The pervasive disasters  being revealed by Hurricane Katrina are perfect examples of what can happen when someone — in this case, President Bush and his administration — decides to fix something that is not broken.

When the Federal Emergency Management Agency was an independent cabinet-level agency, it was an efficient and effective operation. Well-trained and competent people had a network of communications, a network of responders and a protocol for who was in charge when and where. FEMA was a system that worked.