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Congressman Doyle Calls for Independent Investigation of
Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina
Washington, DC - September 15, 2005 - U.S. Representative Mike
Doyle (PA-14) today called for the establishment of a truly independent
commission to evaluate the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.
“The American people deserve an objective investigation of what went wrong in the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina,” Congressman Doyle said. “The best way to do that is an independent commission like the one that investigated the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That’s why I have joined nearly 200 of my colleagues in the House in cosponsoring legislation that would establish an independent commission modeled on the 9/11 Commission to evaluate the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina.”
Congressman Doyle is a cosponsor of H.R. 3764, legislation that would establish an independent Katrina Commission to examine and evaluate the Federal Government’s response to Hurricane Katrina and assess our ability to respond to future large-scale disasters. This bill is identical to S. 1622, introduced by Senators Hillary Clinton and Barbara Mikulski in the Senate. This legislation would establish a Katrina Commission that, like the 9/11 Commission, would consist of 10 members with no more than 5 being from either the Republican or Democratic parties, thus ensuring an independent and diverse group of commission members. The Katrina Commission would be granted the same powers as the 9/11 Commission enjoyed.
“I was deeply disappointed and concerned when the Republican majority in the House prevented the consideration of such an approach on a party-line vote and rammed legislation creating a partisan-dominated panel through the House today,” Congressman Doyle said. “I doubt that a commission dominated by Republicans would objectively evaluate the performance of the Bush Administration and its political appointees, and I strongly suspect that any such commission would end up simply whitewashing the Administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina.”
Instead of establishing an independent commission similar to the 9/11 Commission, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives today passed H.Res. 437, a resolution to form a partisan-controlled select committee to investigate the response to Katrina. The select committee would not have an equal number of Republicans and Democrats and would not have bipartisan subpoena power – in marked contrast to the independent 9/11 Commission, which had an equal number of Republicans and Democrats and worked in a completely non-partisan fashion.
“The American people deserve an honest accounting of the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, and I will continue to work to make certain that they get one,” Congressman Doyle pledged.
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