No sooner do we create an unwieldy DHS, than we realize it was a mistake. The same thing will probably happen with the centralization of intelligence and the creation of the NDI–another rushed, politicized bureaucratic re-shuffling. From the Times:

Representative Mark Foley, Republican of Florida, said FEMA should be separated from the Department of Homeland Security. “FEMA should not be hindered by a top-heavy bureaucracy when they are needed to act swiftly to save lives,” Mr. Foley said.
Since FEMA’s absorption into Homeland Security, its ties to state emergency programs have been weakened, and it has reduced spending on disaster preparation, critics say.

But this stuff will be fodder for critics:

The approach to disaster management changed with the arrival of President Bush, experts in emergency management say. Mr. Bush appointed Mr. Allbaugh, who was Mr. Bush’s chief of staff when he was governor of Texas.
Testifying before Congress in 2001, Mr. Allbaugh said he was concerned that federal disaster assistance had become “an oversized entitlement program” and made it clear that the new administration wanted to curtail FEMA’s mission.
His goal, he said, was to “restore the predominant role of state and local response to most disasters.”
While Mr. Allbaugh was FEMA director, the Bush administration, with the backing of Congress, reversed the emphasis on preventing flooding, cutting the formula for such federal grants by half.
“It just does not make good sense,” said Larry A. Larson, director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers.
FEMA’s budget in recent years under the Bush administration has grown, from $4.6 billion in 2002 to $5.038 billion as originally enacted this fiscal year.
But after the 2001 terrorist attacks, the agency was merged along with 21 other agencies into the newly formed Department of Homeland Security. Grants previously distributed directly to local and state governments were assigned to a separate Homeland Security office. As a result, three out of every four so-called federal preparedness grants now are spent on counterterrorism.
Representative Thompson, whose Mississippi district was damaged by Katrina, said that during the Bush administration, FEMA had lost its focus.
“FEMA went back to being treated like a political resting place for favors that were owed,” he said. “The entire emphasis of it was demoted.”