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GAO-09-411R 1 (2009-04-10)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaanmu0001 and id is 1 raw text is: G &GAO ;; Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 April 10, 2009 The Honorable Joseph I. Lieberman Chairman The Honorable Susan M. Collins Ranking Member Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs United States Senate Subject: Office of the Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding: Perspectives and Observations In November 2005, the President issued an executive order establishing the Office of the Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding (OFC) with the broad mission of supporting recovery efforts following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Given their vast size and impact, these storms presented unprecedented rebuilding challenges to federal, state, and local officials which, combined with concerns about the lack of coordination in government's initial response to the disaster, precipitated the creation of the Office of the Federal Coordinator. To assist in your ongoing oversight responsibilities of the recovery of the Gulf Coast, you asked us to: (1) describe the functions the Coordinator has performed, (2) obtain stakeholder perspectives regarding the office's operation, and (3) provide observations on issues to be considered for moving forward. We provided your staff with summaries of our findings this past February to answer these questions as well as our observations, including extending the term of OFC. We have since updated some of the information in our briefing (see enclosure I), using information that has subsequently become available including the President's decision to extend the operations of OFC through September 30, 2009. This letter transmits those updated slides. To conduct our work, we obtained and reviewed key documents from the Office of the Federal Coordinator and conducted interviews with senior officials. In addition, we interviewed officials from other federal agencies with significant roles in the recovery effort, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. To learn about the experiences and opinions of state, local, and nongovernmental officials regarding the office, we interviewed senior representatives from the Louisiana Recovery Authority, the Louisiana Recovery School District, the Mississippi Governor's Office of Recovery and Renewal, the City of New Orleans Office of Recovery Management, and Catholic Charities-Archdiocese New Orleans. Finally, to provide context and criteria for our review, we examined previous work by GAO and the relevant disaster recovery and organizational management literature. We conducted this performance 1 OFC was established by Executive Order 13,390, which was set to expire in November 2008. 70 Fed. Reg. 67,327 (Nov. 1, 2005). The order was amended by Executive Order 13,463 which extended the office through February 28, 2009. 73 Fed. Reg. 22,047 (Apr. 18, 2008). On February 20, 2009, the President signed Executive Order 13,504 which extended the office through September 30, 2009. 74 Fed. Reg. 8431. GAO-09-411R Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding Page 1

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