reviving Trumad's ''destruction of FEMA'' thread from 9/1

[Gabi Hayes]

already archived, but has excellent timeline from linked article

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4552583#top

CHRONOLOGY....Here's a timeline that outlines the fate of both FEMA and flood control projects in New Orleans under the Bush administration. Read it and weep:


January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, a crony from Texas, as head of FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in disaster management.


April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush administration's goal of privatizing much of FEMA's work. In May, Allbaugh confirms that FEMA will be downsized: "Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement program...." he said. "Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level."


2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country."


December 2002: After less than two years at FEMA, Allbaugh announces he is leaving to start up a consulting firm that advises companies seeking to do business in Iraq. He is succeeded by his deputy, Michael Brown, who, like Allbaugh, has no previous experience in disaster management.


March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from a cabinet level position and folded into the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is refocused on fighting acts of terrorism.


2003: Under its new organization chart within DHS, FEMA's preparation and planning functions are reassigned to a new Office of Preparedness and Response. FEMA will henceforth focus only on response and recovery.


Summer 2004: FEMA denies Louisiana's pre-disaster mitigation funding requests. Says Jefferson Parish flood zone manager Tom Rodrigue: "You would think we would get maximum consideration....This is what the grant program called for. We were more than qualified for it."


June 2004: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction in New Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management chiefs Walter Maestri comments: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay."


June 2005: Funding for the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is cut by a record $71.2 million. One of the hardest-hit areas is the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was created after the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes.


August 2005: While New Orleans is undergoing a slow motion catastrophe, Bush mugs for the cameras, cuts a cake for John McCain, plays the guitar for Mark Wills, delivers an address about V-J day, and continues with his vacation. When he finally gets around to acknowledging the scope of the unfolding disaster, he delivers only a photo op on Air Force One and a flat, defensive, laundry list speech in the Rose Garden.


A crony with no relevant experience was installed as head of FEMA. Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was known to be one of the top three risks in the country. FEMA was deliberately downsized as part of the Bush administration's conservative agenda. After DHS was created, FEMA's preparation and planning functions were taken away.

Actions have consequences. No one could predict that a hurricane the size of Katrina would hit this year, but the slow federal response when it did happen was no accident. It was the result of four years of deliberate Republican policy and budget choices. It's the Bush administration in a nutshell.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/20...

also, this one, including a brief history of FEMA, how WJC revived it, and how Bushco/Mitch Daniels, etal, have turned it into yet another kleptocrat cesspit
http://www.indyweek.com/durham/2004-09-22/cover.html


''In June {2004, when article was written}, Pleasant Mann, a 16-year FEMA veteran who heads the agency's government employee union, wrote members of Congress to warn of the agency's decay. "Over the past three-and-one-half years, FEMA has gone from being a model agency to being one where funds are being misspent, employee morale has fallen, and our nation's emergency management capability is being eroded," he wrote. "Our professional staff are being systematically replaced by politically connected novices and contractors." ''

[NMDemDist2]

1. nominated, needs to be on the front page, I'll see what I can do n/t

[Gabi Hayes]

2. I found it from Google, looking up "FEMA privatization"

it was on greatest page there, but sank quickly

a shame, cause this is the sort of information everybody should have at their fingertips when confronting ignoramuses who are clueless of the criminal incompetence of this group of psychotic thugs

a caller on a radio show today called them, very aptly, "monsters"

[Gabi Hayes]

3. this is so disgustingly ironic....written just before the BFEE took office

The transformation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency illustrates one way to make 21st century governance work. A decade ago, FEMA was the butt of constant jokes. Wags suggested that every natural disaster was in fact two: one when the tornado, hurricane, earthquake or flood occurred; the other when FEMA’s case workers arrived. In 1993, FEMA Administrator James Lee Witt led a radical turnaround.

He restructured FEMA’s work to get checks into the hands of victims faster. He built a fast-track claim process and upgraded the information systems that process forms. Even Florida officials, enraged by FEMA’s handling of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, had little but praise for the agency’s response to storms in 1998. The key to Witt’s success lay in redefining FEMA’s function. The agency traditionally arrived after a disaster to provide emergency relief and financial assistance. Under Witt, FEMA officials focused more on preventing damage from disasters, through intergovernmental and public-private efforts.

FEMA developed a “life-cycle” model of disaster management. Instead of waiting for a hurricane to hit and dealing with the aftermath, for example, FEMA officials worked closely with state and local officials to improve evacuation plans. They built partnerships with the construction industry to design and build hurricane-resistant houses. FEMA, in short, moved from a limited form of direct service delivery to a complex network-based approach that stretched from the federal government into state and local governments and the private sector.

Witt saw FEMA more as a catalyst than as a service deliverer. He redefined FEMA’s role and rebuilt its capacity to deal with the new role.

http://www.govexec.com/features/0101/0101s1.htm

EVERYTHING they do increases one's anger level. how asymptotic can it get, when you think it's completely impossible for them do be any worse than they are, yet it happens EVERY single day!

[MissMarple]

4. This is so timely. Everyone needs to see this....

again and again.