Four years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the federal government has failed to enact crucial homeland security reforms that could have saved lives and improved the sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina, according to a new report to be issued today by former members of the Sept. 11 commission.

Local emergency officials are still unable to reliably communicate with one another during disasters, the federal government has no clear system of command and control for responding to a crisis, and authorities have faltered in enacting basic border controls designed to keep out terrorists, according to the report's findings, which commission members outlined in interviews.

Thomas H. Kean (R), the former New Jersey governor who headed the panel that investigated the terrorist attacks, said the bungled response to Katrina laid bare how unprepared the nation remains for a catastrophic event, whether it is another terrorist strike or a natural disaster.

"This is not a terrorist incident, but it brings into play all of the same issues and shortcomings," Kean said. "What makes you mad is that it's the same things we saw on 9/11. Whoever is responsible for acting in these places hasn't acted. Are they going to do it now? What else has to happen for people to act?"

The findings come amid debate in Washington over whether an independent panel akin to the Sept. 11 commission should be formed to study missteps that left tens of thousands in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast stranded without assistance after Katrina. More than 640 deaths have been confirmed from the Aug. 29 storm and its aftermath.

Congressional Republicans have proposed a special committee to investigate the Katrina response, but many Democrats support the idea of an independent commission instead. The Bush administration, which also resisted formation of the Sept. 11 panel, has signaled that it does not support a separate Katrina commission.

The Sept. 11 commission -- which is technically disbanded and now operating as the nonprofit 9/11 Public Discourse Project -- has held a series of hearings in recent months to examine the government's progress in enacting recommended reforms.

Also yesterday, the National Archives and Records Administration released a new version of a commission report on aviation security, providing details that had been previously edited out for national security reasons. The monograph, originally released in February, found that federal aviation officials took little action in response to intelligence reports that addressed al Qaeda and the possibility of airline hijackings or suicide attacks.

Congress and the Bush administration have embraced many of the major changes recommended by the Sept. 11 panel in its best-selling 2004 report, such as creation of a new intelligence director to coordinate anti-terrorism and anti-espionage efforts.

But Kean and other commission officials fault Congress and the administration for proceeding too slowly on some changes and ignoring others altogether, including a recommendation that Congress restructure the way it handles oversight of homeland security issues. Today's findings will be the first of three reports to be issued in coming months, followed by an overall "report card" that will rank the government's progress at the end of the year.

Kean and other commission officials said the most serious oversights are those that might have helped in the response to Hurricane Katrina.

For example, the commission's report will note that lawmakers, facing opposition from the broadcast industry, have not established a unified emergency communications system by dedicating a portion of the broadcast spectrum to medical and disaster responders.

As on Sept. 11, when malfunctioning radios contributed to deaths in the World Trade Center, public safety officials in New Orleans have reported widespread communications problems as floodwaters inundated the city.

"The fact that Congress has chosen not to do something about this is a national scandal that has cost lives," Kean said.

Other shortcomings that will be highlighted by today's report include delays by the Department of Homeland Security in ranking potential transportation and infrastructure vulnerabilities, continuing confusion over the line of command to be followed in national emergencies and sluggish efforts to track visitors entering and leaving the United States.

The panel's follow-up investigation also has found that only a few of the nation's 441 commercial airports have deployed equipment to check passengers for explosives, despite the continued threat of attack by suicide bombers.

"The White House and the Congress took off with the baton . . . but they haven't finished running the race," said commission member Timothy J. Roemer, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana. "The fundamental job of the government is to protect and defend its citizens, and at this point, the United States is still very vulnerable."