Frist And Santorum Call For Investigation Of Katrina Then Vote No...

On Thursday, September 8, The Hill quoted Senator Bill Frist saying “Americans deserve answers. We must do all we can to learn from this tragedy, improve the system and protect all of our citizens.”

On Friday, September 9, Senator Rick Santorum issued a press release saying “It will be important to study the response to this disaster and to better understand what went right and what went wrong.”

On Tuesday, September 13, The Washington Post reported that “ 76 percent of the public favors an investigation of federal storm response efforts by an independent commission similar to the one that probed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,” and that the proposed commission “drew strong bipartisan support: 64 percent of all Republicans and 83 percent of Democrats favored creating the independent panel."

On Wednesday, both Senators Frist and Santorum voted to block the creation of and independent, bipartisan panel modeled on the 9/11 Commission to investigate the federal, state and local government’s response to Katrina.