White House Katrina Report Calls for 125 Changes in Future

With fewer than 100 days to go before the start of the 2006 Hurricane Season, the White House has issued a 228-page report on the response to 2005’s storm disasters. The report calls for 125 changes, 11 of which the White House says must be made by June 1, when the storm season officially opens. Mid-term elections are in November, so let the voters judge the incumbents by what gets done here.

The 11 changes spelled out in both the report and an easier-to-read press release aren’t all that cut and dried. The usual meaningless business-school verbs are there: “ensure” appears three times; “enhance” twice; and “designate,” “employ,” “encourage,” “identify,” and “improve” all make an appearance. That said, a qualitative look at the proposals suggests that there is a basis for holding the White House and Congress, which issued its own report already, accountable (something that doesn’t happen in Washington very often anymore).

For example, item four reads, “Embed a single Department of Defense point of contact at the JFO and FEMA regional offices to enhance coordination of military resources supporting the response.” This appears to be an executive order waiting to happen, so Mr. Bush needs to sign his name to it, and it’s done. Item six reads, “Identify and develop rosters of Federal, State, and local government personnel who are prepared to assist in disaster relief.” If there’s no roster on June 1, this is a failure because, again, it looks like an executive order is all that is necessary.

The White House has also drafted up a “what went right” section, Appendix B. This is an ideological map touching on how the Bush administration wants to proceed. Non-profits and the private sector are hailed as having performed brilliantly. Christ in Action (which has a most unfortunate acronym), for example, is lauded for working 115 days, during which it served “420,000 meals and repaired over 500 houses in time for families to reoccupy their homes by Christmas.” Jesus of Nazareth would be pleased, indeed, and this journal has no quibble with the organization, only admiration for it. Yet, how much more can it do? And can a national disaster policy place more of a burden on those good people? One hesitates to say they can do more and must do more.

Congress needs to get into the act in certain places here. Indeed, Congress has been negligent over the last five years in doing its share of governing. Hearings are not out of order, and legislation is most certainly needed where the executive lacks the power to act on its own (and the executive doesn’t have infinite power according to the Constitution). And if America isn’t better prepared on June 1 than it is today, no incumbent deserves re-election.

The Danish flag appears here as a protest against the violence being done to the free press of that country and elsewhere by those offended by some cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed, peace be unto him. A perceived insult is not an excuse for intimidation and violence, even in the name of the Creator. One cannot insult God, only small-minded men who falsely claim to speak for Him. © Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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