As America approaches a historic transfer of power, it is becoming ever-clearer what a daunting set of tasks awaits the new administration. When Barack Obama takes the oath of office at noon on January 20 he will inherit an economy collapsing before our eyes and a pair of ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But he will also inherit a federal government whose machinery should bear an “out of order” sign.

Today’s dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum will bring together all of America’s living ex-presidents for what will likely be a warm and celebratory event. Protocol for the unveiling of presidential portraits and presidential libraries general calls for an abundance of courtesy and good feelings, with politics to be left at the front door.

Like all presidential libraries, this one — built on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas — largely reflects the president’s own view of his time in office. The library and museum also reflects the 43rd president’s unique demeanor — “straightforward, confident, unapologetic and willing to let history be the ultimate decider of his time in office,” according to the Washington Post.

But there are other views, of course. George W. Bush’s presidency — like most — was also marked by controversy, tragedy, bitter political rancor and failings large and small. As the Bush administration ended in Dec. 2008, the Center for Public Integrity took stock of what went wrong during those years in its Broken Government project. In a comprehensive assessment of systematic failures over the previous eight years, the Center found more than 125 examples of government breakdown.

Read the project: Broken Government

When victims of Hurricane Katrina said goodbye to their homes in 2005, they didn’t realize their health might be next. A 2008 examination by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform found that thousands of trailers purchased by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for those displaced by Katrina emitted levels of formaldehyde high enough to cause coughing, chest tightness, nausea, skin rashes, and other adverse effects. The thousands of American families forced into these temporary homes were being exposed to what the Occupational Safety and Health Administration calls “a suspected human carcinogen that is linked to nasal cancer and lung cancer.” And according to the committee chairman, California Democrat Henry Waxman, field staff alerted FEMA to the problem, but the agency refused to conduct tests.

A FEMA attorney instructed: “Do not initiate any testing. . . . Once you get results and should they indicate some problem, the clock is running on our duty to respond.” FEMA officials feared that authorizing testing would shift the burden of responsibility to the agency itself, according to the oversight committee. Gulf Stream Coach Inc. won $500 million alone in FEMA contracts within days of the storm and quickly began work on 50,000 trailer homes using low quality engineered-wood products manufactured with formaldehyde, according to published reports. One trailer resident informed Gulf Stream by e-mail in March 2006: “It burns my eyes and I am getting headaches every day. I have tried many things, but nothing seems to work.” In response to a request for comment, a FEMA spokeswoman sent a statement that read, “FEMA neither knowingly, nor willingly, purchased manufactured units from dealerships and manufacturers that contained levels of formaldehyde above existing construction standards, nor did FEMA’s specifications encourage non-compliance with such standards.”

Keeping weapons of mass destruction (WMD) out of the hands of terrorists is cited as the top priority for America’s national security, but efforts to prevent WMD proliferation have not met the challenge, according to government and nonprofit watchdogs. The 9/11 Commission wrote that “the greatest danger of another catastrophic attack in the United States will materialize if the world’s most dangerous terrorists acquire the world’s most dangerous weapons.” In 2005, in a follow-up progress report, WMD nonproliferation programs scored a “D” on the report card released by the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, led by 9/11 Commission chairs Thomas H. Kean and Lee Hamilton. “Preventing terrorists from gaining access to weapons of mass destruction must be elevated above all other problems of national security because it represents the greatest threat to the American people,” the report warned. In 2008, the Partnership for a Secure America, a bipartisan national security group supported by the 9/11 Commission leaders, followed up on the work of the Public Discourse Project. The partnership’s overall grade for “WMD Terror Prevention” was a “C.” The weakest spots in WMD prevention, according to the report: integration of U.S. programs to prevent nuclear terrorism and the uncertain long-term prospects for those programs; U.S. efforts to recognize chemical threats; detection of covert bioterrorism preparations and U.S. disengagement from the international Biological Weapons Convention. As part of its package implementing the 9/11 Commission recommendations, Congress created a senior White House position with the title coordinator for the prevention of weapons of mass destruction proliferation and terrorism. But the Bush administration has yet to appoint someone to the position. Experts say that the threat of terrorists obtaining WMD is very real.

American weaponry intended for Iraqi security forces may have ended up in the hands of insurgents attacking U.S. troops in Iraq, due largely to oversights at the Department of Defense (DOD), according to government auditors. At least 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols disappeared between 2004 and 2005, some 30 percent of all weapons the United States distributed to Iraqi forces during that time, reported the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in an August 2007 study. While security assistance programs are traditionally operated by the State Department, the Pentagon — as it has in operations throughout the Iraq war— asserted control of the program early on, saying that it could provide greater flexibility. Until December 2005, neither the Pentagon nor Multinational Force-Iraq maintained any central record of equipment distributed during Iraqi security force training (then led by General David Petraeus). The GAO also found that 135,000 pieces of body armor and 115,000 helmets went missing during that time. A subsequent New York Times investigation found that Kassim al-Saffar, an Iraqi businessman Americans entrusted to supply Iraqi police cadets, turned the U.S. armory into a “private arms bazaar” selling weapons to anyone with cash in hand — meaning more U.S. resources wasted in Iraq and greater danger for American troops serving there.

Follow-up:
The DOD reports that it has developed various procedures to address the GAO’s concerns, including soldier-by-soldier collection of biometric data linked to serialized weapons, and weapons inventories conducted by the Multi-National Security Training Command and Iraq Ministries of Defense and Interior. In July 2008, the DOD’s inspector general completed a follow-up report that noted significant improvements in the weapons tracking systems. In the coming months, the GAO also plans to release a follow-up report on missing weapons in Afghanistan.