Recently Senate Government Affairs Chairman Susan Collins and ranking member Joe Lieberman issued a plan to abolish the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), but the besieged and bungling bureaucratic behemoth was quickly defended by its knight in shining armour, Sen. Clinton.
Soon after the committee released its proposal, Hillary wrote to Collins and Lieberman urging them to reconsider. She has long said that FEMA's disastrous response to Katrina was the result of the Bush administration's including it in the new Department of Homeland Security, and that the agency functioned more efficiently during the Clinton I administration. Sen. Clinton contended in her letter that FEMA's mission "was lost in the growing and expansive bureaucratic structure of the newly formed DHS," and that "I believe that the lesson learned from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita is that DHS is ill equipped to oversee FEMA and its responsibilities."
In other words, Hillary would rather just take FEMA out of DHS, and she is joined in this sentiment by politicians ranging from Sens. Trent Lott and Barbara Boxer to House Government Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Davis.
