The tragic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina exposed serious failures in our disaster readiness and preparation efforts.  All levels of government are responsible in part for the slow response to this disaster.   Rather than finger pointing, we must now move forward decisively, and learn from our mistakes.

We are just beginning to identify lessons learned from the Katrina catastrophe, and assess the resources we have available to move recovery process forward.  Recently, I toured the temporary shelters and facilities for evacuees in the Chattanooga area.  We are doing remarkably well.  The outpouring of resources and volunteers is wonderful, but they can only partly repair damage that could have been avoided had the emergency situation been handled differently.

Congress has appropriated $62.3 billion in immediate support to fund recovery efforts in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama that are being conducted by Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Department of Defense, and the Army Corps of Engineers.  The overall recovery costs will likely reach $200 billion.

We have a responsibility to help the storm victims, but we now face an $8 trillion debt and the interest payments amount to wasted money.  We should look for ways to pay for these necessary expenses without borrowing at the expense of our children and our future.  Delaying the implementation of the Medicare Prescription Drug Act is one possibility.  That bill is now estimated to cost twice as much as originally reported. 

On the federal level, Katrina revealed the need for a decisive leader with a background in command and control to manage disaster situations.  The United States Armed Forces are the premier command and control organizations in world.  For this reason, I am very pleased that Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen will be heading the hurricane relief operations, and believe future FEMA leaders should have experience in handling a crisis situation.