Heck of a Job, FEMA

The 'new' agency acts a lot like the old one.

OFFICIALS AT the Federal Emergency Management Agency are patting themselves on the back for a deal they reached with Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe (D) to give some of the agency trailers that have been rotting in the great outdoors in Hope, Ark., to people displaced by tornadoes that ripped through the state 14 days ago. Spokesman Aaron Walker told us that this was "indicative of the new FEMA." He's got to be kidding.

Mr. Beebe asked for emergency relief in a letter to the president three days after the Feb. 24 twisters, and all he heard back were the sounds of crickets. This was especially galling since Alabama and Georgia, also ravaged by tornadoes on March 1 and 2, got federal disaster designation within 48 hours.

So, Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) began making some noise. He took to the floor of the House three times this week to decry the lack of federal response and to call on FEMA to make 150 of the 8,420 never-used, post-Hurricane Katrina trailers in Hope available to families in nearby Dumas.

When we reached Mr. Walker on Thursday to ask what was up, he had news to share: 23 refurbished trailers and seven "travel trailers" (something like campers pulled behind a car) would be made available to the state. And that underwhelming generosity came with a catch: Arkansas was on the hook for hauling and installing the mobile homes. Mr. Beebe has budgeted $100,000 in state funds to bring the trailers from Hope to Dumas and set them up with electricity, sewer hook-ups and other necessities.

Meanwhile, late Thursday, the agency rejected Mr. Beebe's request for emergency relief. Among the reasons cited for this action, including the Dumas disaster being deemed "small," was the state's $844 million budget surplus. Never mind that Alabama and Georgia also have multimillion-dollar surpluses.

We give you all these details of one state's tussle with FEMA because it suggests that the "new" FEMA is no better than the old one. The agency that bungled the federal response to Hurricane Katrina and that promised to step up its game is giving itself high-fives for nickel-and-diming people in need.

When the House Homeland Security Committee convenes its hearing on the limp response to Arkansas's aid request on March 15, FEMA Director R. David Paulison should answer this question: How much distress must an area suffer before his agency deems it appropriate to help? Having regulations and procedures for doling out federal aid is understandable, but blind adherence to the rules that gets in the way of fulfilling an implicit moral mandate is unacceptable.