[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 118 (Tuesday, September 20, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10205-S10207]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           HURRICANE KATRINA

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, last Friday, I joined 13 of my colleagues 
and went to view the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, 
LA, and Mississippi, It was a sight which I will never forget. This 
great bustling city of New Orleans is now a ghost town with hardly any 
activity other than a few people returning to their homes trying to 
retrieve lost treasures left behind from the flood--trying to put their 
lives back together by gathering all of this water-laden debris and 
tossing it outside in the hopes they might save their structures.
  We then went over to Mississippi where it was a stunning scene in 
village and community and town after town--to see subdivisions that 
have been wiped away, to look down at what appeared to be 50 concrete 
slabs and to see no evidence of debris but evidence of destruction, all 
gone, scoured from the Earth by these horrible hurricane winds and 
waves which consumed some of these communities.
  A man in Pass Christian in Mississippi told us of the panic that set 
in when the remaining villagers went to the library with hurricane-
proof windows, believing they might be safe, and then, as a 28-foot 
wave hit this library, thinking they all might drown right there in 
that building at that moment. I can't imagine what that was like. I 
can't imagine what it was like for so many who went through this 
devastating experience. Some are trying to come to grips with their 
future and there lives.
  The President came to the American people last week at Jackson Square 
in New Orleans and made a speech which I think will be important for 
generations to come. I was asked to react to it, and I said I think the 
President has given us an agenda that we have to follow--to rebuild the 
gulf coast, to rebuild the lives and the communities. But I believed 
then, and I believe now, that the President's call for this unity as a 
nation and this community of caring also has to be called for fiscal 
responsibility and accountability. We have to rebuild the gulf coast 
and help Katrina victims rebuild their lives. It is in our national 
interest. It is part of our national character. We rally as Americans 
to help our fellow Americans.
  But I have a real concern. Instead of the ``Big Easy,'' people are 
getting a big uneasy feeling about where Katrina reconstruction effort 
is headed and who is in charge. Several published reports say the 
person heading up the administration's Katrina rebuilding project is 
none other than Karl Rove, the President's long-time political 
director. That is an incredible suggestion--that Karl Rove will have 
responsibility for the Katrina reconstruction effort, the No. 1 
politician, the No. 1 political operative in the White House. Have we 
learned nothing?
  Consider what happened when Katrina struck. FEMA was not there. 
Michael Brown is now gone. But how did he get in a position to be in 
charge of FEMA? It was because of political connections. He didn't have 
the experience. He didn't have the resume. He didn't have the skills 
needed when he faced the greatest natural disaster in our history. What 
was his claim to this job to head FEMA? His claim was he was a college 
roommate of Joe Allbaugh, who happened to be the President's Chief of 
Staff and campaign director in Texas who, when he left the FEMA agency 
to become a consultant, turned it over to Michael Brown, his college 
roommate, to take over--this little daisy chain of politicians who 
played out with disastrous incompetence when Katrina struck.

  Now this administration, instead of moving away from the politicians 
to the professionals when it comes to rebuilding, has decided that Karl 
Rove is going to be in charge--the same Karl Rove who, just a few weeks 
ago in a political speech, said the Democrats didn't share the 
Republicans' zeal for stopping the war on terrorism; the same Karl Rove 
who won't give us straight answers when it comes to his role in 
revealing the identity of Valarie Plame, an undercover CIA operative, 
which disclosure of her identity not only endangered her life but the 
lives of many other career employees; the same Karl Rove who 
incidentally will take his mind off of the Katrina reconstruction 
effort long enough to go to North Dakota on this Saturday night for a 
big political rally.
  Is this the person we want in charge of $60 billion or $100 billion 
in reconstruction funds? I hope not. I hope the President reconsiders.
  This is a troubling admission--that this administration doesn't have 
leadership to turn to in time of crisis, if the best the President can 
find is his political adviser, Karl Rove, to deal with the disaster of 
Katrina.
  What have we seen so far? The Wall Street Journal said last week:

       The Bush administration is importing many of the contract 
     practices blamed for spending abuses in Iraq as it begins the 
     largest and costliest rebuilding effort in United States 
     history.

  We know what happened in Iraq--no-bid contracts to Halliburton and 
the buddies of this administration, contracts that have never been 
investigated by this Congress. And here they go again with Katrina and 
with Karl Rove keeping his watchful eye on what is being done.
  The Wall Street Journal article went on to say:

       The first large-scale contracts awarded to Hurricane 
     Katrina, as in Iraq, were awarded without competitive 
     bidding, using so-called ``cost-plus'' provisions that 
     guarantee contractors certain profits regardless of how much 
     they spend.

  It turns out that not only are there no-bid contracts, but 
coincidentally they happen to be going to the clients of Joe Allbaugh. 
Remember that name? I mentioned him earlier. He was the President's 
political campaign director in Texas who became the head of FEMA and 
who left to be a consultant, and is now making certain that his clients 
get $100 million no-bid contracts.
  When is this going to end? When are we going to have true 
accountability? Once again, we see the same names coming out of 
Hurricane Katrina--Halliburton, Kellogg, Brown & Root--the names of Joe 
Allbaugh's clients who are, once again, coming up with these contracts.
  If it wasn't bad enough, this morning's Washington Post, on the front 
page, tells the story of a Bush official arrested in a corruption 
probe. It says:

       The Bush administration's top Federal procurement official 
     resigned Friday and was arrested yesterday, accused of lying 
     and obstructing a criminal investigation into Republican 
     lobbyist Jack Abramoff's dealings with the Federal 
     Government. It was the first criminal complaint filed against 
     a government official in the ongoing corruption probe related 
     to Abramoff's activities in Washington.
       The complaint, filed by the FBI, alleges that David H. 
     Safavian, 38, a White House procurement official involved 
     until last week in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, made 
     repeated false statements to government officials and 
     investigators about a golf trip with Abramoff to Scotland in 
     2002.

  The top official in the White House that was in charge of procurement 
involved in the Katrina effort not only resigned but was arrested for 
misleading the Federal Government in terms of his involvement with the 
Republican lobbyists.
  Now the administration comes out and says they found just the person 
to look into the mistakes of Hurricane Katrina. It is a woman by the 
name of Frances Townsend. I do not know her. She may be a very 
competent individual. But how in the world can we get to the truth of 
the question as to what went wrong with Hurricane Katrina? How can we 
really hope to discover the incompetence that led to all of this human 
suffering and devastation if the administration is going to investigate 
itself?
  We know from 9/11 that the only way we got to the heart of the 
matter, the critical questions about what went wrong on 9/11, was with 
an independent, nonpartisan commission. Yet this administration 
resisted the efforts of that 9/11 commission being created and today 
resists the efforts of an independent, nonpartisan commission to look 
into what went wrong with Hurricane Katrina.

[[Page S10206]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Vitter.) The Senator has 1 minute 
remaining.
  Mr. DURBIN. Thank you, Mr. President.
  I will conclude by saying this: We owe it to the victims and their 
families and to the American people and the American taxpayers to get 
honest answers about what went wrong with Katrina, and to put people in 
charge to make certain that we don't waste the billions of dollars that 
are going to be spent in this reconstruction effort. Putting Karl Rove 
in charge makes no sense whatsoever. He has no resume and no skills 
other than running political campaigns. If he is being put in place to 
protect the President politically, that decision does not serve the 
best interests of the American people nor the victims of Hurricane 
Katrina.
  It is time to get to the bottom of this. If Congress will not have an 
honest investigation of what happened with Hurricane Katrina, we need 
to have this nonpartisan, independent commission like the 9/11 
Commission to answer the questions about what went wrong and to make 
certain that we don't replicate those mistakes in the expenditure of 
these funds in the future.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware is recognized.
  Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, before Senator Durbin leaves the floor, he 
has mentioned the 9/11 Commission. When he and I were first elected in 
the Congress in 1982--to the House--we arrived at a time when Social 
Security was not just rumored to be in dire straits but was in very 
dire straits. And an earlier commission was created similar to the 9/11 
Commission but different as well. The Republican Members were appointed 
by President Reagan. As I recall, the Democratic Members were appointed 
by Democratic Speaker, Tip O'Neill, and I think by Senator Robert Byrd. 
The Blue Ribbon Commission was chaired by Alan Greenspan, with Members 
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Robert Dole, and Claude Pepper, with whom we 
served in the House. They worked for a whole year trying to couple a 
combination of benefit cuts and revenue increases to enable us to put 
Social Security on a sound footing for another quarter of a century. I 
think that serves as a good role model as well as the 9/11 Commission, 
which Senator Durbin mentioned.
  While he was on the floor, I wanted to remind him and us of that. But 
I think our first response to the catastrophe is to make sure that 
people who need help get help.
  First of all, get help in getting out of dangerous places to safe 
places, get help in reuniting families, get help in making certain 
their medical needs are met, having something to eat and drink, making 
sure the kids from K-12th grade are getting to the schools they need to 
get into, making sure students who have been displaced in college have 
a chance to get back in a college or a university to continue their 
studies without losing a quarter or a semester or a year, helping to 
create jobs and getting the economy moving in places that have been 
destroyed or badly damaged. Those are the kinds of things that need to 
be done and are being done.
  While our startup was slow and disappointing, I believe, as time goes 
by, we are doing better. I commend all--not just in government, not 
just the first responders, not just the Guard, not just FEMA, which is 
doing a better job today, but also a lot of folks who are giving of 
themselves--volunteers from my State, and all other States, who have 
gone to the region, giving blood, and raising money in our home States, 
receiving folks who have been displaced, to give them a home, a place 
to live, and a job for a while. Those efforts are to be commended. 
Those are the first responders. Maybe I should say second responders 
because the first responders were not even responding.
  Second, last week, Senator Coburn, Senator Obama, and I spoke about 
the introduction of legislation which is supported by Senator Frist, by 
Senator Reid, our respective leaders, to create a CFO--chief financial 
officer--to serve as a watchdog so we don't find ourselves 6 months or 
12 months from now looking back to see that we spent X billions so 
foolishly in response to Katrina, to make sure we get out ahead of this 
expenditure as best we can rather than looking at it after the money 
has already been spent, in some cases inappropriately.
  The amount of money that is going to be spent in Katrina relief over 
the next couple of months will dwarf the annual appropriations that go 
to most of our Federal departments. Every one of our Federal 
departments has a chief financial officer. We need to make sure, when 
we are spending this much money this quickly to try to help a lot of 
people in a hurry, that we spend it wisely.
  It is a bipartisan issue. We believe one of the ways to make sure we 
do that is to have a chief financial officer who is well qualified and 
can get on the job and do the work quickly.
  The third thing I mention is oversight. I serve on the Committee on 
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. We have obvious oversight 
of a good deal of what is going on, including the Homeland Security 
Department, FEMA, the Coast Guard, and any number of responder 
agencies. We have a responsibility to do our oversight. We have begun 
that oversight with hearings last week and informal hearings the week 
before that. We will continue this week and next week and on and on.
  Our interest is in finding out what we did well, what we did 
collectively--State, local, Federal, volunteer organizations, military, 
National Guard, Armed Forces--and what we did not do well. Then, if 
this happens again--and we have another hurricane that is trying to 
round the corner in Key West today--to make sure if this comes north 
and revisits again, whether New Orleans, God forbid, or Mississippi--
that we are better prepared to do more of the right things.
  The last thing is the point Senator Durbin raised, the notion of an 
independent commission. I was skeptical as to whether or not the 9/11 
Commission would enable Congress to do much good with respect to 
restructuring of our intelligence operations in this country. The 
intelligence operation in place had not been changed much for 50 years. 
I don't know if there was any reason to believe five Republicans and 
five Democrats could somehow find common ground and entice the rest of 
Congress to do the same thing, to work with the President to change in 
substantial, far-reaching ways the way our intelligence community works 
in this country. They did, and the 9/11 Commission provides an 
excellent template, role model, if you will, for how we should, once 
the first surge of oversight activity and the successive waves of help 
and aid are out the door, proceed to make sure a couple months from now 
we are in a position, whether it is five Republicans and five 
Democrats--it could be a chairman appointed by the committee, a vice 
chairman appointed by our leadership, but to put in place a commission 
that might have the kind of success not for us, and not just for them, 
but for our country.
  Success would be measured by better ensuring that a lot of the good 
things that happened this time in response to Katrina happen the next 
time--and we know there will be a next time--and we reduce the 
likelihood that some of the same mistakes and foolish choices will be 
made.
  The American people would approve of that. It is great the President 
has asked the Cabinet Secretaries to look at what they did within their 
departments to make sure what they did was right, it made sense, and 
was appropriate. It is all well and good to have oversight here, but it 
would be helpful to have an independent commission that could stand 
back, not distracted by other issues we are distracted with each day, 
and impartially--led by people such as Governor Tom Kean and former 
Congressman Lee Hamilton--with good staff and only with this issue to 
focus on, and figure out what went well, what went badly, and how we 
can do better next time.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up 
to 12 minutes.

[[Page S10207]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator has that right.
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Please indicate when 2 minutes are remaining.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair is happy to do so.

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