[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 16]
[House]
[Page 21488]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     AMERICANS DESERVE REAL ANSWERS

  (Mr. CARNAHAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CARNAHAN. Mr. Speaker, Americans were shocked by our government's 
response to Hurricane Katrina. They watched as days passed before the 
people of New Orleans were rescued from rooftops and attics or before 
those at the Superdome actually received food and water.
  Americans rightly asked, if this is the way our government responds 
to a natural disaster it knew about days in advance, how would it 
respond to a surprise terrorist attack? How would it respond to an 
earthquake?
  Americans now deserve and demand answers from an independent 
commission, not a partisan committee with a political agenda.
  Creating this commission is not about a blame game. The purpose of 
this commission is not really about the past; it is about the future. 
It is about learning from our mistakes so that we assure that these 
mistakes are never repeated in this country.
  The American people respected the 
9/11 Commission because of its independence, and that is exactly what 
we need now.

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