The Federal Emergency Management Agency - Essay Example

The agency was initially founded by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and was later enforced by two Executive Orders in 1979. The emergency services that FEMA provided to the country can also be availed for its territories such as Puerto Rico. However, there is an exclusion that occurs when an emergency that can also be a disaster takes place on federals property or federal assets; the agency in this case is not allowed to take action. A fitting illustration of this is during the bombing of the Alfred P.

Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995.Current Situations and Deliverance of ServicesAs of the other current situations in the agency, the agency is continually providing both local and state governments with experts in specialized fields and essential funding in the rebuilding efforts and relief funds for infrastructure. This is mainly achieved by directing people to access loans that have a very low interest as well as the Small Business Administration. One of the most important roles that the agency is presently doing is to fund the training of response teams all through the country and in the territories as part of preparedness efforts.

Ethical Decision MakingFrom Hurricane Andrew of 1992 to the California Wildfires of 2007, FEMA has always been heavily criticized on the way it responded to such disasters. In most cases, it ends up being an informer of the situation rather than the responder. Many have lost faith after the agency has been found wanting in more than six disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and wildfires that were all fatal. In most of these situations, the way that the agency responded had to do with the way decisions were made.

Criticism is most cases is aimed at the slow nature of the response by the agency.Research Questions for the Final PaperCriticism over how the agency had responded to emergencies and disasters over the past few decades can form the basis of the research questions. The problem in the way the agency functions is particularly aimed at the sluggish way of handling emergencies. As earlier stated, the agency is run by the federal government and it requires the local/ state government to call on its aid.

Although the agency is shaped in a way to deal with emergencies, it is notable that the process of getting it to respond is a bit long. Is there any way that this can be shortened to allow for fast reactions? This is the key dilemma that the final paper will delve into. It would be important to figure out whether there would be a more specialized department or administration that can run the agency without having to contact the President of the Federal government. The sources for the completion of the final paper will mainly revolve around what is published on its websites and compared to what criticism has been leveled against it in the media.