Hurricane Katrina

Floor Speech

Mr. MORAN of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, our Nation failed its people last week. There was a violation of the trust that the American people have a right to vest in their government. The importance of that trust cannot be overstated. It is why we let our sons and daughters go to foreign lands to fight wars. It is why we pay our taxes. It is why we obey official laws and orders.

But last week this trust was breached. Whether it is because we are not used to seeing poverty so visible or the results of institutional racism so stark or because of just pure incompetence, it was criminal to abandon thousands and thousands of men and women, mothers and children and grandparents to rot in the squalor of complete government neglect. There has to be an immediate, rigorous and harsh determination of accountability for this criminal neglect.

But there must also be a response worthy of a great and prosperous and noble Nation. A person of the caliber of a Colin Powell, perhaps, must be given singular authority and responsibility to resettle when necessary, to rebuild where possible, and to return eventually New Orleans to its status as one of America's great cities. The people of New Orleans are asking for no more and the American people should demand no less.

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