Analysis: FEMA will stay in DHS
There is a post-Katrina debate in Congress over whether or not FEMA should be made an independent agency; better to leave FEMA in DHS — and give it even more responsibilities and capabilities as the nation’s premier disaster response outfit; the important thing is to appoint a competent, selfless director who will whole-heartedly embrace the reality of FEMA as part of DHS and who will observe the proper chain of command
DHS secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday that problems with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) response to Hurricane Katrina last summer should not be blamed on FEMA being part of DHS. FEMA’s shortcomings were a result of the disaster response agency’s failure to “sufficiently integrate” into DHS, Chertoff told members of the National Hurricane Center in Orlando, Florida. “We can focus on constantly rearranging the deck chairs of government every year or two and guarantee that we will fail, or we can focus on what needs to be done to fix problems,” Chertoff said. “I am focused on fixing the problems.”
There is a debate in Congress over whether FEMA should remain in DHS or made an independent agency again. Yesterday, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee Peter King (R-New York) and other senior lawmakers said FEMA has problems, but it should stay put. “FEMA’s response to Hurricane Katrina left no doubt that the agency needs to be reformed, but simply removing it from the Department of Homeland Security will not address its fundamental problems,” King said in a combined written statement with Representatives Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi), Dave Reichert (R-Washington), and Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-New Jersey). “Removing FEMA from DHS would only exacerbate the agency’s problems. It would reduce FEMA’s access to the vast resources available within the Department, create duplicative response efforts for natural and man-made disasters and significantly delay our ability to prepare for future emergencies.”
Both Chertoff and King are correct. It may well be the case that some early decisions by Tom Ridge on roles and missions were not helpful to FEMA in its role as primary responder to disaster, but the most serious mistake Ridge made was to allow Michael Brown to become FEMA director, and the most serious mistake Chertoff made was to allow Brown to stay in that position. Chertoff hints at the Brown problem by referring to FEMA’s failure to “sufficiently integrate” into DHS. One of the major reasons for that failure was the incessant and corrosive bureaucratic guerrilla warfare Brown conducted against Ridge and Chertoff, and the support given to him by Andy Card, the White House chief of staff who has just resigned. Brown preferred to communicate directly with the White House behind Chertoff’s back. What happened before and during Katrina was merely the most glaring example of intolerable and damaging insubordination: As New Orleans was being battered by Katrina, Brown communicated information to Card’s deputy, telling a congressional committee that he did not bother to communicate with Chertoff because he regarded such communication as a waste of time.
There is no reason to move FEMA out of DHS. On the contrary, the agency should remain in the department and its role and responsibilities expanded, so it is again the government’s first and prime responder to disasters. What would help is having a competent and selfless team-player as director of FEMA, someone who would be concerned with effectively executing his or her responsibilities. What a change that would be compared to the vain, insecure Brown — preoccupied with his bureaucratic status, the color of the shirt he should wear for a TV interview, and whether there was a French restaurant open in Baton Rouge — while New Orleans was drowning.
