Vice President Dick Cheney Saturday said he supported the decision to remove Michael Brown as head of the federal relief effort in the stricken Gulf Coast but refused to say if Brown would eventually be dismissed.
Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff on Friday put Vice Admiral Thad Allen, chief of staff of the U.S. Coast Guard, in charge of the relief effort on the ground, sending Brown back to continue administering the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Washington.
The Bush administration has been under fire for being slow to aid hundreds of thousands of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi residents who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina and the floodwaters that followed when the levees in New Orleans broke.
"Mike Chertoff made those decisions and I certainly support him," Cheney told reporters at the Austin convention center, which is housing about 1,500 evacuees. Some have called for Brown to be fired, but Cheney deferred to Chertoff.
Protesters criticizing Cheney
The New York Times reported that Cheney heard criticism about Brown during his first trip to the region Thursday.
There were protesters who gathered outside the convention center shouting, "Cheney, you are scumbag" and carrying signs that said "fire Cheney too" and "relief not repression."
Cheney said the evacuees he spoke to in Texas on Saturday did not raise concerns about the FEMA shake-up but detailed their stories of escaping the devastation.
"Not one of them mentioned any of it," Cheney said in response to a question. "They're all very thankful where they find themselves right now."
He said the federal government will help state and local governments pay for costs of educating children evacuated from their homes, "so that the burden doesn't fall totally on the local school system."
President Bush travels to the Gulf Coast region on Sunday.
Vice President toured Austin shelter
Cheney spent about 20 minutes touring the Austin convention center, walking past the rows of cots with neatly arranged blankets pillows and sleeping bags.
One of evacuee, Telisha Diaz, 23, said she had spent "four long days" in the New Orleans convention center, but also said the Austin experience had been much better.
Michael Craig, 43, who also came from New Orleans with his fiancee and three children, said he told Cheney about the evacuation and talked of how he thought it could have been made better.