DOGE-ing is fun until someone gets hurt

(4/2025) We’ve all heard this proverb.

• For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
• For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
• For want of a horse the rider was lost.
• For want of a rider the message was lost.
• For want of a message the battle was lost.
• For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
• And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

The British Colonies became the United States so property, and responsibility stayed within our borders. The colonial residents had a lot, but did they really own it? The American Revolution settled that question.

The colonies kept the home country strong. After the Revolution we had everything in our grasp to eventually build a strong, prosperous country of our own. Part of that is because of our ability to create a great infrastructure. Part of our strength comes from two centuries of working out how to build great industry, balanced with support for the workers and consumers who make business dreams become reality. State and federal agencies, and their different abilities to scale responses in emergencies, are the most critical nails that keep our infrastructure sound. It’s tax season, take a look at what our tax dollars have brought us.

One component of our national infrastructure is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Services and emergency responses from FEMA can be found on FEMA.gov. Here are a few highlights.

• At the federal level FEMA maintains detailed flood maps. Flood maps help communities decide where to live, where and what to build, and how to protect themselves.

• Download PDFs on protecting your property from natural hazards such as flooding.

• On FEMA.gov, search "interagency recovery coordination" for a list of recovery projects. This suggestion may or may not be effective. The federal government websites are currently being dismantled in bits and pieces. If you can’t find what you are looking for, try the Internet Archive (Wayback Machine). The URL is: archive.org.

Maryland has received disaster relief actions and support. In 2016 a storm that dropped six inches of water in two hours, flooded Ellicott City. From the FEMA Case Study Report on this incident: "Prior to the flood, Howard County Office of Emergency Management (OEM) staff had attended a FEMA recovery training for local governments in Emmitsburg that assisted in formulating and documenting a Recovery Framework for Howard County, identifying 10 Recovery Support Functions (RSFs) crucial to local disaster recovery." Because of federal resources, Howard County was prepared to meet the challenge.

FEMA responded when flash flooding came to Frederick a few years ago.

In Frederick City, the restoration of Carroll Creek and the flood control system built under the Creek, were supported by FEMA.

FEMA’s National Emergency Training Center (NETC) is located in Emmitsburg, MD. This is home to The National Disaster & Emergency Management University (NDEMU), formerly the Emergency Management Institute (EMI) and the National Fire Academy.

On April 19, 1995, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was bombed. 168 people killed and 684 people injured. A team of 6 personnel from Oklahoma City, including the Operations Director for the Medical Examiner's Office, had just completed training at the EMI in Emmitsburg. They credited the training for their successful handling of the operation.

The NDEMU had an annual training scheduled for March 10, 2025. On March 7, the federal government, aka Agents of D.O.G.E., sent by email the order, to everyone involved, that the training session was cancelled.

Students had arrived from all over the country to take this course. Travel tickets bought and paid for. People had arrived at the dorms in Emmitsburg. All the expenses required to participate in a professional training session had been paid. Everyone sent home with no good explanation of why a scale back couldn’t be planned in increments, rather than wasting everyone’s time and money.

Agencies being reduced and/or dismantled include, but are not limited to, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, U.S. Agency for Global Media, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institution, Institute of Museum and Library Services, U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund and Minority Business Development Agency, Department of Education, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Energy, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of the Interior and the National Park Service, Office of Personnel Management, General Services Administration, Small Business Administration, Internal Revenue Service, Department of Defense.

A major reason for having a nationwide agency run by the federal government is to have the agility to focus resources wherever in the country they are needed. Resources needed to respond to crises, such as natural disasters or contagious disease outbreaks, affecting large areas of a city or state are generally greater than any one state can provide for it’s own population, much less for another state.

If getting rid of waste and fraud was the goal then federal agencies and departments would be examined in sections. Reducing federal services would be done in coordination with the fifty states’ local agencies to maintain services needed by Americans. Agencies with international partners would be given time to change course on established agreements. Neither of these are happening.

The goal is to throw away federal services, and force Americans to spend more for privatized support. Or just take whatever a current administration feels like sending to Americans in need.

Americans are losing dependability of service in many agencies. Social Security? The checks in the mail. The US Post Office? Well, that check might sit around a while.

Sacrifice looks like a good idea if you have it bad. We had everything. We wanted more.

Let’s see what happens in the next emergency.

For want of a nail….