It is one of 86 proposed reforms to be released on Thursday with the inquiry concluding the
United States is still woefully unprepared for a disaster of Katrina's magnitude.
The product of a seven-month investigation, the recommendations, foreshadowed a detailed Senate report to be released next week and obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The bipartisan investigation found that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) could not be fixed because it had been crippled by years of poor leadership and inadequate funding.
"Catastrophic events are, by their nature, difficult to imagine and to adequately plan for, and the existing plans and training proved inadequate in Katrina," the recommendations stated.
New body
The Senate panel has urged another overhaul of the Homeland Security Department, FEMA's parent agency, created three years ago, which has already undergone major restructuring of duties and responsibilities.
It proposes starting from scratch and creating a new agency, called the National Preparedness and Response Authority. It would be given the responsibility to plan and carry out relief missions for domestic disasters.
Unlike now, the authority would have a direct line of communication with the president during major crises, and any dramatic cuts to its budget or staffing levels would have to be approved by Congress.
However the inquiry suggested keeping the agency within Homeland Security, warning that making it an independent office would cut it off from resources the larger department could provide.
Election year
This Senate inquiry follows similar probes by the House and White House and comes in an election year in which Democrats have seized on Katrina to attack the Bush administration.
On Wednesday, President George W. Bush will visit Louisiana and Mississippi, the states that bore the brunt of Katrina last August.