Washington -- President George W. Bush appointed Brock D. Bierman to be the first ever Small State and Rural Advocate at the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency, a post derived from legislation U.S. Representative Barbara Cubin introduced and championed in the 108th and 109th Congresses.

“I am pleased Wyoming now has an advocate within the Federal Emergency Management Agency who will make sure the needs and interests of rural communities are met when disaster strikes,” Cubin said. “I have been fighting for this critical post for more than three years now and am hopeful Mr. Bierman will serve Wyoming well.”

Cubin first introduced legislation to create a Small State Advocate in 2003 after the town of Kaycee lost nearly 80 percent of its businesses and one-third of its residences in a flood. The federal government overlooked Kaycee after the flood because FEMA's rules at the time contradicted the law and held that Kaycee was too small to receive assistance.
 
"When a flood effectively destroyed the community of Kaycee in 2002, the federal government would not declare a disaster because it happened to a small town and not a major metropolis,” Cubin said. “The people who live in rural America pay the same taxes as the people who live in big cities and they deserve the same protection."

Cubin's bill was incorporated into FEMA reform legislation, the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006, which was signed into law as part of the annual Department of Homeland Security spending bill on October 4, 2006. The bill requires the Department to report to Congress regarding whether current regulations addressing small state disaster declarations are meeting the needs of states with populations of less than 1,500,000, and whether current disaster regulations are in compliance with existing law. The bill also calls on the Small State and Rural Advocate to participate in the disaster declaration process, assist small states in disaster declaration requests and ensure the needs of rural communities are being addressed.

Mr. Bierman currently serves as Chief of Staff of the Bureau for Europe and Eurasia at the United States Agency for International Development. He is a former small business owner and former Member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives.