On November 2, 2005, Brown ended his contract early (it had been extended to mid-November by Chertoff) and left the federal government. On January 18, 2006, Brown stated that certain things could have been handled differently, such as calling in the military. As one of the largest natural disasters to ever strike the U.S., he stated, "It was beyond the capacity of the state and local governments, and it was beyond the capacity of FEMA." On February 10, 2006, Brown again testified before Congress, this time placing blame on the Department of Homeland Security for the poor handling of the disaster, asserting that the anti-terrorism focus of the department had caused it to deny resources needed to properly operate FEMA. In his February 2006 testimony, Brown also contradicted earlier claims that the White House was unaware of levees having been breached, stating: "For them to claim that we didn't have awareness of it is just baloney."