http://www.newbridgestrategies.com/bios.asp
January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, a crony from Texas, as head of
>FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in disaster management.
>
>April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush
>administration’s goal of privatizing much of FEMA’s work. In May,
>Allbaugh confirms that FEMA will be downsized: “Many are concerned that
>federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized
>entitlement program….” he said. “Expectations of when the federal
>government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have
>ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level.”
>
>2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the
>three “likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country.”
>
>December 2002: After less than two years at FEMA, Allbaugh announces he is
>leaving to start up a consulting firm that advises companies seeking to do
>business in Iraq. He is succeeded by his deputy, Michael Brown, who, like
>Allbaugh, has no previous experience in disaster management.
>
March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from a cabinet level position and folded
>into the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is refocused on
>fighting acts of terrorism.
>
>2003: Under its new organization chart within DHS, FEMA’s preparation and
>planning functions are reassigned to a new Office of Preparedness and
>Response. FEMA will henceforth focus only on response and recovery.
>
>Summer 2004: FEMA denies Louisiana’s pre-disaster mitigation funding
>requests. Says Jefferson Parish flood zone manager Tom Rodrigue: “You
>would think we would get maximum consideration….This is what the grant
>program called for. We were more than qualified for it.”
>
>June 2004: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction in
>New Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management chiefs
>Walter Maestri comments: “It appears that the money has been moved in the
>president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I
>suppose that’s the price we pay.”
>
>June 2005: Funding for the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of
>Engineers is cut by a record $71.2 million. One of the hardest-hit areas
>is the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was created
>after the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson, Orleans and St.
>Tammany parishes.
>
>August 2005: While New Orleans is undergoing a slow motion catastrophe,
>Bush mugs for the cameras, cuts a cake for John McCain, plays the guitar
>for Mark Wills, delivers an address about V-J day, and continues with his
>vacation. When he finally gets around to acknowledging the scope of the
>unfolding disaster, he delivers only a photo op on Air Force One and a
>flat, defensive, laundry list speech in the Rose Garden.
>
>A crony with no relevant experience was installed as head of
>FEMA. Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was
>known to be one of the top three risks in the country. FEMA was
>deliberately downsized as part of the Bush administration’s conservative
>agenda to reduce the role of government. After DHS was created, FEMA’s
>preparation and planning functions were taken away.
>
>Actions have consequences. No one could predict that a hurricane the size
>of Katrina would hit this year, but the slow federal response when it did
>happen was no accident. It was the result of four years of deliberate
>Republican policy and budget choices that favor ideology and partisan
>loyalty at the expense of operational competence. It’s the Bush
>administration in a nutshell.