Summary

00:00:00:00 Speakers: Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security; Cynthia McKinney (D) Georgia ; Gene Taylor, (D) Mississippi; Charlie Melancon, (D) Louisiana (0:00) / 00:00:00:00 MCKINNEY/NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE (SHORT): TRT: 12 OC: NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE 11:17:56 Mr. Secretary, if the nursing home owners are arrested for negligent homicide, why shouldn't you also be arrested for negligent homicide? (11:18:08) CHERTOFF/HEART WRENCHING (LONG): TRT: 01:04 OC: FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CHERTOFF/HEART WRENCING (SHORT): TRT: 00:29 OC: ANGRY SOMETIMES 11:23:56 It's horrible to contemplate people who have already lost loved ones, homes, livelihoods, who are obviously devastated, to reflect that those people are you know, not getting promptly getting moved out of where they are and you know being placed into shelter and being given adequate medical attention. It was enormously frustrating to me. I became angry sometimes. (11:24:25) Certainly, as the hours rolled on between Tuesday, and Wednesday and Thursday, I pushed harder and harder about why things weren't moving. I still don't know the full story about why some things didn't' move and I will look forward to hearing the answer to that. (11:24:45) I will tell you nobody ever wants to be in a position, at least I never want to be in a position where I feel that there are people in this country who are in need, who are not getting the promptest and most urgent response from the federal government. (11:25:01) TAYLOR/TRAILERS TRT: 26 OC: FAIRLY SOON 11:38:51 We have 35 thousand requests for trailers in the aftermath. About six-thousand have been placed. The rate is 400 a day, now that's pretty fast, except if you collate that out, it's going to be New Years before some people get a trailer. Now taking a shower with the garden hose in August feels pretty good. In December, it's misery. And it's gonna get cold down there fairly soon.(11:39:17) TAYLOR/MICHAEL BROWN TRT: 41 OC: WRONG THERE 11:42:32 I still resent the fact that Michael Brown is being paid 148-thousand dollars a year. He doesn't deserve to be on the government pay roll. And you say all the right things, what troubles me is that you asked Mr. Brown, have you been in touch with the military? His answer is yes. I wish you would have followd up by saying who. I'm troubled by the fact that everyone know the key player, the key player is got to be the national guard in this scenario. He couldn't name the chief of the national guard bureau. A key player in coastal America has got to be the United States Navy. He couldn't name the chief of Naval operations. Something's wrong there. (11:43:13) CHERTOFF/FUEL CAPABILITIES TRT: 17 OC: FUEL OUT 11:50:01 Not only in an evacuation do you need fuel, but as I think you made the point and I agree, getting people up so they don't have to get food means you gotta give them the ability to drive around, and again, that is something that should be planned for and we need to build capabilities to get that fuel out. (11:50:18) CHERTOFF/EMERGENCY RECONAISSANCE TEAMS TRT : 17 OC: NEED TO BE 10:20:32 DHS is establishing Emergency Reconaissance temas that can go into the immediate aftermath of a true ultra catastrophy to get us real time reporting of the facts on the ground, and to help us understand where the priorites are and get the resources where they need to be. (10:20:49) CHERTOFF/PRINCIPAL FEDERAL OFFICERS TRT: 38 OC: DYNAMIC EMERGENCY 10:20:50 I'm in the process of designating PFO's, principal federal officers in waiting. In some of the significant areas where we do face potential challenges with either man made or natural catastrophes. The idea that these principal federal officers who may be coast guard officers, they may be Secret Service, supervising agents, they may be other personnel drawn from the department, will have an opportunity to work with state and local officials on an ongoing basis in terms of the planning process and the training process, so that we build the kinds of relationships you need to rely upon when you have a dynamic emergency. (10:21:28) CHERTOFF/DIRECTOR OF PREPAREDNESS: TRT: 39 OC: OPERATIONAL ASSETS 10:22:40 We're intigrating the department's existing preparedness efforts all across the board from prevention through protection to response and recovery, including planning training and excercising in a single Directorate for Preparedness, which we will equip with people who have real experience in planning in the kind of disciplined wa you see in the private sector and you see in the military. Our preparedness director will of course rely on the expertise of FEMA, the decades of accumulated experience in dealing with disasters, but it's also going to integrate the experience of the Coast Guard, our infrastructure protection division, our intelligence units, TSA, Secret Service and other operational assets. (10:23:19) CHERTOFF/URBAN EMERGENCY OPERATIONS PLANS: TRT: 27 OC: PREPARED TO DO 10:23:24 We are also working with federal, state and local officials to review the emergency operations plans of every major American urban area to insure these plans are cleared, detailed and up to date. That includes a hard, realistic look at evacuation planning ranging from earthquakes to subway bombings. (10:23:40) Now, we're not going to dictate to state and locals what they have to do, but we are going to work with them and we are going to kick the tires on these plans so that we all know what we are prepared to do and what we need to get prepared to do. (10:23:51) CHERTOFF/MORE PLANNING: TRT: 16 OC: AWAY FROM IT 10:47:53 I don't think there was a lack of a sense of urgency or complacency. If there was a lack it may have been in some better planning that should have been done in terms of our general capability of dealing with catastrophes. I said that in July and I don't step away from it. (10:48:09) CHERTOFF/STAYED IN WASHINGTON INITIALLY: TRT: 34 OC: JOB AS SECRETARY 10:50:29 My judgement was that we had a battlefield commander. For me to go down to Baton Rouge, I would be doing Michael Brown's job at that point, but there wouldn't be a Secretary of Homeland Security to do things that needed to be done in Washington. So I felt my role was one that at least int he intial days, required me not to go down and try to sit on down as the battlefield commander myself, which I said I'm not a Hurricane expert, but to rather do my job as Secretary. (10:51:03) (0:00) / 10:00:48:06 10:00:50 MS chertoff enters, puts things on witness table, chats with unid woman and takes seat 10:01:51 CHAIRMAN TOM DAVIS III (R-VA) delivers remarks 10:03:14 goal is to understand homeland security's role before during and after huuricane katrina 10:03:43 dhs and michael chertoff have prime responsibility to respond to natural disaster 10:04:10 did congress undermine fema's effectiveness? 10:04:58 during katrina, how invovled was chertoff in deploying resources? brown had no problem picking up phone and getting in touch with chertoff 10:05:17 brown wished he called in miliary sooner. did brown ask chertoff for military support? 10:07:39 under national response plan, dhs secy in charge...naming federal official to head response. / REP CYNTHIA MCKINNEY (D-GA) 10:09:26 abuse, mismanagement, racism, pain and injuy to ppl of gulf region. 10:10:08 homeland secy caught rewardign deals to ppl close to administration 10:10:26 if purpose of administration to make communities whole again then taking wayward path 10:10:41 a tremendous chasm in america i know has been exposed. from this point on judged by what we do to correct thsoe things as terribly, terribly wrong at very core of our country. 10:11:16 Chertoff Swear In / 10:11:27 CHERTOFF OPENING STATEMENT 10:11:59 important as we go forward to learn lessons...thank congress for passing homeland secy bill...thank men and women at dhs 10:13:00 in span of single month, nature dealt blows to gulf coast, many have lost loved ones, many more disposessed. 10:13:16 katrina go down as one fo worst natural disasters in history. we want to do everything we can as fed gov to ease challenges of ordeal... 10:13:41 shared goal has to be to replicate that went well...change what did not 10:14:09 by any measure national response plan subjected to extrodicary test...challenged nature of disaster relief system in a way never happened 10:14:48 katrina emphasized accurate, timely and reliable info on ground 10:15:34 coast guard resuced more that 35,000 ppl, transportation secy admin organized op Air Care...moving 22,000 evacuees from nola airport 10:16:02 immigration stationed hundreds of law enforecement in nola and secret service provided critical aid at astrodome 10:16:25 although fema prepositioned assets, personnel, we now know capabilities overwhelmed by magnitude of storm 10:16:50 the ppl did what htey could, question of whether had tools to do job properly 10:17:13 number of ppl now in shelters has declined...to about 8 thousand...97 percent decrease. 10:17:45 In Katrina, fema faced challenge having full awareness of situation, how to get supplies to infected areas adn tracking shipment of supplies...issue of logistics...getting things to people who need them in timely fashion 10:18:45 we have to deal with fema having effective op plan in place for scaling up normal disaster response capabilities...how do we surge a significant number of ppl to answer phone when ppl call in...how do we surge get ppl benefits they need? 10:19:19 more reliable communications capability for catastrophic events...military and private sector technology 10:19:39 currently fema has capable acting director, but we have to feel out ranks in terms of senior level with effective staff 10:20:24 not enough to say something is unprecedented, build capa *10:20:32 dhs establishing emergency reconassance teams go into immediate aftermath...real time reporting of facts on ground *10:20:53 designating principle federal officers in waiting...may be coast guard...secret service...will have opportunity to work with state and local officials in terms of planning and training process...build relationships when you have dinamic emergency 10:21:46 IN july talked about need for new structure and strategy to bolster preparedness work...what I said...we were not where we needed to be (in preparedness) *10:22:39 integrating departments existing preparedness efforts from prevention, to response and recovery...in single dirctor of preparedness *10:23:05 preparedness dir rely on expertise of fema...coast guard...infrastructure protection, tsa, secret service * 10:23:25 working with federal, state, local officials reviewing plans of every american, urban area 10:23:59 risk based funding, our plans, along with nat preparedness goal...has got to form standard we use in allocating dhs grants to state and local partners 10:24:24 steps just begining 10:24:39 not going to be done overnight. continue to do it and there's nothing more urgetnt. Katrina was crash course in things that worked well and didn't work well 10:25:12 DAVID BEGINS QUESTIONS 10:25:21 Walk us through, time line from Mr. Brown...went from "heck of a job" to reponse unacceptable. What was going on? Construct chronology 10:25:48 CHERTOFF RESPONSE: 10:26:14 we went into situation with understanding that this nightmare scenario 10:26:44 In sat and sun leading up to this, focus on working with state and local gov prepositioning as much assistance as possible 10:27:06 don't want to put assets in middle of storm where they become victims of storm 10:27:15 brown designated as battlefield commander on ground. potus delcared emergency on sat, making brown...all legal authority to gather supplies and man power during emergency 10:27:59 brown understands what priorities were...saving human lives...that he execute those priorities in urgent fashion. I'd be available if he needed assistance from me 10:28:26 I participated in video teleceonverence on sunday... 10:28:51 oin sunday, i called each of governors...to have seperate conversation. obviously storm hit on monday and it was devestating storm, although perhaps not worse we might have feared. what i learned on tuesday mornign was challenge had been compounded...levee breach 10:29:59 process of rescue take place in very challenged environment. we needed to be somewhat more...have somewhat more intense focus. I reached out ot mr. brown. I finally got a hold of him late on tuesday. i needed to be sure he would personally be on top of sit in baton rouge 10:30:32 my message to him was, first you gotta rescue ppl...I was very acutely aware of the fact, ppl trapped in houses...get helicopters, boats in flooded areas... 10:31:00 second priority...get food and water to ppl...will be couple of days before ppl evacuated 10:31:21 get promptly moving on evacuation, recognize we have tens of thousands need to be evacuated in time. 10:31:59 really distressed by heart wrenchign scenes from tv...also from field..."i've heard from someone in hospital...gans in hospital stealing drugs" 10:32:42 with exception to rescues, the reporting was pretty good, that ppl doing just about everything you could expect...I think the picture on food and water was a little more ambiguous...pockets of ppl located in city who did not have food and water 10:33:37 there are parts of city that are not accessible by helicopter.... 10:33:50 very worried about superdome. early wednesday i was informed that they lined up 450 buses and we'd do evacuations from superdome on wednesday. 10:34:12 during portions of day I was out, I became concerned no pics ppl actually getting out of superdome. so this heightened sense of frustration led me to start...to separate hour by hour what I did. but I knew I became more invovled in opperational matters...given fact I had battlefield commander on ground. 10:35:12 Did I need to supplement battlefield commander on ground with additional supplemental skills? 10:35:34 I determinecd to go down and see situation. Saturday identified Admiral Allen 10:36:05 on friday I determined to put admiral allen in charge of whole opperation. / 10:36:26 MELANCON (D-LA) What was actual role you played? Learn more about your role in response, david and I requested documents. We asked you respond to letter within two weeks...last friday. You recieved extension, not received any documents from your office which is adding to my frustration. 10:38:32 my understanding you were given until oct 27 to respond to request, are you committed to making deadline? CHERTOFF: YES 10:39:44 a lot of attention and criticism on Michael Brown...we know a lot about what you did, knew and what actions you did or did not take. 10:40:26 We don't know a lot about steps you took. What did you do on saturday the 27th? / CHERTOFF 10:40:56 On sat, typical pattern to get bfg in morning...got bfg in morning. There was a videoconference sat noon every day with state and local authorities and fed reps around table around table. I did not participate in that but got summary on what occured...make sure in assets of what we brought to table 10:42:02 On Sunday I went in and participated in teleconference, called govs and worked on hurricane issues until evening. 10:42:19 my real focus in, I will tell you waht I said in conference...but I asked two questions. I said to mike brown is there anything you need from our components? 10:42:46 Answer he said was NO. 10:42:52 Have you reached out to dpt of defense. are you getting hwat you neeed from there? 10:43:03 He said no, there is DOD rep...they are leaning forward to cooperate fully / 10:44:06 MELANCON: in hindsite any reason why when expectation of one of the largest hurricane to ever hit this country was not a conern to you? / 10:44:24 CHERTOFF: very concerned that everybody in fed gov focused on getting as much position to go...I didn't htink I was going to substitute my personal judgement 10:44:52 I'm not a hurricane expert. I've got to rely on ppl to execute plan...I do insist on clear priorities, maximum amt of energy to reach priorities....that everything I can personally do is begin done and at end of day there was not a problem 10:45:25 on sat and sun was to maek sure that was all being done and my sense at that time, having pulsed this in a lto of dffeent ways, priorities clear. 10:45:52 We needed to do as much as we could to get stuff there so that as soon as we could get in, we could get that response done. / 10:46:14 MELANCON: Katrina heading towards LA, nothing much had happened next night. Comlacency 10:46:46 Chertoff: I don't think eing at home on sat donig things by telephone...the president declared an emerge3ncy on Sat. That is un *10:47:11 If I was going to fault something...you can't plan in a crisis environment. I think the challenge of dealign with this type of catastrophy required work months before hand. * *10:47:38If there were flaws in plan, they were lack of planning capability. *10:47:57 Not lack of sense of urgency and complacency, lack of general planning in dealing with catastrophies 10:49:13 The president statement which I have read was made in context of speech he gave about border. In discussion I had with him, we did discuss hurricane. I don't think you normally have passing conversation with presdient. 10:49:44 I don't think there's any shadow of a dobut about GW bing very deeply concerned about Hurricane. 10:50:34 My judgement...we had battlefield commander. I would be doing micahel brown's job and there woudn't be a Secy of HS in Washington. 10:51:02 As far as trip...I was deeply invovled on Monday. Last report I got on Mon was that levees, there had not been breach in levees. / CHERTOFF 10:52:23 when we took off, i learned that there was a levee breach. in constant communication. dealt with issues in terms of biological question. 10:54:46 more into the weeds on rita than i would have been otherwise. 10:55:19 fema was leaning forward as much as possible. military as well. moving assets. 10:55:34 flaw in execution lay in the dynamic nature of the event. was not matter of not leaning forward. 10:56:24 don't remember discussion about that. a lot of discussion that could be overwhelming blow. awareness of what might take place. understanding that federal government would have to lean forward, not stand on ceremony. 10:57:04 recognizing that you want to coordinate with states to make sure it goes where needed. 10:57:33 idea to get the stuff there, then once the storm passes you get it where it needs to go. 10:58:11 spoke to governors on sunday. seemed focused on the challenges. 10:58:49 michael brown did not tell me he was having a problem. 10:59:52 difficult to communicate. prior to tuesday don't recall any specific problem. / MCKINNEY 11:17:30 seems that chaos was the plan. leadership was lacking. if owners of senior home are being arrested for negligent homicide, why aren't you being arrested for negligent homicide? / CHERTOFF 11:19:58 epa monitoring this. share clean up. 11:21:04 faith based organizations did tremendous amount. want to make whole. 11:21:22 need to make sure we are diverse as possible. 11:21:41 contracting. speed is of the essence. 11:22:56 careful to make sure we are seeking out minority firms, pushing as much as we can to local firms. jumpstarting local economy. 11:23:17 leadership. president deeply and personally engaged. i was deeply and personally engaged. everyone understood that this was dangerous and catastrophic event. 11:23:57 horrible to contemplate people who had already lost homes, loved ones that they are not getting out, getting medical attention. i became angry. as hours rolled on, pushed harder and harder. still don't know the whole story. nobody ever wants to be in a position that there are people in need not getting the promptist assistance.**** 11:26:48 three stages of evacuation. voluntary, recommended and mandatory. 11:27:45 the number one thing is to get people out in advance. difficult to rescue people. 11:27:59 people who could take themselves out with cars should do that. people without cars. plan should take care of them. people who can't move. institutions responsible for them. 11:28:41 best way to save lives is to get them out. (57:14) /