[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 16]
[House]
[Pages 21333-21334]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        TOUGH QUESTIONS FOR FEMA

  (Mr. DREIER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, over the past few minutes, beginning with 
the great prayer from our Chaplain, we have been talking about the 
devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. And we know that 
immediately following Hurricane Katrina, Speaker Hastert called along 
with Senator Frist for the establishment of select committees that 
would deal with an analysis of what the problems were leading up to 
Hurricane Katrina and what took place in the aftermath of Hurricane 
Katrina. Unfortunately, the Democratic leadership chose to not appoint 
any Members to this select committee.
  I have just been watching over the last while the hearings that have 
been taking place. Before they took place, the Democratic leader said 
that these hearings would be nothing but a whitewash. Well, having seen 
the questions raised by my Republican colleagues on the committee, they 
are tough, strong, hard questions that are being raised of the former 
FEMA administrator, Mr. Brown.

                              {time}  1415

  I believe, Mr. Speaker, that it is responsible to appoint the full 
complement of membership. It is imperative that the people who have 
been victimized by these tragedies are heard through their 
representatives on this select committee, and for those of us in the 
rest of the country who face the prospect of a disaster, in my State, 
earthquakes, fires, mudslides create

[[Page 21334]]

the threat of really causing a tremendous loss of life, we need to 
figure out what the problems are at FEMA.
  So, Mr. Speaker, let us see the leader appoint the full complement of 
membership to that committee so that their very important questions can 
be raised.

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