WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, called the dire conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center "the Katrina of 2007" Tuesday, hours after President Bush announced a bipartisan commission to investigate the matter.

"Make no mistake about it, this is the Katrina of 2007," Schumer said in a Capitol Hill news conference. "Now some of you will say, 'well they responded more quickly than Katrina,' yes, but the chickens have come home to roost just like they did in Katrina.

"When you under-fund, when you put in incompetent people, when you don't really care about governing and making government work, you're never going to get a good policy result."

He added, "That's what happened in Katrina and that what's happened in the VA."

Earlier in the day, President Bush named former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala and former GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole to head a commission to investigate Walter Reed's problems, first detailed by reporting from the Washington Post.