Mike Armstrong, SVP for Member Services and Communications, was selected for an invitation-only "Federal Post-Disaster Recovery Roundtable" at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., in early January. Mike joined two dozen representatives from the public, private and nonprofit sectors to examine the viability of existing federal approaches to disaster recovery.

The Roundtable was chaired by Carlos Monje of the White House Domestic Policy Council and co-chaired by representatives from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency/Department of Homeland Security (FEMA/DHS). Mike was invited by Brookings based on his published articles regarding pre- and post-disaster hazard mitigation stemming from his senior role at FEMA in the Clinton Administration, his Adjunct Professor activity at the George Washington University instructing on hazard mitigation and disaster management, along with his work at the Code Council.

The Roundtable discussions focused on infrastructure recovery, economic recovery, and recommendations on amending existing federal legislation and rules regarding disaster recovery. Mike recommended several approaches regarding the removal of interagency barriers to leveraging federal dollars along with wholesale restructuring of existing grant programs to provide more flexibility to state and local officials.

The Roundtable discussions and recommendations will be included in a report from Brookings to President Barack Obama. The White House participants indicated that the review of post-Katrina recovery activities by the Obama Administration has spurred interest in a wholesale review of federal disaster recovery efforts.