I’m pushing all the “hell no” buttons I can find to oppose Witt’s return to FEMA.
Join me in saying Hell no to Witt and Merritt at FEMA and Hell no to others who would likewise come with “strings attached” to the insurance industry.
Let the President-elect know the change we need is a FEMA without ties to the insurance industry.
Make your voice even louder by sending this same message to Congress.
We’ve got two great ones for this issue – send both a copy of your message. Your voice will be heard; just don’t expect a reply unless you’re from their District.
Representative Bennie G. Thompson (D – 02) (Chairman, Homeland Security)
202-225-5876 phone
202-225-5898 fax
email Representative ThompsonRepresentative Gene Taylor (D – 04) (Champion of the Slabbed)
202-225-5772 phone
202-225-7074 fax
email Representative Taylor
Change we need – an independent FEMA.
What we don’t need is business as usual and that’s exactly what we’d get with Witt coming back from retirement for six months to a year, to whip it into shape for his current associate and possible deputy administrator, Mark Merritt, to take over the top job.
Need background information?
Click here if you want to know more about Witt and Merritt – and click on the link that follows to learn more about the firm he started after retiring as FEMA director eight years ago, James Lee Witt and Associates and the GlobalOptions Group.
With a SLABBED wish for their continued success in their current endeavors, Send your “hell no” directly to President-elect Obama.
Contact information for other Members of Congress from Mississippi
Senator Thad Cochran (R- MS)
202-224-5054 phone
202-224-9450 fax
email Senator Cochran
Senator Roger F. Wicker (R- MS)
202-224-6253 phone
202-228-0378 fax
email Senator Wicker
Representative Travis Childers (D – 01)
202-225-4306
202-225-3549
email Congressman Childers
Great post and great job. This is the type of stuff which will prevent people from being abused by big insurance in the future. You cannot have two masters when it comes to the insurance industry. These short term hires are really nothing more than industry eating at the table set up to serve the public.
I wonder why these guys didn’t help Homeland Security/FEMA with an insurance company fraud prevention program? They claim to be experts in the insurance fraud detection business. If so why is the NFIP program such a poorly designed program. It is almost as if the NFIP program was designed to allow fraud by the insurance industry but then again I guess that takes a certain level of expertise in designing a program which ALLOWS fraud.
GlobalOptions’ Fraud and SIU Services Division will perform surveillance and background related investigations to assist SUA in exposing any case of potential insurance fraud. GlobalOptions will also develop and host a customized web site that will allow SUA claims staff to monitor cases from their desktops – with real-time access via a secure web portal.
“We are very pleased to have the opportunity to use our tools and expertise to provide services to SUA,” said Dr. Harvey Schiller, Chairman and CEO of GlobalOptions Group. “Our Fraud & SIU unit continues to be recognized by leading insurance companies who demonstrate their confidence in our abilities by agreeing to multi-year contracts.”
About Specialty Underwriters’ Alliance
I honestly am dumfounded by the misguided nature of the opinions expressed above. I haven’t tons of time to spare or the ability to resist rising blood pressures in my head so I’ll make this quick:
1- James Lee Witt was and is the foremost expert on emergency management on the face of this earth
2- James Lee Witt was NOT the one pursuing the FEMA top job…that was Mark Merritt. So the “Witt coming back from retirement” really was irrelevant.
3- Both Witt and Merritt would most likely have done more good for FEMA than what has been done with the current administrator
4- They became consultants in emergency management for a host of reasons surely; however, a big part of it likely was that they are the best at it and the Bush administration probably chased them out of FEMA. Plenty of the best minds in government dabble in the private sector (it doesn’t make you evil)!
5- The GlobalOptions comparison was not informative since that firm purchased Witt Associates as a parent company after the fact. Witt Associates itself is primarily made up of expert emergency management specialists who all knew each other while their company was still independent. GlobalOptions is also enormous and owns many different companies that do their own things. In short, GlobalOptions was not pulling the strings behind all of this and Mark Merritt and James Lee Witt are not really involved at all with the fraud and SIU services as this is another company entirely within the Global Options umbella that was founded and operated = separately.
6- There are faulty leaps in logic being made between GlobalOptions and Merritt/Witt. Whoever is responsible for these posts might do well to study the organizational charts, the relevant dates and facts more generally, and perhaps a little bit of introductory business theory if possible. That might help correct some of the misperceptions I am seeing in these posts.
I am sorry to return to this so many years later. However I am particularly miffed about the status of FEMA today and I happened upon this post at a time when its questionable accusations have struck me as most indecorous.
Peace out.
We’re happy the James Witt fan club finally showed to protect his honor.
Fugate hasn’t sold out yet like Witt did. One day he too may become Tom Wilson’s high price shoeshine boy like Witt. Time will talk there.
sop