“The White House report makes some very good points about the federal government’s failures before, during and after Hurricane Katrina made landfall.  While you cannot prevent storms of this magnitude, you can predict and plan for them. Our federal government must do a better job planning for natural disasters and it seems the White House has acknowledged that much. 

“However, the report does not go far enough to recommend what I believe will be the key to successful preparedness and disaster management in the future: FEMA must have cabinet level authority, allowing the director to have the federal resources to adequately respond in times of natural disaster.      

“Unfortunately, while this report is highly critical of the federal response and does cite numerous failures, the White House failed to release documents to the House panel investigating the disaster and I fear that the Administration was unable to make adequate recommendations without allowing for an independent review.  I urge the Administration and this Congress to establish an independent commission to further investigate this issue as there are many more than just 125 lessons to be learned from this experience. 

 “Further, we must get stronger commitments from the Administration for hurricane protection and funds to help our people return to our city and our region.  The news that the $4.2 billion in recovery funds is proposed to raise or remove property from commerce is disheartening.  We must have the flexibility to use those funds as we see fit to help our citizens come back home.  We also need firm commitments beyond this hurricane season for our hurricane protection system –levees and coastal restoration and wetland restoration projects.  This disaster was man-made, caused by the failure of our federally funded levees.  The federal government must take responsibility and dedicate the resources to recovery, rebuilding and keeping us safe.”