A bi-partisan group of U.S. Senators has written to President George W. Bush, expressing "dismay" that
he intends to disregard provisions in the recent law overhauling the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which set minimum qualifications for its director.
The chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Republican Susan Collins of Maine, the committee's senior-most Democrat, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, and Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu from Louisiana all signed the letter, sent Thursday.
They thank Bush for signing last week the Homeland Security Appropriations Act, part of which enacted a whole-scale restructuring of FEMA -- and the Department of Homeland Security, into which it was rolled in March 2003 -- in response to the agency's widely panned performance in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina last year.
"We were dismayed, however," the senators continue, "by the 'signing statement,' in which you express your intention to disregard provisions in the law intended to protect against further mistakes such as those that plagued the 2005 hurricane response."
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