[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 21332]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             CONGRESSIONAL HURRICANE KATRINA INVESTIGATION

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, in the aftermath of the two hurricanes, 
Katrina and Rita, the question comes up, how do we evaluate the Federal 
response and how do we learn from the events of the past 4 weeks? How 
do we protect our country going forward?
  There are some in this body who have called for a special commission 
to conduct that inquiry, a special commission as opposed to a 
congressional inquiry. But I believe that Congress not only has the 
duty, I believe Congress has the constitutional obligation to undertake 
that process. In fact, Mr. Speaker, this is one job that is too 
important for the other side to outsource.
  In order for this to work, that is a Congressional inquiry, it is 
going to require participation from both sides of the aisle. It is not 
healthy for the country for one side to stand on the sidelines and 
point fingers.
  And what about a special commission? Well, we saw that with the 9/11 
Commission. Their former commission spokesman said that he could not 
evaluate the information on Able Data because the information provided 
did not mesh with the conclusions that they were drawing.
  I submit, Mr. Speaker, it is appropriate for Congress to do this 
investigation and I look forward to the result.

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