WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, reintroduced bipartisan legislation to improve the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) workforce planning and management. The Federal Emergency Mobilization Accountability Workforce Planning Act would require FEMA to develop and submit detailed workforce plans to Congress to ensure the agency can effectively respond to natural disasters and other emergencies. This legislation would also require FEMA to improve employee recruitment and retention efforts, develop strategies to train and deploy their workforce in efficient ways, and utilize data to address and fix staffing gaps.
"When disaster strikes, communities in Michigan and across the nation rely on FEMA to help them recover and rebuild. However, FEMA continues to face challenges in maintaining a qualified workforce that can be quickly deployed to help disaster survivors," said Senator Peters. "This bipartisan legislation will ensure FEMA develops comprehensive strategies to recruit and retain the skilled workers they need to carry out their vital mission."
Recent reports from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have highlighted significant workforce management issues at FEMA, including with deploying qualified staff and recruitment efforts. In 2017, at the height of multiple disaster responses, GAO found that more than half of deployed FEMA staff were serving in positions for which they were not qualified. A 2023 GAO audit found that FEMA was not collecting necessary data to monitor hiring progress to close staffing gaps.
The Federal Emergency Mobilization Accountability Workforce Planning Act would require FEMA to submit a detailed human capital operating plan to Congress that includes specific performance measures and goals for recruitment and retention, analysis of current workforce gaps and strategies to address them, plans for training and deploying qualified staff, and detailed efforts and strategies to increase cost-efficiency in workforce operations. Additionally, the bill would require GAO to audit the plan within 6 months of submission to analyze whether it meets the requirements set in law, and, if not, offer recommendations to ensure subsequent plans do.
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