 November 7, 2007
Posted: 07:00 PM ET
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Aaron Walker, press secretary for FEMA, submitted his resignation to FEMA administrator David Paulison this afternoon, according to a FEMA official. The official will not say whether Walker was asked to resign or did so voluntarily. His resignation becomes effective in early December. Walker is the second FEMA press official to suffer the repercussions of a staged FEMA news conference during the California wildfires. John (Pat) Philbin, FEMA's director of external affairs, left his job two days after the news conference to become head of public affairs for the Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell. That job offer, however, was rescinded as Philbin's role in the press conference became clearer. The FEMA said that Philbin and Walker bore the "greatest degree of responsibility for the planning and execution" of the press conference. "They had the greatest ability to stop that train from going down the track, and they didn't," said the official. – CNN Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve Filed under: FEMA October 27, 2007
Posted: 12:15 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House scolded the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Friday for staging a phony news conference about assistance to victims of wildfires in southern California. The agency — much maligned for its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina over two years ago — arranged to have FEMA employees play the part of independent reporters Tuesday and ask questions of Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the agency's deputy director. The questions were predictably soft and gratuitous. "I'm very happy with FEMA's response," Johnson said in reply to one query from an agency employee. White House press secretary Dana Perino said it was not appropriate that the questions were posed by agency staffers instead of reporters. FEMA was responsible for the "error in judgment," she said, adding that the White House did not know about it beforehand and did not condone it. "FEMA has issued an apology, saying that they had an error in judgment when they were attempting to get out a lot of information to reporters, who were asking for answers to a variety of questions in regard to the wildfires in California," Perino said. "It's not something I would have condoned. And they — I'm sure — will not do it again." She said the agency was just trying to provide information to the public, through the press, because there were so many questions. Filed under: FEMA |
 
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