BROWN
PER
BROWN
Among the speakers were Senator Susan Collins, Michael D. Brown, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency; and Senator Norm Coleman. Mr. Brown said that he finds it a little disingenuous that D.H.S. would claim that they were not getting that information, because FEMA held continuous video telephone conferences, in which at least once a day, they would be on conference calls and video calls to make certain that everyone had situational awareness. He says that since this was a natural disaster, that has become the stepchild within the Department of Homeland Security, and so they now have these two systems operating, one which cares about terrorism, and FEMA and the state and local partners, who are trying to approach everything from all hazards.