[StBernard] Stupid FEMA Tricks

[Westley Annis]

Westley,
 
If you know the particular Title of the U.S. Code (or CFR) for an agency you
can obtain a copy of that from the Govt. Printing Office.  For FEMA it's the
Stafford Act.  
 
I googled one time and found an online reference to it on a website at some
law school and posted same here.  
 
I'm sure the GPO probably has CD versions of the bound copies available
also.  I'd suggest that parishes have lots of copies of that available.  And
the question to the FEMA rep who denies whatever would be:  What part of
Title [whatever] does this action, thing violate or would not be in
compliance?
 
Just my 2 cents on it.
 
Jim York


 


	This is in response to the article about rebuilding the schools from
a few
	days ago.
	
	Quotes from the article:
	"Donors showered St. Bernard with enough supplies to fill a spare
classroom
	floor-to-ceiling and FEMA will cover 90% of rebuilding. But Voitier
can't
	financed the other 10% - strict rules forbid using other relief
money to
	make up the 10%."
	
	"She says the rules sometimes border on comical: After she put
together the
	laundromat - a fire marshal had declared the trailer unfit for
classroom use
	- FEMA reported her for misusing federal property."
	
	As long as it is not FEMA money, who cares how they make up the
other 10%?
	This is like telling a man dying of thirst in the desert, I'll give
you all
	the water you can drink, but first you must have a Waterford Crystal
Goblet
	to drink it from. It just seems at times you need to have "three
	Philadelphia lawyers" with you at all times when dealing with FEMA.
	
	I wish the article gave the name of the fire marshal. I would love
to know
	who declared for all that you cannot use a Laundromat for a
classroom. From
	what little I can see, it looks like there was no intention to use
it as a
	classroom to begin with.
	
	Perhaps we should start sending letters to the editor. Don't give us
	positions without giving us names. Who is this genius of a fire
marshal?
	
	By the same token, who is FEMA? SBA?
	
	Collectively, I think we need to stop accepting a generic answer,
"The rules
	say we can't do this." Everything FEMA and SBA does is governed
either by a
	Congressionally passed law or an Executive Order signed by the
President,
	usually the former. Last time I checked, it was all public record (I
	realize some Executive Orders are sealed, but I can't see how
anything
	pertaining to FEMA or SBA would be considered something that needs
to be
	sealed).
	
	Don't accept handbooks as a final answer any more. Ask for the law
that
	governs any decision made by FEMA, HUD, or SBA and look it up
yourself. If
	it is too complicated to understand, ask others. If need be, visit
one of
	the local law schools.
	
	Until someone starts questioning their interpretations, we don't
know if
	they are right. If they are right, but stupid, we can then working
on
	getting them changed.
	
	Westley