Speaker 1: Hello, I'm Tim Frazier, coming to you from the LG Digital Studio at Georgetown University's School of Continuing Studies. In focus today, Administrative Challenges in Emergency Management. I'm joined by Brock Long, former FEMA Administrator from 2017 to 2019. Welcome to Georgetown, Brock. It's good to have you here.

Speaker 2: Glad to be here, Tim.

Speaker 1: Thank you. So the first question I have to you is, could you talk to us a little bit about your time

Speaker 2: at FEMA? There was never a dull moment. Bottom line is, I was sworn into office, and two months later, we had the worst series of disasters that this nation's seen, starting with Harvey, Irma, Maria, and then the devastating California wildfires to Michael, Florence, and then volcanoes, earthquake in Alaska. And while the nation was focused on those bigger disasters, during my time in office, we had over 200 different types of disasters, whether they were presidentially declared disasters or wildfires.

Speaker 1: So it sounds like you had a busy time at FEMA.

Speaker 2: It was, yeah. And it's causing us to rethink a lot about how emergency management works in this country. And as the nation goes through something like that, if we don't stop and refocus and truly understand what works versus what needs to change, then what good was it to go through that series of events?

Speaker 1: That's perfect for my next question, because what changes have you seen in emergency disaster management during your time in the field? Maybe perhaps what have you seen and what might need to be seen?

Speaker 2: Well, first and foremost, the last two years has kind of put to the forefront that emergency management, proper disaster preparedness, response and recovery is a partnership with all levels of government and the private sector. FEMA is not 9-1-1. They've never been designed to be 9-1-1. And communities have to realize that if FEMA is your plan to respond during a disaster, well then there's going to be some major gaps and it's not going to go as smoothly as your community or your constituents would like. We have to be having conversations with the private sector, prepared citizens, state and local governments, tribal governments, as well as the federal government on Blue Sky Days to understand what the gaps are so that FEMA can be better prepared to support disasters at a state and local level. Not run them, but to support them and help each community achieve their response and recovery goals.

Speaker 1: Thank you, Brock. So this falls in line with that as well. What were some of your biggest challenges you faced at FEMA and perhaps what do you expect to see some of the biggest challenges in the field coming forward?

Speaker 2: There's too much of a gap between local state capability and where the federal government comes in. And quite honestly, I think the post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act may have set up an unintended negative consequence on the agency to where there was this belief that we had to go big, we had to rush in for every disaster that occurred in these communities that was declared. Half of the disasters that are declared are less than $7.5 million. And instead of FEMA rolling staff out to manage a $7.5 million disaster on behalf of a governor, the agency really needs to become a block granting institution to those communities to manage the funding of the disaster and not the agency that sends staff to do the job on behalf of a local and state community. FEMA really needs to be held in reserve for the large-scale, multi-billion dollar disasters that we saw with Harvey, Irma, Maria, Florence, and Michael.

Speaker 1: Okay, that's great. So how do you think emergency disaster management programs like ours at Georgetown University could help in all this?

Speaker 2: Well, there's a nationwide gap in emergency management expertise. And don't think of emergency management as a lights and sirens function. We need people that understand how to build more resilient communities, understand low to no cost mitigation strategies to keep infrastructure from failing. There's a massive need for disaster costs, financial disaster management. A lot of people don't realize that FEMA's not the only game in town. Disaster recovery funds come from 90 different programs from the federal government, 20 different agencies that fund 90 different programs. So we need people that can say, hey mayor or hey governor, you've had a disaster, here's what you're entitled to. This is what we need to use to achieve your outcome-driven recovery goals so that we can mitigate this from ever happening again and build your community more resilient than the way we found it before the event.

Speaker 1: So a really nice holistic perspective is needed in the field.

Speaker 2: Absolutely. And going into the private sector, I think the young students at Georgetown don't need to be thinking about just government service, that you want to get a job with FEMA or Homeland Security Emergency Management within the District of Columbia. Look at the private industry that supports disaster management, the consulting firms or the logistics firms that are there. And if you go to that private sector route, you can build a very robust resume very quickly that may allow you to apply for the higher end government jobs not coming in at the introductory level. Thank you, Brock.

Speaker 1: Fantastic talking to you. I appreciate your time. Thank you. Appreciate it. And thanks to everyone out there for watching. Stay tuned for more from the LG Digital Studio at Georgetown SCS.