This article is simply replete with factual and conceptual errors. Most glaring is the author's assertion that the USCG was moved under DHS in the wake of Katrina. Wrong! It was moved from DOT under the terms of the Homeland Security Act of 2002.

Conceptually, the author argues that over centralization was the cause of failure in the Federal response. The fact is that by law the Federal response is in support of the state and local response. What the author never addresses is the highly successful response to Katrina by Mississippi with generally excellent support from the Federal agencies. Leadership was exercised by gov Haley Barbour in contrast to the lack of leadership shown by the governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans. Indeed, had it not been for the LA Adjutant General's contacts the senior Army general would never have been sent by Northcom and effective coordination would not have been established with Admiral Thad Allen of the USCG to get some degree of organization out of the chaos.

Most commentary on FEMA has been that it was seriously underfunded by DHS and generally neglected in the wake of 9/11 and DHS' emphasis on counterterrorism. That, however, is not a problem inherent in FEMA's being housed within DHS. Again, it is a problem of leadership as well as problem definition and focus.

Finally, I will reiterate a point that I have made on other threads. Reorganization will not, of itself, fix a problem. Reorganization can only make fixing problems easier or harder. Creating DHS made addressing some problems easier and others harder. The problem DHS faces is the one DOD faced when it was established in 1947 but it is in spades. Where DOD took 3 big agencies with relatively compatible cultures and put them under one roof, DHS has taken 22 agencies with wildly divergent cultures and is trying to bring them together. We need to remember that it took DOD 40 years until Goldwater-Nichols (1986) to simply get the legislation right and another 10 years to internalize the required cultural changes. One can reasonably hope that DHS will learn some of the lessons of DOD and not take 40 to 50 years to get it right.

Cheers

JohnT