Michael Chertoff Quotes

Well, I think first of all there was a failure to have real, clear information at our disposal. There was a real lack of situational awareness. We didn’t have the capabilities on the ground to give us real-time, accurate assessments of the physical condition of the city.

Well, I mean, Congress did originally set the formula for the state grants, and they guaranteed every state a minimum formula. So that was a congressional decision.

We’ve done it in intelligence sharing and certain elements of security. There were parts of the department, in fact, that worked very well in Katrina, like the Coast Guard and TSA.

We’ve certainly learned a lot of lessons from Katrina, from Rita. Rita was better than Katrina. We’re doing a better job planning. We’re closer – more closely aligned with the Department of Defense. These things would be positive things if we were to have another attack.

We may have to force people to get together in terms of picking a particular type of technology and starting to build to that technology, as opposed to everybody exercising their right to buy their own system, you know, at will.

The second thing we did was said, OK, we’ve now identified the risk, but what do you want to do with the money? Because it’s not enough to have risk; you’ve got to have a meaningful use for the money we give you.