Michael Chertoff Quotes (172 Quotes)

Our department must drive improvement with a sense of urgency. . . . We as a department must be nimble and decisive, ... We will be straightforward. If something goes wrong, we will not only acknowledge it, we will correct it.

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.

managers and supervisors found responsible for violating civil rights or whistleblower protection laws will be disciplined accordingly.

FEMA has better resources and ... it brings more to the table now than it did in the previous five, six, seven years.

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.

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.

Simply stated, our goal is to gain control of our borders,

We have decided to stand back and take a look at how do we address this problem (of border security) and solve it once and for all, The American public is rightly distressed about a situation in which they feel we do not have control of our borders. ... We need to have a comprehensive solution.

a 20th century organization in the 21st century.

Well, I'm not excusing the fact that planning and preparedness was not where it should be. We've known for 20 years about this hurricane, this possibility of this kind of hurricane.

It's important to allow the new people who have the responsibility ... to have access to the information we need to do better, ... We don't want to sacrifice the real ability to get a full picture of Mike's experiences we don't want to sacrifice that ability simply in order to make an image point.

Admiral Allen has my full support in the very difficult work we have ahead,

When Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown asserted on ABC News' Nightline last Thursday that he had only just learned of evacuees stranded at the city's convention centre, host Ted Koppel challenged Don't you guys watch television ... a total failure.

going to be an unhappy number.

We continue to search 247. We search by day we search by night,

We will have time to go back and do an after-action report, but the time right now is to look at what the enormous tasks ahead are,

willingness to take on the vital task of leading FEMA during this challenging time.

We have zero tolerance for attacks on Border Patrol agents. Border Patrol agents are entitled to defend themselves, and they will.

There has been a huge development overnight ... the historic French Quarter, dry last night and it is now filling with water. This is water from nearby Lake Pontchartrain the levees failed overnight.

We look in vain for any assertion that narcotics dealers often hide drugs on family members and young children. Perhaps they do but the judge reviewing this affidavit would not know it.

we have an ongoing flood situation even as we're in the middle of recovering from the hurricane.

what I have uncovered in Ptech connects with some of the things that she has discovered. Sibel is not allowed to disclose content but she can ask me questions. I know some of the things that she mentioned there connect directly to what I discovered.

One of the things we'll look at is why in the middle of this emerging crisis there was kind of a conflict on the information,

I'll tell you something I said a month ago before this (Katrina) happened. I said that I thought we need to build a preparedness capacity going forward that we have not yet succeeded in doing.

Threats do not begin or end in a single country, ... must focus on common strategies and common systems of protection.

We will work tirelessly to ensure that our fellow citizens have the sustained support and the necessary aid to reclaim their homes, their lives and their communities,

Employers and workers alike should be on notice that the status quo has changed ... these enforcement actions demonstrate that this department has no patience for employers who tolerate or perpetuate a shadow economy.

Completing the Border Infrastructure System will strengthen our efforts to reduce illegal entry to the United States. Congress provided us the authority to ensure this project is completed, and I intend to use it,

If we get a wild bird or even a domestic chicken that gets infected with avian flu, we're going to be able to deal with it, because we've got a lot of experience with that.

We owe the American people a full accounting from all levels of government concerning what went right and what went wrong with the initial Katrina response,

As we improve security, we ought to have the ability to begin to manage the risk by looking to communities that haven't gotten the help.

Chief Paulison has over 30 years of experience in emergency management, working his way up the ranks from firefighter to chief of the Miami-Dade County fire and rescue department,

We're going to make sure help is on the way immediately to those who need it,

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.

extremely pleased with the response that every element of the federal government, all of our federal partners, have made to this terrible tragedy.

As far as my agency is concerned, port security really rests principally with the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection.

We've seen them attack in London, for example we've seen them attack in Spain we've seen them attack elsewhere, so I think we have to operate on the assumption that they do have some capability and they certainly have the intent.

Well, I said in July before Katrina that we had a lot more work to do in preparedness. And I think that was borne out, obviously, a month later.

The fact of the matter is we have learned some lessons, we've listened to some of the critics, and where there is merit to some of those observations, we've incorporated changes to take account of those criticisms.

When we remove the water from New Orleans, we're going to uncover people who died hiding in houses, who got caught by the flood, people whose remains will be found in the street, ... It is going to be about as ugly a scene as you can imagine.

And it seems to me correct then, and I think it's correct now, that job one is get the planning done, make sure the buses are there. When that's done, it's completely appropriate to go around and tour around and look at the damage.

There are a lot of things that didn't work well. We are not where we need to be as a nation in the area of preparedness.

You can be assured that before a deal is approved we put safeguards in place, assurances in place, that make everybody comfortable that we are where we need to be from a national security viewpoint.

We totally understand what it's like to be sitting on top of a roof or to be sitting in a shelter where it's hot, where you're worried about when you're going to be picked up, where you're thirsty, where you're hungry,

We need to prepare the country for what's coming. We are going to uncover people who died in their homes. It's going to be an ugly scene.

The way that emergency operations act under the law is the responsibility and the power, the authority, to order an evacuation rests with state and local officials. The federal government comes in and supports those officials.

This is a picture that is improving but we have a lot more work to do,

As you know, the President has established the White House Task Force on Hurricane Katrina Response.' He will meet with us tomorrow to launch this effort. The Department of Homeland Security, along with other Departments, will be part of the task force and will assist the Administration with its response to Hurricane Katrina,

Our goal at the Department of Homeland Security is to . . . return every single illegal entrant x2014 no exceptions, ... It should be possible to achieve significant and measurable progress to this end in less than a year.

This 30-minute seating rule was a sensible measure when first applied, ... Now, almost four years later, significantly enhanced layers of security ranging from hardened cockpit doors to air marshals make it reasonable to eliminate this requirement.