FEMA: It's More Than Brown

The Washington Post reports Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen, the Coast Guard's chief of staff, was assigned to be FEMA head Michael Brown's deputy and to take over operational control of the search-and-rescue and recovery efforts along the Gulf Coast.

Allen will work with Army Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honore, head of the military's Joint Task Force Katrina, to oversee, manage and lead all military and civilian recovery efforts.

The Post's article, which has nothing but wonderful things to say about Vice Adm. Allen, comes as the Chicago Tribune reports that the top FEMA officials had little or no experience in disaster management before landing in top FEMA posts.

Before joining FEMA in 2001, Brown, was commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association and had virtually no experience in disaster management.

According to the Tribune, no disaster relief experience is listed in the official biography of Brown's top aide, acting deputy director Patrick Rhode. Nor does
FEMA's number three official, acting deputy chief of staff Brooks Altshuler, have emergency management experience.

Earlier today I posted Brown Must Go. I argued that Brown's smoking gun memo, in which he failed to convey an appropriate sense of urgency and expressed concern about public relations will make it impossible for Brown to be perceived as the kind of take charge leader needed to head FEMA.

Matthew Shugart commented that Brown was hired by the president, "despite his lack of any obvious qualifications." The Tribune's report more than adequately supports Matthew's point. Actually, the Tribune report is one of the more compelling arguments I have heard for civil service.

Matthew has a much more important point. He also comments that there is a serious institutional problem with FEMA; burying FEMA in the Department of Homeland Security ("DHS") sowed the seeds for FEMA to become less effective.

In two posts at Fruits and Votes, "FEMA as an institution" and
"Test for government reorganization under DHS," Matthew correctly concludes that Katrina is an important test for the Department of Homeland Security, a test the Department failed in the initial stages.

The Department of Homeland Security is a mistake, one that badly needs correcting. Throwing together 87,000 employees from existing agencies, each with its own distinct organizational culture, is not a smart way to establish an effective entity. I don't have a brilliant easy answer to the institutional problems that are FEMA and DHS. No one does. But it certainly needs to be addressed.

Tags: Katrina, Natural Disasters, New Orleans, flood aid, Hurricane Katrina

Comments

[California Yankee]

Gordon, Good point. Brown's confirmation as Deputy Director of FEMA was decidedly not controversial. I can't find any record about hearings for his confirmaton as head of FEMA or Under Secretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response (EP&R) in the Department of Homeland Security.

[Gordon Jones]

I don't remember any of the Democrats bringing up Mr. Brown's "lack" of qualifications when they confirmed him in 2002.

Where was all that criticism then?