be integrated through the National Defense Preparedness Office, which, we are relieved to know, includes among its staff some very reputable fire people. Still, it is no less than frightening that federal support of local fire department response in this area is to be controlled and directed by the folks with the guns.
And the National Guard? Still an army without a war to call its own. The National Guard has plenty to offer the fire service as a supporting player, but it should and must remain just that.
The “Pascrell Bill.” This past January saw another fire service opportunity come and go.
Political pandering or not, President Clinton was in a very generous mood in a State of the Union Address jammed with legislative spending promises. None of those promises were reserved for the fire service or America`s serious fire problem.
This is especially frustrating given that Congressman Bill Pascrell`s proposed $5 billion fire service legislation (21st Century Fire and Public Safety Act) as of this writing has been stalled for at least nine months while the Anointed Seven fire service organizations struggle to unify themselves and do the right thing for this fire service and the nation. Even a token nod from the President may have been just the thing needed to take the bill out of legislative limbo and build some momentum.
But when you think small, you act small. The fire service organizations have been thinking small for so long that Pascrell`s so-called “audacious” proposal came not as an opportunity but a threat and an embarrassment to the established culture.
The Pascrell Bill originated from outside our established power circles. It holds forth the promise that desperately needed funds will actually make it down to the street, where it will do some good. This is precisely why Joe Firefighter, squinting through the haze of petty politics practiced by the Anointed Seven, has every right to ask, “Just what in the hell have you been doing for the past 20 years?”
The answer, of course, is “hanging on to our little empires.” As it is said, in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
It is just because at least some of us have opened our eyes–and our mouths–that the groups have been dragged into action on the Pascrell Bill. It may be that by the time this publication hits the streets, the groups already will have reached an accord and backed the legislation–a move that, we are told, would also prompt Congressman Curt Weldon`s much-needed support. But as late as January 21, at least one fire service organization was attempting an end-run around the other six to subvert the focus and intent of the bill, to its own territorial advantage, of course.
Such tactics are nothing new. Thankfully, though, there are enough eyes on this bill that it will be steered in the right direction. And there are enough eyes that finally see our emperors aren`t fully clothed.
Hopefully, in the March issue we`ll be able to report that the first hurdle for the Pascrell Bill–the fire service itself–has been crossed. But know this: Even if the Pascrell Bill does not make it to the floor of the 106th Congress and through the appropriations process, it has changed the fire service`s national picture forever. Our appetites have been whetted, our organizations placed on notice. We have shown that no longer do we have to suffer silently the crumbs that have been fed this fire service for years.
Indeed, it is an exciting time.
