Word: fema
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...parking lot for political allies since its creation in 1979, FEMA had improved under the stewardship of Witt during the Clinton years. Staffed by disaster experts, it won bipartisan praise. Even Bush lauded Witt during a debate with Al Gore in 2000 for FEMA's skill at coordinating the resources Washington can bring to a disaster zone when adversity overwhelms local efforts...
...agency's highest ranks began to fill with political chums again once Bush took over. Brown and FEMA's other two top officials have ties to Bush's 2000 campaign or to the White House's advance office, whose primary mission is making the President look good. None had disaster experience. TIME.com reported last week that Brown appears to have padded his own résumé by, among other things, claiming to have been a manager of emergency services in Edmond, Okla., when he was actually "more of an intern," according to a city official...
...FEMA's identity complex worsened after 9/11, when the newly created DHS swallowed it whole. Two months ago, DHS chief Michael Chertoff proposed that FEMA only respond to disasters, not prepare for them. State officials have complained that FEMA is neglecting natural disasters in favor of terrorism. Nearly 75˘ of every dollar that the Federal Government has given to local and state disaster units has been earmarked for terrorism...
...Gulf last week, some of FEMA's bumbling could have been an attempt to compensate for its haste last year after Hurricane Frances struck Florida. The agency ran afoul of federal auditors after it paid $31 million to residents of Miami-Dade, which was 100 miles south of the hurricane...
...there are calls from Capitol Hill to return FEMA to the Cabinet as an independent agency. There are also calls for Brown's head. On Friday the Administration sent Brown back to D.C. and announced that Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen would take over the recovery effort. But, warns Bullock, the problem is bigger than Brown. "The system is broken, and firing Mike Brown is not going...