3/5/09 Politico: Group wants FEMAhead in Cabinet

03/05/2009 Ben Smilowitz Comments Closed

Group wants FEMA head in Cabinet

Politico

By JEN DIMASCIO

3/5/09 4:34AM EST

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19643.html

President Barack Obama has picked Craig Fugate as the next Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator and Jason McNamara as the agency’s chief of staff.

And no sooner was the choice made public than the drumbeat began for making FEMA a Cabinet-level agency.

The nonprofit Disaster Accountability Project is leading that charge and has already begun grilling Fugate, who directs the Florida Division of Emergency Management, on his plans for the federal agency. The group wants to know how heíll implement important lessons learned from the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

Fugate started out as a volunteer firefighter and served for 10 years as the emergency manager of Floridaís Alachua County. Fugate was appointed to his job in Florida in October 2001 by then-Gov. Jeb Bush.

McNamara comes from the corporate world, serving as an associate vice president and director of emergency management for the professional services firm Dewberry.

The new nominees are scheduled to travel to New Orleans on Thursday with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.).

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