Halliburton hires former FEMA chief; gets Katrina contract

When current FEMA chief Mike Brown is eventually forced to resign from this job too, chances are his old college buddy Joe Allbaugh will once again help him land on his feet, this time with a cushy job at Halliburton.  That's where former FEMA chief Allbaugh landed, and surprise... now Halliburton subsidiary KBR has started landing big contracts to participate in the recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

As reported last week by Halliburton Watch, the US Navy has asked Halliburton to repair naval facilities damaged by Katrina under an existing $500 million contract.  Earlier this year the Navy awarded KBR and three other companies $350 million in contracts to repair facilities damaged in 2004 by Hurricane Ivan.  And according to the New York Times, Halliburton is planning to profit further from Katrina:

Although Halliburton has not yet been asked to work on installations around New Orleans, it said on Friday that it would begin performing damage assessments there "as soon as it is deemed safe to do so."

No doubt helping out with both the assessments and the bids will be Allbaugh, who Halliburton hired in March as a consultant and lobbyist.  Allbaugh's lobbying disclosure form states that he will "educate the congressional and executive branch on defense, disaster relief and homeland security issues."  And who better to educate Brown, the current head of FEMA, than Allbaugh, his predecessor, benefactor and college roommate?

[Cross-posted at HorsesAss.org]