Posted on 09/07/2005 9:41:15 AM PDT by Pokey78
WASHINGTON — The top Senate Democrat today called for an investigation into the way the government dealt with Hurricane Katrina, including whether President Bush's Texas vacation interfered with the response. Republican chairmen pledged to focus on recovery now and investigate later.
In a letter to the Senate's Homeland Security Committee chairwoman, Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada pressed for a wide-ranging investigation and answers to several questions, including: "How much time did the president spend dealing with this emerging crisis while he was on vacation? Did the fact that he was outside of Washington, D.C., have any effect on the federal government's response?"
The letter was obtained by the Associated Press.
Other Democrats also called for investigations and clamored for President Bush to fire Michael Brown, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency that has been widely vilified for its reaction to the hurricane and the deadly aftermath.
Separately, Bush was asking Congress for as much as $50 billion in immediate aid for the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe, and the White House indicated more money eventually would be needed.
In the first government estimate of Katrina's economic impact, the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office said the damage seemed likely to reduce employment by 400,000 in coming months and to trim economic growth by as much as a full percentage point in the second half of the year. The impact should be temporary, with gasoline prices declining and consumer spending rebounding, said the assessment obtained by The Associated Press.
At the White House, press secretary Scott McClellan said the administration was acting quickly on an emergency supplemental measure for Katrina efforts because a $10.5 billion down payment approved last week "is being spent more quickly than we even anticipated."
Administration officials said the second request could be close to $50 billion and would be sent to Capitol Hill later Wednesday. Bush is expected to return to the region, but the White House would not say when. Separately, first lady Laura Bush planned to travel to Mississippi on Thursday, the same day Vice President Dick Cheney heads to the Gulf states.
Bush was chairing a meeting to hear an update from Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt and others about getting government benefits, such as food stamps, health care and unemployment benefits, to hurricane victims.
Buffeted by criticism of the Republican administration, GOP Senate chairmen stood in unison and announced that Congress first would open hearings on how to help the Gulf Coast recover from the disaster, and then later examine the response.
"Our role in the United States Senate will be, yes, to investigate and provide appropriate oversight, but also to lower barriers for the recovery and the rebuilding and the economic growth of the Gulf states," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Susan Collins, the senator whom Reid's letter was addressed to, said her panel would open hearings on "what should we be doing right now." Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said that as chairman of the energy and water subcommittee, he could convene a panel this week to provide the Army Corps of Engineers with the money it needs to help the region recover.
But he recommended that the White House assign another agency, perhaps the Office of Management and Budget, to coordinate Congress' Katrina hearings and recovery efforts.
"We can have all the hearings and ideas we want, but we're going to be running in each other's way pretty soon, as are the Cabinet members," Domenici said.
The House today was expected to pass two Katrina-related bills: One would allow the secretary of education to waive the current rule that recipients of Pell Grants for low-income students must repay those grants when they are forced to withdraw from classes due to natural disasters.
The other would allow circuit, district and bankruptcy courts to conduct special sessions outside their geographic boundaries when they are unable to meet because of emergency conditions.
Even as they called for investigations of the government's response, several Democratic senators said it was already clear that Brown, the FEMA director, should go.
Bush should have appointed a director with more experience, said Hillary Rodham Clinton on CBS' "The Early Show."
Clinton, who also appeared on ABC and NBC Wednesday, urged the appointment of an independent investigative panel along the lines of the Sept. 11 commission.
She bristled when asked about Republican accusations that she was trying to capitalize on a natural disaster to help her political career.
"You know, the questions that have been raised about the competence and the effectiveness of this administration certainly are not limited to what's happened with Katrina," she said on NBC's "Today." "And every time anyone raises any kind of legitimate criticism and asks questions, they're attacked."
Reid said in his letter that Collins' panel should pursue answers to several questions. Among them, why Bush and administration officials said no one anticipated the breach of the levees despite public studies and warnings, whether budget cuts thwarted the Army Corps of Engineers and whether a sufficient number of troops were dispatched promptly. Reid also asked whether FEMA was hurt because it was stripped of Cabinet-level status and folded into the Homeland Security Department.
"It appears that FEMA suffered from serious systemic failures in virtually every aspect of its response to Katrina," Reid wrote.
Words fail me.
Good Grief
Harry Reid seems to think he knows what he's talking about. Who's going to tell him the truth? That he couldn't find water if he fell out of a boat. What a dork.
This kind of thing just turns people off. Even non-political people can see right through this.
Wasn't Congress on vacation at the same time? They are idiots.
No Harry, they have phones in Crawford -- and even TV! It's just YOUR calls he wasn't returning. Probably because he had more useful people to talk to over the weekend than you and Nancy Pelosi...
Of course, thast would require that the Republicans grow a backbone. On second thought, perhaps we should hold off on the hearings.
The letter from Dirty Harry was given to, oops I mean "obtained" by the AP.
Losers!
Sunday August 28, 2005:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050828-1.html
Yesterday, I signed a disaster declaration for the state of Louisiana, and this morning I signed a disaster declaration for the state of Mississippi. These declarations will allow federal agencies to coordinate all disaster relief efforts with state and local officials. We will do everything in our power to help the people in the communities affected by this storm.
Hurricane Katrina is now designated a category five hurricane. We cannot stress enough the danger this hurricane poses to Gulf Coast communities. I urge all citizens to put their own safety and the safety of their families first by moving to safe ground. Please listen carefully to instructions provided by state and local officials.
but he could help Sean Penn bail out his...
I would have bet that with a class 5 hurricane threatening to cut the President off from /Washington that the government was extremely aware and in touch with storm news.
New question: Did Dingy Harry's recent stroke affect his thinking on this issue? (Sadly the answer is "no." He was blaming Bush the moment they named this storm.)
I don't recall seeing the Congress rush back to Washington from it's August vacation.
He's pulling a Pelosi.
Do as I say, not as I do.
beat me to it. Was Harry Reid in Las Vegas or in Washington. They were all called in. Seems like RUSH is the only on air telling it like it is. Pelosi almost had a facial laceration blaming the President. The more we watch the worse it gets.
Apparently Reid and the Associated Press believe that the President was camping somewhere because polls showed that the public liked that idea. Oh, wait, Clinton did that. Or maybe they think the President was playing golf and refused to take any calls even on issues of great importance until he was done. Oh, wait, Clinton did that too.
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