Some disturbing information on FEMA and Mike Brown

[Barad Simith]

(I went looking for information on Brown and on how FEMA operates in order to try to determine the name of the authority to whom Brown ultimately answers. My search was the result of a conversation with a Bush supporter who was, for some odd reason, trying to defend Brown's incompetence in the aftermath of Katrina. The Bush supporter claimed that Brown "has to answer to someone lower down the chain of command than the President," implying, I guess, that this takes some of the pressure off Bush. Who knows. I was under the impression that Brown answers directly to Bush, and went to Google in search of the answer. Instead, I found the following.)

Michael D. Brown (b. 1954 in Guymon, Oklahoma) is the Under Secretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response (a division of the Department of Homeland Security), the cabinet-level position that replaced the Federal Emergency Management Agency directorate, and generally referred to as the "head" of FEMA. He was nominated by President George W. Bush in January 2003.

-snip-

While attending law school Brown was appointed by the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee of the Oklahoma Legislature as the Finance Committee Staff Director, where he oversaw state fiscal issues. His background in state and local government also includes serving as an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight and as a city councilman, although most of his career was spent in private practice. Before joining DHS/FEMA, Brown was Judges and Stewards Commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association from 1999-2001, a position from which he resigned under duress after an onslaught of lawsuits. Brown started his own legal defense fund before resigning, a move he said was necessary to protect his family's assets.

The above bold text was posted at DU yesterday. It's an important factor in the whole FEMA-incompetence equation, but I wasn't surprised because I had read it here yesterday.

This is the part that was news to me:

In January 2005, U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler publically urged President Bush to fire Brown, citing reports that FEMA disbursed $30 million in disaster relief funds for Hurricane Frances to residents of Miami, Florida, a city which was not affected by the hurricane. Brown admitted to $12 million in overpayments, but denied any serious mistakes, blaming a computer glitch. Wexler repeated his call in April to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, citing new reports that FEMA sent inspectors with criminal records of robbery and embezzlement to do damage assessments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Brown_%28FEMA%29