Moonage Political Webdream

"FEMA has become, to many people in America, and particularly the Gulf Coast, a joke, a four-letter word," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

He favored keeping the agency within the Homeland Security Department. FEMA was independent before it was folded into Homeland Security when the department was created after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"It’s time for FEMA to go and to build something better, stronger within DHS to take its place," Lieberman said.

Fair enough. 

Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said he favored making FEMA a Cabinet department.

Davis said FEMA should not be competing for dollars within a department concerned with prevention as well as response, said Davis, who appeared with Lieberman on ABC’s "This Week."

Again, fair enough.  Makes some sense.

Somewhere in there Yahoo implies Lieberman wants this restructuring done before the next hurricane season.  In light of the ongoing changes within DHS, I want to know how he plans on re-structuring an agency that is still dealing with the changes brought on several years ago?  These agencies are massive, complex structures that tie into every single local community.  You can’t just snap your fingers and magically have a new better one in place.  I don’t want snap decisions and actions.  I want a better response, but I want the changes required done in a calculated progressive fashion that does not undermine the ability of FEMA to do its assigned responsibility now.  Hurricanes are not the ONLY responsibility of FEMA. And, simply making them an animal with a different label will not make them any better.  The best thing that can happen to FEMA is a good response to a disaster without political posturing affecting their actions.  Until that happens ( don’t hold your breath ), FEMA will always be the scapegoat of political opportunists.  More went right for FEMA than what went wrong in New Orleans.  Let’s just fix what went wrong and quit attempting to paint the entire agency something it’s not ( a four letter word ).

For what it’s worth, I know Lieberman’s been around long enough to know how complex this issue is.  For that reason, I think he’s just pandering.

• Technorati FEMA, Joe Lieberman

Technorati Tags: Katrina, National Politics

Tags: Katrina, National Politics

No Comments »

Trackback This Post | Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed