As Hurricane Katrina relief efforts grow into the billions of dollars, the U.S. Congress is considering additional legislation to liberalize procurement, including H.R. 3766, co-sponsored by Representatives Kenny Marchant and Tom Davis. In these comments on the proposed legislation, Professors Christopher Yukins and Joshua Schwartz asked whether the proposed changes, which would eviscerate competition for most procurement related to disaster relief, are truly necessary. Professor Yukins suggests that, though it might in some circumstances be necessary to dismantle the federal regulatory regime to accommodate a wave of new firms in the federal market, there is too little evidence yet to support such radical measures. Professor Schwartz argues that there is no basis, empirically or analytically, for any effort to undo the careful protections afforded by the federal procurement system.

It is clear even at this early stage that the Hurricane Katrina tragedy is not a .wakeup call, as some have described it; rather, it is a consequence of past wake-up calls unheeded. By any reasonable measure, government failed the people of New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster of enormous proportion, but its tragic consequences have been made even worse by an unnatural disaster--the failure of our government adequately to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to the devastation that the hurricane brought.

The report concludes with an analysis of "how and why poor policy-making and short-sighted planning guaranteed that Katrina visited disproportionate suffering on New Orleanians who were poor and African-American."

The full report is available at: http://www.progressivereform.org/Unnatural_Disaster_512.pdf

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 02:01:47 PM