Bill Berkowitz
September 11, 2005

Joe Allbaugh's Moneymaking Mission to the Gulf Coast

Less than two weeks after Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, the former FEMA head was on the scene to drum up business for his clients

He was not there to hand out food or water; he was not there to participate in the rescue effort; and he was certainly not there to apologize for bringing the grossly incompetent Michael Brown to FEMA during his reign at the agency. On Wednesday, September 9, when Joseph Allbaugh, the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), showed up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to survey the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, he was there for one thing: to stir up business for his corporate clients.

Allbaugh had been to Louisiana, in his official FEMA capacity, after a number of other disasters including tropical storms Allison and Isidore and Hurricane Lili. Now, he was there as the head of the Allbaugh Company -- a firm he co-founded with his wife, Diane, which specializes in advising companies how to get in on lucrative disaster relief projects. He was, the Washington Post reported, "helping his clients get business from perhaps the worst natural disaster in the nation's history."

Allbaugh told the newspaper that he was there "just trying to lend my shoulder to the wheel, trying to coordinate some private-sector support that the government always asks for." The "shoulder to the wheel" mantra was repeated by Allbaugh's spokesperson, Patti Giglio, who told The Hill "He is putting his shoulder to the wheel to mobilize the private sector, getting stuff in, getting what needs to be done done." Giglio claimed that Allbaugh was not here to help his clients secure government contracts. "The first thing he says when he sits down with a client is, 'Don't hire me if you're looking for a government contract.'"

One of Allbaugh's clients, the Florida-based UltraStrip Systems Inc., was supposedly persuaded by Allbaugh to get "down here" to present the case for a water filtration system, according to the Washington Post.

"I'll tell them, 'Here are the list of entities [that might buy the system] that are in town, here is where they are -- go to it.'"

Although Allbaugh also claimed that he does not "do government contracts," he allowed that he advises clients on "how to best craft their pitch, to craft their technical expertise so everybody knows exactly what they do."

Allbaugh's clients include: the Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) division of Halliburton; TruePosition, a manufacturer of wireless location products, services and devices; the Shaw Group, a provider of engineering, design, construction, and maintenance services to government and the private sector; and UltraStrip, a company marketing the first water filtration system approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.

According to The Hill, "Allbaugh's wife represents Trade-Winds Environmental Restoration Inc., of Long Island, N.Y., and MLU Services, a company based in Athens, Georgia, that specializes in removing debris after disasters."

When whatever Congressional Committee(s) or Independent Commission takes up the investigation of why the federal government responded so inadequately to Hurricane Katrina, Joseph Allbaugh's name should surely come up. Not only was he responsible for bringing the woefully unprepared Michael Brown to the agency, he was one of the major players behind shrinking the agency and for laying the groundwork for FEMA to be slipped into the Department of Homeland Security.

Long before Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and Mississippi, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), then-headed by Allbaugh -- the longtime friend of President Bush who was his former chief of staff in Texas and his 2000 campaign manager -- was deeply concerned about so-called runaway government services.

"Undermining ... FEMA began as soon as President Bush took office" when "instead of choosing a professional with expertise in responses to disaster to head the agency ... [he] appointed ... Allbaugh ... [who] quickly began trying to scale back some of FEMA's preparedness programs," Paul Krugman wrote in his New York Times Column on September 5.

"With FEMA under Allbaugh's watch," In These Times pointed out a few days earlier, "White House budget director Mitch Daniels announced in April 2001 the goal of privatizing much of" the agency's work.

Playing off a variation of Grover Norquist's "My goal is to cut government ... down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub," in 2001, Allbaugh told Congress that, "Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized entitlement program and a disincentive to effective state and local risk management. Expectations of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level."

Before leaving FEMA in December 2002 -- to found The Allbaugh Company, a Washington, D.C.-lobbying outfit eager to cash in on lucrative Iraq reconstruction contracts -- Allbaugh helped bury FEMA inside the new Department of Homeland Security.

Allbaugh was also the person who brought Michael Brown to government service. It is clear from a slew of recent reporting that the major reason Brown signed on with FEMA was that Allbaugh facilitated his old college roommate's appointment.

Even before he was "reassigned" back to Washington on Friday, September 9, Michael Brown's back-story had, unfortunately for him, surfaced. The public discovered that he had come to FEMA after being "fired" or "let go" from his controversial nearly 10-year tenure running the International Arabian Horse Association (IAHA), a breeders' and horse-show organization based in Colorado. While "czar" of the IAHA, Brown came under heavy criticism for his leadership skills or lack thereof. WorldNetDaily, a conservative news site, reported on September 5, that Brown had actually been "fired" from his "job" with the IAHA.

However, Brown's contentious tenure at the IAHA was just the tip of an iceberg of controversy. In a story posted September 8 entitled, "How Reliable Is Brown's Resume? -- A TIME investigation reveals discrepancies in the FEMA chief's official biographies" Time magazine reported that Brown's biography on the FEMA Web site grossly overstated his disaster relief experience. "He was said to have been an 'assistant city manager with emergency services oversight' in Edmond, Oklahoma, but a city official said the job was actually 'assistant to the city manager,' with little responsibility." It appears that Brown was more like an intern than an "assistant city manager."

Time also reported that Brown "padd[ed] ... his resume" in other areas as well. Under the 'honors and awards' section of his profile at FindLaw.com -- which is a website focusing on the legal profession -- he lists 'Outstanding Political Science Professor, Central State University.' However, Brown 'wasn't a professor here, he was only a student here,' said Charles Johnson, News Bureau Director in the University Relations office at the University of Central Oklahoma (formerly named Central State University). 'He may have been an adjunct instructor,' says Johnson, but that title is very different from that of 'professor.' Carl Reherman, a former political science professor at the University through the '70s and '80s, says that Brown 'was not on the faculty.' As for the honor of 'Outstanding Political Science Professor,' Johnson says, 'I spoke with the department chair yesterday and he's not aware of it.' Johnson could not confirm that Brown made the Dean's list or was an 'Outstanding Political Science Senior,' as is stated on his online profile."

At FEMA, Brown first served as its Deputy Director and the agency's General Counsel. After Allbaugh left the agency in January 2003, Brown became the first Under Secretary of Emergency Preparedness and Response in the newly created Department of Homeland Security.

The hiring of Michael Brown was not Allbaugh's only contribution to the erosion of FEMA's capabilities. Although he was no longer at FEMA when in June 2004, it partially privatized its hurricane disaster plan for New Orleans, by contracting the work to the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, firm Innovative Emergency Management (IEM) whose motto is "Managing Risk in a Complex World," Allbaugh's stamp was writ large over the process.

On June 3, 2004, two days after announcing the contract on its website, the company claimed that it "will lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southeast Louisiana and the City of New Orleans under a more than half a million dollar contract" with the Department of Homeland Security/FEMA.

In These Times reported that IEM Director of Homeland Security Wayne Thomas had told Biz New Orleans that, "Given this area's vulnerability, unique geographic location and elevation, and troubled escape routes, a plan that facilitates a rapid and effective hurricane response and recovery is critical. The IEM team's approach to catastrophic planning meets the challenges associated with integrating multi-jurisdictional needs and capabilities into an effective plan for addressing catastrophic hurricane strikes, as well as man-made catastrophic events."

The press release, according to the web log Lenin's Tomb, was removed from the company's online press release archives after Katrina hit.

While it may appear unseemly that Allbaugh would visit Katrina-devastated areas to parlay his previous government service into lucrative contracts for his clients while bloated bodies were still floating down the flooded streets of New Orleans and people were still reeling from their losses, that seems to be the man's modus operandi.

In 2003, Allbaugh was a founder of New Bridge Strategies, a company aiming to "help businesses develop opportunities in Iraq, and Diligence-Iraq, to provide security for civilians in the Middle East," the Washington Post reported. While the protect-civilians-from-terrorism business is hopping -- expanding into Europe and Asia -- Allbaugh said that New Bridge Strategies has been on hold because companies are reluctant to invest in Iraq.

It has already been reported that KBR, a subsidiary of the Houston, Texas-based Halliburton -- the company previously run by Vice President Dick Cheney, which has made billions of dollars off the War in Iraq -- has received a $16.6 million Navy contract to repair Gulf Coast military facilities.

On September 8, President Bush signed a proclamation voiding Section 3142(a) of title 40, of the US Code, which provides that "every contract in excess of $2,000, to which the Federal Government or the District of Columbia is a party ... shall contain a provision stating the minimum wages to be paid various classes or laborers and mechanics."

It appears that as in Iraq, where US-based companies have reaped billions of dollars from so-called reconstruction projects while Iraqis have been basically shut out of the process, Gulf Coast cleanup and rebuilding contracts garnered by Allbaugh's clients will undoubtedly benefit from Bush's latest proclamation.