Federal Daily - February 19, 2009

Lawmakers Cite Support for Keeping FEMA in DHS

A coalition of first responder organizations and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General (IG) support leaving the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) within DHS, according to documents posted on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Web site. Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Maine., on Feb. 17 released the documents—which include letters from first responders and a recent IG report—to help rebut suggestions to move FEMA out of DHS and make it a stand-alone federal agency. “Moving it out now would weaken FEMA, since the agency would no longer have the same ready access to the resources and expertise of the rest of DHS, and it would be more difficult to coordinate in a disaster,” said Lieberman. Groups supporting the current FEMA/DHS structure include the Congressional Fire Services Institute; the International Association of Chiefs of Police; the International Association of Fire Chiefs; the International Association of Fire Fighters; National Fraternal Order of Police; National Sheriffs’ Association; the National Troopers Coalition and the National Volunteer Fire Council. In a recent report, the DHS IG concluded that FEMA’s past problems are no justification for removing it from the agency, said Lieberman. To see more, go to: http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases
.Detail&Affiliation=C&PressRelease_id=0355d00a-b5e1-4557-8e33-
c894d715f2e3&Month=2&Year=2009.

:: Back to Top ::

Report: Up to 20% of Combat Troops Suffer Concussions

A significant proportion of servicemembers who saw combat may have sustained a concussion during the time they were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to new research from the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC). The research, released on Feb. 17, shows that anywhere from 10 percent to 20 percent of combat troops may have suffered some sort of brain injury during deployment. The research underscores the need to make identification and treatment of returning servicemembers with related symptoms a top priority, according to the research, which was published in the January/February special edition of the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation. “In short, the issue provides readers a sense of some of the relevant issues and pressing concerns related to TBI [traumatic brain injury] in a military population, as well as some of the larger political influences that affect care delivery and research,” Louis M. French, DVBIC principal investigator and TBI director at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, wrote in a preface to the research. According to internal DVBIC data, between January 2003 and the end of September 2008, 8,470 individuals with TBI were seen across its network, with more than 1,700 treated at Walter Reed. To see more, go to: www.dvbic.org.

:: Back to Top ::

Two Former Border Patrol Agents Released from Prison

Two ex-Texas Border Patrol agents who had their prison sentences commuted by former President Bush have been released from federal custody and sent to home confinement, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., said in a Feb. 17 statement. Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean will serve out the remainder of their sentences in home confinement because the commutation does not take effect until March 20. Ramos and Compean were serving 11- and 12-year sentences, respectively, after being convicted of a range of charges related to the highly publicized Feb. 17, 2005, shooting of Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, an unarmed suspect who was fleeing the agents just north of the border near El Paso. Bush commuted their sentences Jan. 19. Once they are completely released, they are still to serve three years of supervised release. “This day is long overdue,” Rohrabacher said. “I wish the Ramos and Compean families the best as they now try to pick up the pieces.” To see more, go to: http://rohrabacher.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?
DocumentID=111689.

:: Back to Top ::