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Senate Panel Recommends Almost Scrapping FEMA

A United States Senate panel is expected to recommend that FEMA be completely revamped. The panel will stop short of calling for the resignation of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff, but it will request that FEMA be abolished in its current form and replaced with a beefed-up national preparedness and response agency.

The panel?s report finds that FEMA has been crippled by years of poor leadership and inadequate funding. It goes on to say that the agency cannot be fixed, a bipartisan investigation says in a report set for release Thursday.

Though short on specifics, such as funding levels, the report sets forth 86 proposed reforms, suggesting the United States is still woefully unprepared for a disaster of Katrina`s magnitude. Last year`s Hurricane Katrina disaster left scores dead and survivors languishing for some time before federal officials were able to come to the rescue.