Calling for Independent Commission Regarding Hurricane Katrina

CALLING FOR INDEPENDENT COMMISSION REGARDING HURRICANE KATRINA -- (House of Representatives - October 18, 2005)

(Mr. COSTA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, Americans were shocked by our government's response to Hurricane Katrina. They watched as days passed before the people of the gulf coast communities were rescued. Americans rightly wondered, given this poor response to a natural disaster, is our government ready to respond to a terrorist attack?

Americans now deserve the answers, and I believe those answers can best come from an independent commission to both identify what went wrong but, more importantly, to find solutions so that this failed response never happens again.

Mr. Speaker, this Congress shares with the current administration a weak reputation for oversight. We need only to look back a couple of years to be reminded that it was not Congress nor the White House who demanded an appropriate oversight of 9/11 attacks. Members on the 9/11 Commission have acknowledged it was the families of those lost in the attacks that came to Washington and demanded a thorough review of what went wrong.

Mr. Speaker, do we intend to wait for the people of Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas to march to the Capitol and demand that their administration and their Congress do the right thing and create an independent commission to find out truly how we can best respond in the future?

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