Fox news is reporting unconfirmed information from the Associated Press that FEMA Director Michael Brown has been pulled out of New Orleans and ordered back to Washington.
Brown is being sent back to Washington from Baton Rouge, where he was the primary official overseeing the federal government's response to the disaster, according to two federal officials who declined to be identified before the announcement.
According to what Fox News is reporting as I listen to the TV, this does not appear to be a removal of him as the Director of FEMA, just a removal from overseeing Hurricane Relief in the Gulf Port area. This all comes amid reports that Brown may have padded his resume.
As reported this morning by Newsday and other media outlets:
New questions surfaced yesterday about whether the White House inflated FEMA chief Michael Brown's past work experience when he took over the agency, where several of the most senior managers bring little or no disaster-response experience to their posts, including Brown.The official White House announcement of Brown's nomination to head FEMA in January 2003 lists his previous experience as "the Executive Director of the Independent Electrical Contractors," a trade group based in Alexandria, Va.
But two officials of the group told Newsday this week that Brown, in fact, never was the national head of the group but did serve as the executive director of a regional chapter, based in Colorado, where Brown has lived.
And, Brown's immediate successor as the Rocky Mountain executive director, Terry Moreland, recalled that Brown held the job for less than six weeks before becoming FEMA general counsel in 2001.
With the new information and with the bungling of relief in New Orleans especially, it is a good move to pull him out of New Orleans, while the allegations are investigated. This does not take away blame from the Louisiana Governor and New Orleans Mayor, it is just another piece of the pie to investigate.
And that's the way I see it! And now for your thoughts...
Kevin Surbaugh, 37, of Topeka, KS is the editor of KevinsView.com and has also been published from time to time over the years in the Kansas City Star, Osawatomie Graphic, Linn County News, Topeka Capital Journal and Topeka Metro News.
Ed/Pub:LM
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
thanks K-man, breaking news is always welcome and important
2 - alethinos59
Ahhhh yes... The heads begin to role...They'll all be small, "unimportant" heads, but heads none the less...
I imagine the Demo's will do something similar here ANY minute...
3 - Temple Stark
The last three "Brown" posts, he's been booted, removed and relieved.
Thought that was funny .. probably just me. - Temple