, general cleanup, support services such as admin services, information technology, all the things you heard that you're in need of to reach out to small businesses to make sure that we're included in the process of contracting. .

>> i advocated against the

shrimp from china which destroyed our markets. so now the only african-american slim much brand is on hold so we have no representation. from that, b.p. owes me half a million dollars this year which i expect you guys to get it, plus the pain and suffering i have to go through from watching my -- our marsh destroyed, my heritage. my grandmother was a native american and my grandfather came from slaves. so i appreciate getting my check soon. go google new orleans shrimp man. >> my name is carol. i'm a local entrepreneur,

advocate for small businesses and i'm here representing the new orleans regional black chamber of commerce. i feel it was perhaps destiny that i follow mr. williams. forsake of time, i will read my streamlined comments. the black chamber is extremely appreciatetive of the commission devoting your time and expertise to this latest crisis to befall the gulf coast. we are concerned about the impact that this disaster is taking on the entire economy of our area. we are not -- we have not yet fully regained the strength needed to withstand this current disaster. we are especially concerned and would like to bring to your

attention and to go on record our concern with the state of affairs and the condition of the african americans, hispanic, asian, american indian and other minority-on the other hand businesses in this community. their plight is not brought to the full attention of the public . we express our concern, however, regardless of the color of the owner of the business to those most directly impacted, like mr. williams, those on the front line, the fishermen, the maritime companies, the tug boats. we also bring your attention, however, to those who are indirectly impacted by this latest disaster. we yet wear -- we, the minority

business community wear the bandages of katrina. many of our businesses survived, many have not. this area has lost to door closings and to those who had to move away to survive all in the face of rebuilding while billions are being spent in our community. we have not been a part of that rebuilding benefit as perhaps we should have been. we implore your assistance in making sure that that does not happen in the rebuilding and the restoration of our coast in the wake of this disaster. we need to make sure that there is inclusion of all businesses. we come as a resource and offer ourselves as a resource to work not only with b.p., with the federal government, but with all

of our economic development could horts in this area to make sure that you are aware of the availability of the diverse businesses here. we also go on record to support in opposition of the moratorium, which would cause further dekay to our economy. and that of the minority business community. thank you so much. >> thank you for your statement. does that conclude our public presentation? let me say at the conclusion of these two days and of the several days that we have spent in the region that we came here with the expectation of listening and learning. and we certainly have learned. it was a listening occasion and what we learned is the extraordinary impact socially,

environmentally and economically of this spill, of this disaster. i want to thank the people who spoke to us, the panelists who were selected by our staff and our on-site people. they did a splendid job on speaking on the cross section of issues we were interested and i thought many of the presentations were deeply moving. and i can only say that what we have heard and the emotions expressed here, the heartfelt feelings, i think redouble the commissioners' commitment to be worthy of your expectations and to carry out the mission we have. and you have extraordinarily helpful in doing that. and i want to thank everybody here for that.

bob. >> i wish to thank the people of new orleans for the standard of courage, valor, resilience that they have given to america, particularly during these very difficult last five years. we have been privileged to hear your voices. now, we are challenged to try to use what you have given to us in a way that will both help understand what happened building up to and on april 20 and what we can do to avoid another april 20. we thank you for your contributions. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010]

[captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> the house is working on parks and federal lands legislation today and will resume our live coverage when members return for votes at 6:00 p.m. eastern. later this week, the agenda includes teleworking programs for federal employees and national flood insurance. >> no democrat or republican has given the voters more opportunities to ask questions and see what he's made of. >> they're the faces you see every day. see some of their early television appearances with over 160,000 hours of video. quarter try of political history that you can search by name, title, issue, committee, interest group and more all

available free online. >> retired coast guard admiral that had allen ever. the company is placing a tight-fitting cap. this briefing is 30 minutes. >> we finished a run through the field basically from north to south with a boat called the decotopaz. that is intended to give us a baseline from which we can detect any anomalies regarding the sea floor or the formation moving ahead. the sequence of events that will

take place and start afternoon today, i might add as background to have the vessel come through with the sensors requires you to clear everybody out of the area not only so they can have a clear way to hear, but also their navigation issues and that's the reason we are doing it during daylight. we ran out of daylight yesterday. once everything is redeployed and back in the area, especially r.o.b. support, these things will happen in the following sequence. when we get to start the well integrity test, we will cease production. we will then divert all the hydrocarbons into the capping stack. valves to the kill and choke lines for the new capping stack will be open and center bmp ore is open. we will be vepting through three

exits on the capping stack, kill line, choke line and main line going through the bore. in sequence, we will attempt to close the stack down and assess the pressure readings as we do that. we will close the three rams. middle one will be closed that will shut off the flow upward. we will take pressure readings. we will then close the kill line , which is the second remaining outlet and take pressure readings. the third and most critical will be the choke line. there is a special device on the capping stack. it is yellow and long horizontally and a curved-up pipe for the exit of the hydrocash bons. that will be controlled. and this will be very important because we want to measure the amount of closure that will be measured by turns of that choke

line valve by an r.o.v. simultaneously taking pressure readings. the goal is to close that down and understand the changes in pressure until that choke line is closed. at that point there will be nothing exiting from the capping stack and we wig into a period where we will take pressure readings. it will go in basically six, 20 and 24-hour increments. in this exercise, high pressure is good. we have a considerable amount of pressure down on the reservoir forcing the hydro carbons up through the well b omp re. and it would indicate to us that the hydrocarbons are being forced up. and that is good news. if we are down around in the four to five, 6,000 range, that

could tell us they are being diverted someplace else and we would have to assess the implications of that. as you go up from 5,000 p.s.i. up to 9,000, that will have a great deal to do with what the readings tell us and in discussions with b.p. and the science technical team that is here representing the federal government and some of the labs around the country. we will at some point try to get to 9,000 and sustain that for some period of time. and these will be done basically as i said, if we have a very low pressure reading, we will need six hours of those readings to assure that that is the reading. if it's high, we want to go to 24 hours. if it's 9,000, we would like to go to 48 hours. so based on the pressure readings that we find, this could be six, 24 or 48 hours and

at that point, we will have a better idea not only on the pressure. it will tell us something about the condition of the well bore itself and the flow rate which today has been based on estimates based on the digital imagery, testing and so forth. a consequential day. we will start -- the technical team is being assembled. after this press conference i will be meeting with secretary chu and sandia labs and other members of the technical community and will be discussing how to resolve issues as we try to get pressure readings. the range of options that could come out of the testing of the stacking cap include knowledge that the cap itself can withstand 9,000 p.s.i. pressure indefinitely, which mean there might be an opportunity to have

what we call a shut-in of the well. anything less than that might bring a decision to continue to produce. at that point we will be able to produce off of four lines, the choke and kill line from the original blowout preventor and choke and kill lines from the new stacking cap. that is intended around the 18 of july to take us to 60,000 to 80,000 barrels a day which will exceed the flow. either through a potential shut-in of the well or being able to produce most if not all of the flow, either way, we will have a way to contain the oil. if we are successful in the pressure readings and again, if we are successful. this is very, very important, because it will allow us to manage the hydrocarbons. but the success of this entire endeavor will be the relief well.

and development drill three is at 17,000 measured department and been there for a day or two. they are doing testing to make sure they have the right angle of attack before they try to make the penetration for the relief well and the current estimate of how far away they are from the condo well is four feet four inches. this gets precise as they try to go down 60 feet and actually at the point they can drill and do a seven-inch casing pipe. that continues as well. one other thing, if we are to go to a full production of four different outlets around the 17, 18, 19 of july and requires us to build the second freestanding pipe, that is in progress and should be ready for production around the 19 of july. just a couple of other issues. skimmers has always been an

issue. as we have expanded our defense of the coastline from florida to south central louisiana, we are on pace at this point by the end of july to have 1,000 skimmers in the inventory. we are below 600 right now and continue to ramp up from international sources of supply. resources have been freed up as a result of the emergency role making and stand by response. and we continue to acquire skimmers. some critical resources that we are starting to come to grips with you, but interesting to note, we are using about two million tyvek suits a day. white suits we use to clean up the beaches. we may run into a sfly of those. they are used for a variety of other emergency response purposes and we will look for a source of supply. we are looking at putting more

qualified observers. in addition to the pilots that are flying out there, we have folks from other places to characterize the oil we see and issues regarding wildlife. this continues to be a very complex and broad-based response. a lot of things going on. in addition to everything else, we brought the helix producer online. and that will have the capability of doing around 20,000 barrels a day. we were able to produce 1,000 barrels. in addition to the que 4,000 which flaired off gas and oil, 271 barrels. 8,300 barrels yesterday. so a complicated operation. a lot of densely compacted ships and r.o.v.'s out there. we will continue to watch with great anticipation.

we realize there is significant chances that we can improve our ability to contain these hydrocarbons moving forward. with that, i will be glad to take questions. >> maybe you could take us through some of the backup planning if the well were to rupture and while you have the shut-in, what happens then? is there some sort of emergency response plan in place or vessels? what happens at that point? >> we have very low pressure readings. we are going do do this in increments. we are going to know we can't sustain that in the long run. while there may be hydrocash bons working in the formation, we have a range whether or not that is the true pressure. low pressure readings of six hours is the threshold before we would have to make a decision to move forward. >> associated press.

can you bottom line for us what odds do you give of the success of shutting the well using this cap. and if you are successful, when do you think fishing areas along the gulf that have been closed will be able to reopen? what do you say to those people that have been affected by this, as far as what next? when can life go on for the people that have been affected. give us an idea. >> i think we are very confident that we can take control of this stream and slowly close these valves and stop the initial hydrocash bons, what we can't tell is the implication of the pressure readings. that is why we are doing a well integrity test. we need to manufacture and control the hydrocarbons but we

need to know this because the ability to withstand those pressures will help the killing of the well. this is all important. i can't attach a percentage to it because we are trying to learn something that we don't know and that's the condition of the well bore. the fishing areas are being monitored by noaa. we have 35% of the gulf right now is closed. they are reviewing to -- day-to-day basis. and when it is safe and sound they open them. noaa is working closely with the f.d.a. to make sure that the fish that are caught are safe for consumption and this has been a focused effort by f.d.a. and nmp oaa. regarding what comes next, i have said on several occasions, even if we can take the well and

the well is capped in mid-august, there is a significant amount of oil out there and the oil recovery and impact of this oil will extend well into the fall in terms of oil cominga shore, tar balls and cleanup and we will be moving forward trying to understand the long-term environmental impact. >> there have been some confirmed amounts of tar balls from the b.p. oil spill washing ashore in texas and until galveston, i'm wondering if you know of any recent test results on the tar that has washed up there in galveston. also the skimmers that you are trying to expand the use of be coming into the waters around the texas coastline? >> my understanding is and we have had tar balls fl on the peninsula. some of the them had the characters of this spill and

some have not. the ones that have exhibit characterics of oil. we are looking whether or not vessels may have transmitted out there and had it come ashore. we have stood up an incident command post in galveston and joint information center there. our folks are in touch with the texas general land office and we have been in touch with governor perry's office and we are moving forward. right now, there is no presence of oil on the surface over there that would require skimming capability right now. the tar balls are sometimes suspended and come ashore but we are putting skimmers where we need them. we'll keep ordering them. i would rather be pushing supply . >> if the pressure is low at the top of the well, does that indicate that oil is flowing out

through some other point of the well and if so, what are the theories of where it's escaping? that is what we are going to determine from the pressure. one could make the case that there is some structural integrity issues with the casing and well bore itself and we won't know until we take the pressure readings and see where the information takes us. it is unknown what happened to that well b omp re at the time of the explosion and the events that followed. and that is the biggest unknown trying to do anything with the well, the top kill or ultimately the bottom kill moving forward. and we won't know until we get the pressure readings. there are some indication to do the bottom kill, the ultimate capping of the well we will get an indication of whether there is oil in the open area or the oil is inside. based on that information, we will be making a determination a

plates that are placed periodically are still in tact or have burst and that will give us an idea of how much pressure was and it's going to be a combination of what the pressure tells us in doing the well integrity test and what we encounter when we drill into the well from below. >> reuters. i want to be clear, you said the six-hour threshold, when you reach six hours, if pressure is still low, is that when you decide to ramp up the helix? and you said that the floating riser is under construction and will be ready july 19. >> we are ready to go to production on the 19. >> you think that 80,000 barrel a day vessel system will be ready before the end of july? >> yes. >> the other question was on threshold. >> that is a rule of thumb.

we are going to have to take a look at what the pressure readings are. there is a general window if you sustain low pressure for six hours, at what point do you reach a decision threshold where you need to open up and vent. we would open up and vept and that would allows us to bring in the helix producer. if there is a decision to be made to relieve pressure, it will be made bit time of hydro carbons. >> when does the six-hour time frame start ticking down? >> that's a rule of thumb we established to assess the pressures. no one is going to be sitting with a stop watch. >> the six-hour window could start, right? >> we will take the readings when we close the choke valve and that will be done very slowly because we want to see if there are any pressure changes as we start to restrict the flow. that will make sure we aren't

doing anything prematurely and will tell us something about the flow, imperical data. let's not get wrapped up in the six hours. that is a horizon we would look at for the pressure readings. >> could you close down that vent today? >> the capping stack, all three ways for the high dropecarbons to act will be closed, but the last one is the choke line because it has a variable valve, it's not an open and shot issue. the other ones are. and that will allow us to slowly close and look at the proshe while we're doing it -- pressure while we're doing it. >> i know you mentioned the 48-hour time frame. i know you talked about six hours now 48 hours. what will happen after those 48 hours? >> these are approximate times that our technical team said if we have consistent readings over that period of time, it's logical to talk about next

steps. if we are able to sustain a pressure of 9,000, we start to move into a reasonable range that we have contained the flow and you can start having a discussion about whether or not it might be possible to shutting the well. i don't want to presuppose those conditions but those are the germ thresholds that we are looking at when you have pressure readings when you start having another conversation. >> we would like to move to the phone conference call to take questions. >> thank you for taking my call [phone call question inaudible]

>> here's the sequence once again. there are basically three ways that hydrocarbons come up through the preventer. the kill and the choke lines and the main bore up through the preventer itself. we have a capping stack on top of that. there are five ways that you could potentially release oil. killing the choke line from the original blowout preventer, the capping stack and the top of the capping itself. what we will do in sequence is stop production on the que 4,000 and helix producer one and a way for them to exit through the kill and choke lines on the original blowout preventer. the choke and kill lines and the capping stack and then the top

opening of the capping stack. we will in sequence first, there are three rams are a part of the capping stack. middle ram will be closed. that will seal the opening from any hydrocarbon release. the kill line will be closed as well. this is either open or shot. that will leave the capping stack and that is set up with a especially designed -- you will see it on the video, horizontal yellow piece of equipment that curves up where they would exit and other end, there is a place to insert a tool with a remotely operated vehicle and slowly close the valve which we will do. next question. >> admiral is going ahead with the effort to have all four

ships available in case you need them, right? >> that's correct. our intention is and again, we have been very clear since the middle part of june with b.p., regardless of the stacking cap, the ability to shut the well in or relief efforts, we want backups for all systems because we have seen several occasions starting out where we were going to do something and it failed and we got into a linear sequence and we wanted more insurance. we said early on you have to give us production capabilities in case there is a mechanical problem. and there was a lightning strike that caused a fire and have had alarms. we want backups in the production capability and backups in the capacity so while we are doing this we can still deal with the entire flow. it was anticipated whether or

not the capping stack works when we shut the well in and go to four sources of production under the new system, the kill and choke lines from the original blowout preventer and kill and choke lines from the capping stack. two of those go to vertical riser pipes and the other two would go to drill strings that are put below drilling vessels and connected that can be disconnected very quickly. the combination of those four platforms will give 60,000 barrels a day and capacity of a margin where if one of those four went margin where if one of those four went down, the other three could still maintain the flow from the pipe. next question. >> good morning, admiral. you had mentioned --

[inyou had i believe phone question] -- [inaudible phone question] >> they are pulling a piece of skimming equipment that is large enough that we could track as a skimmer. there are other ways to skim oil using vessels of opportunity. you could tow an absorbing boom, tow nets with liners. we are trying to track skimmers as a may scror piece of machinery and we are tracking it by whether or not they operate in shore, offshore. when i talk about skimmers we are tracking a device so we can keep track of the inventory. i'm talking about that major inventory we would use. there will be additional skimming capability that will be provided for locally that we will not track at the highest level because it will be a piece of equipment that you hand a local boat operator when they're

going out. i think we have made significant progress. this was a huge challenge. we had a number of folks show up enrolled in the system. this was a source of income to offset the deprivation of their income. these people showed up with boats, capability, knowledge of the waterways and we want to employ them. it was like the militia showing up at concord before the revolution. they showed up with passion, commitment and resources but some had a must ket and hatchets. how do you put them together. we have organized the vessels of opportunity into task forces and subdivided the task forces into strike teams. we are putting tactical voice communications and tracking devices so we know where they're at and communicate with them and link aerial surveillance to tell them where the oil is at. that required significant amount

of training, education, equipment, acquisition and organizational structure and required us to have a better coordinated way of managing the airspace over the gulf. we did that in coordination with the first air force. we have a center that manages the air traffic over the gulf and the temporary flight restriction that's in place over the well head itself. the combination of those factors is allowing us to create a force that has a command and control structure and we know where they're at and divert them where we need them to go. this is something we never done before in the context of a large spill. it's something we will have to learn how to do in the future because every community will want to be involved. next question. >> if the well integrity test doesn't work how quickly could the helix get back up which is

still being outfitted with a brand new containment cap? >> we would bring the helix producer one first. and that will give us 20,000 -- actually more than what we had with the endeavor enterprise. we would bring the discover enterprise with a containment cap and until we were able to get to that second free-standing riser on the 19 of july. it will be incremental and the sequence, he linch x and a in a week or so we would shift to the new production model with the four platforms, the two free-standing risers and drill strings.

next question. >> can you identify the names of the vessels that would ultimately be involved. >> that is correct, there are a number of combinations on how this can be put together. you can actually run other lines through the many folds and the containment devices put on the sea floor. the q will be replaced and there will be production through the free-standing riser pipes and the drill string production will be done by the discover enterprise. and i do not remember the other vessel. i think it's a clear leader which will be the fourth vessel. >> at this time, we'll take our

final question from the phone. >> you mentioned of being able to get a better flow rate of the well. do you have any idea how much more accurate that will be? also, will you only be able to do that with the pressure? if it turns out the pressure is low in that six-hour period? >> we want to get a better flow rate estimate ven the 35,000 to 60,000 barrels. before i came down here, i had a conversation with the u.s. geological survey and heads the flow rate technical group and we believe whatever information that we get will lead us to a more refined estimate on flow rate. if we have low pressures, if we can sustain the readings over a

period of time, it will tell us a lot more than what we know now. the flow rate estimates that have been done to date have been based on aerial surveillance and high resolution video of cross sections regarding the volume of hydrocarbons. and we used information from the woods hole institute where they used sensing across that flow to try and size the density. the problem has been the makeup of the flow itself because it mixes some sediment, water, natural gas and the oil itself and it's not a consistent flow. there are burps of gas from time to time. so they have to figure out how to even that out. those are all inelegant ways, although the best ways we had to estimate flow rate. we will be able to understand through measurement the pressure

of the oil going through the capping stack and that will be extremely important. thank you. >> thank you to those here. this concludes today's daily briefing. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> my colleagues are basically here to work with community-based organizations, elected officials and the citizens here to try and help do what we can to facilitate people getting jobs here, people getting safe jobs, good jobs and ensuring we are thinking about the next step. >> part of what i do, i try to get contractors to hire people in a nondiscriminatory way. we can go in and audit, but what i'm hearing is we have to get

local people hired and jobs. that's what we are trying to do working with the elected officials to see how to make that happen and get out of the enforcement mode and get into the revolution mode. >> work with federal contractors. and there are many federal contractors down here. they have the olings to post their jobs with agencies. and that is way to ensure that local people get jobs and apparently that is not happening. a lot of people who are not local people or residents of the state are getting jobs that others desperately need. there are a lot of recreational vehicles with out-of state tags doing work that the local people need. >> we appreciate all the contractors coming in on the first day and second day helping out, but now we are 80-something days into this and we want the

people of mississippi working on those jobs. when he needs leader, he doesn't need to be bringing his labor but hiring local mississippi people to do that labor. and seems like the way to coordinate that is to coordinate all of that through the win job centers in mississippi where we can coordinate where a guy needs to go to get a job and the contractors can work through them for placement of those jobs. and we desperately need that. the economy is not the best in the world and if we have people coming in from out of state taking those jobs, it's another thing we have to deal with in this area. >> i'm the regional manager with the mississippi department of employment security and i oversee all of the one-stop career centers, which covers 24 counties. i oversee the oil spill jobs with the cleanup. i'm the person that employers

contact for any of the oil spill cleanup. >> if an employer wants to post a job, it comes through me and i contact my representative at b.p. and see if they are a legitimate b.p. contractor. >> we have employed 4,000 jobs and got a hiring list and working through our hiring list now which was over 3,200 people. so we are working the list to see which ones came through the one-stop career centers. within the next couple of weeks, we will have a number of how many people we placed in jobs. >> salary ranges from $10 to $18 an hour. the majority is oil spill cleanup. just going out to the beaches

and looking for oil and cleaning the oil. >> have you come to any conclusions about what the next step is going to be to get locals in jobs? >> we very much are waiting for the state to make some of those decisions. washington is not here to tell what mississippi and louisiana what is the next step. it is a painful thing that is going on here. peoples' lives, history and culture are being affected. we have to keep our eye on it. we have to move forward. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> the house is working on parks and federal lands legislation and we'll resume our coverage

when members return for votes at 6:00 p.m. eastern. the agenda includes working expansion for federal employees and reworking flood insurance programs. the senate judiciary committee meets today to vote on the nomination of elena kagan as the newest supreme court justice. watch it on c-span 3 and learn more about the nation's highest court in c-span's latest book, "the supreme". available in hard cover and as an e-book. c-span is now available in over 100 million homes bringing you a direct link to public affairs, politics, history and nonfiction books all as a public service created by america's cable companies.

>> can you tell me a little bit about the state of the fishing industry in louisiana right now. >> right now, it's challenged because of the closures, precautionary closures that are taking place closing areas that we need to fish. that's our biggest challenge. the two -- three things are first branding, that people understand everything's safe. second, we need to have more areas open and third, we need to have more of the vessels of opportunity to go back to fishing and not waiting to go to work for b.p. >> how many fishermen are out in the waters right now? >> in may of 2009 we had 4,500 fishermen. in may of 2010, we had 2,800. there is a 1,600 difference and that's a difference in the

vessels of opportunity program. that is a program waiting to go to work for b.p. 2,800 vessels signed up, 650 working. your difference -- that difference and difference of the people fishing are almost the same and our goal is to get the fishermen back to work. >> what's the incentive if a lot of areas have been closed down to fishing what's the incentive? >> i'm trying to get b.p. -- we had a good conversation about a week-and-a-half ago to give the fishermen a bonus based on last year's prices over the dock price, 30% price. if they went to the dock, they would go to the dock and get a 30% kick and give them incentive and what that does for b.p. is it's not the 30% they are paying but 70% they are mitigating damages. if a guy is not fishing, that is 100%%.

>> as far as the consumer understanding how safe our seafood is, the restaurants across the country, around the world are the same restaurants and these guys are going to make sure they do the job correctly and same safe quality seafood you always had. our industry is self-policing, if you don't sell good product you don't sell anything. the distributors are going to make sure that the product is there. if anything, you should be less afraid today than you would have been -- not that you should have been afraid before, but our testing protocols are heavier today than they ever did. we have noaa testing, e.p.a. testing, f.d.a. testing. we are under a microscope. any product that goes to the marketplace is safe, more so than anything you have seen before because of the different protocols in place. what you need to do is support us. understand that everything we've

got down here is wonderful and great. don't listen to the hype of our competitors that say they are getting this from the clean waters. our fish are great. areas that are open are fine. and areas that are closed are precautionary closed not because they are loaded with oil. that's not the case. louisiana is slight sweet crude, a different product. will we have tar balls? yes, we will. we have it all the time. this is not new. we are being cautious and we are concerned about our fishermen and when i told ken is that $20 billion if we lose our heritage and culture, it isn't enough. 1/3 of the domestic seafood in the lower 48 states comes from louisiana. in may of 2009, we caught 37 million pounds of product. in may 2010 is 12 million.

that's plenty of product. >> we are standing in my processing facility. i own this, local seafood distribution plant. soft shell crabs that we get in daily. they start in early spring and end in early fall. got plenty of it here. you are looking at 50 dozen soft crabs, which is a good bit for right now. everything is receive debated as you see. -- refridge rated. you are in control of your own plant. we have a bunch of things we do every day. the main f inch let room. normally we have 40,000 pounds of fish in here. right now, we might have 10,000,

12,000 pounds of fish. the processing over here going to one o+ to one of the restaurants. >> this is black drum, mainstay. black drum and red drum. this is the cousin, black drum. these will go to the restaurants. some of these will be eaten for lunch today. processed in the morning and go

to lunch. then again, over here, tuna, black drum, cobia. a lot of black drum right now. grouper filets. i buy from a lot of local fishermen that buy the fish for me and all the fish comes to me. and here is processed product. that's the rainbow trout, crab meat, oysters over here. and then crawfish meat that we're getting.

crawfish meat. that is a quick run. nice and tight. freezers. everybody's got freezers. we can hold 100,000 pounds of fish in this cooler and normally we process 46,000 pounds. the one thing that comes out of this event we get tourists and restaurants and seafood distributors, fishermen, holding conference calls. we are doing a lot of things that are positive. as chairman of the seafood board, we will be aggressive with our bravend approaches and we need help. we need to get the spill closed. that's the first thing and we start our job. but anybody that's in this country needs to know the way to help louisiana is to eat louisiana seafood, because it's very safe.

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> the house is coming back in now. later in the week, members consider a bill that would make it easier for federal employees to tele commute and a bill authorizing the national flood insurance program. live now to the house on c-span.

bill is passed and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.

the speaker pro tempore: members will please clear the well and take their conversations off the floor. for what purpose does the gentleman from california rise? >> thank you, mr. speaker. i send to the desk a privileged report from the committee on rules for filing under the rule. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title. the clerk: report to accompany house resolution 1509, resolution providing for consideration of the bill h.r. 1722, to improve teleworking and executive agencies by developing a program that allows employees to tell -- tele work from home

for 20 hours and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: ordered printed. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will entertain requests for one-minute speeches. without objection. the house will be in order. members will please take their

conversations off the floor. the speaker pro tempore: members will please take their conversations off the floor.

the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. members will please take their conversations off the floor. members will please clear the well.

the speaker pro tempore: the the gentlewoman from florida may proceed. ms. ros-lehtinen: thank you so much, mr. speaker. when will this house leadership take action to get us out of this perpetual economic slump and provide the economic growth that we need to create the jobs that american families need? unemployment nationally remains high at 9.5% for june, with the u.s. economy losing 125,000 jobs in that month alone. in my area, south florida, where our unemployment rate is steadily increasing to 12.3%. it is time for the administration and the liberal house leadership to take a proven approach of providing tax relief for working families and small businesses while reducing the debt, which is delaying future economic growth. lowering the tax burden on small firms, simplifying the tax code, that will encourage job

creation. i also support extending the $8,000 first-time homeowners' tax credit which has done so much to help revive our slow housing industry in south florida. let's act now. it's overdue. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from texas rise? >> address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. jackson lee: mr. speaker, i want to congratulate the naacp which is holding their 101st convention or celebrating 101 years, a century of service. i also want to affirm their first amendment rights to make statements on the policies of groups who advocate for causes that sometimes are colored in race. the naacp is a fighter for justice of all people and i was glad to be speaking about issues

dealing with the environment, civil justice and the economy. it is also important to note, mr. speaker, that corporations are now showing one of the best quarterly returns that they've ever had. businesses create jobs. and we are creating an economic opportunity to do so. but all the economists are saying they are sitting on their money and the house will be in order.ing their money. we have to stand up as america and work together to create jobs just as this government has provided stimulus dollars to create thousands and thousands of jobs. work together, not divide, that's how well's move this economy forward. i yield back. congratulations naacp. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. poe: request permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. poe: mr. speaker, the administration continues its aassault on the workers in the

deepwater drilling industry. it double downed its relentless destruction of the energy industry by issuing an ill-advised moratorium. two courts have said the first moratorium on drilling was, i quote, arbitrary, ca appreciateous and wrong. the federal government furnished no specifics that shutting deepwater drilling was absolutely necessary, never mind the facts on or edict of the administration violates the spirit of the court ruling and never mind this job-killing ban is more about the politics of panic than safety of offshore drilling. the administration is intentionally destroying zphesk energy and making us more dependent on foreign oil. the administration is seeking the jobs of offshore workers and the president's plan is succeeding. jobs are being lost, rigs are leaving the gulf to friendlier waters and why?

who knows. the second disaster is brought to you by this administration and our own federal government. and that's just the way it is. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new york rise? >> address the house and permission to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. towns: my heart is heavy this evening because a very dear friend of mine past away, buddy keaton. he has been a real fixture in the brooklyn community for so many years. many, many basketball players are in the nba because of buddy keaton. he was a person who spent a lot of time with young people, helping them to understand how important it is to go straight in life. also how important it was to really work on your skills. but at the same time, he indicated that they need to be

involved in making certain that the academics were in order. buddy keaton as a result of his involvement had made it possible for many basketball officials to be able to officiate games and some have gone onto the nba as a result of buddy and his involvement. he was truly a coalition builder. he was a person that just had a natural flare for saying the right thing at the right time. he knew how to do that. to the family of buddy keaton and my good friend hank carter and all those who know him and how hard i has worked on behalf of people, you have our deepest sympathy and if there's anything we can do, please do not hesitate to reach out. what a tremendous loss for the brooklyn community.

on that note, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania rise? mr. thompson: request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. thompson: i rise today to draw both awareness and support for therapeutic recreation week which runs from july 11-17. it is to rehabilitate all of which hell to maintain the cognitive, social and functioning of individuals that is fanging individuals. this week serves to awareness and promote opportunities for those in need and recognize the dedicated of certified therapeutic specialists. they are certified and serve a vital role in helping individuals facing disease and disability. in helping to achieve and maintain independence. their services are cost effective and heart felt.

i congratulate the therapeutic professionals for helping to improve the lives of others and the presentations, work shops hosted in recognition of therapeutic recreation week. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia rise? mr. gingrey: address the house for one minute and revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. gingrey: i rise to recognize the service of a very influential spiritual leader, reverend marcus. he came from the island of trinidad to pursue a higher education and received a degree from brown college and master's of business. he felt call to preach while in college and then attended emory and received a master's. he is well respected at turner chapel as he transformed a small

church of just over 150 people to a large congregation consisting of over 6,000 members today. most notably the african methodist in liberia conferred the degree on reverend marcus on recognition of his impact on the city of marietta. his wife is also his co-pastor. and i send them both my best wishes. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from minnesota rise? >> address the house for one minute and revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. pauls pails i rise to -- mr. paulsen: i rise to praise eden prarie. it is one of the best places to live in america. the people of eden prarie have known that for some time and we are modest about our achievement. in fact, you won't hear from

anyone from eden prarie brag about our companies that we are home to, our beautiful lakes and rivers or the miles of hiking and biking trails that run through time. you won't hear from anyone that brags about our award-winning schools or civic-mideness of our community and our citizens. our preference is to leave that type of grandstanding and others like matt lauer and magazines. eden prarie has been my family's home for close to 20 years and place i represent in the minnesota state legislature and now in congress and i can't think of a better honor be being named the best place to live in america. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from indiana rise? mr. burton: ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. . i'd say beware of special sessions.

we're not going to accomplish much between now and when we get out of here for the election in november. and the reason we're not is because my democrat colleagues, many of whom realize that they're probably not going to be re-elected, so the president and the majority in this body and the other body are going to wait until the election is over and they're going to call a special session and when they call that special session they're going to try to ram through things such as cap and trade which is going to cost every family in this country about $4,000 more for utility bills. they're going to try it to ram through a bunch of tax increases and a whole host of other things that are bad for the united states of america and all the people in this country. and so if i were talking to the american people tonight, i'd say, call your congressman, call your senator and call the president and say, we don't want anything being rammed through by people who are out of office between november and january of next year. the speaker pro tempore: for

what purpose does the gentleman from arkansas rise? >> ask permission to address the house for one minute, revise and extends my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to honor one of america's bravest. mr. boozman: plight of first class clay ma gera, who sacrificed his life in afghanistan on our nation's birthday in support of operation enduring freedom. the private first class, also a specialist in the united states army, was a life long resident of arkansas. when he attended harrison high school, his loved ones described him as a hardworking hero before he ever made his free choice to join the united states army. in addition to being described as a joy who brought happiness to the loved ones around him, he was also extremely patriotic and sacrificed himself for his life's passion for the military and our great nation. the specialist was assigned to c

company second battalion, 508 parachute infantry regiment in fort bragg north carolina. he at the employed to afghanistan in june. private first class clay magera made the ultimate sacrifice for his country at the young age of 20. he is a true american hero. i ask my colleagues to keep his family and friends in their astronauts and prayers during this very difficult time -- thoughts and prayers during this very difficult time and i humbly offer my appreciation and gratitude to this american here o'for his selfless service to the security and well-being of our country. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: are there further one-minute requests? the chair lays before the house the following personal requests. the clerk: leaves of absence requested for mr. hastings of florida for today and mrs. eddie bernice johnson of texas for today. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the requests are

granted. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. poe: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that today following legislative business and any special orders heretofore entered into, the following members may be permitted to address this house, revise and extend their remarks and include therein extraneous material. mr. moran for today, july 14, 15, 16, 19 and 20. mr. burton for today, july 14, 5 and 16. myself, mr. poe, for today, july 14, 15, 16, 19 and 20. mr. upton for today, mr. jones for today, and july 14, 15, 16, 19 and 20. and ms. ros-lehtinen for today and july 14. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california rise? ms. woolsey: mr. speaker, i ask

unanimous consent that today following legislative business and any special orders heretofore entered into, the following members may be permitted to address the house for five minutes, to revise and extend their remarks and include therein extraneous material. ms. woolsey, california, ms. kaptur, ohio, mr. defazio, oregon. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, and under a previous order of the house, the following members are recognized for five minutes each. mr. moran of kansas. ms. woolsey of california. ms. woolsey: mr. speaker -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized for five minutes. ms. woolsey: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, a gentleman from my district, will bennett of santa rosa, recently wrote a letter to the editor of the santa rosa press democrat and made an excellent point.

he noted that afghan president hamid karzai had said to the taliban, they are not the enemy, they are the sons of this land. as mr. bennett points out, then who is the enemy? is this a pretend war, he asks. how can we possibly win a war in which our chief ally doesn't share our vision of who is the enemy? but then you realize that maybe the u.s. approach to the taliban is closer to karzai's than we'd be comfortable admitting. because in certain respects we're treating them more like a vendor than like an enemy. it turns out our own contracting practices in afghanistan may actually be putting money in the hands of the very taliban insurgents we're trying to drive from the country. the very people who are killing our troops.

the very organization that provided safe havens for al qaeda to plot 9/11. my distinguished colleague from massachusetts, mr. tierney, and his government oversight subcommittee recently completed a shocking report based on a six-month investigation which provides the details. at a cost, madam speaker, of more than $2 billion, the pentagon outsources the responsibility for shipping supplies to u.s. troops. and the contractor unburdened by any meaningful government oversight has been paying off a shadowy thing of warlords and corrupt officials to guarantee security on afghan roads. the evidence is strong that the highway warlords are in alternative paying -- turn paying protection money to the taliban who control many of the

routes. mr. tierney calls this warlord inc., extortion and corruption along the u.s. supply chain in afghanistan. and perhaps most disturbing of all, madam speaker, is the department of defense apparently has long been aware of this and hasn't done a thing about it. as in tierney points out, at a time when communities here at home are crying out for investment in schools, hospitals and other infrastructure, it's galling to think that american taxpayer dollars are supporting the kind of thuggery in afghanistan that is quite possibly endangering our troops. it's bad enough, madam speaker, that the american people are being asked to pay for a failed war. now it appears they're being asked to pay for the wrong side. madam speaker, we simply cannot sustain a counterterrorism

strategy that has us doing business, however indirectly, with the terrorists themselves. it's illogical and its unconscionable. this is just one more -- it's unconscionable. this is just one more piece of evidence that this war is failing the american people, undermining instead of advancing our national security objectives. it's time for a radical change in our policy. it's time to bring our troops home. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. mr. burton from indiana. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. poe: request permission to take the time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. poe: madam speaker, it's my solemn honor tonight to pay tribute to an american hero and a son of texas killed in

afghanistan in service to our country. staff sergeant eduardo laredo died in afghanistan supporting operation enduring freedom. eduardo was killed by injuries sustained when an i.e.d. was detonated near his dismounted patrol. madam speaker, i.e.d.'s are the way the cowards of the desert fight against our americans. sergeant laredo was just 34 years of age and one day before his birthday when he gave his life for our nation. this great american warrior was born and raised in houston, texas. he was an army airborne soldier. he served combat tours in both iraq and afghanistan and was with c company second battalion, 508th parachute infantry regiment out of fort bragg. now, the 82nd airborne division has had its share of famous soldiers from world war ii. but the real story of the 82nd airborne division is the story

of the selfless men like eduardo laredo, one of the thousands of par troopers in jump boots, baggy pants and maroon about a rates. they jump -- berets. they jump out of aircraft and stare danger right in the face. and if you're looking for peril, you'll find our paratroopers there jumping out of airplanes into the worst hell holes on the planet, finding the terrorists co-ering in their caves, taking the fight to the enemy and treading where the tim ed dare not go. you see, madam speaker, our airborne soldiers plant the american flag and say, the american soldier is here to defend freedom and liberty. they go to liberate, not to conquer. and you can point them to danger and they'll jump right in. they're the airborne soldiers of the 82nd. they're called the all american significantnyified by their double a patch on their -- significantnyified by their double -- significantnyifieded

by their double air patch on their shoulder. he graduated from sam houston high school and joined the army shortly after graduation. he met his wife, jennifer, in the army. first sarm jennifer laredo, eduardo's wife, was deployed to northern afghanistan when she got news that her husband had been killed in southern afghanistan. this fine young couple are examples of the absolute best america has. they sacrificed so much in service for the country that they love. eduardo called his fellow soldiers his family as well and he loved the army life. eduardo is survived by his 2-year-oldson eddie, his 7-year-old daughter laura and his 13-year-old step-son -- or step-daughter alexis. his family says eduardo was an adventer. he ado ied his wife and father and he loved to cook for his family. america's blessed to have such a

rare breed of man who serves as protecter to his family and to his nation. madam speaker, this is a photograph of staff sergeant eduardo laredo. general douglas mcarthur talked about such men and he summed up their service in three words when he said, duty, honor, country. those three hallowed words rev vaptly dictate what these people -- reverendly dictate what these people can be and what they'll always be. staff sergeant eduardo laredo lived those words. he honored his country and his family with his courage and his dedication and he gave his life for the things he believed in. it was once said that what we do for ourselves dies with us but what we do for others, the world remains and is immortal. eduardo's sacrifice will not be forgotten by our nation. staff sergeant eduardo laredo's name is now written on the

sacred rolls of american patriots who paid in blood for this nation's freedom and for the freedom of other nations. today i offer a grateful nation's thanks and prayers, we are grateful that a man like eduardo laredo lived and loved america. my heartfelt condolences to eduardo's wife and children, his friends and family and to the 82nd airborne family. today we honor this great american warrior's life and are humbled by his greatest of sacrifices. we're truly blessed to have called staff sergeant eduardo laredo an american. and that's just the way it is. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. ms. kaptur from ohio. mr. upton from michigan. mr. upton: thank you, madam speaker. i intend to use my five-minute special order. >> the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. upton: madam speaker, it was a few months ago that congress passed and the president signed

this health care bill. 2,700 pages that i don't think a lot of people read. but if you did read it, you might have gotten to this one section, section 9,006 and i'll read it very quickly. expansion of information reporting requirements, in general, section 6041 of the i.r.s. code, at the end of the following new subsection's h. application incorporations, notwithstanding any regulations inscribed before the date of this enactment, the term person includes an incorps ration that is not exemption, the secretary may pry such regular lyings that may be appropriate to carry out the sections of this purpose, including role rules to prevent duplicative reporting of actions, b, payments for property and other gross, c, section a of section 641 of the i.r.s. code, it's amended by sin

earthing amounts -- by inserting gross proceeds after other and, three, inserting gross proceeds after setting forth the amount of such, c, effective date, amendments may be made by this section, shall apply to payments made after december 31, 2011. . that section i just read even if you read it before we voted on the house interior is the requirement that -- floor is the requirement that every business beginning next year will have to file a 1099 for any transaction that exceeds $600 during the course of the year. what does that mean? you got a business that goes to staples, they are going to have to keep track of every

transaction they made. you buy $50 a month from staples, you have to file a 10 9. if you have a sales force and maybe they go out to a bunch of hotels or restaurants during the course of the year, you are going to file every one of those for your employees. during this recent break, i met with one of my small business people in michigan. last year, they filed 10 1099's. next year -- they have 30 people that work for them, they are going to file 350 10899's. any business transaction that is -- 1099's. any business transaction that exceeds $600, they are going to file a 1099. what does that have to do with health care? maybe they have to hire more people to fill out 1099's and

they are going to be covered. well, that's just crazy. this is a new regulation that is going to be put on businesses, going to cost a lot more money, if anything. it's going to take away from folks that have health care in america. now, we have some good news. there is a bill, my colleague, dan lungren from california, introduced a bill h.r. 5141, small business paperwork mandate elimination act. just on the title, you know what that means versus what i just read at the beginning of my remarks. it takes this away. what the heck are we going to be collecting that information for? well, somewhere else, i don't know -- i don't know what page it's in here, but of course, it calls for the hiring of 15,000 more i.r.s. agents. maybe that's why they have to hire them so they can look at all these 1099's that every business is going to have to file. when you do a 1099, it's more

than just the amount. you have to get the employee identification number for every business that made that sale. as i talked to my home builders over the last couple of weeks, if they take their pickup and fill up at that speedway station every other week and will be more than 600, they will have to get that employer identification number and keep track of those records. think about the utilities, consumer' energy. all the utility companies will have to do a separate 1099 for every business they serve if they sell more than 50 dollars of electricity to. what a nightmare. some might suggest this is the first step. the i.r.s. is going to assemble all this information and maybe -- and it says it is effective

2012 -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. upton: the first step is the wrong step and we need to repeal it and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: mr. defazio from oregon. mr. jones from north carolina. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida rise? without objection. ms. ros-lehtinen: address the house for five minutes. thank you, madam speaker, for the time. today marks the anniversary of the horrific 13th of march tug boat massacre, this which 41 cubans lost their lives at the hands of the cuban regime's coast guard risking their lives to escape the brutal oppression of castro, the victims of that attack 16 years ago symbolized the ongoing struggle of the cuban people to be free. this anniversary serves to remind the world that the same

dictatorship that rammed the small tugboat and turned water cannons on innocent men women and children so they could fall and drown to death is the same dictatorship in power today. this is a regime that trades political prisoners like baseball cards to manipulate public opinion and advance its brutal agenda. do not be fooled. these are not releases. they are forced exiles, means by which the tyrannical rulers in havana seek to eliminate their nopets and forcibly removing them, the regime, yet again, is violating the fundamental rights of these prisoners. having spent years in castro dungeons for having the courage to stand up for the basic liberties of the cuban people, now these brave individuals will

be banished from their homeland, courtesy of the dictatorship and its accomplice, the spanish government. faced with this prospect, nearly a dozen of the prisoners of conscience, reported to have made the lists, have already expressed their refusal to leave the island upon release, including a doctor, a 2007 recipient of the presidential medal of freedom. years ago, the doctor wrote to his fellow comrades and countrymen of a movement of come placensy and a movement that tries to make cubans devote todd freedom, believe they should applaud and be content with receiving limited doses of freedom, a movement which suggests that we cubans do not deserve total freedom but small

tokens of it. this spec lates that other fragments of freedom and democracy will automatically follow it, end quote. while some will use this to reward the cuban regime, those who truly support freedom and democracy will heed the wise words of the doctor. it is no could insid dens that this scheme follows legislative efforts to provide an economic lifeline to the cuban dictatorship. no -- castro chose to make his first pup appearance in years or do a television interview on the middle east to praise the enemies of freedom while attacking our democratic ally israel. but this is not the first time that the regular eesm has used political prisoners as pawns in its pursuit of infin it power.

in 1978, the regime released 3,600 political prisoners in exchange for the carter administration's easing of sanctions on the regime. then 26 were released to jesse jackson in 1984, three for bill richardson in 1996, another one for former president jimmy carter in 2002 and 80 for pope john paul ii in 1998. no sooner were these political prisoners freed that the cells that they were once again with those filled with those seeking freedom from castro. with a recent visit from syria's dictator and ties with fellow sponsors of terrorism, they are trying to manipulate foreign nations to serve their own purposes.

syria, like iran, is seeking nuclear capability. other nonconventional weapons, ballistic missiles and actively supports islamic extremists. similarly, cuba provides safe haven to known extremists from around the world and continues to publicly defend violent organizations such as the farc national park colombia. the anti-democratic, anti-freedom agenda that these dictators have in common presents a threat to our u.s. national security interests. let us not be fooled. i thank you for the time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from texas, mr. carter, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. carter: thank you, madam speaker.

as these young folks are setting this up, i want to talk about what we have been talking about close to a year, the united states is a nation of laws, not of men. it was designed by our founding fathers to be such. it is something we are proud to be a part of. something we are proud to step up to the plate and say we defend, because we believe that the rule of law is more fair in having individuals set their own rules than kings and dictators do. and so the rule of law is a say credit part of our institution. we say that the people will elect representatives to represent them in this congress and state legislatures across the country. any other legislative body speak

on their behalf to vote on their behalf and set up laws and rules which establish what a civil society will be and what we will consider right and wrong in our world. this is a simple concept, arguably a biblical concept going back for centuries and centuries, in fact, thousands of years. there have been sets of rules in every society, every culture and every religious background. sets of rules that are established that allows society to function. the rule of law is important to america. in fact, it is the underpinning that allows me and other folks like me who are blessed to be able to serve in this congress, allows us to do our job, because we stand on that rock that the law in this country is something that we enforce.

in fact, we take an oath to preserve and protect and dwevend the constitution of the united states -- defend the constitution of the united states, against all enemies, foreign and domestic. and we take that oath freely, because we are saying the basis of our legal structure, the ground rock of the rule of law is the constitution of the united states. it was adopted by this country and formed our nation as we presently know it. so we have been talking about that -- members of congress, administration people and others need to be dealt with in the light of the rule of law. and when questions are raised, they should be raised publicly. tonight, as i have done on many occasions, i'm going to talk about some things that are concerning me, concerning others who care about the rule of law.

i hope to be joined by some of my colleagues here tonight. but to start off with, i'm concerned about what's being reported by the obama administration with the political backing of the democrats in this house. we are arguably seeing one of the most lawless political crusades in american history. blatantly, this administration has violated the spirit of the letter of the law in advancing a theory of european-style socialism on state governments and on the one willing people. the administration has ignored two federal court orders that have just come out and have ignored both of them now saying that the drilling ban in the gulf of mexico is arbitrary and wrong and ordering the united states and the secretary to withdraw and lift that drilling

ban. and yet, the minute these two courts, federal district court and united states court of appeals, the fifth circuit court of appeals told this administration, that president and this secretary that they were to lift the drilling ban and save between 140,000 and 250,000 jobs that are connected with that industry along the entire stretch of the gulf of mexico. that it was arbitrary and wrong to ban oil drilling and should not be done. they immediately amend and re-issue another drilling ban in the face of that court. the administration blocks louisiana's efforts to fight their own environmental fight by trying to throw up a little small rock barrier and a sand

barrier to maybe keep the oil from getting into the marsh. it's bad enough when the oil stacks up on the beach, because it makes tar balls and makes a mess on that beach and makes that beach very ugly. but you know what? it just gets on your feet and get your feet dirty and just takes up. but when it goes, this all goes into the louisiana marsh and affects the entire ecosystem that both has to do with our shrimping industry, oyster industry, ecosystem of the entire state and the gulf of mexico, because there's a lot that flows in and out of that marsh that has to do with the ecosystem of the gulf. . when oil gets in moppings those be a habitats, it kills. on the beach, it probably causes

some very terrible environmental impact but nothing like going into those marshes. governor jindal says, let's do something about it, and our administration blocks it. and international companies call out and say, we have material to help clean up. and the administration refuses to allow them to come. the administration refused to allow the united states senate to conduct a single hearing over the appointment of dr. berwick to head medicare, at the same time that this congress and the president planned cutting medicare by $50 billion and putting a man in charge of medicare that there's a lot of questions that should have been asked by the senate. by using a recess appointment, it's legal, but in the face of what's facing medicare and the face of the conversation we just

had earlier with mr. upton about the massive burdens that are going to be created by this obamacare bill that has now been signed into law, and just the burdens on industry and on business that are going to be put on there for really no good, understandable reason, you have to ask the question, why put a gay in there that says the thimmings that mr. ber wick said and don't allow the senate to ask questions about that. that's something we ought to be concerned about. we have a supreme court opinion, a recent supreme court opinion that protected certain first amendment rights of free speech and this congress and this administration immediately brought to this floor and shoved through on a partisan vote a bill called thities chose act which geves special free speech

rights to some and bars other groups from having the same rights. which is in the face of a supreme court opinion that's taking place this summer. and so you have to say, what is it about no that you don't understand? but, you know, this is the way we're operating. this administration is has filed a lawsuit against the state of arizona to try to block them from enforcing their laws and federal laws with specific provisions against discrimination in any form or fashion and profiling any form or fashion, but to just try to save their state from the invasion that happens nightly and from the slaughter of american citizens that has happened over the last couple of years. and the multiple slaughters across the border.

the administration has refused to defend the republic against the most egregious violations of voting rights since the civil rights act was passed and we all saw them on television. it's not like -- it's kind of like, we used to wonder how you were going to get to -- how lee harvey oswald got a fair trial when the whole world saw these two guys stand out in front of a polling place intimidating voters. and yet this administration says that they're not going to -- if they don't see any harm in that and they're not going to enforce it. so we're going to go through some of these things tonight, talk about them. the first one i just brought up, the voting rights violations are ignored. attorney generic holder, who is right now very proud to be out

suing the state of arizona, dropped the case that, hey, i'll ask you, if you can see this clearly, if you look right there, you'll see a club or a baton, but it is -- if you if down to the gun store, you can buy that weapon. , so it's clearly a weapon -- so, it's clearly a weapon. and then if you watched the film, you'd hear the intimidating language that's going on there and it's a blatant voting rights violation. refused to the sentence the black panthers to judgment. these guys were sued and didn't even show up. then they dropped it. they didn't have to work to get something against these guys. i mean, these fice lost.

i mean, a fresh out of law school brand new lawyer can handle the judgment and get recourse against these people. but the justice department chose after these fice at the faulted in the lawsuit to drop the suit. i think that this is a blatant disregard, civil rights is an issue, we say the term civil rights, of course we remember what developed in the 1960's. of course we know where it came from. of course we know it had to do with the treatment of african-americans in this country initially. but it was not written just for african-americans. it was written for americans. every kind of american. and then an offshoot of civil rights is the voting rights act. which protects every american's right to freely vote. now, if two twice dressed in

paramilitary uniforms, carrying clubs, were standing in front of a polling place and intimidating people to make them afraid to go up to that polling place, why in the world wouldn't it be the duty of our attorney general, the man who has sworn to represent us in this type of law, and to represent us being the american people and the federal depoff, why wouldn't they pursue this? and that's why i say, this is blatantly avoiding, ignoring or not doing your job. in doing your duty to this country to preserve the laws. so if one man, eric holder, makes the determination and maybe a couple other lawyers in the office, i don't know, there's a whole bunch of them over there, but if he made the

decision not to enforce this law , is that a rule of law or is that a rule of man? now, you'll hear prosecutors say, every prosecutor determines what's a good case. that's true. but they had a civil suit already, they already won, ok? i mean, they didn't have to do anything to take -- but take it to judgment. and they didn't to it. much less go prosecute the other violations under the civil rights act. so you have to ask yourself, is this the rule of law or the rule of err he can holder? -- rule of eric holder? if it's the rule of eric holder then it's not what this country is designed to be. it's not designed to be the rule of eric holder, it's not designed to be the rule of barack obama. it's not designed to be the rule of george bush or any other president or leader of this

country. it's designed to be the rule of law. and this body has an awful lot to do with what is in that body of law's code of law. and if we are going to arbitrarily and capriciously make changes or choose how we're going to enforce the law, i would argue we're going down a slippery slope. and that slippery slope could lead to real disaster for this country. because if eric holder made this decision based upon some personal opinion that he has, what's to prevent the next attorney general to have a different personal opinion and avoid some other law that's important to the rights of the american people? i don't know. so, it's the office of attorney

general we need to be talking about and what's their job? and i would argue, the job is to enforce the law. and if there is any question as to whether or not this is intimidation, and i would almost depearnt you there is, that's for a jury or a judge to decide in the court of law, not for a group of lawyers sitting around a back room someplace deciding which group you want to protect. it's not the way it's supposed to work. i would hope that the attorney general would take another look at this and if he thinks there's any way anybody can think this guy with a club is intimidating anybody under the civil rights act, then let a trial of fact

make that decision and do your job and present your case in court like a gad lawyer should and then let's find out just what the courts that we trust with this decision has to say about it. i'll accept that. i think that's right. that's what it's supposed to operate. so there's one blatant avoidance of the law. now, let me start off, because i'd like to be straight as i can be, to do in recess appointment has been done in the past, i can certainly tell you the last administration did it, other administrations haven to it, using that method is not what i have a concern about. because the president absolutely has the right to do it. he picked sort of a brief recess, by, hey, it's ok, it's

beenen to on brief recessions -- recesses in the past. so that's all right. i'm not complaining that. but one of the things we've got to ask ourselves is, when the president of the united states told the american people what was in that 2,500-page bill that nancy pelosi said we were going to have to pass to find out what was in it, because she didn't know and neither did anybody else in this house, now we're getting to know what's in that bill, but the promises that were made by the administration were a lie and one of those promises was, there are no death committees, ain't nobody going to be deciding your life or death, nothing in this bill is going to create or have someone in charge that's operating this bill that believes that rationing your health care and making decisions about whether or not you get treated, that's what we were promised. the president of the united states himself told us that on

multiple occasions. and not only the president but almost everybody that represented what was in this bill said, we're not in the business of rationing health care, this bill's not going to ration health care. that's what they all told us. now, then there's this guy, dr. berwick, who's been put in charge of medicare and medicaid, he's a proponent of the british health care system and believes in rationing your health care and redistributing wealth. what he said and if you watch -- i know it's on fox, i hope it's on all of the channels, his statement about how he viewed health care, he basically said, health care by its very nature requires you to have some form of rationing and redistribution of wealth from the more prosperous to the least prosperous.

the very nature of the beast, he said. he told us, rationing health care is inevitable. now, wait a minute. we were promised by the president of the united states -- we were not talking about rationing health care. why would the first guy put in charge of this be a gay who publicly endorses -- be a guy who publicly endorses rationing health care? you know, i was talking about rationing health care back home and i was surprised to learn that people accident get the whole concept. so let me give you an example, ok? and i've given this example before. my wife was born and raised in the netherlands, holland. where they have socialized medicine. they've had socialized medicine since the second world war. my mrm, who lived -- my

mother-in-law who lived a long time, into her 90's, she was -- she lived under a system of socialized medicine. . when she was faced with a lot of health issues, she flew to the united states to be with her grandchildren. and to be with her daughters. she got a daughter here and a daughter in florida. my mother in law, when she was back in her mid-to late 1980's was suffering from anal polyps and went to the health care people in knelt they are lands. and she had been treated with a

drug they gave her for almost a year and had not changed her situation at all. very embarrassing for a very nice woman to have this situation. and so we took her to a dutch doctor that we knew that worked in austin, texas, and spoke dutch and we had gotten to be friends with him. and he went in and talked to my mother-in-law and he came out and said, you know, this is a shame. they are treating your mother, talking to my wife, with sulfur drugs.. now we haven't treated people with sulfur drugs since the second world war because we have anti-buy on thics and sulfur drugs in preanti-buy on theic drugs and it cost the system to

treat the old person with sulfur c1 treat the old person with sulfur drugs, because quite frankly, she isn't worth the investment. so being in the united states of america, the doctor immediately prescribed two medicines and two weeks later, my mother-in-law was cured after a year of suffering in this situation. that rationing. that's a governmental agency, making a decision what drug you get from for your illness. and we got a guy we just put in charge of the health care for our elderly and the health care for our poor, medicaid so our needy and elderly are under the charge of a man who says a health care system by its very health care system by its very nature has to have rationing in

order to fiscally be able to function. in other words, in order to pay the bills. and we have been promised that this wouldn't happen. so what rule is this in violation of? it's the spirit of the thing that the senate should have been able to at least ask a few questions about the statements which were promised weren't going to happen. and i think the american people deserve to have those questions answered. that's something else. we have had one of the worst environmental disasters in the history tft united states on british petroleum's poor

management and poor oversight and like we are in the 95th day of that oil spill right now and have a new procedure being worked on and we hope it will help. but doesn't matter we have poured millions of barrels of oil into the gulf of mexico. and the consequences, we are beyond thinking about. but one of the problems is that the action of the obama administration because of this one leaking oil well, now it's kind of interesting that the united states has drilled 42,000, according to what they are reporting today, 42,000-plus oil wells in the gulf of mexico and the united states, united

states' drilling area has had one drilling mishappen and that's what we are dealing with today. it is one in 42,000 is what the record is right now. so the question is what should we do about it? i would argue, this is not hard stuff, plug the well, which has got to be done a certain way and i think they will do it. i'm not pleased with their performance. and secondly, under the oil spill act, the federal government took control of oil spills. we have a written law, oil spill act and puts one person in charge of making sure that all the resources of america and anywhere else we can get, i would argue, ought to be put in to stop -- to clean up that mess. and under the federal oil spill act, the president of the united states is in charge of that.

it's his job. now we know know where b.p. has to stop the oil drilling and got to pay damages. but the united states has got the duty under the oil spill act to clean up the mess. and they have a way to try to collect and pay the damages. i'm talking about who says to clean up number five. how about your number 10. go clean, number 100. number 1,000, go cloon. who says that? the federal government does in a. we are close to 100 days into this oil spill and the responsibility for the cleanup belongs to the federal government. now, what is the solution of our administration, the obama administration has come up with? they have put an oil-drilling moratorium and shut down all oil

drilling in the government and they tried to amend it to make itdeepwater only and when you say the power of this government says stop drilling, what do the people in the gulf do? stop drilling. now, i can't tell you the number of drilling rigs we got in the gulf, but it's a lot. deepwater we have in the 20's, 30's, 40's. those are the big expensive drilling rigs, but all of them cost a lot of money, even the shallow-water rigs. we shut down drilling in the gulf. started making accommodations for the shallow water people, but interestingly enough, since that occurred, nobody, not one person has been issued a permit to drill out there. so they may have drilled, but haven't issued a permit to let them drill, so quite honestly,

nobody's drilling. now what does this mean to the economy of the gulf of mexico? texas, louisiana, mississippi, alabama, possiblebly portions of florida. is it that a lot of people are going to lose their jobs. the public number is 140,000, but that is the number that was determined in louisiana alone. i asked a question of a person very knowledgeable at the chamber of commerce in houston, texas, what they thought what could end up being a permanent ban out there or long-term ban will do to houston and they said 250,000 jobs. is this what you do in the time of a recession, at a time when unemployment is at double numbers? i don't think so. but they issued a moratorium and they were taken to court. the federal district court said

no. lift that moratorium. this is arbitrary and wrong. it is the wrong thing to do. lift it. well, of course, not being willing to take no for an answer, they took it to the appellate court, fifth circuit, new orleans. lo and be hold said no, the trial court is right, it is arbitrary. lift that drilling ban. you are doing harm by having that drilling ban. and secretary salazar steps up, makes a few adjustments to hone in onwater rigs and issues another moratorium. now, first i think there are a bunch of judges both on the fifth district and circuit court that ought to be asking mr. salazar, secretary salazar,

excuse me, sir, but what is it about no that you don't understand? i have asked that of lawyers who argued in my court from time to time. and i think that question ought to be asked, what is it about no ks you don't understand? we told you this is way beyond the scope of what you should be doing here and you're doing it anyway. why don't you understand the word no with people you are supposed to be answering to are telling you know? that question is valid. and i think that's a question that we as people who defend the rule of law, we ought to be asking that question. i don't think we have answers, but i do know what they did, issued another moratorium. now, those who will defend the moratorium will say they have lightened it each time of the. 9 issue is at some point in time

until the area is cleared, the people who operate those rigs don't know if they're in trouble or aren't in trouble if they start to drill. they don't know. because this keeps in the court system. one of the real crimes that happens in this country and happens in every part of the country, now including politics is we use our courts as a weapon. sometimes when we really have no really position in law that would allow us to do so, but it's not the fact -- we used to have a saying back where i come from, that any idiot can file a lawsuit, all he has to do is pay the fees and directions to the courthouse. defending that bad lawsuit can be so economically oppressing to anyone who is getting sued that

ultimately that becomes a weapon and even though they would have won if they had contested the cost of contesting becomes a weapon. now, in this case, they been told by the court it's arbitrary and capricious and done it a third time. if you are driller and sitting on a drilling rig that costs between half a million and $1 million a day sitting there not operating, if you are the owner/operator of that drilling rig, do you know you can drill the day after the district court ruled? no. because you have the appellate court. do you know you can drill after the appellate court rules? no, because they issued another moratorium. now, eventually that guy that is running that rig says this is costing me $1 million every two

days. i can pick this thing up and i believe there was an announcement, diamond or something like that, diamond drill -- diamond offshore drilling pulled their rig out and moved it off the coast of egypt. why wouldn't you? do you think -- is it good business to lose half a million dollars a day? because people are clouding the waters so much or clouding the environment so much that you don't know whether if you start drilling, they are going to drag you off and throw you in jail for violating the moratorium. i mean, that's why the drill rigs aren't drilling. that's why they are pulling out and losing to other places. so at least diamond is going offshore of egypt. others will move off the shores of australia. others will move off the shores of europe and nortri