The Audacity of Hindsight Could Help FEMA
Last Thursday while we were still engulfed in the attack at Fort Hood, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved legislation removing the Federal Emergency Management Agency from the Department of Homeland Security, returning it to independent, Cabinet-level status if approved. See H.R.1174. Ironic that a few days after a terrorist attack occurs on U.S. soil a House committee takes action which would enhance the Nation's ability to respond to and recover from a disaster, whether natural or man-made.
Most telling in the announcement of the passage of this bill was Congressman John Mica's statement that "The Department [of Homeland Security] has bled FEMA dry of resources, personnel and authority to manage a large disaster. Elevating FEMA as an independent agency will ensure a clear and direct chain of command from the president." The wisdom of that statement is significant. Congressman Mica and the House Transportation Committee members (Democrat & Republican) acknowledge the inherent ways of Washington by making this bold move.
Senator Lieberman continues to espouse the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act as solving all of FEMA's problems. Nothing could be further from the truth nor more disingenuous as to how Washington works. The post-Katrina act made superficial changes to FEMA's structure and exacerbated the matrix approach to management that hinders DHS and FEMA from operating effectively.
The matrix approach taken by Congress in the post-Katrina reform act had the unintended consequence of further embedding the problems that stymied me during the response to Hurricane Katrina. The best example of the matrixed organization is Abbot & Costello's Who's on First. Play it in your mind and you get the gist of the confusion within DHS, between DHS and FEMA, and between state, local and federal agencies during Hurricane Katrina.
In a matrixed-structured organization under the post-Katrina act, the FEMA Administrator is subservient to the DHS Secretary throughout the year. The FEMA Administrator must work through the huge bureaucracy of DHS to get budget approval, authorization for personnel, funding for projects, and even the attention of the Secretary. The FEMA Administrator during "normal" times (i.e. other than during a disaster) must answer to and be accountable to the DHS Secretary, not the President.
To give you some perspective, the FEMA Administrator and his approximately 2,500 employees must fight for resources, funding, personnel and attention in DHS when his operation at FEMA accounts for only 0.01% of the Department's personnel. FEMA has 2500 employees (give or take) versus 200,000 (give or take) in DHS. The FEMA Administrator's CFO, for example, is accountable to both the FEMA Administrator and the DHS CFO and the DHS Undersecretary for Management. That is a matrixed organization in a nutshell. Multiple bosses, conflicting priorities, divided loyalties.
In Washington wisdom, though, that matrixed structure is to be ignored during times of crisis or disaster. Yes, the boss to whom you've groveled and cajoled for funding and resources suddenly is answerable to you when a disaster strikes because now you report directly to the President of the United States. Suddenly, a cabinet member must take direction from you while you step in and report directly to the Commander in Chief. Most egos in Washington can't handle that kind of whiplash. I know those that stood between me and President Bush during Hurricane Katrina couldn't take that whiplash.
Susan Collins is just naïve when she says removing FEMA from Homeland Security would "ignore the input of first-responders and unravel all the impressive gains made in recent months since we passed our FEMA reform law." No one wants to hear that their baby is ugly, but in this case, Senator Collins, your baby is ugly, and has done nothing to correct the systemic problems in FEMA. Only be removing the organization from the DHS behemoth and giving it a direct line to the President, which worked amazingly well from 1979 until 2005, will we have FEMA back to its heyday.
No one in Washington will admit its baby is ugly because in Washington, you can never admit a mistake, or take a step that might be seen as a reversal. In this case, the House Transportation Committee has the audacity of hindsight and is moving forward. Let's hope Washington for once will correct its mistake and just do what's right.
Follow Michael D. Brown on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mikebrowntoday
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What's even more shocking is that after 9/11, conservatives essentially sat on their hands for eight years.
As demonstrated during Katrina, all their loud boasting claims of "preparing the nation" were smoke and bluster. Conservatives not only did nothing, but they even PREVENTED help from entering the area.
James Lee Witt got the job done.
Does anyone with a rudimentary understanding of how life works and the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy think that a person who believes that the nine most dangerous words in the English language are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help" can run government competently?
Republicans tell you government doesn't work. Then they ask for donations and votes so they can prove it.
Yes, James lee Witt got the job done - and let's examine why. He had a direct line to President Clinton. FEMA had cabinet status. FEMA was not buried in a monstrosity with 200,000 employees (remember, FEMA only has about 2500). So, when JLW talked to WJC he was usually able to get what he needed.
Fast forward to post 9/11 and Congress and the Bush Administration create DHS and have FEMA subsumed by it. Credit to Tom Ridge for allowing me to continue to operate with a direct path to the President as evidenced by our successful responses to the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster, 2004 hurricane season, California and western wildfires.
Along comes Chertoff and two things happen. Money for catastrophic disaster planning that I had fought for (yes a Republican asking for more funding) was siphoned off to other programs, as was personnel and other resources. Then, in the midst of Hurricane Katrina Chertoff decides that he's in charge, blocking me from dealing directly with GWB as I had in the first few days. You cannot waste time in the bureaucracy during a disaster. That's what a matrixed organization does - creates unnecessary levels of bureaucracy.
So JLW is a great proponent of exactly what I'm recommending in this article.
Mr. Brown you had a direct link to the President, right?
James Lee Witt got the job done.
Does anyone with a rudimentary understanding of how life works and the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy think that a person who believes that the seven most dangerous words in the English language are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help" can run government competently?
Republicans tell you government doesn't work. Then they ask for donations and votes so they can prove it.
Once people figure out that the gentleman writing this column is, indeed, the infamous "heck of a job,brownie" guy, they will, I'm sure, rush to post various insults and jeers.
However, whatever his shortcomings, consider that he is in a unique postition to be able to point out problems with FEMA and its current position as a part of DHS.
He has been demonized but I have read quite a bit of his stuff and he is
a smart guy with alot of good points.
And who would know more about hindsight than a man so incompetent that he had to be told to stop whatever he was doing and go watch television to get him to do his job?
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