Killing FEMA

A new Senate report on FEMA concludes that, in the words of Senator Susan Collins, the agency "is in shambles and beyond repair, and that it should be abolished."

Over at the Washington Monthly, Kevin Drum reminds us of something worth keeping in mind:

FEMA was a fine organization for eight years under Bill Clinton, widely recognized as one of the best run agencies in the federal government. But after a mere five years of George Bush's stewardship there's now a bipartisan consensus that it's so rundown that the only choice is to get rid of it and build a completely new agency in its place.

In other words, this administration inherited a very good and well-respected disaster management agency and then proceeded to drive it into the ground. Maybe all that's left to do is abolish it, but then what? It might be possible to avoid some of the structural and funding problems that hobbled FEMA during the Bush years, and these are things that Congress might be able to fix if it suddenly decides to do an about-face and start passing sound legislation. But given this administration's record of placing bad people in vital roles, and just not giving a damn about problems that can't be spun as part of the "war on terror," I don't really see how starting over will do much good.