Congressman Charlie Melancon Supports the 8/29 Commission While the Truth About the Levees Becomes Common Knowledge
Yesterday, Congressman Charlie Melancon released this statement of his support for the 8/29 Investigation.
I am and always have been a strong supporter of an 8/29 Investigation into the levee failures that caused massive devastation in New Orleans, St. Bernard, and surrounding communities. In Congress, I have worked with Sen. Mary Landrieu to push legislation creating a commission to lead this investigation, modeled after the 9/11 Commission, so we can get a complete and unbiased expert opinion on what went wrong and what we can do to make sure those mistakes never happen again. The flooding in New Orleans and St. Bernard after Katrina was a man-made disaster, one that we have the power to prevent from ever happening again. But to do so, we must authorize outside experts who don’t have a personal interest in the outcome to conduct an independent investigation into the levee failures. An 8/29 Investigation would do just that, and I will continue working to convince my colleagues in Congress of the serious need for this independent analysis.
Congressman Charlie Melancon
With the third anniversary of the worst engineering disaster in America almost here, we at Levees.Org are pleased by the Congressman’s strongly worded support. Earlier this week, a staffer with Rep Melancon alerted me that the Congressman had filed a House version of the 8/29 Investigation on July 18 that did not differ from the Senate version (filed on April 7, 2008 by Senator Mary Landrieu) in any significant way. The bill number is HR6526.
The other news is a more subtle indicator of success for levees.org. Yesterday, in an article about New Orleans’ restaurants on the front page of the New York Times, a reporter wrote, “…By one count, there are 105 more restaurants than before the levees failed….” A reporter for the NYTimes, not a New Orleanian described the events on August 29 as levees failing, not Katrina.
Thank you for all you do to support levees.org’s mission and goals.
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