Ex-FEMA chief says agency 'faces unrealistic expectations'

As Hurricane Dorian makes it way toward the southeastern coast of the United States, the Federal Emergency Management Agency inches closer to the spotlight. But former FEMA Administrator Brock Long says the agency faces too much pressure.

In an appearance on Sunday's edition of Face the Nation, Long told CBS' Margaret Brennan that FEMA "faces unrealistic expectations by Congress and the American public" and that "we've got to stop looking at FEMA as 911."

Instead Long, who ran the agency from 2017 until earlier this year, believes emergency response should be a "partnership," in which the government should spend more time at the national, state, and local levels better preparing citizens to deal with disasters. He said that insurance, not FEMA, is a person's first line of defense in the case of a hurricane and advocated for teaching financial resilience.

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Long also criticized Congress for making FEMA's job impossible, arguing that lawmakers need to convince state and local governments to insure their public infrastructure and incentivize building codes and land use planning.