Gov Romney: In view of your statement that State Governments do the best job with respect to emergency fund, i want to give you a quick snap shot of how Emergency budget fund is used today.
I am NOT an authority on this subject. I spent 1 hour looking for this information on Google. If i can spend 1 hour and learn so much, it is downright dishonest that your campaign and you have spent less time and less interest in solving America's problem and instead fixated on petty politics
EDIT: Changed Title.
FEMA 2013 Budget: http://www.fema.gov/...
Basic Facts about FEMA:
1. FEMA requested a $13.5B budget. This was $365 MILLION LOWER than in 2012.
2. $3.8B of this spending is mandatory - For National Flood Insurance Fund.
How can local governments get economy of scale in negotiating with insurance companies better than at federal government level?
3. The $10B FY2013 budget request of FEMA was $600M lower than in 2012.
Isn't that impressive?
4. $6B of the FY2013 budget (60% of overall budget) was spent on Disaster Relief Fund.
What is Diaster Relief fund?FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund pays between 75 and 100 percent of the costs of immediate emergency services, public facilities repair, and assistance to individual families
5. $2.9B of the $10B budget (29% for your team that doesn't know math!) was spent on State and Local programs.
These might be proactive or reactive programs
5. Other named programs costed include $230M: United States Fire Administration ($42M), Flood Hazard Mapping and Risk Analysis Program ($89M), Emergency Food and Shelter ($100M)
Aren't these pan-USA activities that are well spent at Federal level for economies of scale?
6. $789M was spent on salaries and administration. That's 7.9% of discretionary budget and 5.8% of overall budget.
Let's summarize:
89% of overall discretionary budget went to state funding and disaster relief payments linked to states. Only 8% was spent on admin costs.
Gov. Romney: How will you better use the funds that the current operations? With 89% going directly to states and only 8% as administration expenses, don't you think USA needs an explanation from you as to how the program isn't already what you claim it to be - Invest in strengthening the state government's ability to fund disaster management?