Katrina Update

From today's American Progress Report:

KATRINA -- INVESTIGATIONS CONTINUE TO FIND FAULT WITH ADMINISTRATION'S FAILED RESPONSE: Today, the House Katrina panel will release an addendum to its Feb. 15 report, "A Failure of Initiative." The report criticizes former FEMA Director Michael Brown and "refocuses an unflattering spotlight on the former Bush political loyalist and on the White House." According to the report, Brown "deliberately ignored a new national disaster plan and circumvented his boss, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, in trying to manage the federal response to Hurricane Katrina directly with the White House." By ignoring the National Response Plan, Brown "deprived 'the nation of an opportunity to determine whether the NRP worked.'" Additionally, the report found that "Brown's communications with the White House . . . raise serious questions about when and how the White House becomes involved in disaster response." On the Senate side, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) refused Sen. Joe Lieberman's (D-CT) request to "subpoena documents and testimony from Bush aides." Lieberman said that a lack of White House cooperation left the committee "unable to obtain any real sense of what the White House did or didn't do to run or aid the federal response to Katrina."