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(CNSNews.com) -- An investigation by the U.S. House of Representatives into the government's response to Hurricane Katrina will "move ahead" even if Democrats choose not to participate, the head of the probe said Wednesday.

"This is not some partisan cover-up," Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), chairman of the Select Committee to Investigate the Preparation for and Response to Hurricane Katrina, told reporters. "We're working for the American people, and we want the hard questions to be asked and answered."

Davis added that the probe "can't wait" for Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the House minority leader, who refuses to name any Democratic members to the select committee, which she has called a partisan "whitewash" and a "sham." Late Thursday afternoon, Davis released the list of 11 members of the select committee, including himself, all of whom are Republican.

"I don't want to spend a lot of time debating and arguing," said Davis, who also chairs the chamber's Government Reform Committee and its investigation of Katrina relief efforts. "At the end of the day, we must come together for good, hard fact-finding."

While noting that he hopes Pelosi "comes around," Davis stated House Democrats "could tie up the process forever, and losing time is losing information."

The Virginia Republican said he would invite Democrats from the areas affected by Katrina to the hearings. "If my neighborhood was knocked down by a hurricane, I'd want to have the opportunity to ask the right questions."

Davis, whose committee will begin hearings on the Katrina disaster Thursday, said he expects at least some congressional Democrats to attend the session on Sept. 27, when former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown is slated to testify.

"I don't think the Democrats will pass up an opportunity to cross-examine" Brown, who resigned on September 12 after being removed from his Hurricane Katrina relief duties.

Discussing the work of the committee, Davis said that a "smorgasbord of things need to be ferreted out. We'll start by seeking the chronology of events."

After noting that "mistakes get made, and we're not out to demonize anybody," he added: "I don't think it is going to be pretty for anyone involved in this situation."

Davis made the remarks at a news conference held by the House Republican Conference "to address the needs and victims of Hurricane Katrina."

The main speaker at the event was Mississippi Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, who said his state "bore the brunt of the worst natural disaster ever to hit the United States.

"Television does not capture the scale, the breadth, the intensity of the destruction," Barbour stated. "There are communities literally without any inhabitable structures. The size of this devastation is genuinely unprecedented in American history.

"Let me say right here that the federal government has been a good partner to us," he added. "Have they done everything perfectly? No, but neither have I. Neither has any mayor or any supervisor or any local government -- but they have done so much more right than wrong."

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