[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 116 (Thursday, September 15, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10105-S10110]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
HURRICANE KATRINA
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, in a few hours President Bush will speak
to our Nation about Hurricane Katrina, a catastrophe that has
devastated the gulf coast and left all Americans deeply shaken.
For nearly a week, the entire world watched in horror as tens of
thousands of American citizens trapped by the floodwaters pleaded for
rescue, for food, water, and medicine. This didn't happen only in New
Orleans. It happened in Slidell, in Jefferson Parish, in Pass
Christian, LA, in Biloxi and Gulfport, MS, and countless other
communities along the gulf coast. The devastation was so widespread.
We watched in stunned disbelief--hard to imagine that we were viewing
our country, our neighbors as a great American city was turned into a
toxic lake by a disaster that had been predicted for years. We saw
families clinging desperately to roofs, pleading
[[Page S10106]]
to be rescued. People died trapped in the attics of their homes. Sick
and elderly American citizens died, abandoned, in nursing homes. Babies
died in their mothers' arms. Bodies floated in rivers and decomposed in
plain view. The images we saw didn't even look like America. They
looked like some foreign land. Yet we knew it was our America.
We don't have any idea how many lives Katrina claimed. The numbers
may reach hundreds, maybe thousands. We do know that Katrina was the
greatest natural disaster America has ever experienced. One million of
our fellow Americans have been displaced from their homes by this
hurricane. Many lost their homes, their jobs, their communities,
everything they owned. They are scattered today across America, living
in emergency shelters, living with families and friends, and living
with compassionate strangers. Many still don't know what has become of
their family members, or whether they even survived.
A short time ago, our leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, and
Congresswoman Pelosi of California from the other Chamber, spoke about
what they hoped to hear the President say tonight. I want to take a few
minutes to talk about what I--and I believe many Americans--hope to
hear from the President this evening.
First, let me tell you what I hope the President will not say. I hope
the President's message to America is not divisive and ideological.
Some are counseling the President to pursue that course. The lead
editorial in this morning's Wall Street Journal gives you a sense of
what those words may be like. It tells the President to ``get back on
the political and intellectual offensive'' as if we are in some kind of
a political campaign here when it comes to dealing with this great
tragedy.
The solutions the Wall Street Journal proposes for New Orleans and
the gulf coast are all out of the ``Ownership Society'' notebook--
vouchers for health care and education, tax credits, no sense of
community, no sense of shared purpose. Remember the motto of this
``Ownership Society'' that we hear from the Wall Street Journal. Their
motto is to remember that we are all in this alone. But America knows
better. That tone, those solutions, we have heard them so many times.
When in doubt, the Wall Street Journal camp and those who follow it
attack the liberals, the trial lawyers, anyone with different ideas.
Then, their ultimate universal solution for every catastrophe, every
challenge and every problem: cut taxes on the rich. That is a cliche
that will not work. It is a program that has failed. It is one that we
shouldn't turn to.
For the good of America, it is time to stop attacking these perceived
political enemies and start attacking the real problems: incompetence,
cronyism, poor planning, poverty, inadequate health care and housing,
and overwhelmed schools.
What do we need in America? What do we need from the President? Two
words: unity and community.
Two days ago, President Bush said he takes personal responsibility
for the Federal Government's disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina.
The Governor of Louisiana said the same thing yesterday. So be it. They
have accepted responsibility.
We need to know what happened. We need to know where we failed. But
the finger-pointing should end as of today.
I commend the President for acknowledging that the buck stops at the
Oval Office. Harry Truman had that famous sign on his desk: ``The buck
stops here.'' And the President, with his acknowledgment, said as much
2 days ago.
But responsibility is a word. What we need is accountability.
Americans are united in our desire to help our fellow citizens, who
have lost so much in this disaster, rebuild their lives and rebuild
communities. It is in our national interest. More important, it is part
of our national character. Americans do not turn their backs on their
neighbors.
We want answers about the future of the gulf coast. But we also want
and deserve answers as to how this catastrophe unfolded--not to point
fingers of blame but to make sure we understand the shortcomings of
government at a moment when America needed it the most.
Something terrible happened on the gulf coast. Government at all
levels failed. The most basic test of government is to protect its
people. Instead, we had unnecessary death, destruction, suffering, and
loss. How could it happen in America?
After the London subway bombings in July, we called for increased
spending for rail security in this country. There was a vote on it, but
the administration said no. They said rail security was the
responsibility of State and local governments.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Secretary Chertoff of the
Department of Homeland Security explained that he could not focus on
every threat. Then he said something which I am sure he regrets:
The truth of the matter is, a fully loaded airplane with
jet fuel, a commercial airliner, has the capacity to kill
3,000 people. A bomb in a subway car may kill 30 people.
I am certain the Secretary would like to be able to retract those
words. Then he said:
When you start to think about your priorities, you're going
to think about making sure you don't have a catastrophic
thing first.
Those are the words of Secretary Chertoff after the London subway
bombing. Those were his words 6 weeks before Hurricane Katrina.
We are committed to the future of New Orleans and the gulf coast. But
the American people also want to know what happened before and after
Katrina hit. Why were we not prepared for such a catastrophe? How could
our government at all levels have been so unprepared to respond? What
did Congress do wrong? What did the Senate do wrong? What did each
agency of government do wrong? What has been done with the billions of
dollars we have spent on disaster preparedness since September 11?
We have created a new agency, and we have brought new agencies from
other parts of the government under that roof. We have tried to make it
leaner and meaner and more effective. Yet when tested with Hurricane
Katrina, it failed.
If our government can't save us from a disaster that has been
predicted for years--from a blip on the radar which was seen 48 hours
before it caused any destruction in the gulf area how will this
government save us from a terrorist attack with no warning whatever?
Asking those questions is not ``playing the blame game.'' It is
accountability. It puts a responsibility on my shoulders as a minority
Member of the Senate as much as any other Member of the Senate.
Hurricane Katrina has shaken our faith in our ability of the
government to protect us. The only way to restore it is to get down to
the bottom line and ask the hard questions.
You may recall after September 11 there was a suggestion that we have
an independent nonpartisan commission to analyze what went wrong. Why
didn't our intelligence agencies gather the information to warn us in
advance? There was resistance to that idea from the White House. Yet we
pressed forward. And the motivating force behind it was not only
popular opinion but the surviving families of those who died on
September 11. Those husbands and wives and extended family members came
together and forced the creation of the 9/11 Commission.
We need another commission. We need an independent, nonpartisan
commission in the mode and style of the 9/11 Commission. The force
behind it should be the same: families coming together--those who have
lost loved ones, those who have lost their homes and lost their
communities--to demand of this government accountability at all levels:
legislative, executive, local, State, and Federal.
It is regrettable; we had a chance to do this yesterday. Senator
Hillary Clinton of New York, who certainly understands the disaster of
September 11, as does her colleague, Senator Schumer, said let's put
together this Katrina commission, this independent, nonpartisan
commission. Unfortunately, it failed on a party-line vote yesterday in
the Senate.
But that is not the end of the story. We will be back. We will be
back with this commission proposal until we clearly do have an
independent commission we can trust to analyze the situation.
Wouldn't it be great tonight if the President, on national
television, says
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he now understands we need a Katrina commission? And that it should be
independent and nonpartisan, just like the 9/11 Commission? That would
be a great way to start.
There will be an independent inquiry into Hurricane Katrina because
the American people will demand it.
I hope the President tonight will announce that he supports a bill
that Republican chairman Susan Collins of Maine, and Democrat Senator
Joe Lieberman of Connecticut have introduced to increase Federal
funding for the special inspector general that monitors reconstruction
in Iraq so that office can also oversee spending on Hurricane Katrina
relief and reconstruction.
The Katrina reconstruction effort will be the most ambitious Federal
investment effort since the New Deal, the largest-ever Federal
expenditure on a natural disaster. The special inspector general has
the expertise and infrastructure in place now to monitor the billions
of dollars of Federal funds that will be needed and make sure the
taxpayers' dollars are not wasted.
FEMA has never had a sum of money like $60 billion. Trust me, having
seen government at work for many years, you have to get up to speed and
you have to have accountability or money will be wasted. Victims will
not be helped when they should be.
In addition, Senators Obama, Carper, and Coburn have proposed their
own idea, a creation of a chief financial officer to monitor financial
management of the departments involved in Katrina reconstruction. I
encourage the President to endorse this proposal, as well.
We know that the $62 billion in emergency funds Congress has already
approved for Katrina over the last two weeks is a down payment. We're
told that the President tonight will ask for another $50 billion, and
the final cost of this catastrophe could reach $200 billion--more than
we have spent in 3 years in Iraq to date.
Already we have heard troubling reports about contracts being awarded
for Katrina work. Listen to this headline from Monday's Wall Street
Journal:
No Bid Contracts Win Katrina Work. White House Uses
Practices Criticized in Iraq Rebuilding for Hurricane-Related
Jobs.
That is a very disappointing headline. To think we would go down the
same path of waste and abuse we have seen in Iraq now in our own
country with Hurricane Katrina is unacceptable.
The lead in the story says:
The Bush Administration is importing many of the
contracting practices blamed for spending abuses in Iraq as
it begins the largest and costliest rebuilding effort in
United States history.
This was printed in the Wall Street Journal in their news. It is not
some political document. It is their analysis. The story says:
The first large-scale contracts awarded to Hurricane
Katrina, as in Iraq, were awarded without competitive
building, using so-called `cost-plus' provisions that
guarantee contractors certain profits regardless of how much
they spend.
The article quotes a contracting expert at George Washington
University Law School who says:
You can easily compare FEMA's internal resources to what
you saw in the early days of the Coalition Provisional
Authority in Iraq: A small, underfunded organization taking
on a Herculean task under tremendous time pressure. This is
almost by definition a recipe for disaster.
Last week, the President signed an Executive order to cut the pay for
construction workers on Katrina reconstruction projects. Think about
that for a second.
First, the wage scales in the South and Louisiana and Mississippi, in
particular, are very low anyway. Imagine you were a construction worker
and your home or community was devastated by Katrina. You are now
trying to put your life and your family back together. You say to your
family, ``the good news is I do construction work and, boy, we will
need a lot of that.''
The first thing the White House announces, ``we will cut that
worker's pay.'' So the first thing we do for the workers who have lost
their homes and lived through the devastation of Hurricane Katrina is
to give them a smaller paycheck. Already, the wage scales are low in
this part of the country. The White House wants to cut them to even
lower levels.
The Executive order waives the Davis-Bacon law of 1931. Interestingly
enough, it is a provision in the law that is supported by management as
well as labor to make certain that you have skilled and qualified
workers building buildings and bridges and communities that will last
and not fall apart.
Construction workers in New Orleans earn an average of $10.31 an
hour, which is 25 percent below the national average already. They are
paid so low now they cannot afford what many workers can buy across
America. Now President Bush wants to pay these workers, many of whom
have to rebuild their homes and their lives from scratch, he wants to
pay them even less. And the White House reportedly is going to do the
same thing for service workers on Katrina construction projects.
The first decision the President makes about Katrina reconstruction
is to order a pay cut for workers who are trying desperately to rebuild
their lives and support their families.
But not everyone is being asked to sacrifice. Joe Allbaugh was
President Bush's campaign manager in the year 2000. From there he
became Director of FEMA under the President. Then he hired his old
college roommate, Mike Brown, a familiar name to most Americans.
Today, Mr. Allbaugh has left the Federal Government. He is a
lobbyist. One of his clients, a company called the Shaw Group, has
already received two $100 million no-bid contracts for Katrina work--
one from the Army Corps of Engineers to pump flood water out of New
Orleans, and the other from FEMA for construction and management for
emergency housing for Katrina victims.
The Shaw Group has updated its Web site, and it reads ``Hurricane
Recovery Projects--Apply Here!''
Now, another one of Mr. Allbaugh's clients, Kellogg, Brown & Root
Services, a subsidiary of--you guessed it--Halliburton, formally headed
by Vice President Cheney, is doing repair work at Navy facilities in
Mississippi damaged by Katrina. It received the contract for that work
despite the fact that the Pentagon auditors have questioned hundreds of
millions of dollars in charges for their work in Iraq. The same
companies under investigation for ripping off taxpayers in Iraq are
being awarded no-bid contracts for Katrina.
The President would serve the Nation well tonight if he says that we
are going to put an end to this daisy chain of favorable contracts to
old friends. It would be better if he would say that we are going to
focus on making sure that taxpayers get the most for the money that is
being spent on this reconstruction, and also that we are going to help
the displaced workers in the region first--not well-connected private
contractors. We want to make certain those workers struggling to put
their lives back together are the highest priority for Katrina
reconstruction work.
If workers need the training to take on the jobs, they should get it.
They should be paid a decent wage for their labor, not a dime less.
State and local governments should receive priority over private
contractors. And when private contractors are used for Katrina cleanup
and reconstruction, we need strict oversight for every single dollar.
Katrina is a national tragedy. It shouldn't be an opportunity for
profiteering.
There are other things we hope to hear from the President.
Yesterday, the cochairman of the independent September 11 Commission
released a report showing most of its important recommendations still
have not been implemented 4 years after September 11.
According to Gov. Tom Kean, the Republican Governor of New Jersey who
was chair of this Commission:
The same mistakes made on September 11 were made over again
[in Hurricane Katrina], in some cases even worse.
Americans want to hear from their President how their Government
intends to ensure that we are as protected as we can be from terrorist
attacks, natural disasters, and other potential catastrophes, such as
nuclear accidents and disease outbreaks, we are going to get it right.
Americans want to know that the National Guard has what it needs to
respond to emergencies at home.
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I asked a question the other day of the Secretary of Defense. I am
not sure he was happy with it. But I asked him: How far can we stretch
the National Guard? In my State, 70 percent of the National Guard men
and women have already served in Iraq or are currently serving there.
Now, of those who have come home, 1 out of every 10 are headed to the
gulf coast. Many of them returned from Iraq a few months ago. They were
getting reacquainted with their families and rebuilding their lives,
taking care of their homes and undertaking new responsibilities in
their communities, new jobs.
Now, with that spirit of voluntarism, they have stepped forward. But
the obvious question is: How many times can we ask the National Guard
to rise to this national challenge? How are we going to meet the
recruiting goals when we are asking so much of these men and women?
Guardsmen, Coast Guard members, and so many others have been the
heroes of Hurricane Katrina. They have saved thousands and thousands of
lives, at great risk. But the Guard's efforts were hampered by the fact
that 3,000 Guard members from Louisiana and 4,000 from Mississippi were
in Iraq, with their equipment, their humvees, their trucks, their
helicopters.
The Army National Guard was woefully underequipped before the Iraq
war started. It had only 75 percent of the equipment it needed. Today,
more than half of the National Guard's equipment is either overseas or
in need of major repair.
Now, we are watching Hurricane Ophelia off the coast of North
Carolina. We pray it will not cause anywhere near the damage that it
might. But we are positioning emergency personnel and the National
Guard to respond.
Time and time and time again, we turn to our National Guard men and
women. The obvious question is: How often can we ask them to perform
this heroism? I think that is a legitimate question to ask this
administration. When disaster strikes, the Guard is forced to move its
people and equipment from farther away. As it does, it takes precious
time and delays response.
The Guard estimates its equipment needs at $14 billion today to
upgrade the equipment of the National Guard to where it needs to be.
The President's budget recommendation, is it $14 billion for National
Guard equipment? It is $1 billion. So we are not preparing homeland
security by equipping the National Guard with what they need today.
National Guard members do not lack for courage or commitment. They
lack for equipment. The President should tell the American people
tonight that he plans to ensure that the National Guard has what it
needs to protect us at home.
Let me move to another issue that is affecting families and
businesses across America. The average price of gasoline today is $1.40
higher than it was 4 years ago; for a gallon of gas, $1.40 more. Oil
companies are announcing record profits. According to the Boston
Herald, ExxonMobil is set to announce $10 billion in profits this
quarter, after almost $8 billion in profits for the last quarter. They
are making $110 million a day, and you know it because when you fill up
your gas tank, you take a look at what you are paying. This money,
frankly, is far in excess of what you should have to pay. These
companies have had more in profits and more in net income than any
companies in recent history in our country.
In Illinois, and across America, families have opened up their
wallets for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. They should not have
their pockets picked by a group of greedy oil companies.
Tonight, America wants to hear from President Bush the steps he is
going to take to protect America's families and businesses from unfair
price gouging by oil companies. I certainly hope the President is
willing to take them on. What steps will the President support to
develop alternative fuels so we can reduce our dependence on foreign
oil? What can our Nation do to make certain we do not have to walk hand
in hand with Saudi sheiks begging them for their oil for our economy? I
hope the President will address that this evening.
Americans also want to hear President Bush explain how we are going
to pay for the reconstruction of the gulf coast without shortchanging
important national priorities and without burying our children and
grandchildren in debt.
In the 1990s, under President Clinton, we eliminated the Federal
deficit. The Government was running a surplus. And we were actually
paying down the national debt so our kids' mortgage, our national
mortgage would be lower.
In the last 4 years, under President Bush's watch, our national debt
has increased by $3 trillion. That is a 50-percent increase in the
cumulative debt of America's entire history--50 percent under President
Bush.
The Federal Government has to borrow $2 billion every morning just to
keep operating. Some are predicting the cost of Hurricane Katrina could
push the deficit up to $400 billion this year. We are looking at a
flood of red ink this year and for years to come.
Yet, incredibly, there are those who think our top priority now
should be cutting taxes for wealthy Americans. Imagine, no President in
our history ever, of any administration, has cut taxes in the midst of
a war.
This President continues to cut taxes as our deficits reach historic
levels. And now, with Hurricane Katrina, we still hear Republicans on
the other side of the aisle saying: Well, we have to give a tax break
to the wealthiest Americans by eliminating the estate tax.
Accountability means responsibility. It means leadership. Tonight,
when the President speaks to the Nation, he should announce he will
refuse to sign any bill eliminating the estate tax or any other tax cut
that provides a windfall for the very wealthiest among us, until we
provide it for the neediest among us, the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Let me conclude by reminding my colleagues of a statement of Bill
Cohen. Bill is a former Republican Senator from Maine and former
Secretary of Defense under President Clinton. Here is what he said.
This is ``the Cohen Rule'':
Government is the enemy--until you need a friend.
The other day I read a variation of this rule. It was said by Senator
Trent Lott, who is viewed as a very conservative Republican in this
Chamber. Here is what Senator Trent Lott said:
You're a fiscal conservative--until you get hit with a
natural disaster.
In addition to houses and lives, one of the things swept away by
Hurricane Katrina for many Americans was the myth of this ``ownership
society,'' which we have heard from the most conservative think tanks
in Washington and from this administration. That is the point of view
that says that less Government is always better, and we are all better
off when we watch out for ourselves and our own families only and don't
worry about the other guy.
For many of the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the only thing less
Government meant was less protection. What Americans need is not
necessarily less Government, but smarter Government. We need a
Government that is strong enough to protect us overseas and protect us
at home, a Government rooted in the most basic American moral values, a
tradition that goes back to the earliest days of our Nation: banding
together in times of need, to do for each other what none of us can do
alone--using our common wealth for the common good.
Americans want a Government that says: We are all in this together,
not: We are all in this alone.
We have seen so much heroism from so many people during Hurricane
Katrina. We have seen the overwhelming kindness of Americans toward the
survivors, the overwhelming, spontaneous outpouring of contributions
from people across America--from the major corporations with their
millions of dollars to the kids on the corner selling lemonade--all of
them trying to do their part to help their neighbors, the most
vulnerable in America, the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
America is yearning for a leadership and a leader that will speak to
that spirit of unity and community. We will listen closely tonight for
it.
The ``ownership society'' is not the right answer--it never was. Nor
is using this national tragedy to try to divide Americans a good idea,
when we yearn to be drawn together, not pulled apart.
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We understand there are some challenges so enormous that none of us
acting alone can meet them. We believe in sharing our blessings and our
burdens. We believe in shared sacrifice.
There was a story in the Washington Post last weekend, the headline
was ``The Nation's Castaways.'' It was a story about some of the people
who were left behind to fend for themselves in New Orleans when the
floods came.
The reporter described a man who felt so guilty about the pita bread,
water, and juice that he looted from a Wal-Mart to feed his family that
he kept a list, so he can pay it back later. ``I feel like an American
again,'' the man said on TV after help finally began to arrive. ``I
thought my country had abandoned me.''
Government at all levels failed during Hurricane Katrina, and tens of
thousands of Americans were left with that same terrible fear--that
their country had abandoned them. But we know from experience that when
Americans pull together, we can overcome any obstacle. We have done it
so many times in our history.
The urgent task facing the President tonight, and facing every leader
in Government, facing every Senator, including this Senator, is to show
the American people, not just in words but with actions, that we will
not allow this tragedy to be repeated.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Chafee). The Senator from Minnesota.
Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, I have come to the floor to join with the
distinguished assistant Democratic leader in his conscientious and
continuing concern for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
I have seen the Senator from Illinois on the floor day after day,
raising these questions, addressing these concerns. I understand
tomorrow the Senator is going to New Orleans to tour the area
personally, with Senate leadership, to see what needs to be done there
to address the human suffering. I hear in his voice, and know from his
longstanding commitment to the people of Illinois, the depth of his own
heartfelt concern for their problems and his passion for their
suffering and to do what we can, what we must, to address those
problems.
I look forward to hearing from the Senator next week, after his
return from New Orleans and that area, as to what we can do more
effectively--all of us as leaders in the Senate, all of us working
together, all of us as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, not
as partisans but as patriots--on behalf of all the people in need.
I share his concern. What prompted me to come to the floor is I heard
the Senator speaking about some of the difficulties in getting some of
the necessary information in order to perform our responsibilities as
Senators. I share that frustration, or at least let me express my own
frustration because as a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs which has, under the Senate's
organizing resolution, the responsibility and the authority to oversee
the Department of Homeland Security as well as FEMA, the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, which is under that agency, I have been
confounded and enormously dismayed by the unwillingness of the Senate
Republican leadership to permit that committee to do what it is
responsible to do, which is to hold oversight hearings and to
understand what is happening, what is not happening down in that flood-
ravaged part of the country, and also to find out what must be done not
to look at just failures--also, you hear about successes--not to point
fingers of blame, but to exercise our oversight responsibility,
particularly given that we have now, this body, at the President's
request, appropriated almost $63 billion of taxpayers' money to address
these critical emergency needs.
I do not question the need to act quickly. And we have done so. But
to deliver that much money--Federal taxpayers' dollars--to the
responsible agencies without any oversight, without any questions asked
or answers provided about what is being done with that money, and
particularly to hear the Senator from Illinois describe published
reports of sole-source contracting with organizations that have
political connections with the President's former campaign manager, I
find it to be shocking and appalling we have not exercised that
responsibility.
I would ask the leader, and others responsible for these decisions,
about when we will be holding public hearings in that committee to
authorize our proceeding to do so with those who are directly
responsible for the recovery efforts.
None of us wants to disrupt the recovery efforts in the southern part
of the country. Lord knows, they have been disrupted enough already by
what has failed to be done there, without any involvement by any of us.
But I find it perplexing that Cabinet secretaries who have enough time
to appear on Sunday talk shows and who are also clearly not in
Louisiana or Mississippi day and night, 7 days and nights a week around
the clock, have, while they are here in Washington, not a single hour
available to appear before our committee in a public setting and answer
the questions I have, that I know other members of the committee have,
and that the American people have. We deserve--most importantly, the
American people deserve--answers to these important questions.
Yesterday, we had, after now 2\1/2\ weeks since those levees failed
in New Orleans, the very first public hearing of this committee. We had
a former Governor of California, a former mayor of Grand Forks, ND, a
couple of other wonderful former public servants who have expertise
from their own past experiences, but not a single one of the people on
that panel had any responsibility for the public response to Hurricane
Katrina. Similarly, not a single person with public responsibility for
that response was willing to appear on that committee.
It was 9 days ago that we had before a number of us Senators 10
Cabinet secretaries, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the
head of the National Guard to brief us on the situation right here in
the Capitol, but they were not willing to appear in a public setting,
even though there was not a single word spoken in that briefing that
could not and should not have been witnessed and heard by the American
people.
A week ago we had the Director of Operations for FEMA and the Deputy
Commandant of the Coast Guard appear before the Committee on Homeland
Security and Government Affairs, but they would not appear in a public
setting. The briefing was behind closed doors. The public and press
could not witness what they had to say. We have not yet, on this
committee or any other committee that I am aware of--certainly none on
which I serve, including Armed Services--had a single administration
official willing to appear before us in a public setting and provide us
with the information we desire, to allow us to ask questions and to
provide answers in front of the committee and the American people. I
find that unacceptable.
Again, I urge the Republican leadership of the Senate to authorize
that committee to proceed as we are responsible to do, to join us and
members of the committee, insist that the administration provide us
their top officials. When they are not in New Orleans or Mississippi,
when they are here in Washington, come up for an hour, an hour once, to
begin with. Keep each of those Cabinet secretaries who were present 9
days ago, ask each one of them to come up and tell us in a public
setting what their agency is doing to respond, what do they need from
us, whether it is funding, legislation, removal of regulations,
restrictions--tell us what you need from us in order to be more
responsive and more effective in the Federal response to the emergency
that persists. Come before us in a public setting, as public officials,
as those who are responsible for the Federal response. Let us ask the
questions we must to fulfill our oversight responsibilities, and let's
start providing some public answers to the American people.
I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Bennett). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
[[Page S10110]]
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