Michael Chertoff Quotes (172 Quotes)

And here where the fact that we've given over half a billion dollars to New York really plays a role, because New York has already made a lot of investments in the kinds of things which you'd expect to have as basic security.

We are not going to be able to have people sitting in houses in the city of New Orleans for weeks and months while we de-water and clean this city,

It's important as we bring this system forward that we make sure supervisors are properly educated and trained in what it means to evaluate performance. . . . We have to assure people that we're going to have adequate feedback, that there's going to be a system of making pay and performance determinations that is fair and transparent.

It would be enormously difficult if we were to attempt to control illegal immigration at the border without having some legal avenue to address the fact that there is a high demand for non-U.S. people to come in and perform certain kinds of jobs,

We now know people need gas during emergencies and they have a responsibility - those people who run stations and ultimately those people who provide the fuel - have responsibility to hold up their end when a crisis comes.

going to be about as ugly a scene a you can imagine.

We will not tolerate lawlessness, or violence, or interference with the evacuation ... I'm satisfied that we have ... more than enough forces there and on the way.

I'm going to answer the questions. I thought I was about as clear as I possibly could be in English as to what I'm doing and why I'm doing it,

I'm not going to judge others, ... I did not have a problem dealing with state and local officials.

We are emphatically behind the idea that we must in this country be full partners with the rest of the world in a robust and free-flowing pattern of travel and trade.

The second is there are some communities that we thought originally would take mobile homes that have decided they don't want them. And we're not going to cram mobile homes down the throats of communities in Louisiana and the Gulf - and other parts of the Gulf Coast.

We're not dealing with classified information.

State and local authorities have the principal, first-line-of-response obligation, with respect to a disaster of this kind, ... Obviously, the law recognizes they can't do it themselves.

I think that was a bad idea, and I directed it not to happen again,

At the end of the day, if we don't give people in any business some sense that they have consistent rules ... then we're creating a regulatory system that is doomed to failure.

I think the American public is rightly distressed about a situation in which they feel we do not have proper control over our borders, ... We need to have a comprehensive solution and one that really will work.

Don has the leadership, ideas and optimism that the residents of the Gulf Coast Region deserve,

There is no specific, credible evidence of an attack that's imminent in the United States, ... We feel that, at least in the short term, we should raise the level here because, obviously, we're concerned about the possibility of a copycat attack.

Nobody leaves a hotel without getting a full measure of three months of rental assistance. So no one has been evicted - no one who's eligible has been evicted from a hotel without getting a significant amount of money to find - to pay for their rent.

Last year, New York got $200 million. This year, we're going to give them $124 million under this particular program. But last year was an artificially elevated number to make up from the very low grant the year before.

I think we're going to be ready when it does hit land,

We can't be in the position any longer where we are paying the burden and bearing the burden for countries that won't cooperate with us and take their own citizens back.

You've got to make sure you've built the entire system so that once you apprehend people, you can hold them and then remove them in a prompt way.

I think we need to prepare the country for what's coming, ... What's going to happen when we de-water and remove the water from New Orleans is we're going to uncover people who died, maybe hiding in houses, got caught by the flood, people whose remains are going to be found in the streets. ... It is going to be about as ugly of a scene as I think you can imagine.

We are committed to cutting red tape and getting help to people who need it, ... We are getting real assistance in record time.

We are in the process of doing everything within our power to get resources down to the state of Florida, ... everybody's patience and forbearance.

A well-designed TWP will provide legal channels for US employers and foreign-born workers to meet the needs of a vibrant and successful US economy without disadvantaging American workers,

Get yourself into that command center in Baton Rouge

I understand there are frustrations here, ... As the governor has acknowledged, we can't always get to people what we hope to get and as quickly as we hope to do it.

Mike managed over 160 disasters during his tenure at FEMA, and his service in those disasters has been commended by many, ... He has done everything he possibly could to coordinate the federal response to the unprecedented challenge posed by Hurricane Katrina and the New Orleans levee breach. He is a good man, and I personally appreciate his work and his commitment.

I think we have discovered over the last few days that with all the tremendous effort using the existing resources and the traditional frameworks of the National Guard, the unusual set of challenges of conducting a massive evacuation in the context of a still dangerous flood requires us to basically break the traditional model and create a new model one for what you might call kind of an ultracatastrophe,

I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers, and I saw headlines, 'New Orleans Dodged the Bullet.

That's why we have asked our procurement people to look hard when the invoices come in for contracts, to make sure these are fair and reasonable prices and to make necessary adjustments to assure that there is appropriate performance and that the public is getting value for its money.

The Department of Defense took 40 years to get where it got.

But I think the bottom line right now is to take the constructive criticism and use that to build toward, as I say, the hurricane season that is 100 days away. And we don't have a lot of time to waste before we start to address that next set of challenges.

Keith Olbermann kicked off his Countdown ... Louisiana is a city under water.

The world is not going to stop moving because we are very focused on Katrina. Part of the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security is to deal with all hazards, everything that's out there, and to continue to be able to keep our eye on everything that may happen in the future,

I don't endorse those views, ... I know the city was totally overwhelmed. My own view is I have to get my own house in order. That's what I'm focused on.

shocked people out of a bit of complacency.

We're working very closely with the governor and the other state officials to make sure that we are completely connected in terms of their needs and what capabilities they're asking us to bring to the table, ... American Morning.

I define control to mean that we will have an extremely high probability of detecting, responding to and interdicting illegal crossings of our borders.

The larger point is this: We've invested over half a billion dollars in New York since this department was stood up. We've given New York more money, by more than double, than any other city in the country.

Vice Admiral Allen is doing an exceptional job, and he has my full support in the important work ahead,

I think the idea that you can go this alone is - was a huge mistake. And unfortunately, there was a price paid in terms of suffering and pain for people in New Orleans.

There are people who have been sweltering in shelters, waiting for food and water,

This is probably the worst catastrophe, or set of catastrophes certainly that I'm aware of in the history of the country. It was a devastating hurricane followed by a devastating flood,

I unequivocally and strongly reject this attempt to drive a wedge between our concerns about terrorism and our concern about natural disasters.

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.

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.

So that's why I said, if you look at the average, you would see the money New York got this year was in line with the average across the prior three years and substantially more, by a country mile, than the money given to any other city.