madam speaker , reading the resolution , it simply says that there is hereby established a select bipartisan committee to investigate the preparation for and the response to hurricane katrina . 
there is so much we can learn , so many missteps , but so many things that were done right . 
and i think it is time for us to come together . 
i have served in this body now 25 years ; and in that 25 years , a little over half of it was under a democrat house and democrat leadership , tip o'neill , jim wright , three speakers in all on the democrat side . 
and i can tell you , the ratio of this committee , we would have just rejoiced in getting 9 out of the 20 spots during that period of time . 
i think it is tremendously fair , and i think the speaker has been very fair in what he has talked about . 
now anyone in this house that would suggest that any member of this house or any member of either party would whitewash or push something under the rug that could mean the life and death of the american people or the destruction of property because it is politically expedient , i just can not imagine that . 
i can not imagine that possibly happening . 
there is going to be good people appointed to this committee , and they are going to be people that really care . 
and i think after they look at it and after this report comes out , the american people will have faith once again in their government . 
you know , criticism has always been made suggesting that congress can not have oversight over the laws that we pass ourselves . 
what do we do every day ? 
we do that in committees every day . 
we have hearings . 
i do not care whether it is a ways and means committee , the appropriations committee , transportation committee , whatever committee we are talking about , we are constantly examining and reexamining the laws that we have passed and the laws that have been passed by previous congresses . 
that is our job . 
that is what we are supposed to do . 
and for us to suggest or for me to suggest that we need to push this off to some independent body and not do it ourselves does not make a whole lot of sense . 
and , by the way , one of the recommendations that came out of the independent body from 9/11 was to put fema under homeland security . 
now everybody is clamoring , saying that was a mistake . 
i think it was a mistake , and i think we need to very closely examine what we are doing . 
we need to do something else , too . 
we have appropriated an awful lot of money to be spent down in that area , and we are going to appropriate a lot more . 
i think the president estimated that it could be $ 200 billion . 
and we have to watch and see how that money is being spent . 
we saw fema make some big mistakes in the past down in miami/dade county , where they were paying for funerals last year where there was not a hurricane . 
they were paying for funerals where there was not even a corpse . 
they were paying for all kinds of things , and that area should have been actually taken out of the disaster relief area when it was passed . 
so this the committee has a big , big job ; and it should be done in the congress . 
i do not want an oversight committee , independent of the congress , not elected people , that are overseeing it and seeing how this money is being spent , $ 200 billion of american taxpayers ' money . 
