Well, not every agency can be popular with the public.

Less than half of Americans in a national survey said they hold favorable views of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a sign that the Bush administration's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina continues to shape perceptions of the agency.

FEMA came in last, for a second consecutive year, in the survey, which asked respondents to give their views of 22 agencies. The top ratings went to the U.S. Postal Service, the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service.

The survey was conducted by GfK Roper Consulting, a market research firm that has studied consumer trends since 1973. The firm conducted in-person interviews with 2,002 adults in August and September to collect their views toward federal agencies, and provided results to reporters last week.

In the survey, 42 percent viewed FEMA favorably, slightly higher than the 38 percent who had a favorable view of the agency in 2006.

But the positive responses toward the agency were down from 61 percent in 2004, the year before Katrina slammed into New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities, and from 63 percent in 2001.

"The erosion in their favorability, if you look at the trend, is probably because of Katrina, a highly publicized event," said Kathy Sheehan, senior vice president at GfK Roper.

FEMA, a part of the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement that "we recognize that it is going to take time and continued proof by example to rebuild our image and the confidence of the American people."

The agency said it is taking steps to improve, and it has hired experts and experienced regional directors. FEMA has scored highly in satisfaction surveys of people who register for disaster assistance, the agency noted.

Even as it tries to repair perceptions, FEMA may find it difficult to vault into the top tier of agencies that got high marks in the survey. Agencies that interact regularly with the public tend to get higher favorability ratings, Sheehan said.

In the survey, 83 percent held a favorable view of the Postal Service, 79 percent were positive toward the National Park Service and 75 percent liked the Forest Service.

The survey also showed that many people do not have opinions about some agencies, and that works against them in such rankings, Sheehan said. For example, about a third of the survey respondents answered "don't know" when asked their opinion of the Bureau of Land Management, which oversees public lands primarily in the West, and the Administration on Aging, a part of the Health and Human Services Department. Twenty-eight percent responded "don't know" when asked their opinion of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which looks out for investors in the stock market.

Some of the 22 agencies in the survey ask GfK Roper to track the public's view, and other agencies are included to give researchers "a sense of where the public sentiment is," Sheehan said.

As might be expected, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, which strive to protect the public from harmful products and disease, rated higher than the CIA, which is often engulfed in controversy, and the Internal Revenue Service, which collects taxes.

In general, large companies fared better with the public than federal agencies. Home Depot, Hershey, General Mills, Kodak, Clorox, automobile manufacturers and retail chains were rated more favorably than most federal agencies.

"It definitely shows there is room for improvement" by federal agencies, Sheehan said.
Retirements

Emmett I. Aldrich, director of human resources at the Housing and Urban Development Department, retired Jan. 3 after 42 years of federal service. He also worked at the departments of Interior and Transportation, the old Bureau of Mines and the old Civil Service Commission.

Dennis Heretick, chief information security officer at the Justice Department, will retire Feb. 2 after 40 years of service. He played a key role in cyber-security planning for federal agencies.