Press release: “A bipartisan amendment offered by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Susan Collins, R-Me., and Ranking Member Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., that will reinvent, protect, and strengthen the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) passed the Senate floor today by a vote of 87 to 11. The amendment to the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations legislation was cosponsored by Senators Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Tom Carper, D-Del., and largely mirrors legislation introduced by Senators Collins and Lieberman two weeks ago, The United States Emergency Management Authority Act of 2006. Specifically, the measure will implement key recommendations of the Committee’s Hurricane Katrina Report, A Nation Still Unprepared, and will recreate FEMA as the U.S. Emergency Management Authority (USEMA), reunite its response and preparedness functions, and ensure that the agency remains within the Department of Homeland Security as an independent agency, similar to the current structure of the Coast Guard.”