After serving nearly six months as acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, R. David Paulison has been nominated by President George W. Bush to permanently head the agency.

Paulison was head of the U.S. Fire Administration when he was chosen last September to replace then-FEMA director Michael Brown in the aftermath of the gulf hurricane disasters.

Since Paulison assumed the reigns of FEMA, he has actively overseen the efforts to re-tool FEMA, successfully coordinated the federal response to Hurricanes Rita and Wilma, and overseen the efforts for 25 disaster declarations.

In addition to Paulison, 59, a former chief of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue, the administration planned to name as his deputy Coast Guard Vice Adm. Harvey Johnson and make permanent David I. Maurstad's status as head of FEMA's Mitigation Division and flood insurance operations, sources said.