WASHINGTON — The leader of the U.S. government's much-criticized handling of hurricane relief efforts in the Gulf Coast came to Washington in 2001 with scant background in dealing with natural disasters. But he had an important connection: His new boss was an old friend who had managed George W. Bush's successful campaign for the White House.
Michael D. Brown left his job in Colorado supervising horse-show judges to work for Bush's longtime political aide, Joe Allbaugh, who was heading the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the new administration.
Brown had been a lawyer active in Republican politics whose most relevant emergencyresponse experience was a stint supervising police and fire departments as assistant city manager in an Oklahoma City suburb.
But within two years, he rose from FEMA's general counsel to deputy director and, when Allbaugh left, he moved to the agency's top spot.
Now powerful members of Congress are joining some local officials in criticizing the pace of FEMA's response after Hurricane Katrina. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) plans hearings on the agency's performance since the hurricane.
Brown, 50, has become the focus of long-simmering concerns about FEMA's ability to cope with natural disasters after the Bush administration folded it into the Department of Homeland Security, which emphasizes protection against terrorism.
Under President Clinton, the FEMA director had been a member of the Cabinet, with more access to the president.
"FEMA, now a shell of what it once was, continues to be overwhelmed by the task at hand," Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said in a statement Saturday.
She has been asking President Bush to appoint a Cabinet-level official to oversee Gulf Coast relief and recovery efforts.
Brown has asked for patience.
But he didn't help his case with his candid confessions on national television Thursday that his agency had not known about the throngs marooned at New Orleans' convention center, even though pictures were broadcast over and over.
"That shows how difficult communications are," he told CNN news anchor Paula Zahn.
When ABC's Ted Koppel asked Brown on Thursday about the difference between his earlier estimate of 5,000 people at the convention center and the estimate by the New Orleans mayor of 15,000 to 25,000 people, Brown replied that he had sent the Army general on the ground to find out.
