Using FEMA to Fix Everything Else?

By Mike Allen

Can FEMA be fixed? Administration officials tell TIME they plan to rework the agency's makeup and responsibilities--and perhaps even change its name to shed the stigma following the Hurricane Katrina fiasco. As Michael Brown, the former chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, emphasized during his occasionally churlish testimony on Capitol Hill last week, "FEMA does not own fire trucks, ambulances, search-and-rescue equipment." Says James Jay Carafano, an authority on homeland security at the conservative Heritage Foundation: "It's the National Disaster Coordinating Agency. You could probably come up with a sexier name, but that's what it does."

The White House, anxious to head off an outside investigation like the 9/11 commission, is adding staff for its own internal probe, led by Homeland Security Adviser Frances Fragos Townsend, and plans to issue a "Lessons Learned" report in coming months. Democrats could get handed more than the whitewash many are expecting. According to Administration officials, the White House plans to use the investigation to win support for changes in government architecture that might otherwise be resisted by Congress or federal employees unions. "We view this as an opportunity to make real improvements," says a senior Administration official. A huge target: FEMA's parent, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). President Bush created the department in a hurry and under duress after the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, and officials say they hope to have a DHS 2.0 running well before he leaves office. --By Mike Allen