The WashPost blog featured an interview with outgoing HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. See: Shaun Donovan on confronting hurricanes, homelessness and big banks. Only one question dealt with post-disaster recovery, and it is quoted it here:
How did your work on the Hurricane Sandy task force inform the administration’s disaster relief policies?
It’s important to look back to Hurricane Katrina, and the fact that when we took office, even though it was three and a half years later, it was fresh in the nation’s mind. One of my first trips there was with (then-U.S. Homeland Security Secretary) Janet Napolitano, and many of the neighborhoods looked like the storm had happened the day before. The president asked me to do a review with Janet on national recovery, which led to the National Disaster Recovery Framework that we use today to handle long-term recovery from these major disasters.
I am not sure why but I I find it fascinating that in order to get some serious federal attention to recovery, the President had to tell the Sec. of DHS and the Sec. of HUD to deal with it.
What has baffled me for many years is that FEMA had been in existence for about 35 years and not managed to come up with a recovery framework. The National Disaster Recovery Framework was issued in late 2012.
See comments from readers below…..
Recovery Diva 
I believe the mandate to develop a recovery framework came from PKEMRA. So it was Congress, rather than the President, who asked for the framework to be developed.
Interesting comment. I have never known what the impetus for getting a framework was. I assume that Donovan’s statement to the media reflected his view of how it happened.
We may never know, but at least a starter framework was issued.
Whether or not FEMA has the lead, I think some sort of framework, guidance, technical assistance should have been provided to cities by the feds years ago.
Sec. Donovan really did make a valiant try to improve recovery, but HUD does not seem to be adequately empowered or capable of taking the lead either.
For a new and better conceptual approach to the big topic of recovery, I have suggested more than once than the federal agencies should engage either the National Academy of Public Administration or the National Academy of Science for assistance.
Personally, I think this reflects FEMA’s impression that it doesn’t really belong in the recovery business. And they may be right – they’re focused on response – on supporting heroes. Recovery is more about redeveloping communities – it requires the patience of Job, i.e., is for saints. Given the Balkanized bastions of our federal bureaucracies, it’s not too surprising that it takes Presidential guidance to get two (and Commerce really should also be involved) department-level agencies together.