Michael D. Brown

Brown co-authored a book, Deadly Indifference: The Perfect (Political) Storm: Hurricane Katrina, The Bush White House, and Beyond, about his experiences during Hurricane Katrina. The book was released June 16, 2011 and is published by Taylor Trade Publishing. Brown criticizes the performance of numerous people, including Bush, Trent Lott, Dennis Hastert, Ray Nagin, and Jesse Jackson, and critiques his own performance by stating that he failed to be ready for the press and was too timid in his response.

Brown filled in at various times on Denver radio station KOA after leaving government service. In February 2010 he was named the host of the Michael Brown Show from 7-10 pm weeknights on KOA, when not preempted by sports. Brown has embraced the criticism received during his handling of FEMA and has indicated that this gives him insight into when government fails. In mid-2012 Brown teamed up with Denver liberal KKZN host David Sirota for KHOW's Sirota-Brown show for KHOW's afternoon drive slot, but now hosts his own show, again called the Michael Brown Show. Politically, on the program, Brown describes himself as "very clearly center-right, conservative, with a strong libertarian bent." During the COVID-19 outbreak, Brown questioned whether wearing masks would stop the spread of the virus and said that he would not take a COVID vaccine.

Brown speaking about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in May 2010 declared:

In July 2009, Brown became the CEO of the Next of Kin Registry, an NGO in Washington DC. NOKR is a central depository for Emergency Contact information in the United States plus 87 other countries. The NGO is all volunteer driven.

On August 28, 2009, it was announced via press release emails "Former FEMA Director Michael Brown Joins Cold Creek Solutions, Offers Consulting Practice for Disaster Recovery" and also subsequently reported that Brown had joined Cold Creek Solutions as VP, Disaster Recovery Practice.

Brown began as an adviser to a publicly traded company, InferX which claimed its technology is the answer to US security concerns, as well as the credibility problems of the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency. Brown had been on the media circuit talking about technology that claims to screen for terror suspects, track threats in shipping containers and cargo hauling, and gather data for law enforcement tracking. In December 2007, Brown was named CEO of InferX and then appointed to the board of directors in April 2008. As of May 9, 2008 Brown and others left the company pending sale of InferX to another investor.

As of 2007, Brown worked for Cotton Companies, a private firm specializing in disaster recovery. Throughout 2007 and early 2008 Brown made appearances to the press on behalf of Cotton companies. In these appearances, he referred to the lessons that he had learned from his experiences as the head of FEMA during Hurricane Katrina.

On August 28, 2007, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards proposed what he called "Brownie's Law" requiring that "qualified people, not political hacks", lead key federal agencies.

On March 1, 2006, AP released a recording of Brown and Bush in a video conference in which the vulnerability of the levee system was raised with a great deal of concern over potential loss of life. Bush denied any awareness of the possibility of a levee-related catastrophe in an interview.

On August 31, 2005, following Hurricane Katrina being named an "Incident of National Significance", Brown was named the Principal Federal Official and placed in charge of the federal government's response by Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff. On September 7, 2005, Coast Guard Chief of Staff Vice Admiral Thad Allen was named Brown's deputy and given operational control of search and rescue and recovery efforts.

At the Mobile (Alabama) Regional Airport on September 2, 2005, President Bush, who had appointed Brown in 2003, praised him shortly after the storm hit, saying "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." On September 9, 2005, Chertoff relieved Brown of all on-site relief duties along the Gulf Coast, officially replacing him with Vice Admiral Allen. Brown remained undersecretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response. Brown told the Associated Press that "the press" was making him a scapegoat for the slow federal response to the hurricane. Chertoff granted Brown two 30-day contract extensions in order not to "sacrifice the real ability to get a full picture of Mike's experiences." Brown continued to receive his $148,000 annual salary until November 2, 2005, when he left in the middle of the second 30-day extension.

On September 12, 2005, in the wake of what was widely believed to be incompetent handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by state, local and federal officials, Brown resigned, saying that it was "in the best interest of the agency and best interest of the president." Overall, at least 1,245 people had died in the hurricane and subsequent floods.

On November 2, 2005, Brown ended his contract early (it had been extended to mid-November by Chertoff) and left the federal government. On January 18, 2006, Brown stated that certain things could have been handled differently, such as calling in the military. As one of the largest natural disasters to ever strike the U.S., he stated, "It was beyond the capacity of the state and local governments, and it was beyond the capacity of FEMA." On February 10, 2006, Brown again testified before Congress, this time placing blame on the Department of Homeland Security for the poor handling of the disaster, asserting that the anti-terrorism focus of the department had caused it to deny resources needed to properly operate FEMA. In his February 2006 testimony, Brown also contradicted earlier claims that the White House was unaware of levees having been breached, stating: "For them to claim that we didn't have awareness of it is just baloney."

In January 2005, U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) publicly urged Bush to fire Brown, citing the Sun-Sentinel 's report. Wexler repeated his call in April to Chertoff, citing new reports that FEMA sent inspectors with criminal records of robbery and embezzlement to do damage assessments.

On August 29, 2005, five hours after the hurricane hit land, Brown made his first request for Homeland Security rescue workers to be deployed to the disaster area only after two days of training. He also told fire and rescue departments outside affected areas to refrain from providing trucks or emergency workers without a direct appeal from state or local governments in order to avoid coordination problems and the accusation of overstepping federal authority.

On September 1, 2005, Brown told Soledad O'Brien of CNN that he was unaware that New Orleans' officials had housed thousands of evacuees, who quickly ran out of food and water, in the Convention Center—even though major news outlets had been reporting on the evacuees' plight for at least a day. He also criticized those that were stuck in New Orleans as those "who chose not to evacuate, who chose not to leave the city" (disobeying a mandatory evacuation order).

On September 2, 2005, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley stated that he pledged firefighters, police officers, health department workers, and other resources on behalf of the city, but was only asked to send one tank truck.

Gail Collins, at the time editor of The New York Times' editorial page, called Brown "legendary as a disaster in his own right", and on Thanksgiving week in 2005, Brown was No. 1 on CNN's "Political Turkey of the Year" list for his handling of Katrina.

Brown's email messages were requested by a congressional house committee in November 2005 to investigate the federal government's handling of the Katrina disaster. Controversy arose when the approximately 1,000 e-mail messages between Brown, staff and acquaintances were released. Several of Brown's emails display an arguable lack of professionalism in his duties (per Charlie Melancon, the representative from this congressional district at the time).

In 2004, FEMA disbursed $30 million in disaster relief funds for Hurricane Frances to residents of Miami, Florida, where damage from Hurricane Frances was minimal. Brown admitted to $12 million in overpayments, but denied any serious mistakes, blaming a computer glitch. After investigating, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel wrote that Brown was responsible and called for him to be fired.

In August 2002, Bush appointed Brown to the Transition Planning Office for the new Department of Homeland Security, serving as the transition leader for the Emergency Preparedness and Response Division. As undersecretary, Brown also directed the National Incident Management System Integration Center, the National Disaster Medical System and the Nuclear Incident Response Team. After Bush announced the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, Allbaugh left government and Bush nominated Brown in January 2003 for the directorship of FEMA. Brown was sworn into his position on April 15, 2003.

After President Bush entered office in January 2001, Brown joined FEMA as general counsel. He was the first person hired by his long-time friend, FEMA director Joe Allbaugh, who also ran Bush's election campaign in 2000. Allbaugh later named Brown his acting deputy director in September 2001. Bush formally nominated him as deputy director on March 22, 2002, and the Senate confirmed him many months later after the September 11 attacks recovery effort in New York had subsided. Brown oversaw the recovery efforts for New York and surrounding states with the White House Office of Domestic Policy's Reuben Jeffery III who later became chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

A March 2000 two-part report in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, chronicling one of the disciplinary actions, lauded Brown for pursuing an investigation against David Boggs, "the kingpin of the Arabian horse world", despite internal pressure to end the inquiry. The Brown-led investigation found Boggs performed medically unnecessary surgery on horses to enhance their visual appeal. An ethics board suspended Boggs for five years. Boggs protested through multiple lawsuits against both the organization and Brown, alleging slander and defamation. Brown and the International Arabian Horse Association prevailed in each of the lawsuits brought by Boggs but the lawsuits nonetheless took a financial toll. Some members interviewed felt Brown showed an imperious attitude, and nicknamed him "The Czar."

Before joining FEMA, Brown was the Judges and Stewards Commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association from 1989-2001. After numerous lawsuits were filed against the organization over disciplinary actions that Brown took against members violating the association's code of ethics, Brown resigned and negotiated a buy-out of his contract.

Brown ran for Congress in 1988 against Democratic incumbent Glenn English, who had not been challenged in the previous election. English's well-financed campaign soundly defeated Brown with 122,763 votes against 45,199. After losing, Brown promised to try again in 1990, saying, "I have an excellent chance of prevailing. It's a Democratic state, but a very Republican district." However, Brown did not run in 1990, and English beat his Republican opponent, Robert Burns, 110,100 votes to 27,540.

He also taught at Oklahoma City University law school as an adjunct lecturer - although his FindLaw profile falsely misrepresented his occupation at that time as an "Outstanding Political Science Professor". From 1982–1988, he was the Chairman of the Board of the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority.

While attending law school, Brown was appointed by the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee of the Oklahoma Legislature as the Finance Committee Staff Director, where he oversaw state fiscal issues from 1980–1982. In 1981, he was elected to the city council for Edmond, but resigned to work in private practice.

Later in the 1980s Brown lived in Enid, Oklahoma and practiced law there. During the Hurricane Katrina controversy, Stephen Jones, the senior partner and founder of the firm for which Brown worked, described him as "not serious and somewhat shallow" and stated that he had handled "transactional," rather than litigation work. Brown later went into solo practice.

While he was in college, from 1975 to 1978, he handled "labor and budget matters" as an assistant to the city manager of Edmond, Oklahoma (1980 population of 34,637). His White House biography stated that he had emergency services oversight in this position. However, the head of public relations for the city was quoted as denying that Brown had oversight over anybody and that "the assistant is more like an intern." She said, "Mike used to handle a lot of details. Every now and again I'd ask him to write me a speech. He was very loyal. He was always on time. He always had on a suit and a starched white shirt." However, Claudia Deakins, the spokesperson for the City of Edmond, submitted information to the House Committee investigating Hurricane Katrina that Time Magazine, which described his resume as "padded," had taken her quotes out of context, and erroneously reported Brown's position at the City of Edmond. The former Mayor of Edmond, Carl Reherman, and the former City Attorney, Mary Ann Karns, each submitted affidavits to the House investigating committee showing that Brown did have emergency management experience.

Michael DeWayne Brown (born November 8, 1954) served as the first undersecretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response, a division of the Department of Homeland Security. This position is generally referred to as the director or administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). He was appointed in January 2003 by President George W. Bush and resigned following his controversial handling of Hurricane Katrina in September 2005. Brown first had been appointed as general counsel at FEMA. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks President Bush nominated Brown to become deputy director of FEMA. Brown currently hosts a radio talk show on 850 KOA in Denver, Colorado.

Brown was born on November 8, 1954 in Guymon, Oklahoma, the son of Eloise (Ferguson) and Wayne Ellsworth Brown. He received a B.A. in public administration/political science from the Central State University (now the University of Central Oklahoma). He received his J.D. from Oklahoma City University School of Law in 1981.