"I have been very concerned about the federal government's reaction to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Nothing, however, has concerned me as much as the efforts of Mr. Brown," the Democratic senator said in a letter to Bush.

"Specifically, Mr. Brown represented to the public that he could not have imagined the levees being breached in New Orleans, even though he had been briefed by federal government experts nearly a day and a half before Hurricane Katrina made landfall that those levees could indeed be breached by the hurricane surge. Having received such information, Mr. Brown should have acted more quickly than he did -- and should not have suggested to the American public that he was given contrary information," Salazar said in the letter.