It's all true. And then some.

Saw this article in the NYTIMES about the mis-management of ICE in Federal Emergency responses.

Ice

FEMA requests my agency to contracts for ice and water. This article is pretty accurate. Except it doesn't mention the fact that FEMA does this rigamarole for EVERY disaster. Well, at least every disaster since I've been working (Isabel 2003, FL 2004, and 2005).

Earlier this week there were some NYTIMES articles scrutinizing the contracts let by FEMA and my agency (Corps of Engineers) to big companies with ties to the Republican Party. I'd say that those articles were about 50% accurate. Yes, FEMA awarded big contracts for housing without competing them. USACE awards their biggest contracts (debris, roofing, ice, water) during 'peace-time' using the typical competitive contracting processes. And the reason why 'big companies' win out over the 'little companies' is that 'big companies' have the deeper pockets to pay their employees while they wait for 6-9 months to get their first gov't payment. 'Little companies' can't do business that way.

It's all about business. And then some.