Lincoln Chafee: “Congress must make an immediate, thorough review of the Government's response to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. As…”

“Congress must make an immediate, thorough review of the Government's response to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. As a member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, I am committed to working with Chairwoman Susan Collins and Ranking Member Joe Lieberman to ensure that the investigation is conducted in a bipartisan fashion. We have already begun this investigation. On Wednesday, September 14, our committee held its first hearing on the effects of Hurricane Katrina and heard from former California Gov. Pete Wilson, former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial, and former Grand Forks, ND, Mayor Patricia Owens. Each of these respected public officials have led their citizens through past natural disasters and shared their experiences with us in the hearings. In the coming weeks, we will call in leaders from the administration and other relevant parties to determine what was done right and what was done wrong in responding to Hurricane Katrina. We intend to make whatever changes in structure, funding and personnel that are necessary to ensure that we are prepared to handle disasters--either natural or manmade--in the future. During consideration of the fiscal year 2006 Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill, Senator Hillary Clinton offered an amendment to create a new committee to investigate Hurricane Katrina. I did not support this amendment for two reasons. First, it violated Senate rules by adding legislation to an appropriations bill.…”