Michael DeWayne Brown (born November 8, 1954) is an American attorney, and former government official who served as the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from 2003 to 2005.

Appointed in January 2003 by President George W. Bush to lead FEMA, Brown resigned in September 2005 following his controversial handling of Hurricane Katrina.

The former Mayor of Edmond, Carl Reherman, and the former City Attorney, Mary Ann Karns, each submitted affidavits[9] to the House investigating committee showing that Brown did have emergency management experience.

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".

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.

Bush formally nominated him as deputy director on March 22, 2002, and the Senate confirmed him many months later, after the September 11th 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.

Prior to his nomination as undersecretary, the White House appointed Brown to head a transition team creating the Emergency Preparedness & Response Directorate within Department of Homeland Security.

Later, Bush asked him to head the Consequence Management Working Group to identify and resolve key issues regarding the federal response plan.

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.

"[16] Following criticism for what some perceived as a lack of planning and coordination, 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.

[20] Brown's standing had also been damaged when the Boston Herald revealed his meager experience in disaster management before joining FEMA.

Brown concentrated his testimony at that hearing on alleging that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin bore most, if not all, of the blame for the failures in the response to Katrina, and that his only fault had been not to realize sooner their inability to perform their respective duties.

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."

"[24] 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.

[29] On August 28, 2009, it was announced via press release emails[30][31][dubious – discuss] "Former FEMA Director Michael Brown Joins Cold Creek Solutions, Offers Consulting Practice for Disaster Recovery" and also subsequently reported[32][33] that Brown had joined Cold Creek Solutions as VP, Disaster Recovery Practice.

[40] In January 2005, U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) publicly urged Bush to fire Brown, citing the Sun-Sentinel's report.

[41] 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.

Brown's performance was defended, however, by Republicans such as former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Florida Governor Jeb Bush and former presidential speechwriter Pat Buchanan.

[43][44][45] 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.

[46] 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 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.

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.

[49] 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.

Several of Brown's emails display an arguable lack of professionalism in his duties (per Charlie Melancon, the U.S. representative from Louisiana's 3rd congressional district – New Orleans – at the time).

"[52] In contrast to Brown's claim, Obama had proposed a few weeks earlier major expansions of offshore oil and gas drilling as part of his "all of the above" energy policy.

"[55] Washington Post opinion writer Alexandra Petri responded that the Benghazi attack was unforeseen, whereas the hurricane was forecast well in advance.