Start the clock. The next hurricane season is less than 100 days away, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is promising to be new, improved and ready to respond by then.
I am sitting in my office right now reading over a list of reforms the agency is working on -- better communication, streamlined supply chains, faster debris removal, a doubling of its capacity to register victims after any disaster, less red tape.
It all sounds promising. And, at first blush, it looks like many of the significant problems that arose during Hurricane Katrina are addressed in these plans and that, if they are implemented properly, FEMA officials could make some progress toward rebuilding public confidence in their agency.
Still, I'm going to sit down with FEMA Acting Director David Paulison today to discuss these matters, and I'm wondering how confident he is that all of this will go as planned. Reforms are never easy. They are even harder when a great many skeptical voters are watching. So, I'm wondering -- with the next hurricane season around the corner, what would you ask the head of FEMA?