WASHINGTON - In the days since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown has come under withering attack, with critics charging that his lack of prior experience in dealing with natural disasters contributed to his agency's poor performance.
But Brown is just one of at least five current and former senior FEMA officials appointed under President Bush whose professional backgrounds showed few qualifications in the area of disaster relief when they arrived at the agency.
As the administration struggles to counter negative national perceptions about its response, Vice President Dick Cheney defended the administration's FEMA appointees in remarks to reporters yesterday.
"You've got to have people at the top who respond to and are selected by presidents, and you pick the best people you can to do the jobs that need to be done," said Cheney while touring the stricken Gulf Coast.
"We've also got some great career professionals, an absolute and vital part of the operation - couldn't do it without them. They're the ones that continue the expertise from administration to administration, who have got the experience of having been through all of this before and provide the quality service that needs to be provided."
But Democrats in Congress have attacked Brown and other top FEMA appointees.
"FEMA is an important agency and needs to be run by professionals, not political cronies," said Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, the ranking minority member of the Committee on Government Reform. "Instead of a loyalty test, we need people with experience and competence."
More than a year before the hurricane hit New Orleans, the head of a labor union representing FEMA workers sent a letter to members of Congress charging that "emergency managers at FEMA have been supplanted on the job by politically-connected contractors and by novice employees with little background or knowledge" of disaster management."
"As ... professionalism diminishes, FEMA is gradually losing its ability to function and to help disaster victims," the letter said.
People appointed to run domestic government agencies frequently have political connections. But for many top positions some relevant background is required as well.
Paul Light, a professor of organizational studies at New York University, said that for many years, FEMA was a dumping ground for the politically connected.
