Views from the lake . . . April 28, 2006

Senator Susan Collins calls for the end of FEMA.
Yesterday, a Senate Panel, headed by Senator Collins of Maine came to the conclusion that FEMA should be abolished.

This writer’s take on FEMA:
FEMA was created by President Carter at the request of the National Governor’s Association. During Clinton’s Years, FEMA was brought into a Cabinet Level post. The director reported directly to the President. When Bush took office he slid it under the scrutiny of the Homeland Security. But it seems he forgot to tell the director. Undersecretary Brown has testified that he reported to the President, even though his department falls under the supervision of the Director of Homeland Security.

FEMA problems are not through the lack of employees trying to do the job . . . But the lack of policies and procedures. They lack the simple Governing documents of scope, where do their duties start and end. Who is in charge and what resources are available.

Everyone would like to kick the blame down to the director of FEMA, but truthfully he never had clear instructions of authority and guidelines to manage or the ear of the President. Sure they talked, but nothing ever came from those discussions.

And so Senator Collins and Senator Lieberman call for the end of FEMA and something should be rebuilt within Department of Homeland Security, DOH. Why? Does this make any sense?

Maybe we should slide the Congress under the President?
So they have an idea of what bills they should be working on? That makes as much sense as sliding FEMA under DOH.

Truthfully, this is not an easy fix . . . We are not just talking about emergency relief, but mobilizing a national emergency plan. The administration likes to privatize, you can not privatize intelligence. It has to come from within.

This is one problem that has to work hand and hand with local Governments, and I only see this happening from the bottom up. Each community will join together with others and eventually they will come to some kind of agreement and then the Fed may be called into action.

And just maybe FEMA needs to be dismantled and rebuilt or maybe just dismantled. But does this mean the Federal Government won’t be there in a disaster? Then what do we need them for?

Dan Hanosh
Dreams Are Yours To Share

tags: Dan Hanosh
Dreams Are Yours To Share Political Views from the lake