We are safer but we are not yet safe. Four years after 9/11, we are not as safe as we could be. And that is unacceptable. While the terrorists are learning and adapting, our government...

There are many things that people think have been done that simply haven’t been done. Our leadership has been distracted in this country. Some of the failures are shocking.

The most painful death in all the world is the death of a child. When a child dies, when one child dies-not the 11 per 1,000 we talk about statistically, but the one that a...

It is a scandal in our minds.

On September 11, people died because police officers couldn’t talk to firemen. And Katrina was a reenactment of the same problem. It is really hard to believe this has not been fixed.

Changes in government organization are vastly important but are still only part of what we need to do.

The problem was the CIA and FBI not communicating and not picking them up.

Our purpose is to find out why things happened, how they could have happened, and what we can do to prevent their ever happening again.

It’s really the same confusion that you had on 9/11 – worse, really, because at least in New York City you had Rudy Giuliani.

We’re frustrated, all of us frustrated at the lack of urgency in addressing these various problems.

We felt it was absolutely vital. We had certainly hoped it would have been up and running a long time ago.

Nobody knew who was in charge.

We may end up holding individual agencies, people, and procedures to account. But our fundamental purpose will not be to point fingers. It’s rather to answer fully the questions that so many still have.

you had no command and control. Who was in charge? Really, nobody was in charge.

We shouldn’t need another wake-up call. We believe that the terrorists will strike again; so does every responsible expert that we have talked to. And if they do, and these reforms that might have prevented...

If this is true, somebody should be looking into it.

We’ve had some of this money spent to air condition garbage trucks. We’ve had some of the money spent for armor for dogs. This money is being distributed as if it’s general revenue sharing.

We must not allow the people who were struck down to simply become statistics. The greatest service we can pay those who made the ultimate sacrifice, and those who survived the blaze, is to do...

a moderate who supports a woman’s right to choose.

It’s not a priority for the government right now.

It’s very disappointing, … All we’re trying to do is make the public safer.

I think the 10 of us have credibility in this area, … As we looked at the reasons that other commissions have been unsuccessful, one of the reasons is that there was no follow-through. This...

The question will be whether the guy at the top [in charge of intelligence] has any real budget authority. If he doesn’t, it’s not real. I think the good part of the week was the...

That was a sign that things aren’t right yet.

It’s very disappointing. All we’re trying to do is make the public safer.

Whether it’s a chemical attack or a nuclear attack or an earthquake in San Francisco, it’s largely the same response. And this is proof that we still haven’t got it right.

At some point, somebody has to say this is true or this is not true, … He’s supposed to have a list of names of terrorists in his possession. He either does or he doesn’t....

It scares me a bit that we dismantled the CIA to the point that it now takes five years to rebuild it.

Every expert with whom we spoke told us an attack of even greater magnitude is now possible and even probable. We do not have the luxury of time.

The most striking thing to us is that the size of the problem still totally dwarfs the policy response. We have no greater fear than a terrorist who is inside the United States with a...

If these two bills are passed on radio spectrum and allocation of funds, the grades will quickly switch to a B or an A.

I think this deal is going to be killed. The question is how much damage is this going to do to us before it’s killed.

This is not a terrorist incident, but it brings into play all of the same issues and shortcomings, … What makes you mad is that it’s the same things we saw on 9/11. Whoever is...

If Congress does not act, people will die — I cannot put it more simply than that.

It was obvious nobody knew who was in charge. There was no unified command structure … the mayor is saying one thing, the governor says another. The president is in the state, and the governor...

Unfortunately, races seem to get more negative every year. I think the public is sick of it. People respond to positive campaigns.

God help us if we have another attack.

Katrina pointed out serious flaws in our emergency preparedness and response. And what is frustrating to us is that [these are] many of the same problems we saw in 9/11 and the response to that...

Higher income taxes are a razor guillotine poised to descend on the bare neck of prosperity.

What we’re concerned about now is that these recommendations more than four years after 9/11 are still not being done. People are not paying attention to them.

We still do not have a maximum effort against the most urgent threat. The most striking thing to us is that the size of the problem still totally dwarfs the policy response.

We believe that the terrorists will strike again. If they do, and these reforms that might have prevented such an attack have not been implemented, what will our excuses be?

We’re frustrated at the lack of urgency. We shouldn’t need another wake-up call. We believe that the terrorists will strike again.

Hurricane Katrina pointed out continuing serious flaws in our emergency preparedness and response. And this was frustrating to us.

They’re talking about using more money for random checks. Terrorists coming through the airport may still not be spotted.

Had the studies of dangers to infrastructure been done, it’s hard to believe that New Orleans wouldn’t have been at the top.

The terrorists are smart because they will go where the security is the weakest. We have no greater fear then a terrorist who is inside the United States with a nuclear weapon … [so] why...

While the terrorists are learning and adopting, our government is still moving at a crawl. Many obvious steps that the American people assume have been completed have not been. Our leadership is distracted.

There’s no question that we are not as safe as we need to be. Our leadership has been distracted in this country. Some of the failures are shocking.

We are safer, but we are not yet safe. That’s simply not acceptable.