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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management Crisis and Emergency Management Newsletter Website |
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October/November
2007
Volume 13 - Number
1/2 |
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Emergency Management Policy Position of Presidential
Candidate John Edwards
By: Andres Lopez Esquerra After the disaster of Hurricane Katrina of 2005 and
the recent wildfires in California, people are wondering what our emergency
management policy is, and more important what is the position of the candidates
for president of 2008. We will try to convey in here what is the position
of one of the frontrunners on the Democratic, John Edwards.
Edwards’ presidential website, under the title of Improving Domestic Readiness, states five points that will “improve our system for assuring domestic readiness”. The first point is to support the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Fire Fighters Act so that local governments can meet the growing demands for emergency preparedness. Another point is to involve the community by supporting neighborhood watches and encouraging citizens to volunteer on their preparedness. Better communication with local law enforcement agencies is the next point by providing access to federal watch lists and better warning information. In the subject of warnings to the public, he points out that the actual color-coded system is “often more confusing than helpful”, therefore he supports “better, faster and more practical information” and to use fasters and more efficient ways to communicate with the public such as “traditional telephones, cell phones, and pagers”. Finally, establishing professional responsibility training to facilitated reporting of corruptions and improving employee integrities. The democratic candidate also understands the importance of cooperation between the different levels of the government, and that is why he also supports strengthening the cooperation between federal, state and local law enforcement and agencies involve in domestic threats by the creation of the Deputy Director of National Intelligence that will be responsible for coordination of information-sharing and joint operations. Even thought he does not clearly state the future of FEMA, and whether the same must be move from under DHS to a cabinet level agency as it was in the past, he does understand the importance of proper emergency management and the role of support that the federal government should have and openness the it must have with its counterparts in the international, state, and local level in a all hazard environment. |