"Deadly Bureaucracy"
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Breaking News — Comments (14) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Congressman Bobby Jindal from Louisiana blows the lid off the claim that larger government will be able to ameliorate the effects of natural or man-made disaster. After reading about the bureaucracy in action, one will wonder at those who actually wish to make it bigger and more active:
There have already been a number of instances in which an overly inhibitive bureaucracy prevented an appropriate response to the disaster. For example, on Wednesday of last week a company called my office. With only three hours before rising waters would make the mission impossible, they were anxious to send a rescue helicopter for their stranded employees. They wanted to know who would give them a go-ahead.
We could not identify the agency with authority. We heard that FEMA was in charge, that the FAA was in charge, and that the military was in charge. I went in person to talk with a FEMA representative and still could not get a straight answer. Finally we told the company to avoid interfering with Coast Guard missions, but to proceed on its own. Sometimes, asking for forgiveness is better than asking for permission.
This is not the only story of red tape triumphing over common sense. After so many years of drills and exercises, we were still unprepared for Hurricane Katrina.
• A mayor in my district tried to get supplies for his constituents, who were hit directly by the hurricane. He called for help and was put on hold for 45 minutes. Eventually, a bureaucrat promised to write a memo to his supervisor.
• Evacuees on a boat from St. Bernard Parish could not find anyone to give them permission to dock along the Mississippi River. Security forces, they say, were prepared to turn them away at one port.
• A sheriff in my district office reported being told that he would not get the resources his office needed to do its job unless he emailed a request. The parish was flooded and without electricity!
• Unbelievably, first responders were hindered by a lack of interoperable communications. Do you recall how New York police and fire departments on 9/11 could not talk with each other? Four years later, despite billions spent on homeland security, state, federal, and local officials in Louisiana had the same problem.
And the following passage will sting some, but should definitely receive serious attention:
My office became so frustrated with the bureaucracy that we often turned to private companies. They responded more quickly and flexibly.
After our staff visited communities to assess local needs, Budweiser delivered truckloads of water and ice. Ford provided vehicles for search and rescue. Every company we contacted provided goods and services without compensation.
Continuing on a theme--and continuing his chosen mission for the day--Stephen Bainbridge has more.
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"Deadly Bureaucracy" 14 Comments (0 topical, 14 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
If the local and state governments aren't providing the feds with useful info as to where specific aid needs to go, and where conditions are indeed the worst, we should expect our federal disaster response agencies to initially hesitate. You want to send the aid to the parish that needs it the most, not the one whose mayor is the most effective screaming for help over the telephone or to Geraldo.
If we proceed on the assumption that the local and state governments, because they live in the crisis area every day, are our best source of info for who needs the help the most and the fastest---then, what happens when that assumption turns out to be invalid, as it seems to have in NO?
Are you suggesting that we develop an independent, federal-only massive crisis response cell, that has the resources and legal authority to override an incompetent mayor and governor and take charge? With the authority to wrest control of the local police and state National Guard?
What, precisely, does Rep Jindal propose doing?
For example, if I was the FEMA rep, being asked by Rep Jindal whether a private helicopter was free to fly into the crisis area, I'd probably hesitate too-- because I am not an air traffic controller! I have NO IDEA how full/empty the airspace is over New Orleans, nor what restrictions the FAA has in place! And, I am NOT going to have that info at my fingertips!
Many people just dont have common sense. In a disaster the priority is helping people not paperwork.
Fema, State,Local who insisted on paperwork and withhold help must be held accountable.
Even The military was waiting for presidential orders. They should just have called Pres Bush and said We are going in. Thank you for your permission.
this is that it happened nearly 4 years after 9/11. If our bureaucracy is so screwed up that it cannot handle a natural disaster where the main threat is water, what the heck would we be looking at if this had been a man-made disaster and the main threat were smallpox or a radiological bomb?
What have we spent all of those national security/homeland security funds on over the past 4 years? The response to the aftermath of Katrina does not bode well for our ability to respond to a terrorist attack where the majority of the victims are not killed outright and large numbers of people are displaced.
Then come the Section 1983 suits.
The massive civil suits for damages.
The criminal actions.
The courts martial.
The complete trampling of the Separation of Powers and the Federal System.
Plate of dictatorship, anyone? And do we really want the military acting without, oh, I dunno, civilian control?
Looks great in an action flick. Horrible here in reality.
I haven't wandered over to Kos lately. Is this the latest talking point, or is this original for a change?
"Many people just don't have common sense."
FEMA has a fraud hotline that can be reached at
Guess who's the biggest fraud at FEMA?
He likes horses.
If the military took the initiative to call the president and coordinate with local and state officials, who would not have said NO.
I bet you Pres Bush, Gov Blanco, Mayor Nagi will thank them profusely.
If people are waiting for each other to act or wait for orders then nothing will come to pass.
They should call the President and get his permission and advise the president that this is beyond local resources and only the military has the resources to help.
According to you, the US military should have the authority to determine when civilian officials are not doing their job properly and need to be superceded. Is that really your position?
It's funny that people were up in arms about the Patriot act, but they seem to have no problems at all with the military sizing control.
That the military chain of command came unmoored from Executive control.
Let me ask you something: If the military receives popular acclaim for acting under its own, rather than under Presidential, authority, why should it ever go back to taking orders from the President (or for the Guard, the Governor)? And why should they?
And then, and here's the big question, what effect does that have on the government of the United States?
An interesting - and meaningful - byproduct of of the debate over the shortcomings of governmental responses to Katrina is that it will further flush out true conservatves from true liberals.
As a conservative, I look at the incompetence, bungling and red tape of the "official" efforts, and I say "Of course, that is exactly what I expect to happen. Government bureacracies stink at this kind of stuff. That's why I am a governmental minimalist."
A true liberal will look at the same bungling and declare "What a disgrace! Somebody's not doing his job! We need a commission/investigation/new adminstration to fix this!"
It won't matter! That's the nature of the beast. The next horrid disaster of this magnitude will produce precisely the same sort of difficulties with response (if not worse). No amount of shoulda/coulda/woulda's will change that. Horrible natural disaster + big government programs = terrible outcomes.
I agree entirely, however... it does beg the question: what, then? If a natural disaster is beyond the scope of a local/state government, we've got a problem either way. No big government program = not nearly enough relief.
Unless I'm totally off the mark, I predict this'll be the long-range response to Katrina: A few local, state, and federal officials might be sacrificed to appease the angry crowds on both ends of the political spectrum, but with more time and distance, it's going to come down to an inability of the different levels of government to coordinate quickly and effeciently.
So where do we go from here? If all three have to be involved, all three have to learn to work together. (throws hands up)
It'll happen again.
and there is probably some way to streamline the bureaucracy parts-although in general, with a disaster like this-there are always going to be screw ups, and there are always going to be complainers.
I am tired of the whole "FEMA wasn't anywhere to be seen, the only people offering aid was the Red Cross" when what they don't realize is that FEMA doesn't have relief workers, they just coordinate with the Red Cross and tell them where they are needed. A Red Cross prescense likely means they were sent there by FEMA (or the local/state disaster folks).
But it seems like there is too much paperwork involved, and too many hands in the pie.
There has to be a better defined command structure, and I don't think it should be the feds-the governor knows and understands their state better, and should be capable of the job (should be being the key word, given Blanco's dismal performance).
but what made this disaster "special" is the extent to which it affected multiple states, and required the resources beyond what a single state can muster. It puts us in the undesirable position of wondering who's best equipped to coordinate - and honestly, no one is. It doesn't help that Blanco's a bit of a ditz (and that's being nice).
complaints. There are too many levels of bureaucracy involved, and there isn't a clear chain of command through local, state, and federal agencies. And even the DHS and other documents seem to be confused as to who exactly is in charge (some seem to indicate it is the governor of the state, others seem to indicate it is DHS, and others don't seem clear at all).
There are too many people, and too many people playing turf war and pass the buck, with too much paperwork involved.
If anything needs fixing it is this aspect of disaster relief.