As I write this blog post, I am at the Emergency Management Institute (EMI) in Emmitsburg, Md. I've spoken to several of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) permanent staff who serve here. They describe all the hoops they are jumping through to cancel classes and events in anticipation that there might be a government shutdown. What a waste of time and resources in order to respond to political high jinks from our federal elected officials. If they want efficiency in government, they need to clean up their own house and behaviors first. They are wasting millions of dollars in productivity by how they are behaving.
Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.