WASHINGTON – President Bush and Congress pledged separate investigations
into the widely panned federal response to Hurricane Katrina on Tuesday
as Senate Democrats said the government's share of relief and recovery
may top $150 billion.
"Bureaucracy is not going to stand in the way of getting the job done
for the people," Bush said after meeting at the White House with his
Cabinet on storm recovery efforts.
"Governments at all levels failed," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said at
the Capitol. She announced that the Senate Governmental Affairs
Committee would hold hearings, adding, "It is difficult to understand
the lack of preparedness and the ineffective initial response to a
disaster that had been predicted for years, and for which specific, dire
warnings had been given for days."
Stung by criticism, Bush called congressional leaders to the White House
for a meeting, their first since the hurricane spread death and
destruction on a fearsome scope along the Gulf Coast and left much of
New Orleans under several feet of floodwaters.
Congress formally returned from a five-week summer break during the day,
signaling that the hurricane would take top billing on the agenda in the
coming weeks.
The response "needs to be first and foremost," said Majority Leader Bill
Frist, R-Tenn., although he, like Bush, also stressed the GOP goal of
confirming John Roberts as the next chief justice by the time the
Supreme Court convenes on Oct. 3.
Congress approved $10.5 billion as an initial downpayment for hurricane
relief last week, and Senate Democrats were consulting among themselves
in advance of the White House meeting.
One official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was possible
Democrats would request as much as $50 billion as a next installment.
Bush says he's determined to figure out why there were shortcomings.
"I believe that the recovery and relief operations will cost up to and
could exceed $150 billion. FEMA alone will likely require $100 billion
in additional funding," Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada
said in a statement issued after he talked with relief officials and
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. An aide to Reid, Rebecca Kirszner, added, "Our
priorities right now are targeted assistance for health care, housing
and education."
Apart from the investigation announced by Collins and Sen. Joseph
Lieberman, D-Conn., the Senate Energy Committee arranged hearings on
gasoline prices. The hurricane disrupted oil production and distribution
in the Gulf of Mexico, and gasoline prices that had already been rising
spiked sharply last week in some areas of the country.
For his part, Bush told reporters he was sending Vice President Dick
Cheney to the Gulf Coast region on Thursday to help determine whether
the government is doing all that it can.
The president has traveled to the storm-affected region twice since late
last week.
"What I intend to do is lead an investigation to find out what went
right and what went wrong," Bush said. "We still live in an unsettled
world. We want to make sure we can respond properly if there is a WMD
(weapons of mass destruction) attack or another major storm."
But Bush said now is not the time to point fingers and he did not
respond to calls for a commission to investigate the response.
"One of the things people want us to do here is play the blame game," he
said. "We got to solve problems. There will be ample time to figure out
what went right and what went wrong."
Bush was devoting most of his day to the recovery effort. After the
Cabinet meeting, he was gathering with the congressional leaders,
representatives of charitable organizations and with Education Secretary
Margaret Spellings to talk about assistance for displaced students and
closed schools.
McClellan said the president also was increasing what he described as a
sizable personal contribution to the Red Cross and also was sending
money to the Salvation Army.
Meanwhile, Bush objected to references to displaced Americans as
"refugees."
"The people we're talking about are not refugees," he said. "They are
Americans and they need the help and love and compassion of our fellow
citizens." The president raised the subject during a meeting with
service organizations that are helping with the relief effort.
In another development, the commander of the Army's 82nd Airborne
Division said that its paratroopers plan to use small boats, including
inflatable Zodiac craft, to launch a new search-and-rescue effort in
flooded areas of central New Orleans.
In a telephone interview from his operations center at New Orleans
International Airport, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV said his
soldiers' top priority is finding, recovering and evacuating people who
want to get out of the flooded city.
There has been heavy criticism of the government's response to the
hurricane, and city and state officials. Bush did not respond directly
when asked if anyone on his disaster response team should be replaced.
The president said that he and his Cabinet members were focused on
planning in several areas of immediate need - restoring basic services
to affected areas, draining the water from New Orleans, removing debris,
assessing public health and safety threats and housing for those
displaced by the storm. He said it was important to get people's Social
Security checks delivered to them.
Earlier, McClellan rejected suggestions that the poor, and particularly
blacks, had been abandoned when New Orleans was evacuated.
"I think most Americans dismiss that and know that there's just no basis
for making such suggestions," McClellan said.
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