I see outrage from the left and the right of the isle when it comes to FEMA.Recently Fema wasted more then 1,000 trailers because they didn't meet the standards that they have made. This once again has caused more outrage on local news stations. I know this isnt much of an intro, but what are your opinions?

Should Fema be disbanded due to their lack of leadership and their waste of our taxes?

If FEMA should be abolished what or who should take over in such a case?

If you believe FEMA should stay why should it stay?


I have included resources from both the Left and the Right that may intrest you

http://www.wcpo.com/news/2005/local/09/10/katrina_rvs.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,185369,00.html
http://news.google.com/news?q=FEMA+NEWS&hl...tab=nn&oi=newsr

Should Fema be disbanded due to their lack of leadership and their waste of our taxes?

Having come this far with FEMA it would make no sense to disband the organization. FEMA's main difficulty lies in organization and the reason why this is the case is because FEMA works with a number of emergency response organizations that all have their own unique structure and decision making processes. Therefore, FEMA has to go through layers and layers or red tape to get the simplest of protocols set in place. It is a nightmare. Also, within FEMA there needs to be a more centralized decision maker. FEMA should be given more autonomy and not have to go through all of the different government levels (committees, etc) to form their response plans.

The problem with FEMA is expectations.

Do we really expect the federal government to come up with a place to stay for hundreds of thousands of people? If we do, do you think that there's going to be waste somewhere or problems somewhere?

I envision FEMA as a short term second responder to catastrophes, not a giant teat that people can feed off of forever.

FEMA should be responsible for delivering supplies to local responders to distribute when their stockpiles have run low. It should assist in temporary housing like tents or very temporary hotel/motel stays. It's been six months since Katrina hit. Did anyone envision FEMA as a long term housing authority before Katrina? Did anyone envision just handing money to people to spend however they want (tatoo parlors, strip joints or other "Essential" services: link link2)

Should Fema be disbanded due to their lack of leadership and their waste of our taxes?

If FEMA should be abolished what or who should take over in such a case?

If you believe FEMA should stay why should it stay?

FEMA should stick to its limited scope and not become some overlord nanny agency that is charged with taking care of people ad infinitum.

Should FEMA be disbanded due to their lack of leadership and their waste of our taxes?



I think FEMA should go back to its rightful place when Clinton was President which was as a separate department with authority to act on its own. Burying it under Homeland Security is what caused the mess. It needs to be able to act as a separate Department with full authority to do as it needs when it needs to be done.

I think having someone qualified in the position, as opposed to an equestrian judge, would be good, as well.


If FEMA should be abolished what or who should take over in such a case?


No. I believe we need a qualified person to coordinate the activities of those disasters which hurt our nation and which are of such immense proportion the states are under staffed to assist those who have suffered.


If you believe FEMA should stay why should it stay?

I think to assist with setting up low cost loans for rebuilding, transportation needs for evacuation of major proportions, and in guiding long term goals with the state. I do believe the amount of graft Halliburton received for "clean-up", the enactment of the Bacon-Davis Act by Bush which allowed Halliburton to hire local people, or illegals, for less money than was market fair in the area are reasons to put an honest department together. I think contracts should be bid on for disasters, and renewed each year.

There needs to be policies in place on just how much assistance will be provided. Even giving local governments monies for homeless shelters, etc. would be better than providing trailers for families or hotel rooms or casino boat lodgings.

Should Fema be disbanded due to their lack of leadership and their waste of our taxes?

It's certainly a tempting thought. It seems to me offhand that all of the truly emergency, life-or-death, type of actions can be taken care of by the National Guard, Red Cross, and state and local authorities. Non-emergency actions, such as finding new homes, or distributing relief supplies in the aftermath, or rebuilding, should be handled by state and local authorities, insurance agencies, and charitable donations, which typically swell in times of emergency. Maybe that could also include federal financial assistance to the states affected, but it should be up to those states to actually manage the operations.

But if FEMA remains, it should be taken out from under the Department of Homeland Security and relocated back under whatever department it belonged to before DHS was created. DHS's mission should be to prevent terrorist attacks. Not that saving lives after a terrorist attack isn't important - it absolutely is - but there's no need to have agencies responsible for preventing the attacks be under the same direct management as those responsible for dealing with the aftereffects. Those are two completely separate functions, and merging the two under one command undermines the efficacy of both.

In fact, if I had my druthers, DHS would be renamed the Department of Counterterrorism. "Homeland Security" (aside from the distastefully Orwellian ring to it) has "mission creep" written all over it.

What I see here is a clear difference between a corrupt COMPETENT former adminstration and an INCOMPETENT CORRUPT admin we have now.

Fema was reformed under Clinton, and had become an organization to be proud of during Clinton.

It is now a shining example of GW incompetance and ability to reform something good into something very very bad.

I would have thought real conservatives would have abandoned this guy along time ago- Fema is fine- the problem is the poeple running it just now. Put the professionals back in and take out the cronies and you will have Fema as it was, at least, under Clinton's leadership.