Scrap Fema and begin again, Bush is advised

[Neil D]

[:"blue"] Instead of scraping Fema, why not allow competant people run it? ...Hey, it's just a common sense question.....[/]

From Tim Reid in Washington

THE White House rejected calls by a Senate committee yesterday to close down the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), the government body lambasted for its woeful response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The push to scrap the agency came after a scathing report by a bipartisan Senate investigation into the disaster, which said that Katrina had exposed flaws in Fema “too substantial to mend”.

The call to replace the beleaguered agency was the top recommendation of the Senate inquiry, which also heaped blame on President Bush for his slow response to Katrina. The report was issued during Mr Bush’s eleventh visit to the Gulf Coast region since the hurricane, a trip aimed at highlighting rebuilding efforts.

Visiting New Orleans, Mr Bush passed badly damaged houses, boarded up from top to bottom and awaiting rehabilitation. He later donned work gloves and a carpenter’s apron to pound nails into a house frame.

“We pray that there is no hurricane this coming year, but we’re working together to make sure the response will be as efficient as possible,” the President said.

The Senate report faults Mr Bush for waiting until two days after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast — triggering catastrophic flooding in New Orleans — to return to Washington to begin co-ordinating a federal response.

The inquiry, titled Hurricane Katrina: A Nation Still Unprepared, also blamed Ray Nagin, the New Orleans Mayor, and Kathleen Blanco, the Governor of Louisiana, for failing to protect the sick and elderly and others who could not evacuate the city on their own.

But its main conclusion — to shut down Fema and replace it with an agency better able to respond to disasters such as Hurricane Katrina — looked set to face stiff opposition from the White House and reignite a controversy that has had a significant impact on Mr Bush’s approval ratings.

Frances Fragos Townsend, Mr Bush’s Homeland Security adviser, said that the White House would work with Congress on the issue, but signalled its opposition to shutting down Fema.

“As we’re headed to this hurricane season, now is not really time to really look at moving organisational boxes,” she said aboard Air Force One, as Mr Bush travelled to the stormravaged Gulf Coast.

She added: “Yes, there’s a better way to organise it . . . we look forward to working with the committee. I think we all share the same common goal, and that is having a strong, capable Fema that is better able to serve the American people when they’re in greatest need.”

Susan Collins, the Republican chairwoman of the Senate committee, said: “The first obligation of government is to protect our people. In Katrina we failed at all levels of government to meet that fundamental obligation.”The panel issued 86 recommendations for change that, taken together, indicate that the US is still woefully unprepared for a storm of Katrina’s intensity with the start of the hurricane season little more than a month away.

DISASTROUS

50,000 homes likely to be demolished

57,000 small businesses lost

$22 billion spent by federal government

1.5m people displaced

$3.1 billion promised by Bush Administration for repairs and improvements of flood defences

$2,000 given by Fema to each household in the states most affected by the hurricane

803,018 applicants in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama gained Fema assistance

[Neil D]

Quote:

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Senators: Give U.S. a new disaster team

By CHRIS KIRKHAM

SUN HERALD WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - The embattled Federal Emergency Management Agency should be scrapped and replaced by a stronger department with direct ties to the president during disasters, Senate investigators concluded in a report released Thursday.

The bipartisan Senate panel probing the government's response to Hurricane Katrina made 86 recommendations aimed at streamlining the federal, state and local response to disasters.

Noting Katrina exposed flaws "too substantial to mend," the panel's chief suggestion was to create a new National Preparedness and Response Authority that, like FEMA, would remain in the Department of Homeland Security. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., who presented the findings, said the new disaster agency would have more clout inside Homeland Security.

"FEMA has become the symbol of a bungling bureaucracy in which the American people have completely lost faith," said Collins, chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The new agency would have the same stature as the Coast Guard or the Secret Service, with a director who would answer directly to the president during disasters. And the approach would combine both disaster preparedness and response under one roof, as opposed to FEMA, which handles only response and recovery.

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Here is the source of the article. While I agree that FEMA needs to be revamped, I disagree that we need to scrap the agency. As to where on the authority list, in the scheme of things, I am not sure where it needs to be. Definately have access to the Presidency, and it does need to co-operate closely with Homeland security, but at a cabinet level, that I am not so sure.

[bevin]

Quote:

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Visiting New Orleans, Mr Bush ... He later donned work gloves and a carpenter’s apron to pound nails into a house frame.

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ROFLOL

What a triumph of marketing over content - and such a visible demonstration of this administration's stupidity.

/Bevin

[Dr. Shane]

I like the idea of scapping FEMA - period. It would be much more efficient just to fund the states and let them have their own disaster relief agencies.

[Neil D]

Ooo, now that's rich...

With California in the red, and Louisiana facing a huge debt from Katrina, and poor states like Mississippi, and Alabama, you think that those states can sholder the burden of rebuilding after a disaster.....

Fema was working well in the Clinton Adminstration.... We had some "good ol' boys" placed in there after Bush took over, and now it doesn't seem to work.....And they want to scrap it.... Here is a political entity ruining our goverment...If that is not a reflection of how that same political entity is runing to the country and the results of the same, maybe my daughter is right in running to Oz.

Oh, yeah, rich....

[Dr. Shane]

The same funding given to FEMA can be given to the states. Thereby it wouldn't cost the states anything and yet would give them all the control.

However there would be a catch. When the goofballs running the state and local governments screw up they wouldn't be able to use FEMA as a scapegoat. That would be bad for Lousiana but for states like Texas and Florida it wouldn't be a problem.

All government agencies have problems. None of them have ever worked well. Huricane Katrina was the biggest disaster since the great San Fransico earthquake and cannot be compared to anything that happened during the Clinton Administration. If one wish to compare it to anything, one may look at how the Clinton Administration handled the Waco disaster.

The bigger the government, the bigger the problems. Small government is more effectice when it is given the funding and reponsibility BUT held accountable by the federal level.

[Neil D]

Quote:

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All government agencies have problems. None of them have ever worked well. Huricane Katrina was the biggest disaster since the great San Fransico earthquake and cannot be compared to anything that happened during the Clinton Administration.

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I absolutely agree...Let's begin with the Excutive Branch of Goverment. I can go on and on as to how it ain't working for the people of the US and how it is NOT by the people FOR the people... So yeah, That part of goverment is not working at all.

[Dr. Shane]

It is what the founders called a necesary evil. I must agree.