In March 1930, he and a friend (who died during the episode) became national heroes after they personally saved dozens of people from drowning during floods in the southwest of France. He was awarded the Legion of Honour and the ("Golden medal for fine deeds"). Maurice Sarraut, the radical-socialist senator and CEO of , and Albert Sarraut, deputy, president of the Council and minister, took on Bousquet as their "protégé". Bousquet was detached to the Presidency of the Council to head the technical service in charge of the reconstruction of the flooded southern regions. He had a rapid rise within the government, gaining increasingly responsible appointments.