During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised to appoint a "federal coordinating officer to direct reconstruction efforts" following a major disaster. "The job of the FCO and his or her staff will be to cut through bureaucratic obstacles, get federal agencies to work together and to coordinate efforts with local officials."

For a long time, we resisted rating this promise because experts we consulted with agreed that there was no disaster of a large enough scale to require this sort of response.

But then Hurricane Sandy slammed into the Atlantic coastline in late October 2012. And on Nov. 15, 2012, during a trip to visit affected areas in metropolitan New York City, President Obama made an announcement that seemed to address this promise.

The White House announced that Obama "has asked Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan to continue to work closely with governors, mayors and local officials of New Jersey and New York as they begin the process of identifying redevelopment plans for affected communities."

Donovan has longstanding ties to the New York City area. He's a former commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development and previously worked at the Community Preservation Corporation in New York City, a nonprofit lender and developer of affordable housing, and at Prudential Mortgage Capital in Newark, N.J., where he handled its affordable housing portfolio.

The White House drew a contrast between Donovan's role and that of the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The two agencies will "continue to provide all available federal resources to support the immediate response and recovery efforts," whereas Donovan would "coordinate the federal support as states design their redevelopment plans, identify priorities, and over time begin implementation of their plans. This structure will streamline this process for governors as they seek assistance for longer-term projects they identify as priorities for community redevelopment."

It remains to be seen how successfully Donovan carries out this assignment, but his appointment does fit the requirements set out in Obama's 2008 promise. We rate it a Promise Kept.