NationStates Jolt Archive

My apologies if this came up in depth before, but some curious things have come to light publicly in the past couple of days regarding the Hurricane Katrina/FEMA/Administration/New Orleans scenario ...
The first article is largely intact.

Katrina: Brown Blames White House
Ex-FEMA Chief Gives Testimony
http://www.courant.com/news/politics/hc-brown0211.artfeb11,0,520981.story?coll=hc-headlines-politics
February 11, 2006

By DAVID LIGHTMAN, Washington Bureau Chief WASHINGTON -- Former federal emergency czar Michael Brown, who for months has shouldered much of the blame for the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, pointed the finger at the White House Friday, saying he told top officials there on the day the storm struck that New Orleans was being flooded.

The White House and Department of Homeland Security officials have said they were not aware of the storm's severity until the next day, and President Bush has said, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

But Brown methodically described how he briefed top officials - one of whom he thought was Deputy Chief of Staff Joseph Hagin - on Aug. 29, the day the storm made landfall.

"I think I told him that we were realizing our worst nightmare, that everything we had planned about, worried about, that FEMA, frankly, had worried about for 10 years was coming true," Brown said. Hagin was with Bush at his ranch in Texas at the time, and then traveling west.

Brown said that before the hurricane hit, and immediately after it made landfall, he was in regular touch with the White House, speaking occasionally to Bush - and often bypassing his superiors at the Department of Homeland Security. He could not recall whether he told the White House specifically on Aug. 29 that the levees had been breached.

"I would say he was involved," Brown said of Bush. Brown resigned under pressure as Federal Emergency Management Agency director shortly after Katrina struck the coast.

At the White House, Press Secretary Scott McClellan said Friday that officials had received conflicting accounts of the status of the levees. Homeland Security officials testified Friday that Brown did not keep them fully informed of the hurricane's impact.
...
"Michael Brown made some serious mistakes," said Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn., the committee's top Democrat, "but for anybody to say the outrageously unacceptable response of the U.S. government was Michael Brown's fault is wrong. The blame goes all around the Department of Homeland Security, including its top levels, as well as state and local governments."
...
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who was often the target of Brown's scorn Friday, is scheduled to testify Tuesday.

Two of Chertoff's key deputies Friday defended the secretary's response to Katrina. Robert B. Stephan, assistant secretary for infrastructure protection, suggested that Brown had failed to keep the department properly informed.

Brown conceded he often did not talk to Chertoff at crucial moments because it would have been "a waste of time."

"If I needed the Army to do something, rather than waste the time to call Secretary Chertoff and then have him call somebody else, I'd rather just call Andy Card or Joe Hagin and say, `This is what I need,' and it gets done." Card is the president's chief of staff.

Brown dismissed previous claims by Homeland Security officials that he did not keep them up to date on the severity of the situation as "just baloney."
...
Brown, who lost his cool only once during 3½ hours of grilling, was a sharp contrast to the emotional, angry witness who appeared before a House committee in September drinking a Diet Pepsi and defending himself before finger-pointing congressmen.

Brown said that in the days before, during and after the hurricane, he was in close touch with the White House because he found it easier than having to deal with Homeland Security's "additional bureaucracy."

As the storm hurtled toward the Gulf Coast, "I literally called the president and asked him to call [Louisiana] Governor [Kathleen] Blanco and to call the mayor [of New Orleans] and do everything he could within his persuasive powers to convince them to do a mandatory evacuation," Brown said.
---
Noted, this doesn't include Brown's current line of work.

For contrast :
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/politics/3654358.html


Feb. 12, 2006, 7:14PM
House Probe on Katrina Woes Spreads Blame
By LARA JAKES JORDAN Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Unheeded warnings, poor planning and apathy in recognizing the scope of Hurricane Katrina's destruction led to the slow emergency response from the White House down to local parishes, a House investigation concludes.
The 600-page report by a special Republican-dominated House inquiry into one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history concluded that late state and local evacuation orders exacerbated an untrained and inexperienced force of federal emergency responders.

It also said President Bush received poor and incomplete counsel about the crisis unfolding in the Gulf Coast.

Overall, the House report said, the federal government's response to Katrina was marked by "fecklessness, flailing and organizational paralysis."

"Our investigation revealed that Katrina was a national failure, an abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare," said a summary of the scathing report obtained Sunday by The Associated Press.

"At every level _ individual, corporate, philanthropic, and governmental _ we failed to meet the challenge that was Katrina," the report concluded.

"In this cautionary tale, all the little pigs built houses of straw."

The House findings mark the first of two congressional inquiries and a White House review of the storm response expected over the next six weeks.

On Monday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee was to continue its own investigation into the Aug. 29 storm response by examining potentially widespread abuse in federal emergency cash assistance programs for disaster victims. Up to 900,000 of 2.5 million applicants received aid based on duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers, or false addresses and names, congressional investigators found.

"Everything that we have found ... confirms exactly the indictment of the House Republicans," Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, that committee's top Democrat, said Sunday. "It's shocking and it is unsettling."

Excerpts released from the House report, which issued a total of 90 separate findings, spreads the blame through all levels of government.

Among the conclusions:

_Late decisions by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco to issue mandatory evacuations in the New Orleans area led to deaths and prolonged suffering.

_The White House was unable to effectively sort through conflicting reports about levee breaches and other disaster developments, preventing rapid relief.

_The Federal Emergency Management Agency suffered from a lack of trained and experienced personnel.

_Military assistance was invaluable, but the military failed to coordinate with state, local and other federal assistance organizations.

_Government officials at all levels failed to take into account lessons learned from a 2004 fictional storm exercise, dubbed Hurricane Pam, that was supposed to specifically test the region's readiness.

The House investigation criticized Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's actions, saying his overall responsibilities for the federal disaster relief were fulfilled "either late, ineffectively or not at all."

The special report concluded that Chertoff unnecessarily delayed naming a top federal coordinator for relief efforts and the activation of an internal disaster management group. More prompt action by Chertoff would have quickened the relief effort, the report said.

The House report also faulted Chertoff for not following a response plan specifically for catastrophic disasters.

In blistering testimony Friday, former FEMA director Michael Brown said Chertoff had marginalized the agency's role in the Homeland Security Department, which he said was focused more on fighting terrorism than preparing and responding to natural disasters.

In an interview Sunday, the department's deputy secretary, Michael Jackson, called Brown's testimony "an unconscionable misrepresentation" and said the former FEMA chief was disgruntled with having to report to Chertoff instead of directly to President Bush.

Chertoff "trusted his incident commander," Jackson said. "What we saw Friday was an acknowledgment by the incident commander that he had betrayed that trust and blatantly disregarded his obligations to his boss and responsibilities."

An investigator who helped write the House report said Sunday that Chertoff was no more to blame for the sluggish response than other government authorities.

White House spokesman Trent Duffy said Bush was "engaged and fully involved in the response efforts," noting that the president declared Katrina a disaster before the storm hit and make a personal plea for citizens to evacuate.

"He knew full well the danger of the storm and the threat it posed," Duffy said Sunday night. "But when he wasn't satisfied, he was the first to stand up and take responsibility."

The special House panel, chaired by Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., was boycotted by Democratic leaders who called for an independent inquiry of the government's failings similar to that of the 9/11 Commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

But two Democrats who participated in the House inquiry, while widely praising the draft report, said it should have called for removing Chertoff from his job.

"The Department of Homeland Security needs new and more experienced leadership," said Reps. Charlie Melancon and William Jefferson, both of Louisiana.

Details of the House findings were first reported in Sunday's editions of The Washington Post.
---

I do wish Brown had said some of this earlier, because now it can be spun as sour grapes by the guy who got fired. Yes, there's documentary evidence that Brown was in touch, but most people won't ever hear that part of the story--they'll hear "the guy that got fired is now blaming other people" and they'll think "yeah, he's just pissed at his bosses."

Do I sound cynical?

I do wish Brown had said some of this earlier, because now it can be spun as sour grapes by the guy who got fired. Yes, there's documentary evidence that Brown was in touch, but most people won't ever hear that part of the story--they'll hear "the guy that got fired is now blaming other people" and they'll think "yeah, he's just pissed at his bosses."

Do I sound cynical?
Actually you sound (a)educated/experienced, and (b)pretty much as one should hope to expect.

Not much about the rolling-sleeves issue, but as i'd mentioned about his current line of work, he could just as easily have slid off into ignonimy and obsequious obscurity.
Maybe even an honorary ambassadorship, given the nature of this particular administration ...

And the humiliation continues ...

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1159098,00.html

Storm Warning: More Katrina Critique
The public flogging of the White House's inept response will continue this week
By ERIC ROSTON/WASHINGTON

Posted Monday, Feb. 13, 2006
After a week that ended with former FEMA Director Michael Brown contradicting the White House's previous statements that it wasn't aware of the full extent of the flooding in New Orleans until the Tuesday after Hurricane Katrina hit, the last thing the Bush Administration wants to hear is more about the federal government's inept response to the nation's worst natural disaster ever.

Unfortunately, that's just what it will get this week. While Congress will spend some time starting to dig deep into the President's proposed fiscal 2007 budget and surely chatter on about the controversial wiretapping program, the communication breakdown surrounding Katrina will continue to dominate the discussion in the nation's capital.

The Senate Homeland Security Committee will release on Wednesday a blistering report on the federal government's preparation for and response to Katrina. Material leaked to the Associated Press this weekend charges the Administration with "fecklessness, flailing and organizational paralysis" before, during and after the storm. Senate investigators damn the federal response at all levels, and flag structural conflicts between agencies that will demand administrative or legislative fixes.

The Administration will also yet again have to watch one of its own get grilled by Congress. On Tuesday, as the president bounces from a photo-op with the NCAA Football champion University of Texas Longhorns (NCAA football champs) to a Valentine's Day dinner, his Homeland Security Secretary chief, Michael Chertoff, takes the hotseat in the final Senate hearings on Hurricane Katrina. Senators will ask Chertoff to explain the agency's performance during the disaster, his own knowledge of events, and, possibly, why cable news reporters appeared to know more about the decaying scene inside the New Orleans Convention Center than the department.

Chertoff may also have to answer tough questions about Defense Department-Homeland Security cooperation raised by a Pentagon official during last week's hearings. Paul McHale, Pentagon's assistant secretary for Homeland Security, testified last Thursday about inherent conflicts among federal authorities: the Homeland Security Department's role as coordinating hub for national disasters and the military's direct line of authority from the President. Keep non-Defense officials outside of the traditional chain-of-command, McHale argued: "Placing a FEMA official or a DHS official in command—placing that civilian (from) outside the Department of Defense within the military chain of command violates (the 1986) Goldwater-Nichols (Act) and is a bad idea. You can decide whether or not it would have been a good idea for (FEMA Director Michael) Brown to have command authority over General Honore's forces in New Orleans."

Homeland Security's level of cooperation with the Justice Department may also come under scrutiny. At last week's hearings, Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, who is ranking member of the committee, raised concerns about the Homeland Security Department's failure to coordinate timely deployment of DOJ law enforcement personnel, such as FBI or ATF officers, to the region. Michael Brown, who resigned in disgrace shortly after the Katrina disaster, lambasted the Homeland Security Department's response during his own testimony last Friday. Considering how tough the former Bush pal known as Brownie was on the Bush Administration's bungled response, the White House must shudder to think how rough his real opponents on Capitol Hill will be.

---
EDIT:
A little bit of Brownie's background, for those who didn't already catch it ...

...
...city spokeswoman told Time magazine that Brown had actually worked as "an assistant to the city manager."

"The assistant is more like an intern," Claudia Deakins told the magazine. "Department heads did not report to him." Time posted the article on its Web site late on Thursday.

On Friday, Deakins issued a clarification of her remarks to Time, saying that she did not actually work in Edmond at the same time as Brown, and therefore cannot speak with any authority about his assignments at the time.

"I regret any misunderstandings that may have occurred as a result of my comments," Deakins said.

A former mayor of Edmond, Randel Shadid, confirmed Friday that Brown was an assistant to the city manager. Shadid told The Associated Press that Brown had never been an assistant city manager, though.

Brown, a lawyer, was appointed as FEMA's general counsel in 2001 and became head of the agency in 2003. The work in Edmond is the only previous disaster-related experience cited in the biographies. Brown served as commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association before taking the FEMA job.
...


The Washington Post reported on Friday that five of eight top FEMA officials had come to their jobs with virtually no experience in handling disasters. The agency's top three leaders, including Brown, had ties to Bush's 2000 presidential campaign or the White House advance operation.

Former Edmond city manager Bill Dashner recalled for Time that Brown had worked for him as an administrative assistant while attending Central State University.

"Mike used to handle a lot of details. Every now and again I'd ask him to write me a speech. He was very loyal. He was always on time. He always had on a suit and a starched white shirt," Dashner told Time.

While Brown ran horse shows in his last private-sector job, FEMA's No. 2 man, deputy director and chief of staff Patrick Rhode, was an advance man for the Bush-Cheney campaign and White House. He also did short stints at the Commerce Department and Small Business Administration.

Rhode's biography posted on FEMA's Web site doesn't indicate he has any real experience in emergency response.

In addition, the agency's former third-ranking official, deputy chief of staff Scott Morris, was a PR expert who worked for Maverick Media, the Texas outfit that produced TV and radio spots for the Bush-Cheney campaign. In June, Morris moved to Florida to become FEMA's long-term recovery director.

"The Bush administration has apparently transformed FEMA from a professional, world-class emergency responder into a dumping ground for former campaign staff and political hacks," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan).

FEMA also is hampered by several midlevel and regional director's jobs currently held by acting directors.

"Just like our military, FEMA should be immune to this kind of political staffing. It should be run by career emergency response professionals," Maloney added.

Traditionally, the Commerce and Labor departments have long been Washington's dumping ground for presidential pals and campaign operatives - not the disaster relief agency.

Government sources blame Bush's first FEMA director, Joe Allbaugh, with turning FEMA into a patronage shop.

He was chief of staff when Bush was Texas' governor and later headed the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign.

"He stacked the deck with political appointees," a knowledgeable source said of Allbaugh, who had a reputation for running an efficient FEMA operation until he left the job in March 2003.

Do I sound cynical?
Yes, but this is nothing new. :)

There is much I could say right now, but I will not.

Suffice it to say that I am deeply and profoundly angry at the entirety of my government over this thing. I am sick to death of the finger pointers, though.

Why won't someone just stand up and take responsibility? What happened to the spirit of "the buck stops here"?

I recently stated that I had 4 guests in my home who are displaced due to Katrina. I now have 3 more because of hotel evictions. Unfortunately, I don't have the space to take in any more. I can only count my blessings that most of them have found jobs and are well on their way to finding apartments in the Houston area.

Yes, yes ... I know ... people will want to say, "Oh they had ample opportunity to file the extension paperwork!" Yes, they did. Guess what ... 90% of those extensions were 3 DAY extensions. 3 whole days. Oh thank you, FEMA. God bless you!

Also, I've seen the paperwork. I helped a few people fill it out and file it. It was confusing to me and I do my own taxes! Imagine being a poor, undereducated swamp rat trying to decipher this mess. Not to mention a poor, undereducated swamp rat who's suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder - no, that's not just for combat vets anymore.

It makes my blood boil. FEMA wants to clear its books. Nothing more. They don't give a rat's ass about these people.

Sorry ... I better duck out now before I cyber punch an NS wall.

Isn't everyone to blame for this?

Isn't everyone to blame for this?
Like you or me? :rolleyes:
That's what the investigations are supposed to determine.
To be fair, this issue has been argued about quite a bit here, but these are of course the latest developments. My biggest thing was about Brownie's response, and Chertoff.

Like you or me? :rolleyes:
That's what the investigations are supposed to determine.
To be fair, this issue has been argued about quite a bit here, but these are of course the latest developments. My biggest thing was about Brownie's response, and Chertoff.

I thought that all government branches got the blame for this.

I thought that all government branches got the blame for this.
Well, that's why i go through the trouble of posting the latest dvpmnt's regarding it, so if opinions differ, they can look to source material. *nods*
Some people just post links, but for MANY here, that simply ain't good enough. Some people need more explaining to them than others. :(

There's clearly more than enough blame to go around for all concerned. And it would be nice indeed, if someone would step up and state "I screwed up." But I don't think that is going to happen. The closest we ever got to that was Brown's admission that FEMA was more than a little bit slow in its response time. But Mayor Nagin shares some of the blame, (ignoring repeatedly Army Corps of Engineer evaluations of the levees ability to withstand a Catagory 4 storm) as does Kathleen Blanco (the fiasco that came of the evacuation of New Orleans after the fact - what do you mean, available school buses won't be good enough?). But what disturbed me about the whole affair, more than anything, was the scapegoating job done on Brown, by the Bush administration, who though slow to move into action, at least was not outright negligent in his actions, and certainly did not deserve his being fed to the wolves.

Thanks for the articles, Straughn.

Well, that's why i go through the trouble of posting the latest dvpmnt's regarding it, so if opinions differ, they can look to source material. *nods*
Some people just post links, but for MANY here, that simply ain't good enough. Some people need more explaining to them than others. :(

Well personanly speaking, i'm not politically inclined and not really up on what is happening so I thank you for giving me something to read to help cure my insomnia.

There's clearly more than enough blame to go around for all concerned. And it would be nice indeed, if someone would step up and state "I screwed up." But I don't think that is going to happen. The closest we ever got to that was Brown's admission that FEMA was more than a little bit slow in its response time. But Mayor Nagin shares some of the blame, (ignoring repeatedly Army Corps of Engineer evaluations of the levees ability to withstand a Catagory 4 storm) as does Kathleen Blanco (the fiasco that came of the evacuation of New Orleans after the fact - what do you mean, available school buses won't be good enough?). But what disturbed me about the whole affair, more than anything, was the scapegoating job done on Brown, by the Bush administration, who though slow to move into action, at least was not outright negligent in his actions, and certainly did not deserve his being fed to the wolves.

Thanks for the articles, Straughn.
No problem. As well, my condolences for those of us for whom this situation was more of a burden and hardship for than those of us who are more removed.

Long post from another site, but worth reading:
http://www.russbaker.com/TomPaine_com%20-%20FEMA's%20Unholy%20Trinity.htm
Once in Washington, Allbaugh and Brown characterized themselves as long-time friends, and were content to leave the impression that they knew each other from college and Republican circles. But lifelong associates of both men say that is untrue. Indeed, the association between the two appears to have been a largely covert one, based less on selfless brotherhood than on mutual self-interest, as represented by a series of murky business ventures.
Both Brown and Allbaugh were accused in the past of fiduciary malfeasance. Before coming to Washington, both were known to associates and creditors not as rising stars but as ethically-challenged, and frequently failed, entrepreneurs. Allbaugh filed for personal bankruptcy in 1990, writing off $300 000US in debts.
When these two men faced confirmation hearings in senate, they both lied under oath that they'd never been involved in civil litergation. The two also failed to reveal their prior business ties.
In one business venture, Allbaugh worked for Brown, as a lobbyist. In another, Allbaugh partnered with Brown’s brother-in-law and sister-in-law. That business involved mysterious, large amounts of cash that upset Allbaugh’s then-wife, and contributed to their divorce. One Allbaugh business partner would later be convicted of mail and wire fraud and serve time in a federal prison.
Brown, who was brought into FEMA initially by Allbaugh to run the legal operation, has a history as a failed low-level lawyer, replete with discontented clients, unhappy employers and damaging lawsuits.
Brown and Allbaugh had apparently agreed on Brown’s role in the Bush administration well in advance. For six months prior to Bush’s election in 2000, Brown was telling incredulous associates that he expected to land a high position in Washington. When Katrina struck, Brown was known to be planning his own exit—presumably to profit from his own FEMA ties.
At FEMA, Allbaugh launched a purge, forcing out many of the most experienced officials that had been installed by then president Clinton, and replacing them with political operatives loyal to Bush, but lacking in disaster experience. Allbaugh and Brown also abandoned a recent agency tradition of hiring experienced professionals and filled high FEMA positions with political operatives lacking familiarity with emergency disaster management.
Allbaugh edged out his #2, one of the most experienced men in government, in order to replace him with Brown.
Under Allbaugh and Brown, FEMA changed the way in which the agency handled contracts, awarding them to numerous firms with political connections but little in the way of corporate infrastructure to handle the work. Some of these recipients were merely Enron-style shell corporations that subcontracted all the work to others, keeping a sizable share of the profits.
When Allbaugh left FEMA, he immediately began setting up a network of lobbying interests to benefit from his connections. His clients quickly won major contracts from several government agencies, notably the Brown-led FEMA.
One example of the way FEMA did business under Brown: In 2003, the agency, which had been dealing directly on a non-exclusive basis with a number of large bottled water suppliers, suddenly issued a sole-source contract to a tiny, politically connected firm that had to turn to other companies to supply water. This cumbersome arrangement is blamed for substantial problems with deliveries of water following Hurricane Katrina.


Makes one wonder why, when Brown was brought before senate last friday, the question about why he was put in charge of FEMA by his long-time business pal Allbaugh never came up.

Well personanly speaking, i'm not politically inclined and not really up on what is happening so I thank you for giving me something to read to help cure my insomnia.
Well, it would seem this forum could be more than just a place for people who aren't ever likely to agree to spit fire & brimstone at each other, and to post innocuous-looking links that actually take you to some of the racier porn sites.
And smilies.

EDIT:Also, i'm encountering a strange Reply malfunction to this particular post. Curious.

Long post from another site, but worth reading:
http://www.russbaker.com/TomPaine_com%20-%20FEMA's%20Unholy%20Trinity.htm

Makes one wonder why, when Brown was brought before senate last friday, the question about why he was put in charge of FEMA by his long-time business pal Allbaugh never came up.
...and the plop thickens! :eek:

They all pointed their fingers at Brown,
He's the one thats going down,
Even though he pleaded with Bush,
All he did was sit on his tush,
And all we can do is frown. :(

They all pointed their fingers at Brown,
He's the one thats going down,
Even though he pleaded with Bush,
All he did was sit on his tush,
And all we can do is frown. :(
"Oodles of green noodles make blue poodles jump der strudel." !!!!
:D
Free verse or reprint?
Don't forget .. he did roll up his sleeves ...

"Oodles of green noodles make blue poodles jump der strudel." !!!!
:D
Free verse or reprint?
Don't forget .. he did roll up his sleeves ...
Bush finally went to the town,
And looked up and down,
He rolled up his sleeves,
Because it was hot, no breeze,
Then he posed like a clown.


Heckuva job, Brownie!!


http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/images/1230-01.jpg

Bush finally went to the town,
And looked up and down,
He rolled up his sleeves,
Because it was hot, no breeze,
Then he posed like a clown.


Heckuva job, Brownie!!


http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/images/1230-01.jpg
WooT!
You know, if that was original, i should hope you copyrighted your limerick. :)
You know us NS types and our "flexible morality".

Well, it's likely to be a tumultuous week regarding this issue, as if the prior posts weren't enough already ...

*ahem*

Posted on Mon, Feb. 13, 2006
Experts question Chertoff's plan to fix FEMA
BY SETH BORENSTEIN
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON - The key to fixing the problems that bedeviled the federal response to Hurricane Katrina is in the details, top Bush administration disaster officials said Monday. They proposed high-tech tracking of relief supplies, more federal disaster workers and a beefier Homeland Security Department.
But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's new disaster response plan fails to address the poor leadership that became apparent after Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast, outside disaster experts and administration critics said. Two Louisiana Democratic congressmen even called for Chertoff's ouster.
Monday's proposals came as House of Representatives investigators prepare to release a report on Wednesday that faults Chertoff for lapses during Katrina. His agency also is struggling to find a permanent replacement for Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown, who resigned last fall in the days following Katrina's devastation.
At a meeting of state emergency management officials in Virginia on Monday, Chertoff said: "Our most urgent priority in the near term is to take a hard, honest look at what we can do to improve our response capability and make substantial progress toward that goal by the looming hurricane season."
Those state disaster officials, who are normally among the first to respond in a crisis, said that they're hearing some good proposals from Bush administration officials, but added that they're upset that the president is cutting federal planning money. On Tuesday, an association of state disaster officials will ask Congress to appropriate $250 million a year in planning funds. The Bush administration has proposed $170 million for the 2007 fiscal year, $13 million less than the budget for 2006.
At least four state disaster professionals have turned down overtures to run the FEMA, several emergency management officials told Knight Ridder.
On Tuesday, Chertoff will appear before the same Senate committee that heard former FEMA Director Brown lambaste his boss last week for tying his hands during the hurricane and for being obsessed instead with fighting terrorism.
Chertoff's decisions during Katrina are under scrutiny as details of the House's Katrina investigation emerge. Knight Ridder reported on Sept. 13 that Chertoff was responsible for the slow activation of the federal catastrophe plan.
"Perhaps the single most important question the (House) Select Committee has struggled to answer is why the federal response did not adequately anticipate the consequences of Katrina striking New Orleans," the House report concludes, according to a 59-page addendum released Monday by two Democratic congressmen. "At least part of the answer lies in the Secretary's failure to invoke the national response plan ... to clearly and forcefully instruct everyone involved with the federal response to be proactive."
The best way to strengthen disaster response is to remove FEMA from the Homeland Security Department and have the FEMA chief report directly to the president, as in the past, said Gen. Julius Becton, who was the FEMA director during the Reagan administration.
"As long as you require the FEMA director to go through two and three levels of bureaucracy to get a decision from the president, you're going to have a major problem," Becton said.
White House homeland security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend said Monday that she would release the results of her White House investigation later this month. That investigation found more than 100 changes that should be made to federal disaster planning.
Chertoff, in the first of four Bush administration officials' speeches to state emergency management officials on Monday, dismissed Brown's claims that Homeland Security was terrorism-obsessed, saying, "That kind of wedge makes no sense."
Chertoff outlined a stronger, more seamless Department of Homeland Security, with FEMA as one of many players, saying it's important to act "not as lone rangers, but as a unified team."
Chertoff presented several detailed-oriented proposals to Katrina problems. He talked of hiring more disaster professionals. He mentioned Federal Express-like tracking of relief supplies, improved emergency communications systems and better service to disaster victims. The communication problem was faulted by Sept. 11 investigators as a key issue in hampering rescue attempts during the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center.
Alabama disaster chief Bruce Baughman called the proposals "a good launch in the right direction," but other disaster experts said it wasn't aimed well. They pointed to a recent Government Accountability Office report and to the upcoming House report, saying the problem is leadership and accountability and that it starts at the Department of Homeland Security.
Penn State University public administration professor Beverly Cigler, who studied the response to Katrina for an association of public administration professionals, said some of the administration's changes would make matters worse by removing preparedness from FEMA.
"The way it is now, none of these piecemeal things will deal with FEMA being buried in a gigantic bureaucracy," Cigler said. "I think we are in worse shape now than we were pre-Katrina."
That's not the direction the Bush administration is heading, Townsend said.
"We must restore and re-earn your confidence and trust," Townsend said. "So if someone says, `I'm from the federal government and I'm here to help,' you can believe it and not laugh."

And on a related note ...

*ahem*

WASHINGTON — The government squandered millions of dollars in Katrina disaster aid, including handing $2,000 debit cards to people who gave phony Social Security numbers and used the money for such items as a $450 tattoo, auditors said Monday.

Federal money also paid for $375-a-day beachfront condos and 10,777 trailers that were stuck in mud and unusable.

Overcharges, poor accounting and abuses will take "months or years" to rectify, the Government Accountability Office and the Homeland Security Department's inspector general concluded in preliminary reports on how billions of dollars in taxpayer money is being spent.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency recognizes it "made many, many mistakes," and is working on improvement, said Homeland Security inspector general Richard Skinner. "But they're not where they should be. In some cases, the government will have little legal recourse to recoup payments to contractors."

Separately, the Justice Department said Monday that federal prosecutors had filed fraud, theft and other charges against 212 people accused of scams related to Gulf Coast hurricanes.

Forty people have pleaded guilty so far, according to the latest report by the Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force. Many defendants were accused of trying to obtain emergency aid, typically a $2,000 debit card, issued to hurricane victims by FEMA and the American Red Cross.

The GAO report found that up to 900,000 of the 2.5 million applicants who received aid under the emergency cash assistance program — which included the debit cards — based their requests on duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers, or false addresses and names.

In other instances, recipients improperly used their debit cards intended for food and shelter for $400 massages, a $450 tattoo, a $1,100 diamond engagement ring and $150 worth of products at "Condoms to Go."

"It was a mess. It was a system that was wide open to fraud," said Gregory Kutz, who led the investigation for the GAO. "All you had to do was call FEMA on the telephone and lie and you could get money. It was just a question of how many people were willing to make false statements."

FEMA representatives defended their procedures, saying the urgency of the situation did not allow for strict identity verification and that they were focused on getting aid to desperate families as quickly as possible.
"It was the right thing to do," FEMA spokeswoman Nicol Andrews said. "We helped thousands of families who were forced from their homes without basic necessities. To slow down that process in order to find out who is trying to cheat the system would have hurt those who the system is designed to help."

However, investigators called for stronger controls to verify the eligibility of disaster victims who apply for aid over the phone and Internet, better planning on emergency supplies for hurricanes and improved accounting of FEMA's vast inventory of temporary housing.

Senators decried the problems.

"Once again, FEMA failed to adequately plan for the very type of disaster that occurs virtually every year," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who chairs a Senate panel reviewing the government's response to the storm.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., said hurricane victims and taxpayers alike were being "ripped off. ... It's unacceptable and ultimately infuriating. We need to do everything we can to insist that FEMA and DHS prepare for the next disaster," he said.

The White House and Homeland Security officials defended administration actions.

Responding to findings in a draft House report that the administration disregarded warnings of Katrina's threat to New Orleans and that the president was slow to engage, White House homeland-security adviser Frances Fragos Townsend said, "I reject outright the suggestion that President Bush was anything less than fully involved." (We've dealt with that - O3d)

At a meeting of state emergency-management officials in Virginia on Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff rebuffed the idea that his department was preoccupied with terrorist threats at the expense of natural disasters.

Chertoff proposed a plan to create a full-time FEMA response force of 1,500 employees, instead of relying largely on volunteers; to push "wrenching change" to integrate FEMA within the Homeland Security Department; to increase capacity of its disaster registration systems to handle 200,000 people a day; and to push claims personnel into the field to serve victims instead of requiring them to use the Internet or telephones.

He is scheduled to testify today before a Senate committee.

The audits released Monday do not try to estimate a total dollar figure on waste and abuse, but the GAO's Kutz told senators during a hearing that it was "certainly millions of dollars; it could be tens or hundreds of millions of dollars."