Trump to nominate Jeffrey Byard as U.S. emergency management chief

[February 16, 2019]  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump intends to nominate Jeffrey Byard, a senior official at the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, to be its administrator, replacing Brock Long who said this week he was resigning, the White House said on Friday.

Byard currently serves as associate administrator for response and recovery at FEMA, the agency's "senior-most executive over disaster response, recovery, logistics, and field operations," the White House said in a statement.

He previously served with the Alabama Emergency Management Agency. The nomination needs confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

Long, who said he would resign on Wednesday, was widely praised for his tenure at a time when the United States faced its most devastating stretch of natural disasters since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

But Long's reputation took a hit last year when the Department of Homeland Security determined he had inappropriately used government vehicles to commute between Washington and his home in North Carolina.

(Reporting by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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