The People Versus FEMA

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Fri, 30 Sep 2005 23:52:07 -0500

The People Versus FEMA

 

 

 

The People Versus FEMA

By Sara S. DeHart

Issues and Alibis web site

 

In the aftermath of natural disaster Americans are urged give

generously to help victims of tragedy. These monies are above and

beyond the taxes paid by our citizens that the Bush administration

refers to as federal aid. We've been assured that the federal

protection umbrella, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal

Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are mobilized and ready to move

into any disaster area within hours. Following the debacle of

mismanagement and systems failure just witnessed in Louisiana and New

Orleans, it is time to look beyond opening our checkbooks to consider

what we are paying for, both through charitable organizations and the

federal government in taxes.

 

Hurricane Katrina and the devastation of New Orleans is a tragedy of

colossal proportions for all Americans. Words are insufficient to

portray what went wrong, but clearly this is the time to evaluate, to

scrutinize, to peek under the cover of the structure of FEMA that

after the 9/11 disaster was rolled into a newly created Hydra-headed

bureaucracy, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). We may never

get another chance and the demand must come from the people because on

September 14, exactly 20 days after Governor Blanco declared a State

of Emergency in Louisiana and requested help from the federal

government, the Senate Republican majority voted down a measure

calling for an independent commission to investigate what went wrong

with federal, state and local governments' response to Hurricane

Katrina. [1].

 

President Bush states that he plans to investigate and oversee what

" went wrong " with the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. He must

not be permitted to do this any more than he should have been allowed

to stop every effort to have an independent investigation of the 911

disaster. An independent counsel and commission with full grand

jury/subpoena authority are needed. More importantly, if one can still

be found in this country; the independent counsel must be removed from

both political and corporate connections. We may have to go to British

MP George Galloway to find such a person but someone must expose the

lickspittles of this administration and remove the curtain covering

the Wizard of Oz.

 

With our current politicized judicial system there are few independent

counsels left with the stature of Lawrence Walsh who exposed the

Reagan-Bush administration's Iran-Contra operatives. Walsh's efforts

came to naught when then President George H. W. Bush pardoned six of

the key figures and the Democratic-controlled Congress allowed him to

get away with it. Several Iran-Contra operatives have returned to the

current administration in prominent policy-making positions of power. [2]

 

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

 

FEMA was created by a series of executive orders that were issued by

the president. It was conceived and constructed by Executive Order

12148 during the Carter administration to respond to nuclear attack.

The reasoning behind its formation was for a system to be in place to

coordinate governmental functions in the event that Washington, DC,

was attacked. FEMA, with no congressional oversight, has grown into a

governmental leviathan akin to a monstrous sea creature. Rep. Ron Paul

(R-Texas) refers to FEMA as a " bureaucratic black hole that spends

money without the slightest accountability " [3]

 

Following FEMA's inadequate response to Hurricane Andrew that hit

Florida in 1992, Congress examined the agency and reported that only a

small proportion (about 12 percent) of its budget was actually going

for disaster recovery and relief. Calls by Congress to make the agency

responsive to emergency-disaster regional needs were addressed by the

Clinton administration.

 

FEMA took on both accountability and visibility and recovered from its

former stigma of an agency for political paybacks. It became a model

agency that attracted professionals in disaster recovery such as James Lee Witt. By contrast, Bush's appointee, Joe Albaugh, a

Texas political operative was at the helm on September 11, 2001 when

the next major disaster struck the United States. [4]

 

Intense criticism of FEMA emerged following its response to the 9-11

disaster. In the aftermath restructuring, FEMA lost cabinet status and

was folded into the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The primary

mandate for FEMA became protection from terrorist attack rather than

protection and relief for citizens following natural disasters.

 

According to medical rescue team reports, Cipro to treat Anthrax and

supplies designed for use against chemical attack were in the first

shipment from FEMA to arrive at the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, field

hospital because this response was mandated by the new standardized

emergency protocol. [5]

 

The media portray FEMA as a bungling and inept emergency management

agency and they may be partially correct given its current structure

and leadership. But not withstanding the agency's poor response to

Katrina, the umbrella agency Department of Homeland Security needs

special scrutiny before this tragedy is swept under the rug. In fact,

the federal official with the power to mobilize a massive federal

response to Katrina was Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

According to the National Response Plan, the federal government's

blueprint for how agencies will handle major national disasters or

terrorist incidents, the secretary of DHS was charged with that

responsibility by President Bush in 2003. [6]

 

Homeland Security Fails Tests Along the Way and Bombs with Katrina

 

The media ridiculed Homeland Security's first director, Tom Ridge, for

spending a year in planning the system designed to protect our nation

and then coming up with color coding for disaster alerts, along with

timely advice to prepare our homes with plastic sheets and duct tape

in the event of biochemical or biological attacks. Crayolas are still

used to alert the people that trouble is afoot in our land, but no

amount of prose, color-coding or duct tape can shut off the horror

we've just witnessed in New Orleans with FEMA directly obstructing

relief efforts by groups and individuals who were trying to rescue

people and save lives.

 

Tom Ridge got out just in time. Michael Brown was not so lucky. He has

now resigned from FEMA with enough bad publicity that he may find the

job market rather tight. His replacement, David Paulison, is the

person responsible for the duct tape and plastic solution to

biological, chemical or radiological attacks issued by DHS in 2003.

President Bush has promised him the full support of the federal

government as he comes up to speed. I await Jon Stewart's commentary

on this appointment.

 

So far there has been little scrutiny of Michael Chertoff, the new

security czar who holds dual citizenship (Israel and the United

States). Most of the media directed their attention and blame on

Michael Brown, who as FEMA's director was clearly ill prepared to

handle the job. Brown believes he has been scapegoated by the media

and, in part, I agree. This debacle is much larger than merely placing

political appointees in positions for which they are unqualified.

 

The Bush administration's response to 9-11 (instill fear-declare a war

on terror-create a bigger and more cumbersome leviathan) has left us

as a nation bloated and weakened in hope. We will not survive this

assault unless a majority of citizens demand that their elected

representative examine and change the structure that paralyzed New

Orleans and much of Louisiana in September 2005. Congress must be

coerced to do their job of oversight and the Senate forced to do its

job by mandating an independent commission to investigate how and why

the system failed. This will not happen unless we ask the right

questions and demand answers. We lose the big picture if we look at

job performance and credentials of individuals without understanding

the structure in which these people have been placed.

 

The response of Congress to date has been to pour $52 billion into

FEMA. Congressman Ron Paul reported that the original $10 billion

authorized by Congress, which the Republican leadership would not

permit any debate on, was spent in a matter of days. [3]

 

Remember the first rule of science and organizations: Structure

determines function. FEMA has been allowed to function as a political

burrow for various administrations to conduct business away from

scrutiny or oversight. Its major purpose has not been fulfilled if

that function is to assist areas and persons afflicted by monstrous

disasters.

 

Most of us, like the mayor of New Orleans and governor of Louisiana,

expected that when they declared a state disaster emergency Friday,

August 26, and called for help it would be forthcoming. This was a

false assumption that many of us made as we waited for help to arrive

to aid the disaster area. Each day Americans and the world faced a new

visual horror.

 

For those who watched the Tim Russert program on September 4, a full

10 days into the disaster, in which Aaron Broussard, the president of

Jefferson Parish emotionally described FEMA officials blocking help

from arriving and then recounting the death by drowning of his

associate's mother in a nursing home, we recoiled from this reality.

Many of us wept along with Broussard. This happened in our country, in

this century under the watch of George Bush.

 

Changing of the Guard is Mere Window Dressing

 

Changing personnel is not the answer to FEMA's problem. The American

people need to demand that the structure of FEMA and Homeland Security

be carefully examined by an independent commission that is willing to

go back to the drawing board and demand that the structure fit the

needs of the United States in the 21st Century.

 

The old U.S. Post Office model of political cronyism will destroy us

as surely as it destroyed New Orleans. President Bush has used the

FEMA mechanism to funnel what is known in political circles as

" walking around money. " Large sums of " hurricane relief " money were

dispersed in Florida prior to the November 2004 election allegedly to

buy votes in a state that was critical for Bush to carry. [7] This is

" walking around money " in its most blatant form.

 

One need only examine each of the 10 regional FEMA districts for an

education on its structure, function and personnel. [8] If we examine

only two, Regions VI and X, the problems are evident for disasters

waiting to happen or as in the case of Region VI, the disaster has

already occurred. FEMA Region VI includes Arkansas, Louisiana, New

Mexico and Texas.

 

Region VI Acting Director Gary Jones' official resumŽ lists 41 years

of government experience. He holds a bachelor's degree in education

from the University of Arkansas and a master's degree from Tulane

University. (The years those degrees were awarded are not available.)

He has served as acting director on four other separate occasions. Is

this political cronyism? Only an independent investigation could

determine why the leadership in Region VI failed so miserably in

Louisiana and New Orleans.

 

The case for political cronyism is abundantly clear in Region X an

area responsible for Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska. John

Pennington was appointed as FEMA regional director in December 2001.

He was promoted by former Republican Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn who

chaired the 2000 Washington State Committee to Elect Bush president.

Dunn called Pennington " a natural " after reviewing his work on that

political committee. Mr. Pennington holds a BS degree from California

Coast University, a correspondence school, which at the time that

Pennington obtained his degree was nonaccredited.

 

With our present framework in governmental practice, Dr. Lawrence

Peter's Principle has played itself out from the level of the

president downward. An old Yiddish proverb states that the fish stinks

from the head. Not to put too fine a point on the state of the union,

but there is a smell emitting from New Orleans that should cause

Americans to either purchase gas masks or decide to clean up the

garbage in DC and beyond.

 

Homeland Security and FEMA have failed a massive systems test, and in

the language of No child left behind, failure will no longer be

tolerated. To members of the House and Senate, the message is clear.

Fix the structure or you will lose your jobs! We cannot wait for the

next disaster to find out that the U.S. Cavalry is a no-show charade

directed by incompetents placed into a Hydra-headed bureaucracy by a

president addicted to cronyism. It is a false premise to believe that

the United States can be fully protected from either natural or

manmade disasters. But can we at least have an adequate response to

disaster to minimize damage?

 

[1] Jordan, Lara Jakes (September 14, 2005) Senate Kills Bid for

Katrina Commission. Associated Press

 

[2] Kornbluh, Peter (May 7, 2001). Bush's Contra Buddies.

 

[3 ] Ron Paul (September 12, 2005). Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk.

 

[4] Benjamin, Mark (September 17, 2005). The Crony who prospered.

Salon.com

 

[5] Burger, Julian & Campbell, Duncan, (September 3, 2005). Why did

help take so long to arrive? The Guardian UK.

 

[6] Landry, J.S., Young, A. & McCaffrey, S. (September 13, 2005).

Chertoff delayed federal response memo shows. Knight Ridder.

 

[7] O'Matz, Megan & Kestin, Sally (March 23, 2005) State Records show

Bush re-election concerns played part in FEMA Aid. Sun Sentinel.com

 

[8] http://fema.gov/regions/index/shtm

© 2005 Sara S. DeHart, MSN, PhD, Associate Professor Emeritus,

University of Minnesota. Dr. DeHart is a freelance writer and

democracy activist, living in the Seattle, Washington area. She may be

contacted at Sara.

dehart.ss

 

 

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