Last week, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Subcommittee on Emergency Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management held a hearing about businesses working with government. 

Al Sligh, Director of the Office of Management at FEMA, testified about the June 2007 exercise co-hosted by BCLC and FEMA that focused on disaster relief and recovery from an earthquake along the New Madrid Fault zone in the Midwest United States. 

Mr. Sligh correctly noted the importance of "involving the private sector and business community to the maximum extent possible; establishing solid partnerships between the public and private sectors and non-governmental agencies; and highlighting the critical role the private sector can play in providing supplemental resources and assistance in catastrophic disaster events."

This is very welcome news.  For years, there was an ongoing debate about how open the agency should be to the private sector.  But as BCLC, and other companies and organizations have shown over the years, the private sector can play a critical role in assisting disaster response.  Now, UPS has loaned an executive to FEMA, BCLC and FEMA have cooperated on a number of fronts, and this latest testimony is welcome evidence that FEMA is continuing to improve its communication and coordination efforts with the private sector. 

Now, if we could just strengthen the recovery side of the equation too…