Well, brucie, FEMA is part of DHS these days... Lost it's independence in 2003... So if you look strictly at an organizational chart DHS's Secretary Janet Napolitano answers to the President...

Reality is that much of the way every government department or agency is run is by the folks who are hired to do the thousands of things that are supposed to be done... That's where the rub comes into play, be it the DHS of DoD or DoT, or, or...

Congress makes the rules and sets/approves the budgets... What we have here, however, are lobbyists who are writing rules behind the scenes that favor their clients and in writing those rules can write them in a manner that all but guarantees that $$$ will flow to those clients...

I mean, this is where we are getting fleeced...

Here's an idea: appoint every congressman by lottery, just like jury duty... Takes all the old ballgames and runs them thru a shredder... I'd guarantee that K St. would be out of business instantly...

I doubt if this answers your question, brucie, because I feel as if you have some other bone to pick with DHS and that's okay... I'm not in love with DHS myself...

B~