U.S. Senate Republicans are correct, it is Congress’ responsibility to investigate the miserable response to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath and determine why the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security failed in their mission.

The problem, however, is that Congress has shown itself unwilling to live up to its duties of oversight. Too many important questions have been allowed to go unanswered while Congress has twiddled its thumbs.

There’s a long list of examples where congressional oversight should have been demanded, where hearings should have been held and investigations conducted. The list begins with the influence that political appointees had on the intelligence community before the invasion of Iraq. Congress should have already investigated the abuses of foreign detainees and the extralegal measures being used by the Central Intelligence Agency and military for apprehending, questioning and detaining suspected terrorists. Congress should have already investigated the awarding of no-bid contracts in Iraq to companies such as Halliburton. And Congress has refused to force the administration to turn over documents relating to the Downing Street memo, which was leaked from the British government. It implied that information was slanted to justify war with Iraq and that little planning was made for the occupation of Iraq.

In a party-line vote Wednesday, Senate Republicans defeated an attempt by Democrats to launch an independent investigation of the government’s handling of Katrina. Congress should have the ability to handle this job.

With Congress’ own role in creating and funding the Department of Homeland Security central to the question, will members have the courage to look in the mirror and question their own actions? Its performance in other matters does not inspire confidence.

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