Former FEMA head Brown says aid should be offset

Former FEMA administrator Mike Brown, who headed the agency during Hurricane Katrina, said Tuesday that he agreed with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) that the federal government should not allocate additional funds to the FEMA without offsetting budget cuts.

"We don't have the money for right now to do it," Brown said in an interview on Fox News. "We have to start making these hard decisions facing the fiscal reality that the country is broke."

Brown, who was widely criticized for his leadership during the Hurricane Katrina recovery, resigned as the head of FEMA in 2005. Brown also said that the U.S. can't afford to continue to send rescue aid to foreign countries that suffer natural disasters.   

"Let's say there's another tsunami in Japan, and Japan says to the United States State Department, 'We want you to send some urban search and rescue teams over.' Who's going to pay for that?" Brown said.

The Washington Post reported yesterday that FEMA's disaster-relief fund, which reimburses individuals and local governments for the cost of recovery efforts, is running "dangerously low," to the point that the agency is considering delaying payments on some projects. Cantor said yesterday that he would only support additional funding if accompanied by cuts to other government programs.

"Yes, we're going to find the money," Cantor said during a Fox News interview. "We're just going to need to make sure that there are savings elsewhere to continue to do so."

Republican legislation in the House earlier this year shifted money from other FEMA programs and an energy efficient car credit for auto manufacturers to the disaster fund, but Senate Democrats shot down the bill.

---