Senate Reports Says “Abolish FEMA”

“Hurricane Katrina: A Nation Still Unprepared” is an 800-page report that went to Senators yesterday and which will reach the general public next week. However, the press got hold of some of its contents by Wednesday. Judging from the early articles written, the report is a blockbuster. Among its 86 recommendations is the abolition of the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA].

Rarely does any agency in government ever get abolished. Too much political capital is wrapped up in the various agencies, bureaux and departments for them to get the ax unless they are entirely incompetent. FEMA, however, meets and exceeds that standard. Hurricane Katrina, according to the report, exposed flaws at FEMA “too substantial to mend.” The Senate report calls for a brand new agency, with a different scope and broader powers. According to Spenser Hu, a reporter at the Washington Post, in FEMA’s place there would be a new “National Preparedness and Response Authority whose head would report to the secretary but serve as the president's top adviser for national emergency management, akin to the military role served by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

“We have concluded that FEMA is in shambles and beyond repair, and that it should be abolished," Chairman Susan Collins (R-ME) wrote in a statement released by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday. She also believes the recommendations in the report “will help ensure that we do not have a repeat of the failures following Hurricane Katrina.”

Of course, there were voices in DC that said this wasn’t such a good idea. Russ Knocke, spokesman for the Heimatschutzministerium, which the American media call the Department of Homeland Security, said, “It’s time to stop playing around with the organizational charts and to start focusing on government, at all levels, that are preparing for this storm season.” Moreover, Michael “Heckuva Job, Brownie” Brown, the FEMA chief who was hounded from office after New Orleans drowned, commented in less-than-pure objectivity, “It sounds like they're just re-creating the wheel and making it look like they're calling for change. If indeed that's all they're doing, they owe more than that to the American public.”

Well, to a degree they are right. If the staff are incompetent, it doesn’t much matter whether there is a new agency, a changed agency or even no agency at all. The Houston Chronicle says the report carries this warning, “The United States was, and is, ill-prepared to respond to a catastrophic event of the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina. Catastrophic events are, by their nature, difficult to imagine and to adequately plan for, and the existing plans and training proved inadequate in Katrina.” The 2006 hurricane season officially begins in 34 days, and America isn’t ready. Heckuva Job, Georgie.

© 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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