Kendrick Meek: “The same letter here that I read from earlier, I just want to read another paragraph out of the letter to the committee…”

“The same letter here that I read from earlier, I just want to read another paragraph out of the letter to the committee chairman from Ranking Member Waxman and also Ranking Member Oberstar and Thompson of the Committee on Homeland Security and the Committee on Government Reform and also the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The President said, I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. But just the opposite is true. Multiple reports have predicted that a large hurricane could overflow the levees and cause massive damage in New Orleans. Both the Red Cross and FEMA ranked a hurricane in New Orleans as the Nation's most dangerous natural disaster threat. I am going to tell my colleagues, this is well documented. Senator Breaux, who is retired, came out of retirement and jumped on TV 2 days after the storm saying, Excuse me, I am sorry, I just, I do not know what folks are talking about when they say they did not know this was going on. I mean, year after year, we tried to get money from the Federal Government. His entire congressional career was based on getting money for the levees. That is why some folks started talking about, well, you know, they are here talking all that mess, and we are trying to save lives, they are talking about what is not happening. Let me tell my colleagues what we are doing here tonight. We are saving lives, literally.…”