From the article, "While we were up there we noticed that Civil Air Patrol and private aircraft were authorized to fly over the small town tucked into the base of Rockies." I'm guessing that FEMA didn't feel that they had capability or procedural rules in place to safely mix manned aircraft and UAVs into the same airspace.
That would be the FAA that dragged it's feet (or was being exceptionally careful) on setting rules for UAVs, causing Congress to mandate a deadline to come out with some policy regarding UAVs.
