annenberg media ♪ woman: the rescue from montgomery county came in with big tractor trailers. the military was here, and all these different agencies. i mean, we are just very, very fortunate. hello, i'm renee poussaint. when we hear the word "bureaucracy," many of us frown, conjuring up images of long lines at the dmv when we renew our driver's licenses. but what most of us fail to appreciate is that our country could not run effectively without the bureaucracy, composed of hundreds of agencies

employing millions of clerical, managerial, and professional workers in the national government alone. and all parts of the bureaucracy face diverse and contradictory expectations that are difficult to satisfy. just what is a bureaucracy? actually, it is any large organization in which employees carry out specific job responsibilities

within a hierarchy, from the bosses to the worker bees. it may surprise you to learn that in our federal bureaucracy, most employees do not work in washington, d.c., and few simply push pencils. workers in most federal agencies actively serve our nation's citizens through regional offices where they go directly to the people. fema, the federal emergency management agency, was organized in the mid-'70s to respond rapidly to natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. during these emergencies, it acts as a hub, coordinating recovery efforts and providing assistance. when you look at fema, don't type us as a typical federal agency that's slow in moving and slow in responding to requests.

we can have a check into a local person's hand within three to five days after a disaster is declared. it's immediate. poussaint: sunday, april 28, 2002, a tornado roared through charles county, maryland, touching down many times and causing extensive damage in and around laplata. the disaster would test fema's mettle, and that of local residents. man: it was very loud and it was very windy. and it was very intimidating. and i thought i wouldn't get in the garage. once i got in the garage, i tried to go get in the house and the door was locked. and the back side of the garage blows about 3 or 4, 5 feet off. all the windows bust out, and i can see all the trees around, falling around us. it's the first time in my life i ever thought, "well, this is it, and i hope it doesn't hurt too bad and i hope it's quick." woman: seeing someone's bathroom vanity sink

laying right there in the street. it was -- it just tore me up. all these people out there, their homes are gone, trees down, everything, it's just dark. and when we get to our school, i said, "oh, my god, oh, my god." poussaint: local emergency management response units immediately arrived on the scene. davies: at that time, however, they saw that they were going to need more help than just what was available at the local level. they immediately reached out for the state. the state in turn contacted fema and said, "we have an event down here, it's sunday night and we're going to probably need some assistance." poussaint: stunned local residents surveyed the damage. archbishop neale school and the local volunteer rescue squad were hit hard. man: our units that were in the building couldn't get out. we had the rooftop units, the air conditioning, and the roof mansard fell in front of the building. we had to call the county, the county finally got us a loader to push the stuff out of the way to get out. the school, glass everywhere,

trees down, windows out, ceiling in the school laying, slanted down in the floor. the teacher's school desk was, like, turned upside down, tore all apart, smashed from the concrete beams and stuff down on it. we were on the ground, myself included, less than a day later to start to help the town of laplata and the state of maryland rebuild this portion of charles county. working very closely with the state director of emergency management as well other state agencies and the town commissioners in charles county and the local coordinator here in charles county, we assessed what the needs were and immediately put fema programs into place. we have a toll-free tele-registration ntmber -- 1-800-621-fema. we advertised that over the media immediately to folks. if you were damaged from this disaster, regardless of whether they had insurance, to call that fema number immediately. by registering with that toll-free number, that puts everyone who calls into the system. within a day, those folks were getting calls back

from assessors. have a force of assessors that will come out, inspectors, that will look at the damage, load it into a palm pad on-site, transfer it back to a main computer. fema worked very well with the insurance carriers and with the citizens to start to rebuild this particular town. poussaint: did fema's system work perfectly in laplata? no. some residents did not know how to get in touch with fema. some who did get in touch experienced frustrating delays. but people like the volunteers at the local rescue squad did make the connection and did get meaningful results. earnshaw: we had to provide proof that we were a volunteer agency and that, you know, we actually deserved their help, that, you know, we weren't a government agency. so we did that. once we got the information, then it was no big deal. they came right out -- the kickoff group came. we had actually four people come to us and say, "all right, what can we do to help? "what items did you lose?

what type of help do you need?" poussaint: with the help of fema and an insurance carrier, the rescue squad building will be repaired. fema also provided financial aid to restore the archbishop neale school, scheduled to reopen in september 2003. around the country, there are approximately 20 federal coordinating officers like davies ready to respond to regional disasters when the president authorizes them to do so. federal agencies like the small business administration provide low-interest loans for both businesses and residents. disaster unemployment assistance is available for people who are put out of work or whose place of work is destroyed. there is also crisis counseling. davies: you know, this is about my eighth tornado since i've been with fema, and i still am not used to them. i can't imagine how traumatic an event this is for a citizen

to have their home destroyed or seriously damaged, or to maybe have a loved one injured. so we also look at the mental health issue of a local disaster. we work with the church groups, the volunteer organizations. if we don't have the assistance available and someone may fall through the cracks because it's not a fema program or it's not a farm service administration program or it's not a state program, then we turn to the voluntary organizations to help the citizens recover. melvin: the rescue from montgomery county came in with big tractor trailers. they set up tents. the military was here. all these different agencies from counties, from our brother and sister counties, coming and helping us. the amish took from their own farm time. and to come up here and to help the families here, i mean, we're just very, very fortunate. we're really lucky. earnshaw: it's made people work together because they realize that there is a community here and that everybody -- it's their home,

it's not just a place where they go to work every day and then they go somewhere else. most people around laplata live in laplata, work in laplata, own businesses in the area. davies: my main role as a federal coordinating officer is to make sure that all those groups, both federal, state, and local, are talking to each other and are working together towards a common goal. and that is to bring the community back to some semblance of normalcy. our population has grown exponentially in 200 years and so has the federal bureaucracy that serves it. in 1802 there were just under 10,000 federal employees, most of them in the armed forces. by 2002, there were almost 3 million civilian employees. traditional agencies have gotten bigger, along with the population. and when the public demands that government get involved in solving critical problems caused by changes

in social, economic, or political conditions, new agencies spring to life. it was a time when rock 'n' roll, protests, and social causes were the order of the day. such has been the quiet peace and suffrage of all species. [ shouting and chanting ] poussaint: in 1970 people took to the streets to protest the vietn war, racism, and the deteriorating state of the environment. [ chanting "save our earth" ] poussaint: the concern for the environment crossed all generations. on the first so-called earth day in 1970, even young children sang the sorrows of a world that was becoming devastated by pollution. ♪ oil drops are falling on their heads ♪

♪ and that surely means that soon they will all be dead ♪ poussaint: washington was hearing the public outcry, and congress began to join in the chorus. we have the most richly endowed country on the face of the earth, but we're also destroying it faster than any other country on the earth. poussaint: it was against the backdrop of belching smoke stacks and foam-filled rivers that president richard nixon appointed a committee to see what might be done. the issues had been accumulating and yet addressed only piecemeal by piecemeal. poussaint: roy ash was a famous industrialist who had been asked by nixon to head up what later became the ash council. ash: so that led to then in turn the recommendation to the president that there be an environmental protection administration, the epa.

poussaint: it was a rare birth. a new federal agency had been born out of the recognition that the environment needed help. the public recognized the problem, and the government was reacting to public pressure. ash: fortunately the founding fathers and our constitution allows for flexibility for government to evolve as society evolves. poussaint: but the evolution of the environmental protection agency demanded that nixon appoint someone to lead the agency who would win the immediate bi-partisan support of both the congress and the public. mister chief justice, ladies and gentlemen, we are gathered here today for a ceremony in which we will have sworn in the first head of a new agency. poussaint: nixon selected william ruckelshaus, a popular assistant attorney general. [ applause ] i am very honored, mr. president, and i promise to do the best job that i possibly can. poussaint: ruckelshaus, no newcomer to the game of washington public relations,

immediately showed that he had a vested interest in cleaning up the environment. you, mr. president, have shown your commitment to doing something about the environment, to ending this degradation that we have seen in recent years and starting back up the long road toward a better environment. if i'd been an older man with more experience, i probably never would have accepted the job. it's, it's a very difficult job. poussaint: for ruckelshaus, the challenge was to take a noble intention, specifically a federal agency aimed at protecting the environment, and give it a clear direction and undeniable authority. i felt it was very important to send that message, that this was a serious undertaking by the central government, that the public demand that something be done about these problems was, in fact, going to be responded to. this new agency had that charge and that we intended to carry it out. poussaint: the epa began to make its presence felt. it slowly weaned the automotive industry off pollution-intensive leaded gas toward lead-free fuel.

it also led to prohibitions against lead paint, which had made countless children ill after ingesting paint chips. this infant agency was beginning to show some teeth. we ended up suing three major cities -- cleveland, atlanta, and detroit -- about what we perceived to be a failure to be aggressive enough about treating municipal sewage. we sued several large american corporations to try to bring them into line with what the standards were at the time. so there was no question there was now enforcement power at the national level and that we were willing to use it. poussaint: when george washington was president there were only four federal departments in the executive branch. now there are dozens of departments and agencies. the growth of government has often been because society demands its expansion, and presidents res

ash: way back in president truman's time he appointed a council to take into account the changes that had taken place in society since the last time the government was "organized" and to recommend changes that might be made so that the executive branch could be more effective in carrying out its mission. poussaint: but when it came time for the epa to carry out its mission in 1970, there was no shortage of people who wanted to help. we had over 200,000 applications for jobs for the 2,000 jobs we were authorized to, or people we were authorized to hire by the white house in the first 45 days of our existence. it just overwhelmed the system. poussaint: but 2,000 initial epa jobs have grown over the years to more than 18,000, with employees scattered through 10 regional offices and 17 labs across the country. ruckelshaus says for the most part he's proud of the agency's accomplishments,

like cleaning up the nation's air and water. he freely admits there have been some failures along the way, but he attributes at least some of them to congress. what the congress invariably does in these environmental statutes that pass are give you goals that are impossible to achieve. and i used to go up there and argue about it all the time and say, "don't do that to us, you doom us to failure before we start." but they couldn't resist. how can they go home and say, "i voted against fishable and swimmable rivers, or i voted against clean air by 1975"? they can't. and instead they love to say, "i voted for it and if those clowns would get off their duff, why we'd be there." poussaint: ruckelshaus concedes that some of the goals assigned to the epa could have been more effectively carried out. but he says the agency, like many others in the federal government, is made up of shades of gray, with failures on one hand and successes on the other.

despite the essential services that bureaucracies provide, questions are often raised as to whether government agencies deliver those services in the most responsive and efficient way. and it's a fair question. a particular kind of problem occurs when a bureaucracy gets caught between the contradictory expectations of an executive -- be it president, governor, or mayor -- and laws passed by the legislature, which the bureaucracy is charged to enforce. this kind of conflict can be frustrating for bureaucrats and for a sometimes angry group of citizens. it's one of the surest signs of spring in america, the start of baseball season. in april 2002 these kids from darien, illinois, were gearing up for little league season.

the older kids were doing what other 13- and 14-year-olds had done for some 40 years, umpiring little league games for the 7- and 8-year-olds. then they found out that according to the illinois department of labor, they were breaking the law. he didn't come to a set. i don't know, i think he came to a set. he didn't come to a set, sir. poussaint: instead of getting paid the usual $10 a game, the labor department fired them for working in violation of child labor laws. next time what i want you to do is, i want you to come... kids were able to baby-sit when they were, like, 10, and 12-year-olds, and 13-year-olds got to caddy, and we couldn't even ump. i felt mad because other people, other, like, counties and states were doing it and for as long as we would and they didn't get in trouble. poussaint: catherine glennon's three sons, brian, danny, and tom, were all umpires, and she didn't see the harm in what the ks were doing. catherine: my older kids had umpired.

brian was the third one of the boys that had taken the course. he's out! poussaint: according to the illinois department of labor, they had no choice but to enforce the law. when they receive a complaint, they are duty bound to investigate it. man: we don't have any choice in it. in fact, with the child labor law, once an investigation is filed, we have to investigate it within 24 hours. that's one of the most strictest standards that we have in illinois, and it's obviously because of the sensitivity of dealing with children. poussaint: the law in question was passed in 1948, but it stemmed from a long history of child labor laws, passed since the turn of the century, all designed to protect children from being forced to work in sweatshops and farms, and from abuse at the hands of unscrupulous employers.

hurley: they had them employed in situations where they were dealing with explosives, chemicals, around working equipment. and so in general, the legislature put in place a law that would prohibit minors from being employed who were younger than 16 years of age. poussaint: but a lot has changed since the 1940s. in the 1970s there was a big increase in the number of organized youth games, and with that an increase in the need for umpires. youth leagues, like the one in darien, illinois, began hiring teenage umpires, a practice that lasted until april of 2002. hurley: a complaint finally came in from, uh, uh, a resident of darien who said that they were employing 12- and 13-year-olds to be umpires. naturally, the law had not kept up with the times and so that's how we sort of ended up in this process

and in this situation. poussaint: the anonymous complaint led the illinois department of labor to audit the league and to cite them with 180 violations. in theory the league could have been fined $600,000, more than five times its yearly budget. i think our first reaction was disbelief, kind of a practical joke, you're kidding. every parent involved in this were just flabbergasted. poussaint: the youth league decided they wanted to change the law, and started by calling their state senator. and i very simply said to her, "i'm a stay-at-home mom of three. "i help volunteer with our youth club. "i'm an umpire director. tell me how do we change the law?" and her response was, "you're doing it." poussaint: the first step was to collect signatures on a petition to change the law, and that was something that the baseball moms did well. catherine: anywhere they went we had the petition with us. my kids took them to school.

they got their teachers to sign them, both the high school kids, the grade school kids. poussaint: the league soon had 1,000 signatures on their petition, and they enlisted a powerful ally --- the press. we're coast to coast. your brian showed up in the sporting news. and the new york times magazine section came out and interviewed all the boys, too. doreen: we learned the media was our friend in this case. and i think it was a real feel-good kind of story for a change. and when all was said and done, i think we had over 20 newspaper articles in various publications. and the word spread like wildfire. poussaint: meanwhile, state senator christine radogno looked into what it would take to change the law. radogno: what i also found out, though, is that this would not be a slam-dunk. as sensible as it sounded, there would be opposition to it. and when it had come up before, it was usually from the labor unions.

and their position has traditionally been that they don't want to open up the child labor laws, fearing that if we go into those, we may change them in such a way that youths, young people, would be taking jobs away from adults. poussaint: but in this case, public opinion seemed to be on the side of changing the law, and the senator encouraged the youth league to keep up the media pressure. and everyone that heard the story thought the same thing -- this is a no-brainer, we need to change the law. poussaint: meanwhile the senator pursued another strategy behind the scenes. the other strategy was on my part to talk quietly with some of my colleagues who were in good stead with the labor unions and say, "you know, let's not make a big deal out of "you know, the labor issue involved here, "but let's see if we can't work out an accommodation and at least have no opposition to the bill." poussaint: at the same time,

the department of labor was feeling the heat. the media firestorm triggered 300 calls to the department, parents who were afraid their own youth leagues might be in violation of the law. what we found was that most of the public and apparently everybody was using 12- and 13-year-olds because they were having a great deal of difficulty finding umpires. poussaint: it was clear that some sort of change in the law was needed, so hurley began researching statutes from other states and the federal government. he had to find a compromise between the labor unions, who wanted no change in the law, and the youth leagues, who wanted a blanket waiver for their umpires. the law also had to fulfill the labor department's mandate to protect children from abuse in the workplace. hurley: the role basically is compromise. i mean, that's what makes a democracy work. poussaint: in the end,

the labor department came up with a law that would still protect children from abuse and allow properly permitted 12- and 13-year-olds to umpire games played by younger boys... as long as a parent was present at the game. it was a law everyone could support, and amazingly it sped through both the state senate and the house, becoming law in a record 90 days. safe! if there's too much bureaucracy in government, why not just cut it back? do we really need so many agencies? well, in the words of that great american philosopher, pogo, "we have met the enemy and it is us." many americans want smaller, cheaper government but not at the expense of their favorite programs. government bureaucracies survive

because they provide services to groups of people who are unwilling to sacrifice their own benefits. surely, though, we can make bureaucracies more efficient, more like a business. but aren't most big businesses themselves organized as bureaucracies? in terms of efficiency, isn't it a pretty fair toss-up between service from your cable provider and service from the department of motor vehicles? there is no shortage of ideas on how to make government bureaucracies more efficient. but it's not so easy, because we have contradictory expectations. for instance, we expect government bureaucracies to treat everyone equally but also demand that bureaucrats consider the special needs of individual citizens. and therein lies the dilemma. can we do better? of course. both public and private bureaucracies are constantly re-inventing themselves. meanwhile, fires are fought, stoplights flash green and red, and social security checks are in the mail.

for "democracy in america," i'm renee poussaint.

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