This is what competence brings.

This is what happens when you replace a patronage appointee, Michael Brown, who gave alot of no bid contracts to companies represented by Joe Allbaugh, his former boss and the man who took Brown from the Int'l Arabian Horse Association and basically made him the head of FEMA.

New guy. Competent guy. First order of business, undo all the counterproductive political crap done by Brown.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 - The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency told a Senate panel on Thursday that the agency would seek new bids on $400 million worth of contracts that had originally been awarded with no competition in the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort. ....

The contracts up for bidding - worth up to $100 million each - were awarded to four giant firms specializing in construction, engineering and consulting, said Nicol Andrews, an agency spokeswoman. The businesses have long records of work for the federal government, and some have executives or lobbyists with close ties to the Bush administration. ......

"I've never been a fan of no-bid contracts," Mr. Paulison said in an appearance before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. "All of those no-bid contracts we are going to go back and rebid." ......

Government watchdog groups have been raising questions from the moment these contracts were awarded. The Shaw Group's lobbyist is Joe M. Allbaugh, the former FEMA director and a friend of President Bush. Bechtel has ties to the Republican Party; George Shultz, the former secretary of state under President Ronald Reagan, is on the corporation's board, and Riley P. Bechtel, the chairman and chief executive, served on President Bush's Export Council.