[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 15]
[House]
[Page 20346]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             CALLING FOR A BIPARTISAN COMMISSION ON KATRINA

  (Mr. EMANUEL asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the 
finger-pointing continues. Today's New York Times reports on its 
interview with former FEMA head Michael Brown. In the interview, Mr. 
Brown blames Louisiana's Governor and Homeland Security Director 
Chertoff for inaction in responding to the crisis.
  Mr. Brown's statements can probably be discounted as the words of a 
disgraced individual trying to save face, but the facts speak for 
themselves: government at all levels failed in the wake of Katrina's 
devastation. A KnightRidder story makes it clear based on a 2003 
Presidential directive that Homeland Security Director Chertoff is the 
line authority for natural disasters, yet for 36 hours he was nowhere 
to be found.
  Questions need to be answered, not to fix blame but to fix a problem. 
For example, how were Mr. Brown and his political deputies, all with no 
experience in disaster response, appointed as head of FEMA? Why did it 
take so long to get food and water to New Orleans? To answer them, this 
body should create a bipartisan commission of experts to investigate 
the failures and flaws in the system just like we did during 9/11, just 
like we did during Pearl Harbor.
  Mr. Speaker, hundreds died. Tens of thousands have lost everything. 
Billions will be spent rebuilding the infrastructure. The stakes are 
simply too high to not know what went wrong. Americans do not want 
Pollyannish speeches or a whitewash. They want answers and results. Mr. 
Speaker, we need a bipartisan 9/11-style commission not only to find 
out what went wrong but to give us recommendations to fix the problem.

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