FEMA wins kudos for Sandy response Republican and Democratic officials praise FEMA's response to Sandy "This is the all-new FEMA," one disaster expert says The agency's performance after Hurricane Katrina forced reforms It's now "leaning forward" and has closer ties with state and local counterparts (CNN) -- Seven years after a disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is winning praise for how it's dealing with Superstorm Sandy. "This is the all-new FEMA, and the leadership is very, very good, very focused," said Dr. Irwin Redlener, a pediatrician and director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. They're doing an excellent job. Even in the highly charged political environment days before the U.S. elections, FEMA won plaudits from governors of both parties. New Jersey's Chris Christie, whose state bore the brunt of the storm, told CBS News on Tuesday that "cooperation has been great with FEMA here on the ground," while Delaware's Jack Markell told CNN that people in his state have been "really, really impressed by the response of FEMA." Christie is a Republican; Markell, a Democrat. It's the latest step in a long comeback for an agency that became synonymous with failure in the days after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in August 2005. FEMA's slow and disengaged response was a major embarrassment for the Bush administration, particularly when top officials admitted they were unaware of thousands of people stranded at a convention center in New Orleans without food and water, days after the storm hit. In the aftermath, a Senate investigation found FEMA was shorthanded, failed to commit enough people to prepare for the oncoming storm, didn't have enough supplies in position and had poor communication with state and local authorities. Its director at the time, Michael Brown, had little emergency management experience before being named to the agency's top job in 2003. By contrast, current FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate came to Washington after eight years as emergency management director in Florida, where he dealt with several hurricanes. One of the post-Katrina reforms passed by Congress was to require that FEMA administrator have an experienced chief, said Bruce Lockwood, an officer with the U.S. Council of the International Association of Emergency Managers. "It couldn't be just a political appointee," Lockwood said. It had to be somebody who had a practitioner background in emergency management or public safety field. It had to be somebody who knew what they were doing before they got into that position. The agency is now aimed at "leaning forward," moving supplies like food, water, generators, blankets and cots into an expected disaster zone ahead of time, said Lockwood, the deputy emergency management director in New Hartford, Connecticut. "Before, they would have to wait for a call from a state before they started moving material," he said. They still need a request from a state to distribute those supplies, but "They have things on the ready in a very immediate location." Lockwood said Fugate's philosophy has been that FEMA "is not the team -- they are part of the team." "That's one of the biggest things that has come out post-Katrina," he said. There is a cooperative relationship now between local, state and federal agencies to meet the need and fill the gaps. The 2,200 people FEMA says it has poured into dealing with Sandy is about as many as it had on its entire payroll at the time of Katrina. The agency also has has improved ties with its state and local counterparts as well as other arms of the federal government, Redlener said. In addition, Fugate "has been able to attract staff back into the agency, and they have a very competent midlevel management layer to help organize efforts," Redlener said. "They're still probably underfunded, but their staffing is much, much better," he said. FEMA's current budget is about $7 billion. Its recent performance also won high marks from a former chief, James Lee Witt, who led the agency during the Clinton administration. "I think the most important thing that FEMA has already done is to have people in the emergency operation centers, and the pre-staged equipment, and following whatever resources the states are going to need to start the process of recovery," Witt told CNN 's "Starting Point." Sandy hit the New Jersey coastline Monday night with 80 mph winds at its center, but it spread destruction across a broad swath of the eastern United States. The storm smashed beach resorts on the Jersey Shore and flooded Manhattan subway tunnels, felled trees as far south as North Carolina, dumped heavy snow on the highlands of West Virginia and sent debris flying through the streets of Toronto.