Making Appropriations for Science, the Departments of State, Justice, and Commerce, and Related Agencies for Fiscal Year 2006

MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR SCIENCE, THE DEPARTMENTS OF STATE, JUSTICE, AND COMMERCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES FOR FISCAL YEAR 2006

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Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I call up Senate amendment No. 1660, an amendment establishing an independent Katrina commission.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the amendment.

The legislative clerk read as follows:

The Senator from New York [Mrs. Clinton], for herself, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Corzine, Mr. Reed, Mr. Salazar, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Jeffords, Mr. Schumer, and Ms. Mikulski, proposes an amendment numbered 1660.

Mrs. CLINTON. I ask unanimous consent the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

(The amendment is printed in the RECORD of Thursday, September 8, 2005 under ``Text of Amendments.'')

Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I hope we will be able to address this important matter. I believe it is essential for the people who have been directly affected along the Gulf Coast, and really for all Americans, that we have an independent commission consisting of people who have no direct involvement in either the administration or congressional activities, similar to what we had with the 9/11 Commission that I believe discharged its responsibility to the American people with such a high degree of civic-mindedness and public citizenship.

When I was in Houston last Monday a week ago, I met with a number of the people who had been evacuated out of New Orleans and the surrounding parishes. They kept asking me questions I certainly could not answer: What happened to the buses that were supposed to pick them up and take them out? Why wasn't there adequate security at the Superdome or the convention center? How come helicopters were flying overhead and never coming to pick them up?

This morning I heard on the radio an interview with a gentleman who is the president of one of the parishes surrounding New Orleans. I believe his name is ``Junior'' Rodriguez. Mr. Rodriguez said he couldn't get any help at all. He kept trying to get help and he kept waiting for help and nothing happened.

This, as we know now, was a catastrophe of almost Biblical proportions for the people who suffered it: people who lost their homes; people who were driven from their homes; the people who, most tragically, lost loved ones. Many are still searching for members of their family whom they have not been able to find since they got on a bus or left a home and waded through water.

I hope we will address this. I believe it is a matter that needs to be taken out of politics as usual. I personally don't want members of the administration whose primary obligation is to the people who have been directly affected, who need to be directing and managing the relief efforts beginning the rebuilding process, being diverted from doing so. I respectfully suggest the President's idea of investigating himself is not an adequate recommendation.

Similarly, I do not believe Congress should be diverted. We have committees already established and their job is to assess and make recommendations with respect to all of the matters pertaining to homeland security, not only the potential of terrorist attacks but also natural disasters. Therefore, I do believe in an investigation modeled on the 9/11 Commission where the President--as in my legislation--appoints the Chair. He can appoint whomever he wishes. He certainly made an excellent choice when he appointed former Governor of New Jersey Tom Kean. Then the Democratic and Republican leaders appoint the other members, to have a 10-member Commission with the President and his party obviously having an advantage, as is appropriate under the circumstances, but appointing people for whom there is universal respect and people who can set aside everything, people who are willing to delve into this and ask the hard questions about what happened at all levels of government, so we can get answers.

I think the people who have been evacuated, the people who have lost loved ones, the people who suffered deserve answers. But it is not just an exercise in looking backward. I think it is essential that we look forward. What the 9/11 Commission did was help focus our attention on what we should be doing, how we should be proceeding to be ready, prepared in the face of the ongoing threats from the terrorists.

Today we heard about an al-Qaida operative--we think it is some disaffected American who has gone off and joined al-Qaida--who issued the threat that specifically named Los Angeles. We need to be sure we are totally prepared. We have learned some things, but you can't learn enough unless you are honest enough and out of denial in order to conduct a thorough investigation and let the chips fall where they may. Let's find answers. I hope we will have an opportunity to vote on this amendment. I invite my friends and colleagues from the other side of the aisle to join with us to support this independent Katrina commission and to let us get about the business, on a very short timetable, of getting answers we can all then implement.

I marked the fourth commemoration of what happened to New York on 9/11. I spent yesterday, as I have in past years, with the victims, with the survivors, with family members, with members of the police and fire departments and emergency workers. I could not be more proud to represent such extraordinary, heroic people. But, in speaking especially to our first responder community, they were shaken by this. We needed Federal help. We did a heck of a job. We had the greatest police force and fire department--I would say in the world, with not just pride but with a factual basis. We did a great job, but we needed help and we got help. But now, 4 years later, we are wondering whether that help would be there if something were to happen to us. No city, no State should wonder that.

I think it is a boost of confidence for people to know we are moving as best we can to understand it, but we are unafraid to face whatever the facts might be. That is why we need an independent commission constituted as soon as possible, given the resources to do its work, and asked to report in as short a timeframe as possible.

I appreciate the opportunity to call up this amendment and I hope there will be an opportunity to address it and that we will have a strong vote on both sides of the aisle to proceed with this independent commission as soon as possible.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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