[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 14]
[House]
[Pages 19572-19573]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            KATRINA DISASTER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Georgia (Ms. McKinney) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. McKINNEY. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to 
join in the remarks of my colleague about the intensity of feeling that 
we have for the people of Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama and, of 
course, Florida on the first stop of Hurricane Katrina and the 
situation that has unfolded literally before our very eyes.
  I should also take a moment to commend the journalists who have 
facilitated us being able to see what has unfolded. Part of what has 
unfolded is sheer incompetence on the part of this administration, and 
the feelings that the people are experiencing result from the fact that 
we have an administration who let the American people down, who let the 
people in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida down, and just 
will not say We let you down. We made a mistake. They, instead, try to 
defend the indefensible.
  Part of the late response comes from the fact that 40 percent of the 
Mississippi National Guard are in Iraq; 35 percent for those of 
Louisiana are in Iraq; 26 percent of the Florida National Guard are in 
Iraq; and 23 percent of the Alabama National Guard are in Iraq.
  I have seen the interviews that have been done by Aaron Broussard of 
Jefferson Parish and Malik Rahim in New Orleans proper. Aaron Broussard 
said, ``We have been abandoned by our own country.'' Investigative 
journalists sent information to me that Customs' Blackhawk helicopter 
pilots were livid because they were not allowed to rescue people.
  And then in the matter of attitude, and of course, I will be speaking 
more at length on this on Thursday in a 1-hour special order, but in 
attitude, FEMA Chief Michael Brown had the nerve to say, No one was 
clairvoyant enough to foresee this happening. But there have been 
studies, there have been articles, and this is his job to foresee this 
happening. I have got articles from National Geographic and Scientific 
American all saying exactly what happened and what we witnessed 
unfolding. And then he had the unmitigated gall to say that people must 
take some responsibility.
  Well, Mr. Brown, you need to take responsibility.
  And, Mr. Bush, you need to take responsibility.
  The Times-Picayune has called for Mr. Brown's firing, and I have to 
say that they are absolutely correct. And I would just like to ask this 
administration to just admit that they messed up instead of appearing 
before the American people with all kinds of excuses about what they 
did and what they did not do, and we are not going to revisit the past, 
we are going to make sure we move forward or we look forward. There are 
a million people who have been affected by this, dispersed all over our 
country. The State of Georgia has received and is receiving thousands 
of them. The Fourth Congressional District is receiving as many of them 
as we can. The City of Atlanta has opened its arms to the victims of 
this administration.
  With interest, I note, on the State Department Web site, that they 
provide us a clue as to when we are seeing

[[Page 19573]]

misinformation, and what they tell us is that we are being misinformed 
when we are being told something that is clearly not true. What the 
administration has said to us tonight, in many instances, is clearly 
untrue.
  And let me just say that it is unconscionable that the Secretary of 
Energy could stand before us tonight and say that he does not know how 
to bring down gas prices, which was the original reason that I asked 
for this 5 minutes tonight.

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