[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 110 (Wednesday, September 7, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H7705]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   CALLING FOR AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE LACK OF TIMELY RESPONSE TO 
                           HURRICANE KATRINA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Scott) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise with indeed a heavy heart, 
as so many in America do. This is an extraordinary time in our country. 
My heart goes out to all of those thousands and thousands of people in 
the gulf area that have lost everything. This is one of our darkest 
hours, and let us hope some bright light can shine very, very quickly. 
But in order for that bright light to shine, Mr. Speaker, we must 
realize the importance of having an investigation quickly.
  Let me hurry up and say that this investigation is not a blame game, 
because we already know where the blame is. It is for those individuals 
who had the responsibility. It has been a failure of leadership at the 
national level. Here in Congress, a failure of leadership. At the White 
House, a failure of leadership. The President, a failure of leadership. 
Our military, a failure of leadership. And our Homeland Security, a 
failure of leadership. In FEMA, a failure of leadership. And we must 
examine that now so that we can prepare quickly for the next disaster, 
because it is coming, or a terrorist attack. There have been mistakes 
after mistakes after mistakes. That is why we need a thorough 
investigation of what went wrong in the Federal response to Katrina, 
and why there was such a delay. Delay after delay after delay.
  We must not try to skirt around and assume and put blame, unrighteous 
blame, on the city of New Orleans and their police department and 
mayor, who were victims. They were suffering from the flood. They were 
suffering from the hurricane. Here is a Category 5 hurricane coming at 
a city 6 feet below sea level and 30 percent of its population below 
the poverty level. Where was that plan? Their police departments 
immediately disseminated. Several of their policemen were killed in the 
flood. They were not able to do it. And then to hide behind and go to 
the Governor and say, where is the Governor in this? We cannot fault 
the Governor for this, nor the mayor. This was a national disaster, and 
the national leadership failed.
  We must move quickly to get an investigation so we can determine what 
went wrong. The need for this investigation, like I said, is not simply 
to find blame, but it is to prepare us for future disasters and 
attacks. We cannot delay in this investigation, because time is of the 
essence. Questions must be asked and corrections in the system must be 
made while the timeline of the responses is still fresh in our minds of 
actually what happened and why, because we do not know how soon the 
next event will happen.
  This was on television, Mr. Speaker, for everyone to see. We cannot 
run and hide from this one. And I tell my colleagues, in looking at the 
television, no matter what it is, this is not a Republican problem, it 
is not a Democratic problem; it is an American problem, and America is 
expecting us to stand up for America.
  There are two essential questions that must be raised and answered. 
The first one is, why did it take the military so long? Six days. 
Bodies floating in New Orleans. Flooding up to the rooftops. People 
trying to get rescued. And on every television station, Fox News, 
Shepard Smith, my hat is off to him. Tears in his eyes saying, Where is 
our military? Where are people, Geraldo, cradling a baby, with tears 
coming down his face. Where is our President? Where is our Congress? 
Where is our FEMA? Where is our Homeland Security? A failure. We 
deserve to investigate this quickly, and get answers.
  And then the other question, Mr. Speaker, that is on everybody's mind 
is this one: What role did race and poverty and class play in this?
  We cannot hide behind the sensitivities of this. Some of these 
questions are very unpleasant. They were not created by you or me, but 
they are there. Those were black and poor people who feel that if those 
people were white, that would not be happening if they were white and 
middle class. I am not the only one asking this. African Americans are 
not the only ones asking this. White people, too, are asking this. We 
need an investigation to get to the bottom of this particular question.
  And then this other question, Mr. Speaker: Why can an administration 
who can, without a declaration of war, without authority from Congress, 
invade another country, topple its government, and then can do it in 24 
or 72 hours, but it took them 6 days to respond to sick children and 
people on ventilators who had passed away. We have to ask the question, 
Mr. Speaker, because the great tragedy here is not Katrina, it is the 
tens of thousands of American citizens' lives that were lost because 
their Federal Government failed them. We owe it to the American people, 
Mr. Speaker, to quickly put together a commission, just like we did 
with 9/11, with subpoena power, and get to the bottom of this and fix 
it so that we can put back together and protect this country.

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