This is a diary about the 2002 hearing chaired by Joementum Leiberman on the topic of Michael Brown to be Deputy Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency
Some samples:
BROWN: ...My pledge would be that just as we have good partnering relationships with State and local government, I will do my best to expand that partnership attitude, those partnership relationships to all aspects of law enforcement that may be involved in first response.
Chairman LIEBERMAN. Thank you very much. That is a good answer.
Um, Brownie, I think you failed your 'pledge'
More pledges on the flip... with Video and PDF transcript.
NOMINATION HEARING
on
Wednesday, June 19, 2002, 10:30 am
342 Dirksen Senate Office Building
for the following nominee:
MICHAEL D. BROWN
to be
Deputy Director of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency
The nominee will be introduced by
Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-CO)
and Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO)
Video of Hearing (RealAudio Media)
Here's a PDF Transcript of the hearing.
Another sample:
Senator BUNNING. Yes. In following up on the Chairman's questions, has FEMA's relation with emergency responders changed since September 11 or has the focus of the agency changed? Are you doing more with local responders than you used to?
Mr. BROWN. I do not think so. Let me answer the question this way, Senator. People often ask me what has happened, what has changed in terms of our function since September 11 and I answer,
not flippantly but very seriously, everything has changed and nothing has changed. Everything has changed only in the sense that the intensity with which we approach our mission, the intensity with which the employees who are here today and the employees back in headquarters and throughout all the regions, that they approach their job has taken on a new meaning to them. It is much more acute, much more intense in terms of making sure that we are prepared in every possible sense of that word. But in the actual implementation of that reparation, nothing has changed. We are continuing to build the partnerships. We are continuing to make certain that our relationships with all of the partners of State and local government are in place and that it is a good working relationship. We have brought on who was going to be the new President of the National Emergency Managers Association into FEMA as an employee. We are reaching out to law enforcement. We are reaching out to--I gave a speech, I forget, it was the Association of Supreme Court Justices and made it reach out to them and said, how many of you have talked to your State emergency managers or your State homeland security director? Nobody in the room raised their hand. But it was the point of trying to get them to start building those partnerships that we are already good at and trying to expand those partnerships as much as possible.
Senator BUNNING. I can just say to you that the relationship between the local responder and FEMA has changed in Kentucky because they are more friendly doing their job. They always did their
job, but the response has been a more friendly response and a willingness to cooperate. I want to make sure that if you are put in homeland security, that this function that is placed in homeland security does not get someone involved that does not have that same attitude as far as responding is concerned.
Mr. BROWN. Well, Senator, I will make this pledge to you, that as long as I am around, those partnerships will continue to grow and expand as much as possible. The partnerships, both with our State and local partners and with our Federal partners, are exactly what makes FEMA successful.
Although his script may have read correctly: FEMA is successful when it has strong partnerships with state and local emergency and security forces, it's clear that during the Katrina disaster Brown completely failed to facilitate FEMA's coordination with those partnerships. Therefore, Katrina's wake became the worst natural disaster to strike American soil, and the third major disaster under the Bush presidency (9/11, Iraq, Katrina)
You pledged, you failed, you lose. Game over, goodbye.