[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 109 (Tuesday, September 6, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H7649]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        BUSH ADMINISTRATION BEGINS DAMAGE CONTROL SPIN OPERATION

  (Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise to express my 
support for the people affected and harmed by Hurricane Katrina and to 
pledge my total support for their aid and recovery. There is so much to 
be done to help the people on the ground, and there is so much to do in 
Washington to scrutinize and improve Federal policy regarding disaster 
prevention and response, and we must undertake that review and those 
efforts.
  But I am also deeply frustrated and angry by the Bush 
administration's failed response to this tragedy and its failure to 
take responsibility for its own mistakes. According to the New York 
Times, the administration, led by Karl Rove, has begun a political 
damage control operation to blame the local officials in Louisiana, the 
Governor and the Mayor of the City of New Orleans, for the Federal 
Government's failures.
  No one can undo the damage that has been done, and I wish we could. 
We should be putting our efforts into helping these people and 
repairing that damage. I wish the administration would have put as much 
energy into an early and timely response, an effective response to 
Hurricane Katrina, as the energy they are putting in now to developing 
a political strategy to undermine the local officials who have suffered 
so much in their own communities.

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