give some -- would have to take a week or two to give some thought to, and we are being rushed. senator very well bisaid this, and i agree, that these decisions are being made behind closed doors. we are going to have to live with this bill for years. so i don't see republicans as having a lot of input. that doesn't help my ego when i say that, but i think we are being marginalized in the process. >> congressman spencer bachus. you have your work cutous for you. thank you for being on "newsmakers." >> thank you. >> silla brush of "the hill" and brady dennis of the "washington post." is it just me or am i hearing from congressman bachus that there is really no way a bill can come out of this committee and get much republican support in the house? >> i think that is pretty much what the congressman was

indicating, that the size and the type of changes that it would take for republicans to support it in any number, the congressman doesn't believe those will likely come in the next month and as a result few republicans in the house are likely to support the bill in the end. >> he also talked about -- i found it interesting, in going back and voting about tarp. he said he had his regrets in voting for tarp. and yet he also said theee was a ppece of the legislation they got in there that worked. it sound as if he does have some hope that republicans can 3 >> i think so, but i think that is probably a fleeting hope. we are in sort of the ninth -pinning of this legislation here. i'm no expert on congress, but unlike some of the legislation that goes through that body, i think this was unique over the last year, because rather than getting the provisions getting

weakened or watered down over time depending on your point of view, the bill kept getting more stringent and tougher against financial firms in some ways. that is because it is a hard subject to vote against, at least retorqually back home. i think the bill as stands probably support going to change greatly. >> it has beee out of the house's hands since december, so they have really had no real touch on it other than the chairman, barney frank, correct? >> that is correct. and the bill that the conference committee is dealing with now is what the senate sent over with several changes, 300 pages as the congressman said, that were added after the senate passed the legislation. but it is very much sort of something that the senate sent

to the house, and the house will flex it's power anddsee some changes in the nexx month. >> do either of you see any chance that there will be many -psurprises or republican victories coming out of this conference committee? >> i see that as two different questions. there could be surprises or certain changes that are made or certain provisions that could be tweaked in the coming weeks. i don't see surprises in terms of republican victories because in the committee and this strong democratic majority, and they remain united throughout. it is sort of their show at this point. >> a couple of the large issues that remain, brady asked about the derivatives provisionn, and these are provisions to some degree splits democrats. some of the largest issues that will be taken up and resolved in the next month are issues that both parties need to

resolve where they stand exactly. there are a couple of those large issues. >> this is a quick yes/no question. on blanche lincoln's win, does it strengthen the stand on tte derivatives? >> some people say her win gives her a louder voice as a committee and sort of a a stroncher perch to add video kite for her position. some people say now that she has won, while she can't coast to re-election here, it perhaps gives the voice of on situation a greater hand to alter the provision or entirely remove. >> i will let parade brady have the last worth? >> people have expected that provision to disappear all along, ann they have been wrong every time. i don't want to be a handicapper either. i will write aaout it when it happens. >> brady dennisscovers

financial things for the "washington post." and silla brush does the same for "the hill." thank you for joining us. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] nattonal captioning institute] >> with the confirmation hearing for elena kagan coming up. c-span takes you inside the supreme court to see the places and spaces. hear from the justices as they provide insight about the building andist hits. the supreme court, home to america's highest court, today at 6:30 p.m. on c-span. >> the democrats had run the there was a certain level of corruption that had taken hold. so we are rallying against that. it ii 0 so ironic that years later i would be a face of a similar type of corruption to a whole different group of people. >> director alex gibney talks about corruption on capitol hill in his new ducksally,

"casino jack and the united states of money." tonight on c-span's "q & a." >> tonight on prime minister's questions, british prime minister, david cameron responds to calls for tougher gun restrictions in the wake of the recent mass murder of 12 people in england. prime minister's questions tonight at 9:00 eastern on c-span. >> local louisiana officials, coast guard representatives and a bp executive testified at a senate subcommittee thursday. they talked about the impact on louisiana communities, wildlife and economy. louisiana officials are asking for more astabs to block the oil spill frommfurther damaging the gulf of mexico marshes and the wildlife there.

>> we have several senators who threer. oute or scheduled to be i want to thank senator landrieu for coming. we are actually expecting several senators to be here and participate in this earg. i thought what i would do in the interests of time -- thank you for being here, senator lieberman. i thought i would go ahead and do my opening statement, and then i will recognize senator lieberman for his statement, and senator ensign for his, and would also then recognize other

senators. lieberman, landrieu, mccaskill, bureau he is, brown, ensign, as well as senator bill nelson for being here today, and i want to here and helping us on this g subcommittee and help the american public understand more about what is going on down on the gulf coast. i want to note that while our state and other panelists comprise louisiana. we had invited others from florida and mississippi, but because of scheduling conflicts, some have had to change their schedules and couudn't attend. we are looking forward to hearing from all of our witness. we are here to discuss the impact of the deep water

horizon oil spill on the and determine the effectiveness of the joint federal, state and local response effort. we are over a month into this pragedy, and the size and the scope of that tragedy we are only now beginning to comprehend. we must begin learning the work to improve the process as we move forward. this hearing will focus on five questions. one, what is the true impact of the spill on states and localities, and what are their outstanding needs? two, what federal plans hhve been activated to assist the impacted states and localities in responding to the spill, and are they working? three, is additional federal assistance needed to ensure that people impacted by this bill are able to surviie thh cleanup process. four, what are the next steps in stopping the leak, and how does bp plan to clean up the heavily inundated areas along the coast?

and five, has bp set up a claim process that is fair and useable for those who have been adversely impacted by the spill. 51 days ago, an explosion on the deep water horizon ole rig began a series of events that have impacted our country in ways that will not be fully clear to us for some time. 11 people died on the rig that night, a tragic loss of life for the family aad friends of workers lost at sea. very few imagined the depth of the impact this vent would have on our nation. from the beginning there was an apparent effort to downplay the severity of this spill. the impact of the spill would be very, very modest. those are in quotes. what we now know is that we are facing a truly unprecedented situation. millions of gallons of oil have spewed into one of the richest and most unique eek systems of

the united states. as you will hear from the testimony today, hundreds of michaels of coastal wet land have been affected, some unalterably. we may never know the animal loss of lehman or the extent of the damage done to the fishing stock. what we do know that 51 days out from the beginning of this or deal, the impact of the deepwater horizon ole spill is anything but modest. to date there have been 413 oiled live birrs, 59 dead birds collected by the u.s. fish and wildlife service, 250 dead turtle, two mammals, including dolphins, that we know con cluesively had died as a result of the spill. there is a photo of dolphins -- it is kind of hard to see in the photo, but dolphins swimming through the oil there. with 31 other mammaas currently

being tested. over 78,000 square miles, which is about 35% of the gulf of mexiio federal waters is closed to fishing. fisherman, seafood processing plans and shimpers have been forced to live on supplemental -ppayment. responding to a spill this size, which the largest in american history has required intergovernmental coordination. the government declared the deepwater horizon a spill of snarblesnns or suns. it said into operation a national contingency plan, response system, homeland security derekive five and the national response framework. as a rrsult, a massive effort to organize many federal resources, including the department of homeland security, the u.s. coast guard,

mineral, e.p.a., d.o.d., noah, the department of enji and pther ages, in addition to coordination with federal agencies, they governor the interaction between federal, state, local, and private sector entities. it is critical that there is clarity of responsibility and a clear understanding of roles at each level. i intend to ask the federal, state, local and private sector witnesses to assess the effectiveness of these plans and the resulting effort. bp's efforts to stop the flow of oil through the top kill and jump shots failed. bp has recently placed a cop blofe the blowout protector and is now colleeting several thousand barrels of oil a day. residents are forced to watch the shoreline turn brown and black. perhaps one of the most

important questions to bp we asked today is how do you plan to clean up these areas and how much progress has been made in the cleanup to dade? bp has committed to pay individuals harmed by the spill. over 78,000 miles of fishing waters is off limits. in louisiana loan, the seafood industries produces over $2 billion yearly. this means that thousands of americans will have to rely on an approved claim by bp to put fooddon the table. i intend to gain a better understanding of the claims process and ask bp the hardest question to answer. at what point will bp no longer be able to pay? i am glad any colleagues have joined us. there are an infinite number of and answered.. need to be asked we are taking a small but immensely important pieced today. the people of the gumbing are

facing a terrible degree of unceetainty. in so many ways their employment and livelihoods are drifting at sea.3 coordinated response is effective. well not allow bp to shortchange the public when their actions have led to such an unimaginable situation. again, i want to thank my colleagues for being here today. let me call on senator ensign, the ranging member of the subcommittee for his opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and thank you for holding this very important hearing. before i start, i see our colleague from louisiana here. all the folks from the gulf of mexico, know that our thoughts and prayers are with you. i know this is an unbelievably difficult time. most of us in the country are just seeing it on television, but you all are living it out in your day to day lives.

other committees in the house and senate have conducted numerous hearings on a wide array of issues relating to the spill. these have rapinged from determining what caused the explosion, what the environmental impacts will be, and what could be done to prevent further disasters like this from happening in the first place. admiral allen has provided detailed briefings regarding the status of the leak. i hope to get something different and unique out of this hearing. this submission was designed for a very specific purpose, and that is to examine whether the state and localities are getting what you need from the federal government as well as the privvte sector. additionally i want to see if there are various levels of government working together as a total forms. we need to find out if there aae other assets which the states and localities need and

have not been provided by bp or the federal government. we need to identify here oday what those gaps are, figure out what is the best way to fill them and then figure out how to proceed down that path. i hope to hear what bp and others in the private sector are doing to aid the cleanup efforts. must good friend from arkansas and i have worked together on numerous pieces of legislature here in the senate. if we identify here today any congressional action that is required, and this committee has worked well in a bipartisan fashion, well do what is required, and our staffs will pork together to get that accomplished. this hearing was destined in a specific way. the states and localities were intentionally put on the first panel so we could hear from you and force the federal and private sector entities to listen to what is needed. are there adequate resources for the cleanup?

do we have enough skimmers in the water? is there enough boom? my understanding is that alabama has only two skimmers and not enough boom. will the federal government need to procure more of either? if we have other skimmers in our inventory? why are they not in the gulf working? i was watching television this morning about a private sector company that says that they can produce up to 90,000 feet of boom a day and haven't goten bp to approve that yet, and that is one of the issues we want to explore this morningg i would like to get to the bottom of the sand berman barrier islands that were requested by louisiana. what was the delay in getting it approved for the barrier + islands. also, do we have the necessary manpower on the beaches and waters helping to clean up the eco system. new stories indicate that the manpower down there is still inadequate. i for one would be open to

sending the national guard resources down there to assist. is this something that would help? perhaps this is something the congress can help with. i would like to lso hear what the rules are for cleaning groups. i have heard reports that locals are upset because cleaning crews are onll allowed to work 20 minutes every hour and why is this in police. i want to ccllect new oil spill response solutions from scientists and vendors. what can we hope to see ome from interagency alternative technology assessment program, and what hurdles may complicate and hamper response technologies? these re all mportant issues that need to be addressed, and i hopp weecan to some of these today, and more of them in the coming weeks. i thank you for holding this >> thank you. senator lieberman? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, first, for inviting

me in my capacity as chair of the full committee to come by this morning. i hope i can return your graciousness by speaking briefly and then leaving it to -pyou and the subcommittee to g forward. i look forward to hearing the results of this hearing. but i think it's a very important hearing because it is obvious to all of us that it has taken painfully long for the oil spill in the gulf, the deepwater horizon, to be stopped. but long after it is stopped, the people, the communities, the state and local governments of louisiana, alabama, still be dealing with its consequences, and i think it is very important that you have focused your attention as a subcommittee on this part of the problem.

while i am saying that, i want to thank senator landrieu for the work, really pioneering, very effective work that she has done in disaster response in the subcommittee, this committee that she heads, and her tireless and persistent advocacy in this case for the people oo her state and the gulf overall. and i welcome the elected officials from louisiana as well. i was thinking that we learn things when we come from our various states to this senate. when i arrived here 22 years ago, i thouuht that the top person in a parish was called a priest. [laughter] then i found out that in louisiana, the top person is called the president. but if i may extend this a little bit to you directly, you crisis that really has been very constructive, and in some

ways some of the parish priests i have been honored to deal with, you have been called an effective and passionate advocate for your parish, and we are honoreded to have you here. this is not the first time we have faced such a cctastrophe involving oil in our country. though this is now the worst catastrophe of its kind we have ever faced. obviously the exxon valdez in 1989 was at the time the worst oil spill of its kind, and we debated then some of the very same issues that we are the fact is that we adopted some legislation in response, and it has had a positive effect, particularly with regard to preventing oil spills pn vessels on the surface of the water and in responding to

accidents when and oil spill actually does occur. but unfortunately, we didn't take all the steps that we might have then. it seems to me as we look back that we failed to build a system that could plan for and respond to other risks in this particular area of activity, including the one that we are facing here, which is an uncontrolled blowout in a deepwater well. i think, as senator landrieu and i agree, and others agree, we acknowledge there have been thousands of wells dug, and the safety record overall is an impressive one. and we depend on the oil that comes from those wells to move our country and power our country. but the obvious fact here is that the minerals management service did not require

adequate safety and response measures from the oil companies at the deepwater level, and this is what we are facing now and what we have to fix as quickly as we can. there are a lot of lessons to be learned, but i think one why it is so important that the chairman is conducting this hearing today is that the state and local governments need to be actively involved in the response planning for disaster generally, and specifically for oil spills. and as i said at the beginning, long after this terrible breach issclosed and the oil stops flowing out of those pipes and that well, the people of the gulf are going to be living with the consequences of it.

i thinkkwhat you can help us today in doing is tell us exactly what we can do, which is what we want to do, which is to stand by you as we help you back to normalcy. mr. chairman, i thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to say that, and i look forward to hearing from you about the results of this >> thank you. and thank you for being with us today, mr. chairman. it is great to have you. our next order, so you will know, is landrieu, brown, burress and nelson. what i would like to do if possible is limit this to three minutes, but i understand some people may need a minute or two extra. senator laadrieu? >> i am going to try to do mine in two minutes. first of all, i think thh scope outlined by you and the ranking member are right on point about what our committee should be focused on in this hearing. i want to acknowledge the leadership of senator

lieberman. the aftermath of katrina, but when homeland security was reorganized, both the chairman and i appealed to the chairman of the large committee that a committee that would give voice to local governments was so important in handling these disaster. senator pryor, you stepped up to lead this committee at senator lieberman's request, and i am very grateful. i think we will find the work of this committee will be extremely helpful to the outcome of this issue. secondly, i hope that these parish presidents and this director, mark cooper, who i know very, very well, these men were on the front line of parishes flood and their people suffer. ttey are now on the front line again. they have been heroic in their efforts to try to give voice and explain the many dimensions of this issue. i hope today they will be given an opportunity to talk, senator

lieberman, about the balance necessary between what you said was the need for oil and the jobs they represent from their parishes, but also the need to have a clean and pristine environment so our fisheemen can operate, and i hope they will give voice to that. i hope they will talk a little bit about the six-month prrposed moratorium, what that might do to devastating what jobs are left 52 days after this incident. and i look forward to their testimony and will leave mine there for now until we get to the questions. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. senator brown? >> i am here because i care, and to hearhat everyone is testifng t to thanyou for yo .eadeeship i thi eveone is anxuso get acking. p> center burris. >> tnk you, mr. chrman. also grefulo

i am on homeland security. i just want everyone to know that not only is the coastal states going to be suffering, but i represent he state of illinois, and we are certainly sending what little help we can down to the coast. i know that our national guardsmen are coming in with helicopter assistance that we are giving. but there is another affect that deals with our urban areas, and that is the food that comes out of the depuffle is going to impact us tremendously in our restaurant business and those various businesses. so i am deeply concerned abouu what is going to happen down there in the future and certainly want to give deference to the distinguished governmental leaders who are here and on the front line of this problem. we must make sure that we treat this as a national crisis. the gulf states are getting the brunt of it, but all of us are

going to suffer from it. and so based on that, mr. chairman, i feel it is important for me to be here for the few moments that my schedule will allow to bring a message not only from the gulf states, but from mid america, that we will be impacted, and we want to support our colleagues on the front line the best we can with everything we have got to overcome this problem. thank you. >> thank you. senator nelson? -p>> as usual, mr. chairman, yo are insightful to burro in on something that -- burrow in on something that needs disclosure. i bring to the committee today the effect on state and local government. oil is now entering florida waters. the orange mousse has come into perdido pass, into perdodo bay.

the perdido is the dividing line between alabama and florida, and it flows into perdido bay, and that flows out into the gulf of mexico and perdido pass. florida was not notified. the emergency operations center in pensacola was not notified. this all occurred yesterday. the coast guard is doing a great job, but they are stretched to the limit. those guys are working 24 hours. they barely have time enough to sleep, and all the more calls

for command and control structure so that mistakes like this don't keep happening. our local and state officials, as well as their senator, are not only bewildered, but we are livid that the command and control is not there so that communication is not coming to the state and local government. it reminds me of some of the things i heard another saying in his experiences over the past several weeks as he was talking about the oil and that orange mousse coming in on the wetlands in louisiana, and they were not blessed because the winds took the fresh oil to the louisiana wetlands. the winds blessed up at least for a while because it kept it to the west, but now it's moving to the east and the northeast. and when the winds shift again,

mr. chairman, and takes it to the south, and it against into the loop current, it's going to take it around the florida keys and up the east coast of florida and in the gulfstream. so i thank you. you again are clairvoyant in what needs to be examined, and just know that you've got some folks in florida that are mad as wet hens right now. we have to get this command and control straightened out where communication is going to everybody at the local level. >> thank you, senator nelson, comments. i want to thank all the members for being here. wwat we have now is three panels. our first panel is the local government witnesses. the second panel is the federal government witnesses. and the third panel is british petroleum. what i would like to do is very quickly introduce each one of you all and allow you to make

your opening statements. i would love for you to keep your opening statements to three minutes if possible. we are going to have lots of questions, so we really apppeciate you all being here. first let me introduce the mayor. he is the mayor of the town of grand isle,,louisiana. he has been the mayor there since 199 as i understand it -- >> 1995. >> and he will discuss the impact the oil spill has had on his community and the inability of the community to engage in cleanup efforts due to the approval process required to guinea activity, which is pmportant. we have heard that and want to know more about that. next will be billy, the president of plaquemines parish, louisiana. he has served the people of plaquemines parish for over 20 years. if i am not mistaken, we met katrina? >> i have actually only been in

office 3 1/2 years. i as still there. plaquemines, but was a volunteer. >> i think we met some of the folks from plaquemines parish when we were down there and saw the imppct that katrina had on the community down there. and you will discuss the 3 spill on your community and your local businesses, et cetera. and last and certainly not least least, we have mark cooper, who is the director of of disaster preparedness. goad. >> good morning. i am the mayor of grand isle. i am on my seventh term, three terms as mayor. + grand isle is about 60 michaels southeast of new orleans. it is the only inhabitted barrier island in louisiana.

most of the residents in grand isle or coastal regions are small independent fishermen or employed by the oil and gas industry. most work seven days on and seven days off. we understand what it takes to get a job done because our liaisonly hood depends on it. if the boats break down, or the nets tear, we know how to fix them. we know how to go back and work in the town of grand isle. the ma arenaas, hotels, grocery stars, the shrimp producers. in grand isle, the largest producer in the united states, providing seven million pounds, and should have bought four million pounds in the last week is completely down. i look at that picture, and it brings tears to our eyes. we have been watching this.

come through our five passes. we have been working hard to come in and block the passes. we have come in with ideas. billy and greg, the two parish presidents to the east of me came up with the idea of sand berms. in the mean time, born and raised on that island, prying to protect our people, trying to stop oil from coming on burbon street if we have just a low pressure from the gulf of mexico, we cape up with the idea of deeper passes. i told the president if he gives us $1 million a day, we can come in and block these five passes with warnings. we only have 45 days before a major hurricane gets into the gulf of mexico. i keep looking at that oil. i watch it every day, every morning coming through these passes. our cage unheritage has taught us to work hard, be persistent, and we are very resilient. born and raised, and watching

my mother and ffther lose everything in 1965. watthing my father be elected and telling people it's ok, it is material things. anyone in louisiana can protect anybody from hurricanes. i told the presidenttthat. you send me anywhere in the worll and give me 10 days, i can make a difference with hurricanes. but right now my hands are tied. i am dealing with an oil commany. we have no ssy-so. we try our best. we have the best equipment that can come into our town. different salesmen. 2,500 salesmen come in through the weeks, and billy can tell you, asking us. but i can tell you one thing. we are not going to give up. as of yesterday we are bringing barges to my town. i'm going to be back tomorrow morning in a meeting in grand isle to show the cost guard exactly where to put it and make shall that we protect our people. i'm going to tell you, every day i have a mom that comes to me and asks me, mr. caved, how

am i going to get food to my kids? i have 37 applications right now that are sanding by at the community center as we speak this morning that are still waiting 0 a $5,000 check. you have a deck hand on a boat that gets $2,500 maybe. and a poet owner still waiting. you have a marina waiting on a check. right now the electric, water and gas bile is $5,800 at my city hall, and i am not going to cut the gas off. that is the things we are going through. the shrimp dock is a ghost -ptown. the boom doesn't work. in the major pass, the booms don't work. to the senator from florida, this is a wake-up call. what you said earlier, what we went through seven weeks ago, you are just opening your eyes this morning. i am being honest with y'all. we need some help. we need you to push. we need some money down there.

the last thing, our people don't want a ffee check from the government. they don't want food stamps or an s.b.a. loan. they want to go out in the waters and fish. they want to use booms o scoop up the oil. right now as we speak, it is coming through our passes. and when i get back tomorrow morning, i will have one of those passes blocked up, and i have four left. i guarantee you, if i can push -- and i'm going to make it happen, i'm going to block the five passes, get out of there in 45 days, and i will stop with ---with a low pressure, i will protect five parishes. we are not waiting. two saturdays ago i got the fishermen at the dock, told everybody to get out of the way, and we put fishermen to work. we don't want to be on food stamps. we are not used to that. we want to go to work for our community. my senator from illinois, my deck hands, i still have a

shrimp boat, two of them come from chicago. they made a good living and fed their families. one of them is still there working with our family. you are right. the see food -- seafood, what i see here is destroying the best seafood in the world. i gave them a credit card before. i fed some families. i make $513 a week as mayor. i've got my own family to talked to my secretary, and i can promise you i will not let no one starve on my watch. maybe that is why i have been reelected seven times. mary cannvouch for that. she has always been there for us. my good friend to the left, billy, he feels the same way. we are continuously fighting. i am going to meet with the

president today at 3:30. it looked like every time the president came, bp got closser, they pushed a button, and then it fades away. i am hearing there are navy scoop up this oil. please. please send us some help. alive and my father would be alive. i can remember them having an american flag. i would asked my grandmother why the american flg was behind the sooa on the wall? she said your grandfather this year was the best fisherman. tomorrow i will stop at my grandfather's tomb and my father's tomb and tell them that i want to continue holding the american flag, thatti stood up for my people, and i am going to continue to feed my peeple. on behalf of the elected officials and the residents of grand isle, we are strong.

and we remind you there are 45 days before a major hurricane gets close. i just need your help. it is like a war, and i am on the front line. i want to thank y'all so much. thank you. >> thank you. >> good job. >> thank you for being here today, and thank you for that very touching toast. testimony. >> thank you. we appreciate the opportunity here today. i wrote a nice speech, and i threw it in the garbage this morning. i represent 25,000 people. i am going to talk quick because i have a lot to say. more coastline than any other parish. to date, over 3,000 acres of my parish is destroyed, not 30 miles like the coach guard has said, 3,000 miles.

i started to go into detail on a lot of things. last night on the plane a gentleman walked to the back of the plane and handed me this piece of paper. he said i work with the coast guard. i am a coast guard official. i'm back home in waablet, and i wrote this down for you -- washington, and i wrote this down for you to say and tell somebody until they listen because it is not getting done. he said i have been down innthe command center in houma for over 35 days. i am going to read it to you. the problems at the incident command center in houma that results in the slowing down for this response. agency requests must go through two levels of approval. the first request must go to the i.c.o. for command approval, which typically takes less than a couple of hours. the final level of approval comes from the u.a.c., roberts the admiral. sometimes it gets approved the next day or the day after, but most requests take over five

days. this timing is unacceptable for an effective response. when the dm 932 spill spoiled 80 miles of the mississippi river in 2008, the c.e.o. of the command post had full authority to only ate and engage the osltf funds. why is this not happening now? -pthe current federal project ceiling is $150 million, causing the emergency partner of the fund to be almost pompletely depleted. there is almost $150 million in the principal fund. why hasn't the congress allowed the coasttguard to borrow from this fund as it did in 1980? they have forced the coast guard to ration the little money they have left, therefore slowing down the response. now i don't know if that is true, but if it is, shame on

us. i'm not here to place blame on anybody as i have done in the past. i'm here to move forward, and it has got to change, or we are going to lose coastal louisiana.. i still don't know who is in charge. is it bp or the coast guard? when i get mad enough in a meeting, the coast guard in our office stands up and says i can make that happen. when i throw a bp official out of my office, he comes back the next day and approves something. i have spent more time fighting the officials of bp and the coast guard than flying the oil -- fighting the oil. we have come up, the parish presidents, with logical answers. the boom is not working. don't rely on the boom in florida unless they get ocean boom, which we said was the only thing that is going to keep it out. it's a joke.

we have oil in the marshes and we have oily boom. we have to put somebody in charge that has the guts and the will to make decisions. we are going to make some bad ones, but we are going to fix them and go forward. right now it took the president of the united states to come down to approve the jack-up boat to put in the mouth of the river. it's a two-hour boat ride back to venice. when you work 20 minutes and rest 10, not much work is sometimes it feels like the contractor has more influence that bp has hired than bp nd others. i have been in venice when the guy with the red at stands up and says we are not going to do that. any equipment that would come through the parish, state or federal government, he is not getting a percentage of it. right now they are building a camp in plaquemines parish for 1,500 people. i tell you, there is nothing in

plaquemines parish for 1,500 people to do. we appreciate it. clean up one of the islands, trampled nesting grounds of the pelicans. they were out there throwing eggs around like it was a joke until our fishermen stopped them. we have people in charge that -pdon't know what they are doin we have laid out a plan for the jack-up boats so we could be closer to the front line out there to catch the oil, and we did. three weeks -- that oil still sits in the marsh, and more and more every day pelicans dive into the stuff, not knowing what it is, get coated with it aad die. i have a packet up there forr each of you. thousands of more birds will die. hundreds of turtles and sea life every day we leave that stuff out in the marsh. we came up the next day with a vacuum ppan and have been

begging to get it approved. kevin costner's machine -- i don't care whose machine we use. we have to suck it up. there are overseas ships, and i am sure there are some in this country. we have had people all over the world come see me because bp won't see them with a five that will be 500 feet down and get why aren't those ships depoipped? there. the president had to approve the jack-up plan. we begged for the berman plan. a beach from a marsh. offer of we told them from day one you won't clean it up from a marsh. they said it will never get it. well, it is there. please don't take filetovers of plaquemines parish.

it is an insult to the people. you have to pull intt that marsh and see there is absolutely no life. everything is dead. i will make you a prediction. we will lose mmre coastline from this disaster in louisiana than we lost from katrina, rita, gustav and ike kind. we have lost 20 mills. it is dead and as soon as the cane falls into the water, it will wash away. how can we sit here and say we are doing everything possible? it is beside me. and i don't know who to blame any more. it took the president coming down to get the boom project -- the berman project approved. i don't know if it is going to take him coming down to get the sucks equipment. we put a vacuum truck that vacuums out port apotties on a

barge and took it out there and shows it works. you have the parish governments running the whole show. the bp contractors are doing pbsolutely nothing but destroying our marsh. yoo could put every fisherman to work. this is an emergency. to work 20 minutes and take 10 minutes offer, would they do that at war? would we say lay down your guns because the sun is over 90 degrees, they are not going to come at us for another 20 minutes? take a break. that is absurd. we are letting the rules, regulations, contractors and bp stand in the way of us saving our coastline. we showed yesterday. the government went out and showed that the vacuum equipment is working. hopefully by the time i get back thissafternoon we will have an approval for that process. but if what this gentleman told me on this piece of paper is

true, then shame on the coast guard. they are rationing their money and say we might not do that because we need this. i don't want to point fingers, but there is a lot of money being spent, a lot of money, more than that berm will cost, that is not going to benefit florida, louisiana, mississippi or alabama one bit in keeping 3 it is being spent on hotel rooms, jack-up boats, filet -pover -- fly-overs, all the things that look pretty but doesn't help. i don't know if you saw the tv reports of crews wiping the blades of grass. that was an insult. does anybody really believe we are going to wipe every blade of grass? there are over 100 natural products that could be sprayed to eat the oil.

bp is not testing any of them. we have testeded several and made recommendations. you would think as big a company as they arr, they can't faculty task. for the first two weeks i heard we have to stop the leak and then we will worry about the fishermen. i hope the guy writing the check to the michigannermen is not the same guy. maybe it is. maybe that is why thhy can't stop the leak. that is the most important thing. everything should get attention. everything should be worked on at the same time. god knows we have another peach on the payroll to do that. what did they say, 24,000 people? i know i am out of time, and i am just going to leave you with this. thomas payne said a century ago, lead, follow or get out of our way. tell them to get out of their way if they are not going to

help us, because right now they thank you. >> thank you for your testimony. good morning, mr. chairman. >> governor jindal was forward-leaning and directed the oil coordinator and other state agencies to be involved in cleanup efforts. the governor met with leadership of the affected parishes to assist them in developing responses to oil impacting their parishes and to address the economic issues facing the parishes and their citizens. his designated the secretaries of office of coastal protectionn and restoration, department of wildlife and fisheries, department of natural resourccs and environmental qualityyas trustees to represent the state and cleanup. state agencies and local governments have used their expertise as just stated to develop innovative processes to protect their coass lines which are quick to deploy. however, like other disaster responses, the state does not

have the authority to independently conduct any ressonse activities, and this has led to a deprail of frustration with pp as we havv attempted to interface with their processes for response. as of june 7th, over 13 coastal parishes are affected. while weeare trying to get the 3 changes, over 100 linear miles of louisiana coasts and marshes are impacted by the spill. this is measured in linear milessonly and does not reflect the depth of the intrusion into our coastal marshes. the impacts of oil on a beach is vastly different than oil in marshes, especially in terms of environmental impact. large areas of state and closed to fishermen.nds are are actually abe to harvest and large areas of accomplisheries

are closed. other areas of the economy have been and will ontinue to be affected. including tourism, transportation, oil and gas 3 much of the coast line affected or threatened is part of a very fragile coastal marsh and wildlife habitat system. damage to these systems may require generations offeffort to repair and recover anddcould greatly damage louisiana's economy and could jeopardize louisiana's reputation as a sportsman's paradiie. it has the potential to severely damage if not destroy a culture. the south louisiana culture is stock and rooted in fishing and water-related industries. damage to these commercial actiiities could displace people, never to return, and their cultural contribbtion could be lost.

a moratorium on deep water drilling will exacerbate the impact to louisiana in that we estimate upwards of 10,000 jobs could be lost if deep water drilling is occur tailed. open 90 identifies bp as the party for response and cleanup. this law has been rigidly executed. state and local governments developed plans to influence their actions to imploment a more current analysis of those critical areas that need protection and implement from a bottom-up approach but have experienced frustration in having plans implemented. they require timely implementation, as stated, like the dredging of the barrier islands but has been frusted by the process. it cannot be overemphasized that they are not only an environmental concern but a

snask ecooomic driver for the state of louisiana and station. governor jindal has made several requests from the federal government for assistance, and while agencies have expressed support, the overriding message has been that the oil pollution act does not allow the government to respond to a large-scale spill. we are primmrily conccrned with the assistance to individuals that can be provided by federal agencies that are in the stafford act emergency. with the official fwing of hurricane season this month, it has become increasingly clear that should a storm throaten to collide with the huge oil and exacerbated consequences to the waterways and coastal marshes and coastline and inland areas of our state. we are requesting that fema be proactive in issues. finally, few jurisdictions in

our nation have experienced the level of disasters brought upon our state in the last five years. louisiana continues to recover from hurricanes katrina and rita, the largest in our u.s. history and gustav and ike. governor jindal nor our parishes will not entirely trust the care of louisiana, its marshes and citizens to a they ill continue to be forward leak and aggressive to protect the state and the interests of its citizens. because of the he sill yancey -- resiliency of our people, louisiana will recover. this is vital not only for our state and the entire gulf, but for our nation. the challenges assuring that our parishes, louisiana and

other states are full partners in identifying what works best and that the plans are flexible, scaleable and responsive based on the needs, and that bp is recentive and doing everything that is possible to protect and restore our coasts and the livelihoods of our people. thank you. >> thank you. mr. cooper, what i might do is i might open my questions with you. we are goiin to probably do two rounds here because my sense it senators are going to want to ask a lot of questions, and so why don't we do two five-minute rounds and try to move through the questions as quickly as possible? we all have a lots of questions. mr. coooer, let me start with you. ii louisiana in the process of requesting assistance under the stafford act? >> no we are not. >> and tell me why or how that works? >> as you know, it is open 90 is what rivers this. at the this point we are sticking with that open 90.

that is not to say somewhere down the road we might not change our minds on that. first of all, i do want to say up front that we have a great partnership with d.h.s., fema and others planning for hurricanes. we saw what happened with katrina. in gustav and ike, the response was much better. we are used to respond to go a stafford-type disaster where the response is from the bottom up as opposed from the top down. we put plans together, and we know not everything is going to go to plan, and we have to be flexible nfl to change plans at a minute's notice, and that is not what is happening with this. + with he stafford act, there are certain programs in there that we would like to see. for example, disaster unemployment insurance. that is one that we were not

able to acttvate in this disaster, as well as crisis counseling, and there is going po be a lot of that, as well as other assistaace. what our concern is if the system could be hero flexible, then i think we could see a better result. we have seen emergency management involved since 9/11. this goes back to 1990 and there has never been a cat stroveg oil spill like this. >> all right. let me ask about that because one of the i guess challenges here is you have a private company, bp, who really ultimately has responsibility for most of this. but then you also have the federal government who is very involved in the response. tell the subcommittee if you can about how your state has bben able to coordinate with the federal government and with bp and some of the challenges there, and some of the gaps there there are not working

very well? >> well, that has been one of the challenges,,as you have indicated earlier. agaii, with the stafford act, we are used to a chain of command and union command. it starts at the local level. when it goes beyond their capability, they ask the state for assistance, and the state services, and then it goes to fema. that is not occurring. the challenge for us is that there issno real unified command. you have command? robert, louisiana. you've got incident command in houma. you have bp folks in houston, texas. you have these staging areas where there is command. that has been part of the issue, identifying where the command is. sometimes it takes decisions a long time to be approved. it took more than three weeks for the dredging plan to be approved. >> was that from bp or the federal government? >> that is from the federal govvrnment, and they are

holding bp account. we are extremely appreciative to the president for approving that. >> i understand you have something in louisiana that we don't have in arkansas. you have an ool spill coordinator's office? >> that is correct. >> did i understand it used to be a cabinet level position, and it is no longer? >> what the governor did is mover it under state police, which is a cabinet level position. >> so in your state government, are you the one who is or is it the state police through the oillspill coordinator? tell us how that chain of command works? >> well, it is the oil spill coordinator, but as is required, the state is required to name trustees, they include the coordinator, departmenn of

wildlife and services and others. >> so the coordinator is the primary point of contact? >> yes. >> i am going to turn it over to senator ensign and let him ask questions. >> thank you. first of all, i want to thank all of you for your testimony. as emotional as you got, i actually thought you weree pretty restrained. i didn't hear any expletives, and i can understand. p am sure you have uttered a few of them out there, and it is kind understandable. can somebody walk me through who has to approve the berms? i guess the federal government has to approve the berms and it took the president. who has to approve the boom and the sucks units you guys have

shown, maybe to put them on the barges to get them going? walk me through the aploofl process because it sounds like you are having trouble knowing? >> our coast guard man on the ground says he can approve it, but then he goes to thh bp man. i think when we scream loud enough and gets the president here, the coast guard pulls the trigger. early on with admiral allen's assistance and others, they told me they wouldn't approve the berm is because theyydidn't think it would keep the oil ute, and they had limited costs for the recovery. that scared me. it shouldn't be limited funds. we should be making bp put the money up. we should be throwing everything but the kitchen sink in this. the same thing with the

skimmers. there are 100 skimmers in a warehouse, but they are not with bp's contractor, and we can't get them out there. it is sitting out there and nobody is picking it up. >> you aae probablyyasking the same question i am. why doesn't thad allen make it billing bp later? bp has said publicly many times that they are willing to pay for the cleanup, they are willing to pay and do everything, and do it right. and if we are going to hold them to their word, why isn't admiral allen doing that? >> these arm skimmers that can go out ships and pick it up, uutil they were embarrassed at a public meeting, and the commander from the coast guard took him to the side, i think they ordered one. whether it was to shut this guy up or whatever. there is all kinds of equipment that could pick this oil up before it gets to florida, and that is the crime.

we were out there, and we rode for three hours the other day through thick oil like that all aloog the barrier islands. it is coming assure somewhere, and we are doing nothing. >> you hear today that bp can't pick up as much oil, that their ships they have out there can't handle all the oil that is being sucked up. i am thinking to myself it has been going on 52 days now. :isn't there another ship or whatever they need in the area? it is going to cost them a lots shore and gets into the marshes for the environmental cleanup. i don't know what the thinking is for bp. >> there may have been a start when the new guy came down, and we stuck his hand in the oil and asked him whattdo you think it fells like on the back of a pelican. he seemed to get it, and that was just the other day. until you see and go out there

scares the hell out of you. >> maybe when you have trouble getting something approved, we should maybe put some bp executives into the oil? >> i made that recommendation to hayward. when end there are no large sections of oil under the way, jacques cousteeu's son went for an hour and a half and couldn't find the end of one. it is serious enough. we were out for three hours the other day with the new guy in charge of bp. i said what do you not see out here? end fishing botes. i said what else. end skimmers. not a one. this base where all the pelicans are nesting, our crews are out there every mork. we can't pick up boom, but we can put it out. they are not picking it up, and

we keep adding to it. that oil in that bay is going to destroy all of the nesting ground for the pelicans, and there were no skimmers out there yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that. >> mayor? >> day before yesterday around 5:00 in the evening before my council meeting, some of my shrimperr were on britain sound, which is on the eastern side of the mouth of the river. 25 of them -- bp puts about 25 fishermen in a task force. out of the 25, i have eight of them from grand isle, and the rest are from the neighboring parish. they had no signal on their phones. one of them climbed up the masters and called me. end i want to come home. i haae been going for five weeks. am watching the passes where i am making a living. the fishermen want to come home

and work their territories. can you please bring us home? there is no oil here. maybe between the 25 of us in theelast eight days, we picked up maybe a quart of oil. but everr night we are laying in the bush administration, they make us anchor out at 6:00 in the evening and shut down. apparently bp doesn't believe that oil moves at night. shrimping works 24/7. they left their families, and they are scared. they are scared to tell the bp representative we need to go to grand isle. we need to go where the oil is at. we need to save our own community and run back. task force five, six or seven from behind the i'll is from venice, louisiana. we trying 0 work it out so maybe the locals can work in their own areas. the bp representatives that

rode in the boat with us, this picture of you, your son or grandson playing ping-pong, and there are about 500 balls coming to you with one paddle. that is what it looks like coming through those passes. 500 streams of that type of oil coming, and there is only one shrimp boat that is fighting it. >> one last comment. everything i'm hearing that the local for examppe, you know your area the best. you know the solutions the best. and obviously more of that ccmmand and control needs to happen as you guys talked about. and perhaps even what we did, senator landrieu, during the war. we had local funds for the local commanders on the ground. perhaps we need to set up somethiig like that so that youu guys don't have to go to thad allen or to the president to get some of these things. it sounds like you have a lot of the solutions that could prevent a lot of this stuff

from happening. >> thank you. senator landrieu? >> i will follow up oo that point because that is where i wanted to jump off. obviously i don't think any of us need any more derek testimony about the contracting process being absolutely broken. we saw this. we've seen it before. we saw it after the catastrophic katrina. we are operating under a different law, but some of the same principles. we are seeing them raise their ugly head again, which is the people that are on the ground either up to their chin in water or up to their knees in oil in this case, don't seem to have the resources or authority to gettthe job done. mr. chairman and ranking member, i can't tell you how who are this particular subcommittee is, which is why i argued to form it, to staff it. i figured at some time we might need it again. well, we need it now.

this subcommittee of homeland security is focused to give local ggvernment a seat at this table. besides these elected officials, tim kerner is here from lafitte, the mayor, a town of 10,000 people who represents some of the largest most valuable well lands in the united states. and i want to recognize tim roberts. he has been on the fronttlines, but hundreds of our officials. up here washington knows the difference. at home we don't care. we are all in the oil together. we don't are. billy is a republican. david is a democrat. they couldn't be closer brothers in this fight. so one message to washington is let's not make this in any way political. this is a national disaster. it needs to be handled in a much different way, and we've got to do it. i mean our economic and

environmental future, senators,3 i want, though, to ask a question. we have covered the ground beautifully, but billy, you have had experience both in the environmental community. you are a respected voice. people have been listening to you all over the nation. you also know something about the oil and gas industry. your company serviced the industry. could you please comment a minute about the importance, or lack there of, if that is your view, of a balance here as we move to clean theous, contain the oil, get it off of our marsh, but how we have to do that recognizing that half the family efficiency, and the other half of ur families are in the oil business? >> absolutely, senator. the moratorium on the drilling affects a lottof plaquemines people. the dad might fish, and the son may work offshooe. so it is going to be a double

-whammy. the oil and business community 3 a 66-man plan, and we presented it to the president. what a 66-man plan is 33 men on seven days, and the crew changes like they do offshore, and 33 go on the next seven. they swap out. you get retired i think nears, and you swear them in as federal agents. i have been in the oil field. i have spent hundreds and hundreds of nights off shore. there were fist fights on most between the tool pusher and the company man. he has an agenda. he has to work that rig. he has an agenda, and he has to make a buck. and that is a dangerous situation. we saw this kansas strove. it is not the first time there were disagreements about the mud, what is going on, is it savor unsafe? i've seen the arguments personally myself offshore. you put a federal agent out there that has the right to say

stop, and you make it safe for tomorrow. we all know three days before this rig tragedy, people asked to be removed from that rig because of unsafeness. it's a shame it took this and the lives of those men to get to thiss but you put a federal agget out there tomorrow, and there are a lot of good retired i think nears that would love to step up to the plate and answer to government, and they have the right to shut that rig in or do anything in beeween that and running people off, and you you make it safe for tomorrow. also, the devices that they use overseas, the half million dollar device that a lot of people say -- and i am not an expert -- that would have preeented this pradge dion the well head, that he required in the north sea. it is $500,000 per rig, but we

don't require them. when they leave, it will be far-reaching throughout our hard-hit. as we ask the president to look qqickly at the other solutions to make it saver. >> if the chairman will allow me one more question, i've got to ask the mayor. you have been in the forefront in the fight for revenue sharing since we started it 20 yearr ago. it has been going on for a long time. you know the history. president truman when the offshore industry started afttr louisiana 37%. we wented 100% and we lost in court. we have been trying to tell people with the $5 million produced by this industry off shore that the federal government gets, we get nothing. this deep horizon well 50 miles basically off of your shore, louisiana would have gotten not onn penny of the hundreds of

thousands or billions of dollarr of taxes that would be generated by it. could you give a comment about would it be helpful for you to have some of that funding, and what would you be doing with it if you had it? >> exactly. when president obama came through and visited the island last friday, i remember looking out the big side from grand isle to lafitte on the north side. he asked me what the to your when you looked at the fuffle side, you see a bunch of jack-up rigs three miles off grand isle. but look at the rigs and tell in the fouchon, the parish president, port forchon is the hargest port in the united

states that imports the oil into the united states. talking last week, if we started a more omorrow, i told the president it would be 37,000 jobs. i told them there is no way in the world we should stop drilling. if we were all in class, and you ared bad little boy, and the teacher is fussing at you, she shouldn't punish all of us. he looked at me and said we have to stop the hole. pe have to stop bp. and david, we are going to bring it back. i already have companies calling. i've seen a jack-up barge, one of the major oil companies out of houston, a friend of mean called me and said june 1, you are going to see the first jack-up barge dropping down. get what, on my beach at delight, i showed my chief of police, they didn't drop down.

i don't know what is going on. i know one thing, seeing my father and fishermen, like billy said, seven on and seven off, when the fishing was bad, we went and worked for the oil field. we need to continue drilling. we have exxonmobil in grand isle, storage tanks. after carolina, president bush called me and asked how many gallons of oil we had in our tanks, and how many gallons of oil we had at port fouchon near grand isle. you can see the ships coming in. it is very important. we are like brothers and sisters. we clean up our mess, we do it right, and we continue drilling. >> thank you. senator burress? >> hank you, mr. chairman. i am trying to get the gist of

the control and command here and who is in charge. what is the recommendation yo have a coendation? during katrina, i saw a man ce on television and sawe are hiand we are gog to do that >> do we need a general honore down there? + >> we need someone on the ground that will kick some 3 we have lost some battles. we can win this war. we can save our marsh and heritage, but it is going to have to happen quiikly. it s going to have to be somebody with the authority to mobilize all the equipment necessary to do whatever it takes to keep the oil out, to

do whatever it takes to pick it up and have the heart and the passion to do it. whether that is somebody through the coast guard -- i don't think there is a person at bp that has that will and that direction. >> now was this question raised with the president when he was down there? what was his reactionn >> absolutely. and the president told admiral allen oachted people on the ground that could make decisions. >> why isn't the admiral making the decisions then? >> well, you would have to ask him. i just don't see -- i'm till sitting at the table with bp. i call him the guy with the red hat, the contractor, and the ghost guard, and they are looking back at forth at each other while that oil continues to come in. i'm with you. we need one person responsible, and it is all throttled ahead and we get this thing kicked.

we are willing to do it, and we are willing to help n any way, shape or form. i have turned over all duties as parish president to my staff. i am spending 100% of my time on this because without this, nothing else matters in plaquemines parish. >> evidently the recommendation+ is without a decision? >> if the cost guard orders a funding decision, there is a problem. somebody on the ground has to be able to make strategyic, financial decisions quickly. we can't wait ow three weeks for cleanup. what get in a room and say what is the best way to go after this? let's attack it with auto forces. we are not doing that. we don't have that person on

the ground. if admiral allen says our local guys have authority, they are not using it to solve the problem and keep the oil out of the marshes.3 seniority in this body be i have, but i always -- also have a little experience in decision-making being in federal government. somebody somewhere has to take charge of this thing. i don't know what authority we have to try to order somebody. i don'' think so even with homeland security. let's get to the chairman and the president. let us move today to get somebody in charge down there. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. senator nelson? >> senator, you have hit the nail on the head. what is the problem? the problem is command and control. i want to give you an example. a week ago i went to the incident command in mobile.

mobile has jurisdiction in mississippi, alabama and florida, all the way over to the big bend area of florida. now, what i was told was that the coast guard was 51% inn command and bp the rest. and then i was told really the coast guard is 55% in command. well, that's the problem. nobody's in charge. now there's a way to solve this, and i don't want to sound like a broken record, but the finest command and control capability in the world is the united states military. you have got to give somebody with a clear chain of command that also has the capability of bringing together desperate parties

>> private sector and public sector agencies, and directed them to do -- of cleaning up a problem, and has some authority to make it happen, and has the resources, and that everybody knows that that goes straight to the commander in chief.+ and until you do this. you're going to continue to have the same problem that you are having. you're going to continue to have the same problem that florida had yesterday in not even being in the information loop, when in fact the orange mousse is coming into florida waters. i mean you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink, mr. chairman. how many more exxmples of this do we have to say until the

command and control structure is changed? you cannot leave bp in control of this because they are not going to get it done, and you can't have this kind of delay that is going over and over until somebody with authority, such as admiral allen, approves it, or when they come to their senator and something gets done because we start rattling the cage. this is the long and short of it. and this thing is going to go on for some period of time, because as much oil as is out there in the gulf, just think of the far-reaching effects when the winds start shifting and it gges in our places. you all have hit the brunt of it. i would hope that someone would be listening to the pleas of these local officials, and the pleas of the local officials

through their senators to change this command structure. doesn't mean that the military has to do the work. it is setting up the command structure and having people responsible to that command structure. you can't split it 51-49. that just doesn't work in a situation like this. otherwise you've got, as you all pointed out, people out there with cloth wiping off the blades of the marsh grass, and that doesn't do anything. >> makes a contractor a lot of money. >> amen, thank you. >> thank you, senator nelson. we said we would do a surround with this panel. i would love to keep it very i just really have one question because we have two or panels we would love to get to.

and we will leave the record open for people to submit questions in writing. llt me ask you, mr. cooper, more of a background question on louisiana. we are not a coastal state, so i don't know how this works. but does the state of louisiana, do you have any role in monitorrng the oil rigs that arr out there working off your coast or the companies working off your coast? do you all monitor that at all, or do you have any say-so in who's out there and not? >> billy comes from that industry, and he could probably answer that question better than i can. >> there are companies that don't really monitor. cllan gulf, and the mooday profits, msrc that was started right after the exxon spill. but there is no real state monitoring of the oil rigs, no. it is done on a federal level. there is a lot of private

non-profits that watch over everything out there, for oil leaks, for contamination. as you saw the other day on one of the taylor rigs. but for anothee day, the msrc group was heavily funded, i did one of the rigs that was done first class by that group. that company has no assets. they are down there, but in name only. they are not equipped for this. whoever cut their funding, they weren't ready for this. their warehouses were empty >> it is important that this deep drilling is in national waters, and that is why we don't have that authority. >> i just didn't know. senator ensign. >> two questions. one is to clear uppthe idea of the berms and the barrier

islands. do you need more approved? . the ones not apoved. in green are the ones approved. why are se not approved? >> thats a good questio answering questions out the enronmtalmpact ocurrt flowand ridiculous questions. hope to get started on six and have them appro before the other six e finished so at we can move right to them. we have to build a whole thg eep it out. >> isn'that auge -- this is a ge sue, this gng to the rshes, isn't it? >if we would ha built this askedort, those

pelicans that die we cod haollectedllf tt l offshore, an those four hure pelins that are dead, that could ve been prevted. can do. the federallgovernment has to approve it. after the president but out there he agreed to pay for it. >> the last question has tt do with the national guard. the governor's request is 60000 additional national guard. what would they be doing. >> several thousand have been deployed. they are doing a number of things. you are the heroes in this response. assisting and building land bridges. >> you need a lot more down there? >> one point that want to make, if i could, to keep in mind is

that we are not in the middle of hurricane season, we are startiig hurricane season. if a disaster for hurricane hit louisiana or any of the coastal states it would go further into the marsh land or the other states, as we mentioned. if there are not enough resources at this poiit how can we be sure that there will be another after a hurricane? haveugh if we get hit ba hurr the national guard are the go to guys at thh state level. they are doing a nnmber of things. >> they took the vacuum trucks out they're too embarrassed bp into paying for them. >> they are dropping sandbags, filling sandbags, coming up with new technology, that was a national our idea. >> how important are they for the hurricane season?

>> a trouble storm will take this up, bring it in land, dropping it across the short pollan once. we all from the coast of lanfranc to give them a fair chance at keeping it out of the marshland. >> and not just the parish's impacted to date, bbt the one to the west to make sure that they're protected as well. >> thank you, gentlemen. >> a couple of quick points. i am anxious to move to the next panel. the berms in place now, there was a directive. i think we should give credit where it is due. we may be able to afford to build a berm from florida to texas. that is something that the other

states are going have to discuss. secondly, senator nelson, i agree with you about the military. but the coast guard is the military. they were in the department of defense until we move them when we created the department of homeland security. this is an issue that we have to discuss in terms of how to figure it out. whether the coast guard should stand down for the navy or the army, i do not know. the resolution today is the command structure. finally i would like to ask this question. mark, could you just briefly say how you are spending the $25 billion. did ny of it go to the parishes? if not, what other priorities did you use it for? did mississippi, florida, and alabama each to 25 billion --

$25 billion? >> i am not sure about the other states. >> were you all going to send that to the parishes? >> we'')re looking a priority projects at this point. what we do not want to do is rob peter to pay paul. we want to make sure that we have the funding available to assist us and make sure that bp is responsible for the parishes. what i have heard is that there is still money available and we will fight to make sure they get additional money. >> bill, have you spend your money? >> only for overtime for employees going out there rescuing animals and putting out boom. locally be funded $1 million of herridde money to build a potato race to protect the oyster beds. we are already doing that work

on our own. protect the oyster beds. >> i think if you bought that vote that has been very helpful, which is good. we have got to get more money down to these locals. >> senator burris? >> we have got to get someone in charge down there. >> senator nelson? >> i do not care who has been in ccarge, i want someone with authority and it cannot be pp. -- bp. by the way, the coast guard was part of the department of transportation. when we reorganize the departtent of homeland security week with them in there. it is fine to have the coast

guard in charge given the fact that they have so many other responsibilities around world. if thht is what the decision is, that is fine, but the present system is not working. the information is not flowing. the decisions aae not timely. the resources are not produced. as a result you have a big mess with no command in control. that has got to change. >> thank you. i would like to thank our panel for being here today. you have been very strong witnesses. we appreciate your time.. i know that you have your hands full back home. we are going to keep the record open for a few days. you might get some written questions from committee staff. thank you for your time. we will move onto the next panel.

the third panel is from bp america. rey dempsey is the vice president of strategy for bp america. currently a part of the command, which has been directing the spill response for the west coast of florida and is working with command centers throughout the gulf coast region. he will discuss the bp response plans and claim processes that were set up as a result of the spill. next is darrell willis, the+ senior vice president for bp america, working as the head of the claims process for bp. he will not be providing testimony today but will be available to answer questions about the claims process, which i probably have a few of those.

mr. dempsey, would you like to+ go ahead and give us your statement? >> thank you, chairman. ranking member. my name is ray dempsey. on may 6, 2010, i joined the st. petersburg unified command, directing response to the west coast of florida. i have also been working with the joint information center to share information on spill related efforts. i have worked for this company for 20 years. i volunteered for my current assignment because i want to help the ccmpany respond to an address the needs of the people in the gulf coast region. we are devastated by this accident and has profoundly crush all of us. my heart goes out to the family and friends of those that lost their lives and been injured.

we all want to do ann will do the right things for the people affected by the spill.. because of the accident we remain under investigation, both by the federal government aad bp. i am not in a position to answer questions about the incident itself or the investigation. i would like to underscore the global resources are availlble for response. been in place. under the leadership of the national incident commander, the area of unified command was comprised of the minerals management service, the coast guard, and members of the peak. we have worked closely with all federal members invvlved. as well as numerous state, city, and county aggncies. all of the fees surface and non-

response must be approved ultimately by area command. we are also working with the full support of industry colleagues and are making every effort to keep colleagues and government officials informed on what is happening. meeting the needs of the state and local government remain critical. we have locked out grants of $25 million each to the states of aaabama, louisiana, mississippi, and lorida. following those block grants we have just announced the second round of payments. after discussing concerns about tourism with state and local officials we made payments totaling $70 million to alabama, florida, louisiana, and mississippi to assist those gulf region to minimize and mitigate the environmental and

economic impacts related to this bill. details regarding our open water response are contained in my written testimony. i will now focus on actions to protect the shoreline. we are implementing what has been described as the largest control effort ever mounted. to date over 200 feet of containment boom and absorbent booms have been deployed. seventeen staggng areas are in place to protect the shoreline. contingency plans to prevent secondary contamination are already being implemented. wildlife clean up stages are being mobilized working with tri-state, leaders i am wildlife rescue. under the oil pollution act of

1990, bp will commit to paying all legitimate claims for losses and damages caused by this bill. we know that we would spenn more of the $75 million liability cap established by the epa. april 25 we had in place a 24- hour per day, seven days a week call center. clements can receive information at one offour 31 claim offices. spanish and vietnamese are available in several offices we have also established an online system. more than 30,000 claims have been filed. to linger over $57 million. we are committed to ensuring that the claims process is efficient and fair, ooking for guidance from established laws and regulations provided by the u.s. coast guard, which has over 20 years in experience.3

bppis supporting volunteer efforts in preparation for shoreline cleanup and working closely with state and local bp is operating 25 community outreach centers across the gulf coast and in the parishes of louisiana. bp is under no illusions about the seriousness of the situation that we face. the world is watching and we know that we will be judged by our response to this crisis. i can assure you that my colleagues and i are committed to insuring that we do the right thing. in the entire industry we will learn from this terrible of bent and emerge stronger, smarter, and savor. i would like to introduce to you a technical expert that i have with me today, mr. darrell willis. he is here t assist me in

answering questions on claims. >> you mentioned that you put out a certain amount of room out there, i forget the specific amount. sounds to me like that has not been adequate since the oil is getting onto the shorelines of the various states of the gulf coast. one of the previous witnesses said that someone was putting up the wrong kind of boom. did you hear that comment? did you have any comment about that? >> chairman, i did hear that comment. i understand the concern, but i think it is important to recall the description of the area contingency plan putting forthh

plans and intentions for the way that we will protect the coast line. contingency plans were developed in cooperation with state, county, and local officials, plans identifying the sensitive areas. the area of unified command is responsible for making the decisions to deploy the boom. to your question, i expect that unified command is learning what a lot based on what has occurred since our response to this incident and will make adjustments to maximize protection of the shoreline. >> does bp have an estimate of how much ool is in the gulf coast? or underneath? >> mr. chairman, our response in this effort is not at all a function of exactly how much oil is there. we are deploying the resources,

assets, and equipment to address whatever is there. there is an independent panel accountable for the estimation of the amount of oil coming from the well. i am not an expert in that area and i would not attempt to offer better suggestions of than those being made by that group. >> the reason i brought it up is you talk about these plans that everyone has, hard to know if it will work as the plans would be based on a certain amount of contaminated water, etc.. did you have any comments? i guess it is not your area to talk about, how muuh oil is in the water? >> i understand your question, and i will leeve it is within the authority an obligation of the area unified command to make

the decisions to ddploy the necessary resources to combat >> does bp had a budget for this cleanup? >> i have not seen or heard of any indication of a budget. i can tell you that the full resources of btr being brought to bear to support this response. it is the single most important priority of our company around the world. >> let me ask about specifics in your claims process. one of the earlier witnesses said that some of his local folk have filed claims and maybe not heard back yet. i am curious about your process in terms of how rapidly you tried to except, the night, or ask for more information. what was your process -- tried

to accept, deny, or ask more information on those claims. >> let me say a few words on the claims process. as you heard my colleagues say, we ave paid out 20,000 or so players today. -- 20,000 or so claims to date. about 60% have been paid to parishes. from the time that the person calls our number to the time that they receive a check for one of our claims offices, and i have seen this for myself, it is about seven days on average. i know that someone said during a testimony that we have 90 days by law, but our goal is to get a check into the hands of the

people of the gulf coast as quickly as possible. when i got involved one month ago it was going to take 45 days for a person to receive a check. the goal is to get money into the hands of the folks that need the monny the most. >> what percentage of the flames have been denied? >> we have not denied any claims so far. >> do you anticipate paying 100% of them? does that mean you are looking for more documentation? >> of the ones that have not been paid yet they are probably a variety of reasons for that. we are getting about 1500 claims each day. we are constantly adding to the system. wild multiple claims.ple of

we also have people filing claims and then deciding not to pursue. in addition we have people associated with reasons thinking they file a claim, perhaps they decided not to pursue. the less reason is documentation and we continue to reach out to the community and advertise through the press. we have claims across the coast. >> led me ask if you follow up questions. can people file online? >> yes. >> what will happen ii that they

can fill out a simple application. within a couple of days they will receive, as long as documents substantiating income. today we have had 4400 claims paid on the website. many have been in vietnamese and spanish periods >> so, not completely paperless. someone still has to show some documentation? >> you can drop it at the claims office or mail it in boards and an e-mail periods -- or mail it or send an e-mail. >> as a part of the claims process, do the local people agreed not to sue?

>> absolutely not. by virtue of getting a claim under any state law, could they before going their right to sue? >> the fine knowledge who is not eligible to make a claim? how do you sort your criteria? >> as i have travelled across the gulf coast and recently made trips frommvenice to pensacola

and that is the lone man in alabama. often i would just leave them with checks. . you say documentation, what you mean? >> that we take you through the documentation for a deckhand. this is an issue in louisiana, 40 gillooly the office i was in. hoff in some cases they do not have a return so we tried to

maae this as pragmatic as possible. without a ttx record we would take a payroll stubs.. without that we would take a deposit slips. without that we would take fifth tickets. we will also make a quick call to the captain of the both, work on that boat, giving it very simple matttr. all that happens and it's fallen >> which checkssof these? >> and last week we started kicking out if is as large as

$5,000 or larger it will go through the loss claims process. that project has just moved out the smallest was just over $5,000. the lowest was to call in on the complexity and in this country

they go out of business in the meantime. 10% of the claims, backing up, 5% of the claims checks were senttimmediately and put into theeprocess.

for instance we understand that the president and your ceo have not met during this time, correct? saying that they have systemic safety problems. the bottom line is that they had osha violationn.

last we have a situation from the coast guard, the coast guard did not say that bp will not pay.

saying that you guys did not do the job. >> senator, i understand he is the nattonal instant commander. all the decisions >> i believe they unified command with his

have been no instances where bp has not been prepared to cover the environmental resources for this response. they're fully committed to developing a further resources in this response. >> is it being done in a timely fashion? for the money that is being done, it can be effective? for the money that is being done, it can be effective? x bp is not delaying the resource delivery. in command structure there is a decision making process. as part of a unified command we must operate within the process

and bp is necessary for addressing this spill. >> these work rules that we are hearing about, 90 degrees, people taking breaks all over time, you heard these folks talking about it today and. they are in a war out there. is that alan setting up those work rules? >> all of the decisioos about the operations and tactics -- >> when you hire a contractor is bp or the unified command setting up? things like 10 minutes at a time under certain conditions, who is setting those rules? >> there is a critical priority that we hold which is the safety -- >> that is not the answer to my

question. who is setting the rules? >> unified command. >> i know that. but the work rules themselves, who is setting that up? whenever those rules are, who is setting them? >> unified command makes those decisions. >> thank you. >> i just have a ffw more questions. follow-ups, actually. when someone files a claim through the process do you look for ways to mitigate the damages? of the day 05 thousand dollars, do they look at it and say maabe $3,000?

do you make that ind of evaluation -- if they owe $5,000 today look at it and say maybe $3,000? as long as they can justify their losses, you might pay 100% on the dollar? >> that is what we paid for. >> your large loss claims process. i have forgot about the number coming through and getting under way. do you look at the mitigation of damages or limiting damages in that circumstance? uppis a slightly more complicated valuation in my mind. >> it is. because it is just schooling, my case is unique and different.ry we take every claim on a case by case basis. we just paid a claim to a

processor so that we could do the right thing. in the case of seafood processing you cannot wait until you declare a loss to get your claim paid. by the time you have declared that loss you are out of business. we have changed the rules to make sure that we have money in the hands of a particular company for fixed costs. it varies case by case. >> does bp have any insurance tt carry these payments? >> we are covering them ourselves. >> yourself insured? >> yes. >> this might be out of york lane, but do you know if bp would be eligible for tax deduction for these payments? >> definitely out of my area of expertise.

>> issbp alone in this? are there other companies that you are working with that are stepping up? >> as a responsible party, bp was obligated to initiate the claims process. that is what we're doing. i have been making sure that the process has been getting up and running. i have not worried too much about the other details. >> has bp notified other companies? to help to offset these losses? >> we are making sure that everyone needs help from bp is getting it. >> does bp have any plans to3 compensating ities, counties and parishess school districts,

for loss of tax revenue? >> there are three aspects to the claims process. the individual piece, the business fees, and the government and municipalities. any organization that feels they were damaged by this bill has every right to file a claim. we're getting claims in all three categories. >> all right. let me ask you, does the fact that bp is a part of this unified command limit their flexibility? >> mr. chairman, there are several examples where they have had needs expressed by the state, county, parish and local levels and we stepped in in a way that is above and beyond the efforts of unified command. an immortant example of that is

the case of the concerns over tourism marketing. as i described in my opening remarks made payments to the four states in the region to support a campaign that those states would run, to support their tourism industry within the respective states. we think it is important that we see opportunities to provide support in advance of dealinn with losses as claims in the best interest of all involved? -- involved. >> if you momenns ago we asked about the safety record of the feet. i do not know exactly what your role is in terms of being vice president's strategy, but it seems to me of one of the things you should be working on is a strategy of not having as many

say the flames as you have. does that fall under your purview or ssmeone else handle >> it is not -- does someone else handle that? >> it is not my purview but i am concerned. we are in the process of implementing a global management system, a framework where we can make sure that personal safety is operated upon globally? -- globblly. >> i have been watching the stock to bp, not going in a positive direction right now. i am curious if you have heard any discussions within your company about the implications of your stock price. >> mr. chairman, we ave a 100%

focus in bp going to responding to this biil. all of he resources of the company are being deployed in pursuit of that. assurances have been made to the employees that we will not rest or turn our atteetion or resources away from his response. i have not heard specific >> have you been party to any consideration that bp might have to declare bankruptcy as a result? >> i have read of that in the media and heard no such suggestion or indication or concern raised internally within the organization. i will reinforce that the focus is on this response. we will not rest until we have stopped the leak.

>> how much money has been made -- bp made or spent? >> $4 illion in response. >> is that comprehensive concerning the response for cleaning up the gulf and >> mr. chairman, it certainly is the intense for it to be a comprehensive estimate of the resources deployed to this point. >> i want to thank both of you all. i know that we will have further questions for the record submitted in writing. i really aapreciate your being here today and appreciate your coming here and listening to a long hearing as well as the other participants and members of the media as well for sitting here and helping us work through this. thank you very much.

we will leave the record open for 15 days. what we will do is assvarious senators and senate offices to guess the question permits for the witnesses today. trying to get those back as quickly as we can. i do not think that there is any further business that we have. we will adjourn the hearing but i want to thank you ery much for your participation. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions opyright national >> tuesday deceased improve visited a skit -- a ship called

the dutch skimmer that bp is using in the cleanup process. >> this vessel has been an hour sacred arms ship as built in holland. once the grain is installed even actually deploy any anomaly in sight. they will sit on net like an x- wing aircraft with forward pointing wings next to the boat, each arm is 50 feet long on eether side. the set up his 170 feet.

since the arms are pointing forward and rigid, they will pick up debris along the arms sliding into the spaces holding debris against it, stopping and dropping it down and removing the debris that way. the problem on the oil is that we have to justice slightly up and down depending on the thickness. the thicker the oil, the lower we go. we need to get a little bit of water rolling, but once we have that and pick up the oil it will be pumped into the tank beeind us. and the oil and the water will have a chance to separate ones we are certain that the water has separated as much as it can.

this camera is right on top. once the tank is on top it will run into the vessel barrels. thee we have to pick up the arms and go to the off loading barges. >> we want as much of the oil offshore as possible. that job keeps more of the oil off of the shore. if we can minimize shoreline impact, impact to marshes and online ecosystems, that is what we want to do. this technology is another set of resources that we wantttt bring on board.

>> tomorrow president obama begins a visit to the gulf coast, looking over recovery efforts in mississippi, alabama, and florida. hearings on the oils will continue on capitol hill and elsewhere. tuesday the heads of the largest oil companies will testify before the house subcommittee on the environment. tuesday night the president will address the nation from the oval office. the white house has invited bp tony hayward makes his first appearance before congress, testifying on thursday. both of those hearings are alive during the week on c-span 3 and

seized and radio. -- c-span radio. >> the second one continues to press the frontiers of the industry began access to news supplies of the world. >> tony hayward before the gulf oil spill. thursday he will testify. hear what he and other government officials have said about this bill, all archive that the c-span video library. washington, your way. the surviving spouses of workers killed in the deep water rise and explosion testified during the week about safety issues -- deepwater horizon explosion testified during the week about

safety issues. this house energy subcommittee hearing took place in louisiana, chaired by bars to pack. it is about four hours. >> we would like to thank the louisiana fish and wildlife association as well as the national guard, who after this hearing will be further down in the gulf today as members are still exploring the impact it has had on this region. i would like to recognize two louisiana congressman. charlie should be here any minute. members of the subcommittee and commerce committee have called this a field hearing in their home state. i ask unanimous consent that

they be allowed to make opening hearing. without objection, so ordered. we will hear from the members in their opening statement. the chairman and reckitt -- ranking members will be recognizeddfor their opening. i will begin. let me begin by expressing on behalf of all, was the condolences of friends and family members of those that died or were injured on the april 20 at the explosion. 11 lives were lost and 15 people were injured. parts, faults, and prayers go out o the families and the people impacted by this disaster as the well continues to spew oil on to the shore. today's subcommittee continues our examination into the oil leak.

this is the second hearing our subcommittee has conducted on the incident. the third hearing that the committee of energy and congress has held on the issue. an unprecedented disaster that pales in comparison to the tragic loss of life. our hope is that with greater understanding of the effects of such a catastrophe we can make sure it will never happen again. may 12 we had a hearing on the deep water rise and explosion in oil spill. during the hearings we learned that bp, trans ocean, and halliburton failed to address various issues with the rig, well, and love for mentor. bp and trans ocean failed to prevent her was completely operational. bp and halliburton failed to identify discrepancies and pressure tests were done during the cementing of the well. subsequently they briefed our committee on the progress of

their internal investigation, reporting concerns over proper procedures being followed a critical times prior to end on the day of the explosion. as a result each day 12,000 barrels of oil are leaking into the gulf coast, threatening beaches and critical wetland habitats. officials said that under a worst-case scenario the spill could reach as much as 2.5 million gallons. several attempts by bp to stop the flow of oil have proven unsuccessful. no one knows the full extent of the damage to the gulf coast region. it may be ssveral yyars before written quantify the full iipact. here is what we know -- it may be several years before we can quantify the full impact. here's what we know. ccosed representing

significant loss of income to fishermen and businesses. oil from this bill has reached mississippi and the barrier islands, reaching the shores of florida this weekend. 37,000 claims have been submitted as a result of this bill. more than 1 million gallons of this person have been used. organisms living in coastal waters. less than two weeks ago oil spill cleanup and recovvry workers were hospitalized after complaining of dizziness, headaches, and several groups have claimed the bp failed to provide adequate protection for these workers. the deep water horizon rig explosioo and spill has had far- reaching repercussions,,forever changing the lives of the people on board the rig and their

families. each of our witnesses today has a story to share about how their lives have been changed by this horrible tragedd. on the first panel we will hear more. we will also hear from gulf coast residents about the effect of the oil spill in ow it has impacted the lives and livelihoods of those on the gulf coast. a commercial fisherman who+ relies on the coaatal waters has been deeply impacted by a closing on the coastal waters and is struggling to get by in what was supposed to be the first tier of fishing since hurricane katrina. the president and executive director of the marine mammal sciences for tax marine mammals from exposure to toxins in oils. he has studied and written about the impact of the crude in

fisheries. the owner of atp real-estate on dolphin by the end has seen as its debt -- substantial decline in rental reservations as a almost immediately after the spill, despite the fact that the oil only reached the island last week. we ave a recent survey that has been ccnducted on the residence to determine whether they have been physically affected by the oil or as persons. i would like to thank each of the witnesses for sharing their story today. your testimony to the suucommittee will be valuable in helping us to address this horrible human environmental tragedy. i would like to turn to the ranking member of the subcommittee for an opening statement. before you do that, charlie,

thank you for being here. >> opening statements? >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for convening this hearing. we want to extend a thank-you to the council for extending the use of the subcommittee. we want to welcome our witnesses here today. the parish was totally devastated bb the hurricane. my first trip here was september 2005, i came down as a request and we saw firsthand what you were dealing with. i remember driving through the town, we had to ccme in through a checkpoint secured by fema in which you have special permission to come into town.. fema recorded the the town was 100% destroyed. what i was not prepared for was the evidence that people were moving back to the area despite

the fact that it had been cordoned off. people were in their front yards, living in tents, under tarps, going about their daily lives in spite of the this area has extraordinary rrsilience. i witnessed it personally. sadly that resilience is being tested again to the maaimum. today we will hear about the global impact of oil spills, impact's that are tremendous on the people in the parish and throughout the gulf coast. it is both helpful and important to listen to those most affected and also, mr. chairman with you i offer my condolences to natalie and courtly, will be speaking with us. they both lost husbands on the

deep water horizon. i look forward your testimony. we would look to hear about tte impact of those who make a living as fishermen in the vienna, immediate hardship bbing brought to the people that rely on thhs industry. the federal government is looking to close large tracts in the gulf, 37% of the gulf waters closed to fishing with two- thirds opened as well as they controlled waters with legitimate concern that demand for products from anywhere in the gulf will plummet as people watched a spell on the news and become concerned about long-term fishing aspeccs. i say this as a dedicated and aggressive consumer of crustaceans, you cannot help but notice what you are seeing on the television screens

currently. it will have an impact on the desire of consumers to buy those products. news images aad the tourrst industry, we are scheduled to hear more about that this morning. much has been done to reveal the delicate balance between nature and the various industries that rely upon the resources here in the gulf coast. tourism, industry, all3 where one is impacted directly it affects the others. as we gather important information today we should keep in mind that just last week the president and secretary of the interior announced a moratorium in drilling in waters under 100 feet. even shallow water drilling has been rescinded. while we are still trying to evaluate the economic impact