Since the hurricane season is in limbo right now, you would think it is the
perfect time to hunker down and fix the problems that were exposed during
Katrina. Unfortunately the White House doesn’t feel the same way:
The Bush administration, citing the confidentiality of executive branch
communications, said Tuesday that it did not plan to turn over certain
documents about Hurricane Katrina or make senior White House officials
available for sworn testimony before two Congressional committees
investigating the storm response.The White House this week also formally notified Representative Richard
H. Baker, Republican of Louisiana, that it would not support his legislation
creating a federally financed reconstruction program for the state that
would bail out homeowners and mortgage lenders. Many Louisiana officials
consider the bill crucial to recovery, but administration officials said the
state would have to use community development money appropriated by
Congress.The White House’s stance on storm-related documents, along with slow or
incomplete responses by other agencies, threatens to undermine efforts to
identify what went wrong, Democrats on the committees said Tuesday.“There has been a near total lack of cooperation that has made it
impossible, in my opinion, for us to do the thorough investigation that we
have a responsibility to do,” Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of
Connecticut, said at Tuesday’s hearing of the Senate committee investigating
the response. His spokeswoman said he would ask for a subpoena for documents
and testimony if the White House did not comply.
Article continues
here
Anyone see a problem here. Republicans had no problem at all forcing the
White House to talk or hand over papers when it came to Clinton’s blow job yet
when there is something that has affected millions of Americans, the White House
can just keep its mouth shut. This is a serious problem and the White House is
apparently working in overdrive to cover up their incompetence that helped
change the disaster into a catastrophe.
To make matters even worse,
Think
Progress has pointed us in the direction of Michael Brown refusing to answer
questions now:
Now that Brown has cashed his checks, he is refusing to cooperate with
the Senate investigation:
Article continues
here.
What is so hard here? Do these Republicans in Congress have a fear of
subpoenas? This is really pissing me off and I don’t even live in a hurricane
area. The problem is ANY American can be hit by a disaster and have to rely upon
the federal government to help them out. This should cause outrage through out
the country. Congress must enforce its oversight roll and enforce it now.