Joe Lieberman: “I thank Chairman Collins who has been good enough to allow me to speak for a few moments first because I have an…”

“I thank Chairman Collins who has been good enough to allow me to speak for a few moments first because I have an engagement I am supposed to be at around noon. I am pleased to join with Chairman Collins today to both introduce and speak in favor of this legislation to reinvent and rebuild FEMA into an agency capable of responding efficiently and effectively to a catastrophe the size and scope of Hurricane Katrina, but also to the natural disasters that in the normal course of events have affected and will affect the American people. The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee spent 7 months last year and into this year investigating the failed Government response to Hurricane Katrina. Our report recounts a double tragedy of epic proportions, a tragedy caused, in the first instance, by nature, and then a tragedy compounded by human folly and the failure of leadership, including the failure of preparation. We found that government at all levels--from the Federal Government to the local government, from the White House to FEMA to the Governor's office in Louisiana to the mayor's office in New Orleans--were unprepared, even though the hurricane and its effect on the New Orleans levee system had long been predicted.…”