Michael Brown, the former undersecretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response who led the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told Newsmax TV on Thursday that the agency will help coordinate and fund the response to the coronavirus outbreak.
Brown, who led FEMA from April 2003 until his resignation following Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, said that the coronavirus response package that President Donald Trump recently signed is “the right thing to do,” but said he’s “concerned about the huge numbers that we're spending.”
He added that “in responding to a crisis, you have to look down the road and see what's coming” and what “can you anticipate, and how can you mitigate against those things that are coming at you. So in that regard it's the right thing to do.”
Brown said that FEMA will respond the same way it did on 9/11, after Hurricane Katrina, and to “any other disaster."
He said, "FEMA has a giant check book called the disaster relief fund" typically "around $30 billion. Congress will probably put more of this relief money into the disaster relief fund, and that money can be used to help state and local governments as they respond, so that's the first and foremost thing that FEMA will do. And the second thing that FEMA will do is work very closely with the White House task force on COVID-19 to make certain that all the Cabinet departments and all the federal agencies are all coordinating their response.”
He compared it to “an orchestra conductor,” who ensures that conflicts between departments or officials don’t interfere with policies.
“So in that respect they act like a checkbook and they act like a coordinator,” Brown said.
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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