Fema Money! Come & Get It!
Bovard, James
"Fema Money! Come & Get It!" BY JAMES BOVARD "Disasters are very political events." - Director James Witt, congressional testimony, April 30, 1996 hen massive flooding struck the Midwest in July 1993, Bill...
...Debate ' a.lrul i A,,Illw•~_J SEND MY SUBSCRIPTION TO...
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...Because FEMA people were coming through to determine whether we needed aid...
...He later increased his offer to more than $4 billion-but when asked if his generosity would mean higher taxes, Clinton emphatically denied it...
...Name (Please Prinr) 29 The American Spectator . September r 9 9 6 Morrie Goodman denied any mistakes were made: "Anyone who says an error was made doesn't know what they are talking about...
...Well, there's one newspaper that's different...
...Before 1950, other than sporadic flood and other disaster relief provided by Congress in special appropriations bills, there was no consistent federal relief effort...
...For example, it would have cost FEMA only $1.1 million to repair quake damage to the University of Southern California Psychiatric Pavilion...
...Until then, Bill Clinton will continue to score easy political points with his extravagant giveaways...
...Congressional Republicans have been completely toothless in opposing FEMA's politicization, having neither the gumption nor the willpower to challenge the barrage of "snow disasters...
...And everything came to a halt...
...Although the Times warned of a "financial aftershock" once the subsidies ran out, Congress and HUD repeatedly extended them for short periods of time...
...As a result, roughly go percent of all Community Disaster Loans have been forgiven-at a cost of over $150 million to U.S...
...The GOP's failure to fight against Clinton's transformation of FEMA into what amounts to a re-election office marks 1996 as even more likely a year of Republican defeat...
...r The Trm&s serves up the news from a refreshing, new perspective...
...The agency likes to boast of its therapeutic value...
...You can subscribe to the fastest-growing weekly ily mocked in the pages of The Washington Tones...
...It may be small...
...However, FEMA spokesman 'After Tucker's boss, Llewellyn Rockwell, wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times criticizing the adverse effects of FEMA's intervention, Morrie Goodman, the agency's director of public communications, went ballistic...
...The IG noted, "Based on damage repair costs in recent years, FEMA program officials now estimate upgrading costs to be between 5o and 1,000 percent (the majority being at the higher end) of the cost of repairing actual disaster damage...
...It's no accident that Clinton has been able to derive political advantage from FEMA: the agency employs roughly ten times as many political appointees as other agencies its size...
...No wonder he wishes that "spirit" would "capture" America...
...In due course, a Witt-appointed management review board recommended that Goodman should be removed from office...
...Finally, this May the Republican Congress made the temporary subsidies permanent-thereby providing a long-term windfall to those who had made the least effort to get off the dole...
...The city stopped doing anything-everything froze-this went on for weeks...
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...In 1993, just his first year in office, Clinton broke Bush's record by declaring fifty-eight disasters, and FEMA will almost certainly set another mark this year, having already named fifty-one of them...
...A press release from the agency last February proudly noted that, in the first six weeks of 1996, Clinton had declared twenty-seven disasters -six times more than the average for the last twenty years, and three times more than the highest previous period over the last twenty years (1978...
...Some local officials may believe that having a low budget...
...If Bob Dole somehow tightens the presidential race this fall, one can almost expect Clinton to begin declaring "major disasters" in key eastern states, where road surfaces will be endangered by a deluge of falling leaves...
...In 1992, the Bush administra tion set a record for the num ber of disaster declarations with forty-eight-almost three times more than in Reagan's last twelve months...
...And you will never find the values of faith and fam Now you can do something about liberal media bias...
...Clinton himself bragged in February, "It used to take a month or more for many peo ple to begin receiving relief, and now people can call in to a i-8oo number and see those checks arrive within days...
...funds to fix damaged roads and utility lines were spent instead to build a school septic system-a project that had nothing to do with the disaster that generated the federal aid...
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...According to the 1988 federal disaster act, however, if a local government's revenues are insufficient to meet its budget three years after the disaster, then FEMA must forgive the debt...
...his administration has delivered over $25 billion in disaster aid, $7 billion of it from FEMA alone...
...Though FEMA has established one in the wake of the Southern church fires, about the only advice the agency has to offer is that churches get deadbolt locks for its doors, use better lighting, and install sprinkler systems...
...Bush honored the request, but the agency proceeded to bungle the relief effort...
...Both the New York Times and USA Today showed the merciful president on their front pages hugging a woman as she cried on his shoulder...
...Investor's Business Daily reported in May 1994: "FEMA shelter checks, which subsidize rent for alternative housing and cover up to $10,ooo for minor household repairs, have been cut with no questions asked about resident's property insurance or income...
...One woman proclaimed, "This is like Christmas," after using her certificate to move into a luxurious apartment complex with a heated swimming pool, four spas, six tennis courts, and two air-conditioned racquetball courts...
...Wallace Stickney, Bush's FEMA chief, apparently got the job largely as a result of being a neighbor and crony to John Sununu...
...By throwing around tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, the First Comforter may even get his wish...
...The report also noted that the money FEMA has been so quick to give away is routinely misused...
...The political debacle for Bush gave rise to calls to abolish FEMA, which resonated with the apathy and incompetence that doomed much of his administration...
...The new agency was to be an amalgam of the Civil Defense Preparedness Agency, the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration, the Federal Preparedness Agency, the Federal Insurance Administration, and the National Fire and Control Administration...
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...Witt's observation would be a surprise to many people living in deserts or on mountain tops...
...Nearly worth" losing your home for the chance to shake Bill Clinton's hand...
...For a time, the agency was headed by Louis Giuffrida, an Ed Meese crony who gained brief notoriety for accepting $2,000 in free tickets to attend a George Bush fundraiser-tickets purchased by a FEMA contractor who then billed the agency for the expense...
...When the Los Angeles Times sponsored a contest last year for the Top Ten Reasons David Letterman should move his TV show to Los Angeles, one of the top submissions read: "Two words: FEMA money...
...You are talking of up to $250,000 for property damage coverage for only $300 a year for people living in a flood zone -that is absurd...
...1 41 i,k•rh ta...
...Even a visit to Florida by FEMA board member Marilyn Quayle was not enough to reverse public opinion...
...The agency even won the 1996 Federal Public Service Excellence Award-presented by Reinvention Man himself, Al Gore...
...tsu~.r.r.•uro Sest of 1 Year Only $5995 J 2 Years Only $8995 J 6 Months Only $3495 Prudeii a Politics dr r.lf tar CHI(x)SE PAYMENT METHOD...
...When the Los Angeles Times broke the story of these unsolicited "accelerated disaster housing" payments on February 3,1994, FEMA announced that same day that it would stop sending money to people who had not requested aid...
...MI B Y JAMES B O V A R h "Disasters are very political events...
...Trees were still in the streets...
...Treasury to replenish it...
...FEvfA Director James Witt, congressional testimony, April 30, 1996 hen massive flooding struck the Midwest in July 1993, Bill Clinton cut short his Hawaii vacation to visit the flood victims in Iowa...
...In 1988, the last year of the Reagan presidency, Congress enacted the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, which stipulated that requests for federal assistance be based on a finding that the incident "is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and the affected local governments and that federal assistance is necessary...
...FEMA now routinely bankrolls lavish new upgraded buildings to replace buildings that received a trivial amount of damage...
...Prior to 1989, FEMA would only provide financial assistance to government agencies and public institutions to repair damage done during a declared disaster...
...FEMA matched HUD's largesse by bankrolling "repairs" at colleges and other educational institutions when little or no damage was done...
...In the minds of the Clinton administration, FEMA's generosity is reinvented government at its finest...
...FEMA also permitted many homeowners to double-dip - that is, to collect both insurance payments for home damage as well as a hefty federal grant for the same costs...
...1'Irr,ll,• I_ Lip Lip Sav~nne FIekSs I F[na~ iN~, Pou rlcs I AN j7 it l FIRST FenWYrm, Politics and R7 Prat Lady x Frii,r• Ii illIo-I,x,l LAryy 10 1vwys to Gra ma Waah$,[iton Time 'f WI' ~.nn,iul I.Inie~n ;. II...
...So we're ready to prove it...
...Whitewater verdicts shake political landsra ~~ Turk~7,dr 1k•:u pe Jun gi,c, pr„1,~ I~'Ldt eraadih Iiry...
...The Los Angeles Times reported, "If a single ceiling tile fell from a classroom, or a single light fixture was jarred loose, the entire [school or college] campus could qualify for more quake-proof ceilings or lights, courtesy of FEMA's mitigation fund...
...In July he flew to New York to be the president's "eyes and ears" during the recovery of the victims' bodies of TWA Flight 8oo...
...People build near active volcanoes...
...For several days, thousands of people were left searching for food and water...
...TheAmerican Spectator • September r996 25 F EMA was the brain child of Jimmy Carter, who announced plans in 1978 to form a federal agency to cope with disasters...
...According to one career employee at the agency, however, "The way they advertise the flood insurance is disgusting...
...Buffalo got hit with 36 inches of snow in one day last December-a heavier burden than any of the areas that were labeled disaster areas in the following months...
...1-800-898-BOSE, ext...
...But, instead of starting to cleanup then, the city delayed further cleanup until it received FEMA money...
...And it produces a rich, natural sound quality comparable to audio systems costing thousands of dollars...
...A toll-free number doesn't solve all problems, however...
...Vernon, Connecticut, was given a FEMA emergency relief grant of $40,023 this past June to help the city cope with the cost of the preceding winter's storms...
...Adds Beth Milleman of Coastal Alliance, an environmental activist group: "What disaster relief and flood insurance wind up doing is giving people the financial means to build or rebuild in exactly the same spot that we know is disaster prone...
...He called Tucker and declaimed, "I gave you a $100,000 grant" to study emergency warning systems in Alabama last year...
...Clinton had a reputation as governor of Arkansas for responding rapidly to emergencies, and was far too smart a political animal to pass up the chance to distribute money, buy votes, and accrue great photo opportunities in one fell swoop...
...While this may sound like an unimportant point, it has proved to be a bomb beneath the federal budget...
...Victims of the storm quickly resorted to gallows humor, posting makeshift signs in front of their ruined homes: "What do George Bush and Hurricane Andrew have in common...
...The agency has about 2,700 employees, as well as 7,000 workers on standby who can be called in case of a declared disaster...
...Because the town had only budgeted $104,516 for snow removal, however, it claimed to be overwhelmed by the heavy costs...
...What's been reinvented at FEMA, however, is the idea of federal giveaways as a political tool...
...From that point on, federal disaster involvement slow ly expanded until March 30, 1979, when President Carter, spurred to action by the Three Mile Island nuclear debacle, issued an executive order to create FEMA...
...If local governments claim to have difficulty paying their small share of cleanup and relief costs, FEMA will provide them with a Community Disaster Loan...
...Not surprisingly, the agency's generosity can slow a local community's response to disasters...
...since 1992, has left the media cstahlishriient in the dust...
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...I'm pleased that the federal government can help in the effort to restore this beautiful building...
...People thrust their habitat into wildfire zones...
...It is a Ponzi scheme-and they have to keep replenishing that sucker because it is running dry...
...No president has exploited the political possibilities of the agency as shrewdly as Clinton has...
...It carried out the Environmental Protection Agency's infamous buyout of all the homes in Times Beach, Missouri-after the EPA had mistakenly concluded that trace elements of dioxin in some of the dirt in town were a deadly threat...
...Some governments even take the low-interest loans and buy higher-interest federal Treasury bills...
...The greater the coverage we can achieve," director Witt has said, "the healthier the flood insurance program will be, and there will be less of a burden on the disaster program...
...A 1995 report from FEMA's Inspector General concluded: "Disaster Relief Fund financial data are often unreliable...
...From 1979 to the late 198o's, FEMA stumbled from one boondoggle to the next...
...And in order to get aid, we had to leave the place looking trashed...
...the Republican from Buffalo, complained: "I got the impression that because we were good at what we did in terms of snow removal, we were almost penalized because of it...
...In the wake of flash floods, FEMA in 1993 provided "$871,977 to repair erosion, cart paths and sprinklers at the Indian Wells Golf Resort in California and $246,102 to fix the fairways, greens, and cart paths at the Palm Springs Golf Course...
...Yet FEMA generally charges a uniform insurance rate across the nation...
...As the Hartford Courant reported, the "optimistic town council has already set the proposed 1996-97 snow-removal budget at $69,383, the lowest level in 15 years...
...The Times also reported that one voucher recipient had quit her job because she could no longer get from her new subsidized apartment to her office without a car...
...And I thought to myself I wished that spirit could kind of somehow capture America...
...Perhaps the most egregious violation of common sense that FEMA commits, however, is its penchant for encouraging people to build homes in unsafe areas...
...Board of Supervisors chairman Mike Antovich announced $264 million in new FEMA grants for the city's government buildings and private hospitals, including $126 million to upgrade city hall...
...The response was typical Clinton, and typically deceitful-government can give away billions of dollars and yet not burden taxpayers...
...Jack Quinn (R-N.Y...
...After the Northridge quake, FEMA gave $5.5 million to repair the scoreboards at the California Angels' Anaheim Stadium, and $88 million for repairs and upgrades at the Los Angeles Coliseum...
...Yet the total cost for snow removal last winter amounted to $258,000-about $8.6o per person in the 3o,ooo-population town, which is probably less than what the average householder would pay a 12-year-old to shovel out his driveway after a good snowfall...
...The first half of the cleanup occurred in the first 24 hours-and the aid from FEMA simply made local government bigger.' Just as with welfare, FEMA's free help tempts communities into becoming dependent on the feds rather than remaining self-reliant...
...after the explosion of TWA Flight 8oo, he announced plans to push Congress to allow FEMA to respond to "airplane crashes...
...1 1 1 1 DayrimeTelephone EveningT,Iephone Address City Stale Zip Or mail ro: Bose Corporation, Dep...
...Meanwhile, FEMA continues to list him as director of the Office of Emergency Information and Public Affairs...
...Jeffrey Tucker, an editor at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, described FEMA's effect in the days after Hurricane Opal hit the city last year: THE INSPECTOR GENERAL'S REPORT NOTED THE AGENCY ROUTINELY LETS LOCAL BENEFICIARIES KEEP UNSPENT FUNDS...
...The vouchers entitled families to up to $1,391 a month to rent a fourbedroom apartment...
...for snow removal -which is then exceeded -will make it easier for them to shake their tin cup in FEMA's direction...
...In the words of ABC News's Brit Hume, Clinton journeyed to the region to play the role of "comforter...
...In essence, NFIP amounts to a type of anti-environmental socialism...
...Financial audits of the Fund have not been performed because the systems, records, and lack of controls made the Fund unauditable...
...This is a one-shot, one-time expenditure that will slightly increase this year's deficit...
...Agency director Witt told a Senate Appropri ations Committee hearing on April 30, "The entire appli cation for federal assistance can now be taken using a computer-a virtually paper less process that is more effi cient and takes less time...
...Director Witt told a congressional committee in April that the ads stress that "flooding can happen to almost anyone...
...Yet, as an Inspector General report noted last year, FEMA has "made some major changes to its regulations which may have increased the Federal cost of disaster assistance...
...Because code upgrades cost $q4 million, however-more than half the price of the building itself-the agency constructed an entirely new pavilion, at a taxpayer cost of $64 million...
...A paper that stops at nothing to get the story first, and get it right That's why The Washington Times' groundbreaking Whitewater coveraee...
...T,ijc al'ittgtvtt ITilttcO NATIONAL WEEKLY EDITION...
...Before Clinton took office, for example, only one blizzard had ever resulted in federal intervention...
...A small businessman who later became the chief judge in Yell County, Arkansas, Witt has been a regular on NBC's "Today" show, and frequently comments on public events that have nothing whatsoever to do with disaster relief...
...We came upon a 70 year old man, and he and his wife had lost everything in the flood...
...31 The American Spectator • September 1996...
...He had even lost his hearing aid...
...This does not include its use of AmeriCorps "volunteers," who, for example, were brought in after the Oklahoma City bombing to distribute kneepads to rescue workers, or, after the Northridge, California earthquake, to go from door to door informing area residents of the benefits they could claim...
...Yes...
...We know that's hard to believe...
...As Clinton told constituents in the June 17,1996 West Virginia edition of the paper: Reinventing disaster, Bill Clinton has turned the decrepit FEMA agency into another arm of his permanent campaign...
...But the event that truly transformed the agency into a federal behemoth was Hurri cane Andrew, which devas tated southern Florida in August 1992...
...FEMA's largesse naturally drew other agencies into the orgy of big spending...
...He has elevated the agency head, James Lee Witt, to cabinet status, insuring Wittand thus an image of Clinton's generosity~and compassionhigh visibility in the national press...
...The report went on to add: "Many accountants and analysts did not know what their jobs entailed, and questioned their own value to the operation...
...When a GAO report last May urged FEMA to tighten its spending guidelines, Witt responded: "The more FEMA attempts to tighten eligibility by closely prescribing every possibility, the more we will appear bureaucratic and inflexible...
...Other voucher recipients, according to the Los Angeles Times, moved into "the Churchill, a MidWilshire district high-rise that bills itself as a luxury facility and offers an outdoor pool, Jacuzzi and a small gymnasium with weightlifting equipment...
...FEMA follows the fire trucks...
...On July 17, Leon Panetta, James Lee Witt, Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan, and L.A...
...The agency regularly bails out those whose homes are destroyed in dangerous climes...
...And, in predictable bureaucratic fashion, those towns that make a genuine effort not to be dependent on federal money virtually disqualify themselves from ever receiving it in the event of a real disaster...
...Within just five weeks, the Washington Post was reporting that the new agency was already a shambles: "The air is thick with memos, counter-memos and criticisms alleging that the new anti-disaster agency is on the verge of becoming a disaster itself...
...Witt told Congress, "If flooding incidents drop to a more normal level, we expect that we will pay the fund back within five years...
...I assure you that in the weeks and months to come, your government will continue to support you in your efforts to rebuild your lives and communities...
...Clinton's magnanimous therapy, however, has been far more than just a PR gimmick...
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...Bare-knuckled reporting, laser-sharp commentary - even the cartoons pack an extra punch...
...We received very, very few calls from people who felt they didn't need the aid...
...Just as typical has been his successor's shrewd manipulation of the FEMA machine...
...No emergency there, of course -but without vocal Republican opposition, Clinton was able to spin the announcement into yet another tale of his administration's effectiveness and even patriotism: "Los Angeles City Hall is not simply the offices of the mayor and city council, but a nostalgic icon of the city, rich in history and a symbol of one of America's most important cities...
...But the city's request for FEMA assistance was denied...
...Money passed on to a local government to repair a parking lot was used to purchase computer equipment instead...
...According to a just-issued Inspector General's report, FEMA has also paid lavishly for repairs at profit-making sports stadiums and tony golf courses...
...Its speed in doling out the goodies, however, masks the fact that FEMA is in a state of virtually total financial and bureaucratic chaos...
...That act was to set the stage for the flow of money to come, for neither federal law nor FEMA regulations provided a clearer definition of a disaster...
...FEMA currently faces $250 billion of exposure from NFIP policies...
...The Washington Monthly is calling FEMA's recent performance "the most dramatic success story of the federal government in recent years...
...FEMA is running a national television advertising campaign (titled "Cover America") encouraging people to sign up for NFIP, in which viewers are told: "We can't replace your memories, but we can help you build new ones...
...The insurance fund ran out of money earlier this year, and FEMA had to borrow $6oo million from the U.S...
...Press coverage of FEMA during these years was pretty much summarized by this 1984 New York Times headline, "A Disaster Agency's Image Disaster...
...Though the storm left an estimated 16o,ooo people homeless, and destroyed or damaged 82,000 businesses, Gov...
...In the aftermath of the Northridge quake, the Department of Housing and Urban Development sent a pack of officials to the region with thousands of Section 8 certificates, good for 18 months of nearly-free housing for low- and moderate-income families...
...The grant, in fact, had been given to Auburn University...
...Name Addrem City slate (:rtdit (card + Sajjnar;Ir('' SEND C.IFF (ORDER TO \;Ip1H• Addrc '. (:ii State 13p...
...He defended the policy: "We felt, as an agency, it was better to send the check than to wait until we had inspectors out there...
...Such political fortitude has led him onto the short list of running mates Bob Dole is considering...
...Yet while the Clinton administration could afford politically to snub Buffalo, it felt much more obliging about California after an earthquake rocked the Northridge region in January 1994...
...In reality, certain places are a hundred times more likely than others to be flooded...
...A disaster for you means a chance for him to spit-shine his image as First Comforter...
...Tired of reading the news the way the liberal media serve it up - diluted, slanted and homogenized...
...In the words of the Los Angeles Times, the generous federal aid "could mean a fancier project than envisioned...
...Proud as it is of reinventing government, the administration likes to talk up its moderniz ing of FEMA...
...Call today...
...His FEMA even began a newspaper, Recovery Times, to be distributed to residents of federally declared disaster areas...
...Although FEMA eventually asked for the checks to be sent back, a spokesman says the agency can't say how many were returned...
...And it is no strings attached nine times out of ten...
...About the only eruption from the Grand Old Party came from Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge -who threw a public anti-Clinton snit when he wanted a bigger portion of his state declared a flood and snow disaster zone...
...Clinton backed up that mercy with money, promising Midwesterners $z.5 billion in aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other federal programs...
...Perhaps most shocking, the report noted the agency routinely permits local government beneficiaries to keep any unspent funds...
...Box 9(601, Watihtngton, DC: 20090 10 WAYS TO USE For lightning-fast delivery, call 1-800-363-9118 (Mention express code: UJHOSJ) fabric of our nation," and he recommended all-night vigil prayer services as a way to "eliminate some of this...
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...They're both natural disasters...
...However, FEMA is essentially massively subsidizing most of the people who buy the policies-and the more policies that FEMA sells, the greater the financial crash-and-burn will be when Mother Nature catches up with the agency...
...It was not until Bush Transportation Secretary Andrew Card implored Chiles to request FEMA assistance that the governor asked for the region to be declared a disaster area...
...Bush failed to see what could be won or lost politically by taking the agency's mission seriously-a typical lack of savvy for his presidency...
...Lawton Chiles initially refused to request federal aid to clean up the $3o billion worth of damage (far greater than the figure for the Northridge, California earthquake of 1994...
...taxpayers...
...More than 400,000 southern Californians received FEMA checks averaging $2,800...
...28 September T996 • The American Spectator Everything was being cleaned up-the city government going crazy-then it turned out that we might be eligible for disaster assistance...
...People build along hurricane-lashed seashores...
...Thousands of unsuspecting homeowners received checks for $3,450 out of the blue...
...Bettersound through research a Mr1M,,./Ms...
...Whether paying for snow plowing in West Virginia, or offering cut-rate insurance to flood zones, or announcing the spending of almost $8oo,ooo in response to arson attacks on Southern black churches, FEMA is giving new meaning to the term "walking around money...
...It was nearly worth losing my home to do that at my age...
...As an editorial in the Vancouver Columbian observed, "Most of the emergencies FEMA manages result from misguided efforts to take advantage of nature...
...The number of declared disasters and emergencies rose from an average of twen ty-five a year from 1983 to 1988 to an average of forty-one a year from 1989 through 1994...
...Several representatives of private insurance companies interviewed by the inspector general expressed astonishment at FEMA's policy...
...Also, FEMA changed its regulations to reflect that a facility is eligible for replacement when the cost to repair disaster-related damages exceeds 50 percent of the cost of replacing the facility...
...Then-FEMA decided that it was a disaster...
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...FEMA is now a model disaster relief agency," Clinton declared in February, "and in some corners thought to be by far the most successful part of the Federal Government today...
...p.w„W aroma Editorials Thai Shaped the Debate EdhtIMate Brat staA..d tin...
...in an agency flyer pro moting FEMA's "significant accomplishments," the first achievement listed is "increas[ing] the comfort level of citizens around the country...
...But this year's deficit will still be much smaller than we thought it was going to be in January, so we can manage it...
...FEMA comes in after the eruption...
...For example, the definition of `current codes' was changed to mean those codes adopted prior to project approval by FEMA versus those codes that were in effect at the time of the disaster...
...Bush had treated the agency as a political dumping ground...
...this winter alone, Clinton labeled sixteen states "major disasters" due to snow...
...California is a key state in Clinton's re-election campaign-so FEMA swung into high gear to prove to constituents that the president was on their side...
...No, no," he announced...
...And he looked at me and he said, "Well, I'm 70 years old and I've never had a president shake hands with me before...
...JAMES BOVARD, the author o f Lost Rights and Shakedown: How Government Screws You From A to Z, is the 1996 Warren Brookes Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute...
...What lesson did the town managers deduce from FEMA's generosity...
...In L.A., many schools fit that bill...
...Forbes reported last year that of these unsolicited checks, "6,590 went to families whose homes weren't even damaged enough to be covered...
...FEMA is ready to save the day...
...CDD-A24, The Mountain, Framingham, MA 017019168...
...Local governments, in other words, have strong incentives not to cut spending...
...Indeed, in crucial California, FEMA last summer took out a three-year lease of office space in Pasadena...
...26 September r 9 9 6 • The American Spectator Reality Check...
...Such a visible and spend-happy presence in the state has led to FEMA becoming almost a part of the local psyche...
...the new vague language meant that a disaster was whatever an incumbent politician said it was...
...Now snow is routinely a "major disaster" that requires FEMA's involvement...
...Dozens of federal agencies have jumped on the disaster bandwagon, ranging from the Small Business Administration (with its notorious low-interest disaster loans that have a 30 percent default rate) and the Veterans Administration to the Department of Health and Human Services (which sends its experts in to provide "crisis counseling") and the Army Corps of Engineers...
...In response, Witt simply moved Goodman to a new post-director of strategic communications-where he continues to draw his $ioo,ooo+ salary...
...The NFIP is amazingly generous...
...We will be with you, along with our state partners, for as long as it takes to help you on the road to recovery...
...FEMA has created a golden opportunity for "code racketeering" by local and state governments-raising their standards after a disaster and sending the bill to Washington for the upgrades...
...almost the national chaplain to those in distress...
...Meanwhile, when genuine disasters do strike, Clinton continues to see them as contributing to his political good health...
...As he told a group of disaster workers in February: I'll never forget when James Lee Witt and I were in Woodland, Washington, a few days ago...
...Not surprisingly, the "disaster rate" multiplied almost overnight...
...Witt opined that the South's recent church burnings "have struck at the very BUSH FAILED TO SEE WHAT COULD BE LOST OR WON POLITICALLY BY TAKING THE AGENCY'S MISSION SERIOUSLY...
...And don't forget my 4 FREE gifts...
...After Tucker wrote about Goodman's call, Goodman left a message calling him "a very sick and dangerous human being...
...That road is paved with FEMA gold...
...And the administration keeps finding ways to give grants to the state, and thereby keep its "compas sion" in the news...
...One of FEMA's highest-visibility operations is the Nation 30 September r 9 9 6 • The American Spectator al Flood Insurance Program (NFIP...
...That year, however, Congress passed a law giving the president the power and discretion to determine when a disaster had occurred and how much aid Washington would provide...
...The president has used that approach nowhere more than with FEMA, which under his administra tion has become renowned for its generosity...
...When Los Angeles held earthquake drills after the Northridge disaster, one comedian quipped: "The FEMA office even practiced processing bogus claims...
Vol. 29 • September 1996 • No. 9
