mr. speaker , i want to address the house on this subject that is before us today . 
i have served in the congress for 30 years , the first 19 in the majority , the last 11 in the minority , so i have seen life from both sides . 
and let me tell you , today is one of the low moments . 
we have just experienced a national tragedy that has caused immeasurable pain to countless americans , and yet here in the house of representatives , nothing seems to have changed . 
the house is not rising above raw partisanship even in a time of national tragedy . 
republicans are saying , well , we should just trust them because they have created something they are calling bipartisan . 
well , the right way to create something that is bipartisan is for the two parties to talk . 
instead , the republicans met among themselves without talking to the democrats and have proposed this select committee on a take-it-or-leave-it basis . 
the majority can not define bipartisanship for the minority . 
the majority has to make the real effort and be willing to do some work , maybe hard work with the minority to achieve bipartisanship . 
well , why are we suspicious ? 
they did not talk to us . 
the committees in the house and the senate that have oversight jurisdiction were starting to hold hearings and suddenly the republican leadership said , well , we are going to have a house-senate committee . 
and suddenly it is not a house-senate committee ; it is a select committee . 
well , look at the record how republicans have done oversight . 
have we really looked at how the white house used the intelligence , as faulty as it was , that was the basis for going to war in iraq ? 
no , we have not had hearings on that . 
we have not looked at that . 
has the house looked at the question of the outing of a cia agent by people in the white house in order to punish her husband who was critical of the iraq war ? 
no , no hearings on that . 
the actuary working for this administration withheld from congress on the costs of the medicare prescription drug bill . 
should we not try to find out what happened ? 
both republicans and democrats were denied the facts before we voted on the bill . 
no , nothing on that . 
we had more hearings when the republicans were in charge and there was a democratic administration on whether president clinton misused his christmas card list for political purposes . 
that meant 7 or 8 days of hearings . 
but we can not get hearings on these important subjects . 
and now we are told there is a bipartisan committee , a select committee , that is going to look into this matter . 
well , if you really wanted bipartisanship , i say to my republican friends who run the house , you need to at least talk to the democrats and make an effort . 
but when you do not make an effort and you have a record of abusing the power that you have in running this institution and ignoring the oversight responsibilities on really important matters in order to protect a republican administration from possible embarrassment , we have no confidence whatsoever that we are going to get to the facts of what went wrong in dealing with hurricane katrina . 
we need to rise above this raw partisanship and join together , if not on an independent commission which i think makes the most sense , at least on a committee that is equally divided , with the powers equally divided , where the intent is to work together . 
but we looked at what is being proposed , and the only conclusion that many of us can reach is that this is going to be a committee to pretend to do an investigation but not find out the truth . 
