Ex-FEMA Chiefs (James Lee Witt and Brownie) Say Agency Must Change

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT/AP: Ex-FEMA Chiefs Say Agency Must Change
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 7, 2006

NEW YORK (AP) -- Two former chiefs of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Friday that its new director is destined to fail unless the agency gets better funding and regains independence from the Department of Homeland Security.

James Lee Witt, who ran FEMA during the Clinton administration, and Michael Brown, who resigned after Hurricane Katrina, praised R. David Paulison but said he has been given an impossible job.

''The current structure of FEMA is not going to allow anyone to succeed. It just cannot be done,'' said Brown, who was briefly interrupted during a panel discussion by a heckler angry about the agency's failures in New Orleans.

The Bush administration has been widely criticized for its sluggish response to Katrina.

But Brown and Witt said the agency lost funding and focus when it was absorbed into a giant Homeland Security bureaucracy, making it difficult since at least 2003 to attract qualified people to top jobs....

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-FEMAs-Future.html

[NYC]

1. Now, Brown is an expert.

Not while he was serving the people of New Orleans, but now that he is starting his own consulting firm, and trying to get a contract with Bernard Parish, he is an expert.

[babylonsister]

2. I trust Witt, not Brownie, and totally agree. FEMA needs to be

separate from DHS immediately! I wish this sucky admin would figure that out.

[BattyDem]

3. The agency was fine (thanks to Witt) before BushCo got their hands on it!

:grr: