Gus Bilirakis Meets With FEMA Boss to Focus on Emergency Management
Submitted by Kevin Derby on February 9, 2011 - 9:59am
From his perch as chairman of the U.S. House Emergency Preparedness, Response and Communications Subcommittee, Florida Republican U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis is charged with, among other things, congressional oversight of FEMA.
After visits to emergency management specialists in Pasco and Pinellas counties last week, Bilirakis met with FEMA chief Craig Fugate on Tuesday to build better communications between national responders and those in the Sunshine State.
Floridas emergency management centers have dealt with the H1N1 scare, Haitian repatriation and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, all within the past year, Bilirakis said. I wanted to find out from them how our nation can be more efficient and effective when it comes to emergency preparedness and response.
I wanted to meet with Administrator Fugate to discuss FEMAs level of preparedness and to stress the need for open lines of communication with emergency management officials and first responders at the state and local level, added Bilirakis. I also shared with him what Ive heard from our local emergency groups so that we can use lessons learned from previous disasters to constantly evolve our preparedness and response capabilities.
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