The Federal Emergency Management Agency is ready for the 2006 hurricane season despite being at only 84 percent of its authorized staffing level, director R. David Paulison said Friday.

FEMA has only about 2,000 of an authorized 2,400 employees, but even that is not enough, Paulison said at a news conference held by the Partnership for Public Service. He said he is “working with Congress” to “significantly increase” FEMA’s staffing.

Paulison had said in March that he wanted to reach 95 percent of staffing by June 1, but the staffing level has remained around the 85 percent mark since May.

Part of the problem is that Paulison says he won’t accept incompetent employees. The other part is the Byzantine government hiring process.

Paulison described hiring in government as “arduous” and “complicated,” saying the agency needs to be sure it is hiring the right people. “I simply, simply will not bring people on who don’t have the experience, and years of experience, in dealing with disasters,” he said.

Paulison said he is confident that FEMA has been improved, despite the staffing shortfall. — CongressDaily

A FEMA press release issued Friday details some of the changes, including better coordination within the Department of Homeland Security and with the Department of Defense, improved communications and logistics technology including GPS tracking for vehicles bringing supplies to disaster areas and interoperable radios, more supplies on hand giving FEMA “the ability to provide for up to 1 million people in any 7 to 10 day period,” and various other improvements.

But I think the biggest improvement for FEMA this year will be the shortage of hurricanes. So far this year there has not been a single hurricane in the Atlantic basin, and only three named tropical storms, only one of which made landfall in the Southeast. Tropical Storm Alberto caused isolated flooding and killed one person in North Carolina in June, a 13 year old boy who fell into a storm drain while playing. At this time last year four hurricanes had already formed, and Katrina was approaching.

“We cannot let the deaths and the suffering of those Katrina victims go in vain,” Paulison said. “We’re going to make a better, we’re going to make a stronger FEMA.”

It looks like Mother Nature is going to give him the time he needs.