Reid challenges Bush to improve disaster response

Benjamin Grove

Thursday, Sept. 15, 2005 | 9:34 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid goaded President Bush to launch a "major presidential initiative" to bolster a national strategy for responding to terrorist attacks.

In a Wednesday letter to Bush, Reid, D-Nev., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wrote that the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina was a wake-up call that the nation is not prepared to respond to a disaster.

"Hurricane Katrina laid waste to the Gulf Coast," the lawmakers wrote. "We hope that terrorists are never able to do the same. We believe there are steps that must be taken now to minimize that possibility."

One step is creating an independent panel to investigate the federal government's failed emergency response to Katrina, Reid said.

Reid blasted GOP leaders for thwarting the efforts of Democrats to create an independent, bipartisan commission. Reid urged Bush to call for one in his speech scheduled for tonight.

The Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday voted along party lines in the defeat of a bill introduced by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., that would have created an independent panel.

Republican leaders said they would instead launch a bipartisan congressional panel to "aggressively" investigate.

A congressional probe is not enough, Reid said. Congress, too, should be investigated and share some blame, Reid said.

Critics have noted that Congress approved the reorganization of FEMA as part of the Homeland Security Department, and that the Senate in 2002 approved Michael Brown as an agency deputy chief, despite his lack of emergency response experience.

Reid said Senate Republicans are using procedural tricks to block their efforts. Reid and Clinton rushed to the Senate press gallery on Wednesday and said they would not give up. They noted that the Bush administration also resisted the creation of the 9/11 Commission.

"We're here to say we will be back and there will be a Katrina Commission," Clinton said.

A commission independent of the White House and Congress is important in order to learn from mistakes and restore some public confidence in the government, the Democrats said.

The president on Tuesday said, "And to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility."

Still, a day later Reid said, "We all recognize that leadership failed. But I think that people down at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue do not recognize that leadership failed."

Reid brushed aside criticism that Democrats were exploiting Katrina to score political points.

"How in the world can you call exploitation the fact that we want to find out what went wrong?" Reid asked. "Everybody knows that something went wrong."