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American Morning

Should This be the End of FEMA?; President Bush Heads to Gulf Coast Today

Aired April 27, 2006 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jeanne Meserve in Washington. Should this be the end of FEMA? Some senators think so. We'll tell who'S making the call coming up.
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Elaine Quijano at the White House. President Bush heads to the Gulf Coast today. We'll tell you what's on tap for his trip?

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Andrea Koppel on Capitol Hill, where the new Fed chief will be in the hot seat in a couple of hours. Senators and Congressman want to know how rising gas prices will impact the U.S. economy.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And on that story, it feels like just out and out greed at the gas pump. Oil companies making big profits, many of us struggling just to fill the tank. How bad is it? We're going to crunch the numbers for you.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And when are the troops coming home? Will progress in the Iraqi government have some impact on all of that? We'll look at the plans of the Pentagon, coming up this AMERICAN MORNING.

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.

M. O'BRIEN: And I'm Miles O'Brien. We also have the story of Snoop Dogg.

S. O'BRIEN: Snoop in trouble.

M. O'BRIEN: Snoop in the bracelets. He had some issues with the gin and juice.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, injured a couple of cops.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, well, we'll get to that in just a minute.

But first let's get the top story. After a seven-month investigation, recommendations out today say FEMA should be abolished and rebuilt from scratch into a new, more powerful agency. We're five weeks away from hurricane season, we're talking about this?

CNN's Jeanne Meserve live in Washington with more.

Hello, Jeanne. MESERVE: Hi, Miles.

It is a sweeping indictment of FEMA. Senator Susan Collins and Joseph Lieberman will say it is so broken it should be abolished. According to congressional sources, the senators, who have spearheaded an exhaustive investigation into the Katrina response, will recommend that a new emergency management organization will be created. It will not be independent, as some have recommenced, be within the Department of Homeland Security.

Nonetheless, the senators will recommend that the new National Preparedness and Response Authority be a distinct entity within the department, along the lines of the U.S. Coast Guard and the Secret Service. Though the director would report to the secretary of Homeland Security in most circumstances, in a catastrophe, the director would have a direct line of communication to the president.

And the senators recommend that the director and deputies in the new agency be required to have significant experience in crisis management. Even before Katrina, there were many voices inside and outside of FEMA saying the agency needed to be completely removed from the Department of Homeland Security to restore its capabilities. The senators will say that won't solve any problems, so they are stopping short of that.

But they do appear to be attempting to address several key points brought to light in their Katrina investigation, weak and ineffective leadership, including the inexperience of Michael Brown and some other top FEMA officials, understaffing and underfunding, and Michael Brown's complaint that in order to get anything done, he needed to communicate directly with the president, rather than through the Department of Homeland Security -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: You know, there are a whole lot of good points in here, Jeanne, but the whole notion of disbanding FEMA at this point, kind of rearranging the flow chart, is that realistic at this juncture?

MESERVE: Well, I'll tell you this, exactly what the Department of Homeland Security said last evening when they heard about this, spokesman Russ Kanaki (ph) said this wasn't any time to be playing with the organizational chart; it was a time to be getting ready for storm season.

You have to remember, Miles, this is only a recommendation. It would have to be congressionally approved and signed by the president. It is bound to ignite a fire storm of debate. There will be a lot of people who oppose it. You shouldn't think this is anything that will be happening in a way that would effect preparations for June 1st, the beginning of hurricane season. Well, if they wanted to get our attention, they did do that.

M. O'BRIEN: Jeanne Meserve in Washington, thank you very much.

The Katrina report will be released 10:00 a.m. this morning, Eastern Time. The news conference will be carried live on CNN, of course -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: In the shadow of all of that, President Bush is heading back to the Gulf Coast where he is expected to hand out some awards.

CNN's Elaine Quijano is live for us at the White House.

Hey, Elaine, good morning.

QUIJANO: Good morning to you, Soledad.

President Bush is heading to Louisiana and Mississippi today to highlight the efforts of volunteers working there. Now his visit is coming on the heels of that report set to be released today on FEMA. The administration says it supports keeping FEMA right where it is, within the Department of Homeland Security.

But the release of this report is a reminder of the government's failures under President Bush's watch to respond to the crisis, failures which the president has in fact acknowledged, and the administration says it has learned from. But

this coming as the White House is trying to turn around sinking approval ratings for President Bush. So the president heading to the Gulf Coast to demonstrate that progress is being made there, and also to demonstrate that he remains committed to rebuilding the area -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Elaine Quijano is at the White House for us this morning. Elaine, thank you -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: With soaring gas prices front and center on the minds of Americans, we're going to try to keep tabs on what it's costing to you fuel up. Let's check the Gas Gauge. AAA's daily fuel report has the average gallon of gas at 2.92. That's up 42 cents from last month's average, is that right? Yes, last month's average. Can you believe that, 42 cents in a month. And 70 cents from last year. Got to do math on the fly here. It hurts sometimes.

Rising gas prices fueling a lot of political rhetoric on Capitol Hill. It is an election year, after all. Meanwhile, the Senate Finance Committee is asking for tax returns from the country's major oil and gas companies. It's getting kind of ugly on Capitol Hill.

Congressional correspondent Andrea Koppel is in the midst of it all.

Hello, Andrea.

KOPPEL: Good morning, Miles.

That's right. The chairman and the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, Chuck Grassley and Max Baucus, have written a letter to the IRS. Remember, we just filed our tax returns. Well, they want to get copies of the tax returns of the major oil companies tax returns. They say that cases like the one that we saw in the news in recent weeks where the former chairman of ExxonMobil got that $400 million golden parachute have raised questions, certainly considering the rise in gas prices that American consumers are experiencing right now.

Also today, the new Fed chair, Ben Bernanke, is going to come before one of the committees, the economic committees up here. They want to ask him about what his prognosis is, both in the short and the long term, on the U.S. economy with rising gas prices. One of the Congressman's aides told me that they expect this to be such a hot topic that actually all 20 members, Miles, are expected to show up.

M. O'BRIEN: It's an election year. The proposals are going back and forth here. Give us a sense of how -- you know, how the debate goes back and forth on something like gas prices. Is there much that separates Democrats and Republicans at this point?

KOPPEL: Well, certainly Democrats are trying to use this as a means to boost some of their candidates who are up against some very tight re-elections this fall. In November, the entire Senate and a third -- rather the entire house And a third of the Senate are going to be up for re-election. And you just saw, yesterday you saw the Democrats heading over to a local gas station to try and highlight the rising gas prices.

Today we can expect the speaker of the house, Dennis Hastert, to take a field trip of his own with other Republicans, trying to get the last word in before they head out for the weekend -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Andrea Koppel, on Capitol Hill for us, thank you very much.

Here is a solution to this mess that every politician can love, right? Let's write everyone a $100 check, a gas rebate. You in? You in?

S. O'BRIEN: I'm in.

M. O'BRIEN: Everybody's in.

Republican senators are pushing the idea, a rebate for all. A vote could come as early as today. It's not that simple, though. Is it ever in Washington? It's a small part of the big Republican energy bill that includes, among other things, drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and as we all know that's a hot issue, to say the least.

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: J-Mac, we have another opportunity to show J-Mac. Wonderful shots. Let's cue the shots, without the audio again.

S. O'BRIEN: Crowd goes wild. Go J-Mac. You rock. Wooh!

M. O'BRIEN: I don't know what the deal is with this tape. We've got to get this fixed next time. But his amazing performance, swish after swish after swish, Greece, New York, up in the upstate area. First and only appearance on the court, in a matter of minutes scored 20 points. Fantastic. Happens to be an autistic young man.

Now enter Magic. Magic Johnson is bringing J-Mac's story to the big screen. He's going to coproduce it himself. You know, he's kind of in the movie business. He has the movie theaters and so forth. And of course he's interested in this story for a lot of reasons. He explained why he was kind of lured to this story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAGIC JOHNSON, BASKETBALL LEGEND: I think it will give a lot of young people hope, and not young people just living with autism, but all young people.

Every shot, they were hugging, and jumping, and high-fiving, and low-fiving. And sometimes God blesses us with a special person who can handle big jobs. And we have that special person right here.

JASON MCELWAIN, AUTISTIC HOOPS STAR: If I can release a name -- no, I don't care who plays me, as long as it's good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: He's so smooth. I mean, come on, you know what, he 's like -- he's so smooth. OK, well, you know what? I don't care who it is, as long as it's a fine actor.

M. O'BRIEN: Obviously he knows. He almost spilled the beans, but he saved himself. Good job J-Mac.

S. O'BRIEN: He's so cute.

M. O'BRIEN: That's good stuff. I wonder who it will be.

S. O'BRIEN: I don't know. What do you guys think?

M. O'BRIEN: Matt Damon? A little too old.

S. O'BRIEN: Matt is a little on the old side, don't you think?

M. O'BRIEN: With makeup, can't they fix that?

I'm available if they want me to do it.

S. O'BRIEN: You have to be able to actually play basketball.

M. O'BRIEN: There is that problem.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, we're talking about some potentially big trouble for White House adviser Karl Rove. Rove is now testifying for the fifth time, fifth, five, in the CIA lake probe. Is an indictment potentially on the way? We'll take a look at that this morning. M. O'BRIEN: Also Pentagon officials are talking about troop cuts in Iraq, again. Many U.S. troops might come home before year's end, or so they say. There's a lot of ifs and asterisks to that. We'll get into that.

S. O'BRIEN: And then a little bit later this morning, health officials launching an all-out assault on that mumps outbreak in the Midwest. Sanjay's going to join us, tell us about what you can do to stop the spread of the disease.

Those stories are all ahead. Stay with us.

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(NEWSBREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: The U.S. coalition in Iraq may be dwindling faster, this after three Italian troops, plus a Romanian police officer, were killed by a roadside bomb earlier today. Italy had already begun a withdrawal, but this attack, along with a political change in Rome, could speed things up.

Our Rome bureau chief is Alessio Vinci. He joins us now -- Alessio.

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN ROME BUREAU CHIEF: Hello, Miles.

According to Italian officials, it was a roadside bomb that killed those four military personnel early this morning in Iraq's time, and this attack comes at a politically sense time here in Italy with Prime Minister Berlusconi just losing an election. He -- most analysts would agree that did not lose that election it because of his foreign policy or because of him sending troops in Iraq against public opinion here. But nevertheless, Romano Prodi, the new -- the expected new prime minister, has spoken out against the war in Iraq. He has said all along it was a mistake to send troops there in Iraq.

Now it's important to note that Italy has already begun a troops withdrawal. About 600 out of 3,200 soldiers who were deployed there in the first place have already returned; 1,000 more are expected to come back here by June. And all the troops will be taken home by the end of this year. That was already under the old prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and Romano Prodi, if anything, because of this attack may speed up that process.

The question of course is what will happen afterwards? Will Italy leave a small contingent of troops in Iraq to protect the civil engineers who are working there to reconstruct the country, or whether Mr. Prodi will have to give in to pressures, especially from the far left of his coalition that wants the troops the troops back home by the end of this year -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, it will be an interesting debate.

Alessio Vinci in Rome for us, thank you very much. There's a lot of talk about bringing U.S. troops home at the Pentagon as well. Right now, there's about 130,000 American troops in Iraq. There are plans in the works to reduce that number by more than a third. But there's a lot of things have to happen to make that happen.

CNN senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (on camera): As of this morning, U.S. commanders are not yet willing to sign off on a plan that would reduce the U.S. troop presence in Iraq by 30,000 by the end of this year. It's an optimistic scenario that assumes the new Iraqi government will enjoy popular support, and the new Iraqi army will continue to improve. An even more optimistic option would cut the number of U.S. troops by 55,000, leaving only 75,000 American troops in Iraq by the beginning of next year.

But the Pentagon insists whatever decisions are made, they will be made based on advice of military commanders in Iraq, and not driven by political considerations at home.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Well, gas prices, we all know, sky high, but who exactly is to blame? Coming up, we're going to tell why at least one group is pointing a finger at us drivers.

And doctors mount a huge vaccination program, trying to stop that Midwest mumps outbreak. Sanjay's going to join us, tell us how we can protect ourselves. Those stories are ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC)

S. O'BRIEN: You could call it a dog fight. That's D-O-G-G dog, Snoop Dogg. He might rap about gin and juice, but he and his rather large posse arrested for throwing whiskey all over the place at London's Heathrow Airport. Apparently Snoop and 30 members of his -- nice-sized posse, 30 people! -- trying to get into the British Airways business lounge. Access denied. Then the party started throwing bottles of whiskey all over the floor in the duty-free shop.

Chaos ensued. Paula Newton's in London for us with more on this story. Hey, Paula, good morning.

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Well, it would have been quite a scene at the airport. At this point, police are saying that, in fact, Calvin Brodus, which is his real name, is in custody. They are saying that six people are in custody after that scene. And what a scene it was. You know, when -- by the time police were called to the duty-free shop, they then -- the people apparently, police say, in this entourage started attacking the police. Seven police officers were actually injured. One of them broke his or her hand. They're not saying which it is.

And it really was something police tried to deal with and tried to calm everyone down on the scene. These six people, who are so far unidentified, are at West London police stations. And Snoop Dogg's publicists are not saying anything at this point, whether or not he is one of the people that remains in custody.

The key thing here, though, is he was supposed to give a concert in South Africa tonight, and he definitely won't be at that -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, one would imagine. And one also has to imagine that's the kind of call the publicist doesn't want to get in the middle of the night. Paula Newton for us (INAUDIBLE) thanks for the update.

M. O'BRIEN: Fo shizzle.

S. O'BRIEN: Snoop.

M. O'BRIEN: Fo shizzle. Fo shizzle, don't want that call, right? No?

S. O'BRIEN: Nope.

M. O'BRIEN: No, not going there. Onward we go.

S. O'BRIEN: White House adviser Karl Rove is back in the hot seat, called again to testify in the CIA leak probe. Folks are wondering if an indictments on the way. We're going to go live to Washington this morning.

Then, later, just who is to blame for high gas prices? We might want to look in the mirror this morning for the answer to that question. Those stories all ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: To get the latest news every morning in your e-mail, sign up for "AMERICAN MORNING Quick News" at CNN.com/am.

Still to come this morning, a heart attack victim's incredible luck. Carolyn Holt (ph), driving her car, goes into cardiac arrest. Well, guess what? A defibrillator salesman happens to be driving by with a defibrillator in his vehicle. Oh, and a couple of nurses, too. They save her life. We're going to talk with her and some of those heroes ahead this morning. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Top stories time.

Hurricane Katrina could claim another victim -- FEMA. Lawmakers are recommending deep-sixing the agency five weeks before hurricane season.

Oil giant Exxon Mobil reveals its quarterly earnings statement today. Analysts expect earnings could reach $9.2 billion for the quarter.

And this morning, construction crews head to Ground Zero in New York to begin work on two new towers. The move comes after a deal was reached for rebuilding on the former World Trade Center site. At last. Nearly five years to get that...

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, four and half solid years to get that going.

M. O'BRIEN: A lot of negotiations here.

Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien.

S. O'BRIEN: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.

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