Last week, the political world was abuzz with news that Joe Lieberman and the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs let FEMA Director Mike Brown cruise through an effortless 42-minute hearing before getting confirmed. To be sure, senators from both parties dropped the ball — they trusted the White House to pick someone competent and they trusted that Brown was telling the truth on his resume and bio.
But in my never-ending quest to shift responsibility back onto the president, it’s worth noting that the 42-minute debacle was not to consider Brown as the director of FEMA, but rather, as FEMA’s undersecretary. The Senate may have failed when it came to due diligence, but at least it wasn’t negligent when considering the person who would literally lead the agency.
So, what happened when Brown was under consideration for the top job at FEMA? What happened at the confirmation hearings? As it turns out, the Senate is partially off the hook on this one — the White House simply elevated Brown to the job and bypassed the confirmation process altogether.
But six months [after Brown’s June 2002 confirmation hearings], when he was tapped to head the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Bush administration never sent the Senate Brown’s nomination as the newly created Homeland Security undersecretary for emergency preparedness and response, which includes overseeing FEMA.
A provision in the 2002 law creating the Homeland Security Department allowed officials whose duties were to remain the same in the new organization to skip Senate confirmation, according to a Congressional Research Service report titled “Filling Presidentially Appointed, Senate-Confirmed Positions in the Department of Homeland Security,” as well as conversations with lawmakers and aides.
Given this, Lieberman’s negligence isn’t nearly as bad. Then-Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.) pushed the provision that let Bush sidestep the Senate and it became the law over Dem objections (including Lieberman’s). Indeed, Bush initially indicated that he would send the Senate Brown’s nomination, but apparently reconsidered when the White House realized it wasn’t necessary.
Granted, Brown should have raised red flags before he reached the number two job at the agency, but if you’re keeping score at home, the responsibility for this incompetent becoming the director of FEMA rests first with Bush for picking him, second with Brown for taking a job for which he was not qualified, and third with Senate Republicans who empowered Bush to circumvent the confirmation process when filling the post.