Click here to download the catalog as a PDF file. To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. MANUEL BROUSSARD/FEMA W. Craig Fugate, the newly confirmed administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), meets in New Orleans on June 15 with the senior staff of the Louisiana Transitional Recovery Office. Federal officials are taking a more respectful tone in dealing with state and local governments, according to officials around the country. From Pawns to Partners By M I C K E Y M c C A R T E R , W A S H I N G T O N C O R R E S P O N D E N T IN THE AFTERMATH OF HURRICANE KATRINA, THE STATE OF LOUISIANA DETERMINED IT WOULD HAVE TO TACKLE ABOUT 25,000 INDIVIDUAL RECOVERY PROJECTS TO RESTORE ITS PARISHES TO THE STATE THEY WERE IN BEFORE THE HURRICANE RIPPED THROUGH THE GULF COAST IN AUGUST 2005. Many of the decisions made over those 25,000 projects were done so individually, creating a painfully slow path to recovery where officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) viewed recovery projects with suspicion instead of trust, according to many Louisiana officials. President Barack Obama’s administration has made a great deal of difference with new federal leadership in recovery efforts, Mark DeBosier, assistant deputy director for disaster recovery at the Louisiana governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, told Homeland Security Today. “The Obama administration has been fabulous,” said DeBosier. “They have sent down the right kind of decisionmakers that are interested in supporting the Louisiana recovery. The new leadership focuses on a logical approach—a common sense approach— CHANGES IN FEDERAL RELATIONS WITH STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS SHOULD MAKE FOR BETTER RESPONSES WHEN THE NEXT BIG DISASTER LOOMS. and they’re making transparent decisions.” For example,federal recovery authorities no longer judge the eligibility of projects submitted for disaster recovery funding by a standard of proving “beyond a shadow of a doubt” that a structure like a public facility was damaged by the hurricane. Instead,they view eligibility on more reasonable terms whereby a structure is eligible if it appears to have been damaged by the hurricane. “The new team would say, ‘It looks like it’s storm damage,’ so unless someone can prove that it wasn’t,it’s probably going to be an eligible expense,” he explained. The change in philosophy stems partly from a realization that recovery in Louisiana has been slow due in part to the slow federal response. Therefore, improving the federal response improves the recovery. “It’s not that the applicants, the locals and the state don’t need to improve their procedures as well, which we’re all trying to do, but the federal response to these recoveries is critical. They’re the ones with the gold,” he declared. With Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and 32 July 2009 | Homeland Security Today Magazine This month’s issue is now available online at…