FEMA: Another Federal Disaster

By Jim O'Sullivan

After the less than stellar performance of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during the hurricane Sandy natural disaster, Americans may well wonder if any federal agency can be counted on to successfully accomplish its designated mission efficiently. Particularly when we also read that the U.S. Postal Service is expecting a net loss of $15.9 billion this year due to declining mail volume and associated revenue. We learned almost simultaneously that the Federal Housing Authority, another self-funding agency, is expected to lose $16.8 billion and will probably require a bailout. Coupled these facts with the knowledge that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are broke, Medicare and Medicaid are close to bankrupt, and numerous other federal agencies suffer from redundancy, are mismanaged (e.g. the Government Services Administration), have appreciable inefficiencies, and also suffer from funding issues. Citizens can legitimately question the federal government's ability to successfully accomplish even simple tasks on time and on budget. FEMA, however, was a department enacted with a high purpose: to address the twin concerns of civil.... (Read Full Article)