CNN Special Event - Transcript

CNN Special Event - Transcript
Tuesday, September 6, 2005

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PHILLIPS: President Bush's comments came as rescue and relief operations continued to produce some results in New Orleans, and other hard hit areas.

At the same time, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee announced its own investigation into the response to the disaster. The chairwoman of the committee is Republican Susan Collins of Maine, the ranking Democrat is Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, joining me now live on Capitol Hill.

Senators, it's good to have you both with us.

SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: Thank you, Kyra.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: And just to set it up quickly, Senator Collins, the investigation that all of you will be doing completely separate from the president? These will be two separate investigations?

COLLINS: Yes, it will be, although, obviously, we'll be looking at some of the same issues. And I applaud the president's determination to find out why the initial response was so inadequate.

PHILLIPS: All right, let's just get down to business. And first and foremost, talk about the bureaucracy. And I want to read you this quote. I want both of you to respond to this. "Bureaucracy has murdered people in the greater New Orleans. And bureaucracy needs to stand trial before Congress today." This is Aaron Broussard, the president of Jefferson Parish.

He goes on to say, "So I'm asking Congress, please investigate this now. Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency, and give me a better idiot. Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot." That's a pretty strong quote.

Senator Lieberman, I hear a little bit of a chuckle there. But, boy, talk about getting to the point. Bureaucracy really reigned in response to this disaster.

LIEBERMAN: Well, it is a strong quote. And, you know, Mr. Broussard and others who are down there have really felt like they've been living through hell. And they haven't gotten enough support from their government, federal, state or local. What we saw in the last week was not only a humanitarian tragedy, it was a national embarrassment.

And that's exactly why Senator Collins and I are launching this investigation at the request of the Senate leadership. It's going to be no-holds-barred. We're asking the same question that everybody asked after 9/11. How could this have happened in America? And what must we do urgently to make sure nothing like this ever happens again?

PHILLIPS: All right, Senator Collins, I've got a question for you, but first I want you both to listen to this quote from James Lee Witt, former FEMA director, what he said earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES LEE WITT, FORMER FEMA DIRECTOR: A year ago, I testified to Congress that I was very concerned about the direction that FEMA was going, because it is and should be the premier agency in the federal government, not only planning, preparing, and exercising with state and local government, but responding with them and making the recovery happen.

So I am concerned about FEMA as the agency where it's going. You know, you cannot take planning preparedness exercise out of that agency. You cannot take the heart out of a federal agency and expect that agency to do well and do its job. So, you know, I wish the president and Congress would put it back as an independent agency with the resources to make it happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: So, Senator Collins, it sounds like he was concerned about FEMA going under the Department of Homeland Security. Is that what you're getting from that quote? And do you think that was a mistake?

COLLINS: I don't think it was a mistake. But that is an issue that we're going to take a look at. There are a lot of different views on where FEMA should be located, what authorities it should have, whom the head should report to.

All of those are issues that we'll be taking a look at. But our immediate focus is going to be on making sure that those who are on the front lines have all the leadership and the resources that they need. And that's going to be the focus of our first hearing, to chart a path ahead and get expert advice on where we go from here.

PHILLIPS: Now, Senator Lieberman, let me ask you this, because Senator Collins brings up having the resources that you need. If you look back at this investigation that the "Times-Picayune" did in 2002, and you look at various quotes and reports that have been coming out year after year about the condition of New Orleans.

One here from that investigation, prior to 9/11, the Federal Emergency Management Agency warned that New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen. Congress authorized the southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project -- we've been talking a lot about that SELA -- in order to protect the strategic port, the refineries, and the large population.

But if you go back and track the finding for SELA, every time it came up for funding, it got less and less money. And now here we are, the warnings are out there, the money wasn't put forward, and look at New Orleans.

LIEBERMAN: Well, I agree. In looking back -- I think we're going to look back at Congress, at the executive branch, to see why we didn't respond adequately to the signals here. The fact that New Orleans is effectively a bowl, and that if the levees gave way, that New Orleans would drown, is not a surprise. The experts have been telling us that for years.

I can tell you that I had some children living in New Orleans last fall. They were evacuated at a hurricane threat then. Fortunately, it didn't hit the city as this one did, but they were told if it hit hard, exactly what happened last week would happen. So no surprise. The shocking and unsettling question is, why didn't we all do something about it?

PHILLIPS: Senator Collins, do you think that there could be some positions at stake here, representatives, senators, in the state of Louisiana?

COLLINS: I think it's too early to reach judgments on accountability. There were undoubtedly some failures at all levels of government. We're going to take a look at that. We're going to focus on the preparedness, which appears to have been inadequate, as well as the response. We're going to look at command and control issues. Until we do that kind of thoughtful, thorough review, it is really premature to start pointing any finger of blame.

LIEBERMAN: Yes, I want to just add, Senator Collins is absolutely right. We're beginning an investigation. We have some very tough questions, the same questions that America has asked as it watched the events over the last week.

And what we want to assure the public today is, we're going to be relentless and unflinching and totally non-defensive in coming to answers to those questions, because our security and the people's security is on the line, from natural disasters and from terrorist attacks.

PHILLIPS: And you know what? This is what I want to ask both of you. It's heart wrenching to listen to this and have to cover this and listen to what everybody is saying after the fact, about, "Yes, there were mistakes. There's a lot of things we could have done." It's bringing back 9/11 and the lack of intelligence communication.

And there were so many warnings about what Osama bin Laden were doing, and there were chances to get Osama bin Laden, and things slipped through the cracks. And then we saw what happened on 9/11. So then there were all these reports and all these committees that came forward to make sure that would never happen again.

So all these organizations were established like DHS and Northcom, to respond to terrorism and, of course, natural disasters. Now, once again, here we are once again looking back at all the warnings and all the money that wasn't there, and we're witnessing a natural disaster like never before. And here we are once again with all the committees and the investigations and looking for ways to make sure this never happens again. God forbid, what's next?

COLLINS: Well, it is disturbing that almost four years to the day after the attacks on our country, we see some of the same lack of preparedness, despite the billions of dollars that have been spent to shore up our homeland defense and emergency preparedness. And certainly that is a key question that the committee will be focusing on in the weeks and months ahead.

LIEBERMAN: Yes, I want to just convey this. Senator Collins and I are as angry and, in a sense, embarrassed, if I can put it that way, as people across the country. Hurricane Katrina was, you might say, the first test of the post-9/11 new emergency preparedness and response system. And the system didn't pass the test.

And, you know, for those of us who worked hard to set up the system, believe me, we are more than disappointed. And that's what we're going to get to now to try to fix it, so next time we don't have to have another investigation.

PHILLIPS: And Senator Lieberman, I'm curious. I mean, as many of you senators, representatives, those up on the Hill talk about this, can you just imagine if indeed this would have been a terrorist attack? I wonder if the response would have been different, number one. And, if indeed, it would have been handled any differently.

LIEBERMAN: Well, we've talked about that. Senator Collins and I have talked about that. And, of course, that's why this is a shock...

PHILLIPS: Senators, forgive me. We're going to listen to the president real quickly. Please stay with us.

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PHILLIPS: President of the United States there just moments ago talking about just the efforts going forward to get all the displaced children and students back into school and also the universities.

And he brought up Xavier University in New Orleans, very interesting point. We talked to its president, Dr. Norman Francis yesterday. He was talking to us about how he got all his students evacuated and got them on busses and got them out of the university without any problem.

He was saying that after that segment aired, that Notre Dame, Georgetown and also Rensselaer Polytech all called him. The presidents called him and said that they will be happy to help bring those students into their universities. Great news as these positive stories continue go forward.

I want to bring Senators Susan Collins and Joe Lieberman back in. We were talking about an investigation that both will be involved with into, basically, the bureaucracy and what went wrong in responding to this disaster.

And senators, thank you for staying with me there, just for a couple minutes, as the president spoke about schools. And while I have you, I'll get back to the hearings in a minute, but I want to ask you, talking about no child left behind, and looking at the long haul here, not only investigating the problems and what went wrong with regard to this response.

Senator Collins, schooling and these children and going forward with their education, this has got to be on your mind also.

COLLINS: It definitely is. There are so many challenges that we're going to be facing as the nation. This is a huge humanitarian crisis. We have to figure out how to educate hundreds of thousands, potentially, of students. We have to ensure that their families are adequately housed and fed.

Unemployment is obviously going to be a huge issue. That's why in our first hearing, we're going to focus on what should be done. Get the best advice that we can find to help guide the response at all levels of government to what is a huge challenge.

PHILLIPS: And Senator Lieberman, this new bankruptcy law now going to be a problem for Katrina victims. This is just one more thing to come forward. I understand the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, which is supposed to take effect October 17th -- and senators, I'm going to have to put you on hold here just for a second again. I keep my fingers crossed you can stay with me, if it doesn't take too long.

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