renew our focus on making it in america. it has two means obviously. first manufacturing, making good in america so that people -- can make it in america. have good jobs, and good benefits and a good future. -- for themselves and their children. >> so that -- this is not a question of what the senate could pass in the weeks remaining of this -- of this congress, it is -- it is establishing a principle that we intend to pursue both now and in the next congress. as a major focus of making sure that america grows its economy and -- creates jobs, particularly if the manufacturing sector which has provided such good paying, stable jobs over the past. there's no reason why american workers can't compete with workers anywhere in the world, if they have a level playing field. >> one more media question, please.

thank you. >> congressman hoyer from china strayed extra. you -- you have anticipated my question. >> is that a signal? >> i did. that the china currency bill, mr. ryan and mr. murphy's bill is going to have a hearing. is there any doubt in your mind that this -- this legislation fully fits within this initiative and -- and should get treated in the fall? >> there's going to be a hearing. clearly as i said, we need a level playing field. we're prepared to compete with anybody in the world. but we can't compete when the rules are skewed against us. that is what the hearing will address. i'm sure secretary geithner and the administration will look at this and -- at this as well. but we frankly think there are a number of &s in which china is not playing by the rules and -- that our competitors do not have

a -- a stable playing field there. i.t. is another area, a proprietary information is another area so that i think -- we're going to look at a number of areas. not just china, although china is obviously a focus of the ryan bill itself. but at other -- other -- other of our trading partners as well. >> we'll open it up more generally, come back up to the front. please identify yourself. thank you. >> dewey harris. imbedded technology, pennsylvania. >> last year, i ran -- as someone asked that this election politician actually it isn't. last year, i ran into you on the hill and asked you about making it in america which is something you talked about. you sent me to your -- your chief of staff and your staff and they worked with us -- i'm a pennsylvania company on -- on technology. so i know that making it in

america was something that has been on the agenda and actually you said get somebody in the senate, we did. senator burriss and -- we actually doing it in defense. i would like to know though as part of the make it in america agenda, since it is very important to have -- to have our technology and our circuits a everything made here -- it is start -- it started with defense. are you going to include adding defense into the measure in order to protect more jobs? >> clearly -- number of the pieces of legislation deal specifically with defense, defense acquisitions and obviously we passed acquisition reform as you know. so the answer to that question is yes. >> congressman. >> here comes a tough question. [laughter] >> martin frost, long-time admire of stenny hoyer.

>> i didn't set these up. >> this is an interesting question i'm going to pose. probably the single most cynical thing the republicans did on tax cuts was how they handled the estate tax. over a period of years, they increased the exemption so it would help small businesses and family owned businesses and family farms so it wouldn't have to be sold. then they had the estate tax totally disappear there year so that -- that when a billionaire like george steinbrenner dies, his family doesn't pay estate tax. then next year, they revert back to a low exemption which would not be helpful for family farmers and to small business people. congress does not -- has not been able to deal with this issue, do you think that there's any realistic expectation that congress can deal with this issue this year? particularly because if -- if congress does not act, the exemption will go back to a very low level and it won't help a

lot of family owned businesses. >> congressman, as you know, i believe that -- that we absolutely should act and must act. i think we will act. the house acted as you know last year to continue the 2009 rates of 3.5 and 46 -- 45% rate. that was responsible so everybody would know they had a $7 million exemption. every individual would know they had a 3.5 million exemption and know the rate of 45%. the cynical interestingly enough fiscally irresponsible ploy by the republicans in 2001 and 2003 to phase out the tax cuts in 10 which puts -- it was a policy to raise everybody's taxes in 2010 -- or 2011 to raise everybody's taxes. that's the effect of the

republican policies adopted in 2001 and 2003. now they will respond very quickly, we'll know we had to do that because of c.b.o. scoring issues. well, that perhaps is correct. the effect of their policy is to do what congressman frost has indicated. on the estate tax, specifically because we failed to act and -- in 2009, and the senate did not take up -- up the house bill, which would have given some certainty to families and to individuals, we are now in a position where this that estate tax is at zero. but then because again of the republican policies that were adopted in 2001 and 2 003 it'll go back in 2u7b9 to 1 million 55% rate in 2011. that's unacceptable in my view. the good news -- frankly is presumably it is unacceptable to

most republicans. what does that do? that undercuts their major strategy for the last eight months which is to delay and to obstruct. they need to have this passed because their policy will result in an objective they now say they don't want. so that i am very hopeful we give to families the certainty of a rate. my own view would be that when the house passed 3.5 and 45% it was a good compromise and should be adopted. it reflected inflationry increases in values of estates. it gave to -- to -- i don't know the exact percentage, but over 98.5% of the states exemption from the paying estate tax. >> in interest of time. congressman? this is the last question. >> thank you. thank you majority leader hoyer for your comments, i appreciate

it. i'm monica mire. >> thank you with your help with the bill this week. >> that was a victory. >>eo encouraged our republicans to reflect and we had a good vote on that. about >> thank you for recognizing that. the manufacturers released a stream just last month. there were three simple points. one is the united states ought to be the best place for a key to head quarter itself. two, the united states ought to be the best place for research and development. it should be the best place for a manufacturer to be. regarding the r and d credit, it is mired in the senate for sometime. it expired at the end of last year for the 14th time. manufacturers claim 70% of the r aye d credits.

any prognosis whether there will be a rhett acttive extension this year of the credit which is a jobs credit because more than 0e% of the credit dollars go to r & d jobs in the united states. >> i'm hoping -- i don't want to anticipate what -- what -- what we'll do on that. my own personal view would be, we need to make it retro active again to encourage. as you know, we have adopted statutory pay bill. that was the right policy to adopt because when the republicans jetsonned the statutory pay bill in 2003, as a practical matter they can jetsonned in 2001 and 2 002. they actually eliminated the pay go requirement. what that allowed them to do was incur great debt without consequence. the consequence was we created great debt without paying for

it. these are subject to pay go requirements. so we need to pay for those tax credits but having said that, my view is strongly that those credits are very, very important to the make it in america agenda. encouraging manufacturing in any way that we can not only through tax credits but the education component that you spoke of earlier so that we have the kind of technically scientifically, mathematically engineeringly trained people to take the jobs that will expand manufacturing. we believe with the national association of manufacturers that -- that america is the best place. we have the best resources in our people. and given the proper environment we will be able to compete with anybody in the world. so i want to say to you that you could take the message back to the -- to the national association of manufacturers that i personally and -- the members of the democratic caucus look forward to working with -- with the national association of manufacturers toward our joint

objectives. we don't always agree, obviously, nobody would expect that. but i think on this -- on this, objective of creating jobs and making sure that -- that the rest of the world know that is we can and do make it in america, america will be a -- a greater economy and our pream will be better off. >> thank you all very much. [applause] >> next, the coast guard and interior department hearing into the gulf of mexico oil rig explosion. after that, a rally in louisiana to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. then, president obama discusses

the new financial regulations law and other matters. >> c-span is now available in over 100 million homes, bringing you washington your way. a public service created by america's cable companies. >> the revelation came today from mike williams at a joint coast guard and bureau of oceanic management hearing. this is over 90 minutes. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national

cable satellite corp. 2010] >> please raise your right hand. a false statement given to an agency of the united states is punishable by fine or imprisonment under the title. knowing this, the solomon swear the testimony you're about to give this the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god. yes sir, i do. >> thank you. >> i am representing mr. williams. can you spell your name? be as in boy, i cik-c-k-f-o-r-d. put my name is michael williams. >> by whom are you employed? >> transocean. >> and what position do you hold with transocean, sir? >> chief electronics technician.

>> and how long have you been the chief electronics technician? >> approximately six months. >> prior to your becoming chief electronics technician, what was your positions within transocean? >> electronics technician prior to that for a period of one year and prior to that i was a roustabout. >> and how long were you a roustabout, sir? >> with transocean, two years. >> were you a roustabout with another company as well, sir? >> no, sir. >> did you have any other oil and gas experience outside of transocean? >> none. >> ok. as chief electronic tech, can you please briefly describe your job responsibilities on board the deepwater horizon? >> first and foremost job responsibilites included maintaining the fire and gas systems and any and all electronic signaling devices throughout the rig.

>> can you give me a background of your experience? >> i was in the united states marine corps and i was certified avionics technician on aircraft. that was the education level i used to achieve this job. >> can you indicate where you were located at the time of the incident? what i was in the e.t. shop. >> could you give us your best recollection of that day up to the event? >> starting at the time i will cub? >> yes, please. >> monday was a short chain today which would have been the 19th. i got about five hours of sleep the night before. we rotate from days 2 nights and

from nights to days. nothing real unusual that day. it we were in a holding pattern, waiting for rig for operations to finish a cement job -- a floor operations to finish a cement john. we have pressure everywhere. they may get a no-go zone. i had some housekeeping items that needed to be taken care of. i needed the starboard crane that had been changed out during routine maintenance, and i had gone up to reset the limits as part of my job scope. the electrical limits for the boom after they changed up the cable.

we stayed for approximately an hour. i took the chief mechanic with me, who was new to his position to familiarize him with the operation and give him an idea of what i do verses what his responsibilities on that same job would be. we went up to visit with the crane operator. we went through the limits. we stayed for approximately an hour and conducted some tests and made sure that the boom could go all the way down and all the way back up. we tested the limits. i proceeded back to my shop to take care of the rms requirement for that job. i needed to go put notes in the system and what my man-hours -- and lock my man hours -- log my man-hours. >> was anything that indicated

there was a problem going on? >> i was on the phone with my wife. i have a paga rack. there is one forward and one half. -- one aft. during our phone conversation, we heard a gas flow will be announced -- level being announced. my wife actually heard the announcement through the telephone and asked if i needed to get off the phone. i told her that it was just an indication to make everyone aware of what the gas levels are. i had become somewhat immune to them because we got them so frequently. i did not even hear them anymore. we were getting gas back continually on this well.

when the levels reached 200, that is the cutoff for outside work and that is one answer concerning myself with gas levels. i know that they are high enough that i do not need to be making sparks anywhere of any kind. that is when i started panicking. that was the only indication that i had that something was not necessarily out of the ordinary, but something to get your attention. >> after that occurred, did you hear anything, engine over speed or any thing will you were in your shop? >> could you rephrase that? >> was there anything out of the ordinary after you heard that alarm? was there any sound that indicated engine over speed or any kind of hissing? >> what happened next was that i heard a hissing noise and a

thump. my shop is located directly below the riser package. it is not uncommon for the operators to run that in reverse to retract it out and it would hit the mechanical stops in the back and would literally thump in the shop. i heard a his and i assumed it was a hydraulic lift -- a hiss and i assumed it was a hydraulic lift. at that point, i got off the phone with my wife and told her that i needed to go check this out and make sure we did not have hydraulic will going everywhere. within seconds of that, i started hearing beating -- beeping.

it is coming through my ventilation system. there is a cross ventilation system and i could hear the panel beeps, our local panel alarms. -- of which are local panel alarms. i wanted to know what was going on. i was trying to put this together in my head. we have the bomb, the hissing -- the thump, the hissing and then the beeps. i heard the engine start to rev. my shop is located directly center of the rig with engine number three on my portside and engine number four on my starboard. i know which engines are on line

at any given time. i could hear engine no. 3 star to rev up -- start to rev up. the guardians were way above what i had ever heard before. it was continually and steadily rising i knew that we were having a problem. all the lights in my shop popped. the light bulbs themselves started to pop. i knew really -- i knew we were in trouble. i grabbed a door handle and the engine goes to levels let is higher than i can even describe. it is spinning so fast -- its soft -- it stopped spinning and then there was a huge explosion.

>> after that initial explosion, were there additional explosions? >> there was. that explosion blew the fire door that was between me and those spaces of the hinges. it blew the fire door and myself across the shop. within seconds, the co2 system started discharging. the co2 controller was inside my shop as well. i could not see anything. i could not breathe because of the co2. there was no oxygen. i crawled across the floor and found the opening and made my way out. i had a small flashlight in my pocket that i put in my mouth to try to see. i still could not see. i made it to the next door by a

seal and stayed on my hands and knees because i could feel the heat and i knew that if there was going to be in the oxygen at all, it would be at the bottom. as i reached the next door, i reached up and grabbed the handle for it and then it exploded. that was explosion no. 2. >> what was the time frame? >> i have no recollection of time. that explosion pushed me back 35 feet into another wall. as i clear that door, i remember getting are really angry. i do not know why i got angry. i was mad at the doors. the doors were beating me to death. two doors in a row hit me right in the forehead. it planted me against the wall somewhere. my arm would not work. my left leg would not work. i could not breathe.

i could not see. i knew that i had to get outside and get some fresh air. the co2 was overwhelming. as i am crawling through the area, i crawled across the bodies of at least two men. i do not know their condition and they are not responding. i assume that they are dead and i keep moving because i know that i am in no condition to help them. i can barely tell myself of this point. -- help myself at this point. the flooring was elevated about 2.5 feet. all the panels were missing. i was tripping and falling for this grid worked -- through this cribwogridwork. i could finally see light and i assume i'm headed in the right direction.

eventually, i make my way outside. i turned to the right, and i knew what little bit of breeze we had was coming off the starboard forward bal. -- forward bow. you always walk up when of fire and smoke. i turned to the right, and as i did, i got my bearings and got my eyes cleaned out where i could see and i noticed that there was no walkway. there were no hand rails and there was no stairwell left. one more step and i would have been in the water. at that point, i looked up the wall and the exhaust stack for engine number three, the wall, the hand rail, the walkway, all of those things were missing. there were completely blown off the back of the rig's.

-- they were completely blown off the back of the rig. i needed to go back to the left and head towards the star birdseye of the rig's. there are two lifeboats their. -- there. what i saw, what i heard and what i felt, i seriously considered launching a lifeboat by myself. i knew that something really bad had happened and it was not going to get any better any time soon. i had an inclination that this was worse than anyone could expect. i thought about it for a second and i remembered that i have responsibilities. i have a emergency station to go too. the problem was, my emergency

station no longer existed. i made a decision to put my life jacket on right there and try to make my way to the bridge, which would be my secondary muster stations. -- station. i made the determination that if i could not make it there, i will launch the lifeboat by myself. the hissing noise has turned into a full-blown war and i look at the dog house and the derek. the dog house is on fire and half of the derek is on fire. it is then that i realize that we had a blowout. i made might way of wind and walked across the main deck, all the way forward to the -- my way of wind and walked across the main deck, all the way forward. i told the captain that we have no power and no ecr.

he looked at me with a dazed and confused looked and i told him that we have no ecr. it has blown up. engine number three has blown up. we need to abandon ship, now. i just kept saying it over and over and over. at one point, i was told to come down, sit down, we are working on it. my supervisor walked over and assessed my injuries. he went looking for medical supplies and could not find any. he'd found a roll of toilet paper and began to try to stop the bleeding. i got enough of it out of my

eyes so that i could see. i got an of toilet paper on my head to stop the flow of blood into my eyes. i remember him asking about the standby generator. he was asking the captain if he wanted him to start the standby generator. he asked if it would give him any propulsion. he said no, it would give a sliding. it would give us the ability -- it would give us lighting. you have to have the stem by generator -- the standby generators. i would have to say that because you have to go back to the fire, the generator was located

adjacent to the dereck. it dawned on me that no one had volunteered to go with him. we were sending a manned by himself to try and start this generator. if there was going to be any success in that, we needed more than one man. i grabbed him by the shirt kaelin told him that he is not going by himself, that i was going with him. he objected to several times. and i said that if i do not go, you do not go. you are not going by yourself. at that point, another man, i believe his name was paul, grab ahold of my shirt tail and went back to the fire. we crossed the main deck and proceeded into the stand by a generator room and made several attempts to start this generator.

i do not know how long we were in their. we made several attempts. several times, which tried other things that steve thought of. as an electrical supervisor, he was very familiar with the standby generator. we could not get it to respond. the signal would come on telling me that the batteries were available, but the engine would not do anything. we decided to stop the attempt and make our way back to the bridge and report our findings to the captain. on the way back to the bridge is when i noticed that lifeboat no. 1 had descended and was motoring away. they had descended from the rig's. as we got back to the bridge, the captain announced that he had given the order to abandon

ship, that it was a lost cause and we would not be able to fight this fire and that it was time to leave. as we were making our way down the ladder way to get to the lifeboats, lifeboat no. 2 descended. now, the to forward lifeboats are gone. once they go down, there is no coming back up because we have no power. someone made mention of if we could make it to the aft lifeboats. when i left there, they were in good condition. i did not see any physical damage or fire on a life boat deck at all. there would be a huge risk to go back across the main deck. there are several mining -- minor explosions. we did not know which way the

derek would fall. we did not want to risk walking through there and having a fall on us. the decision was made to try to launch a life raft. there were three life rafts available to us. after what seemed like forever, we finally got one life raft or deployed -- one life raft deployed. we had an injured man with us. our first concern was to get him loaded. we were having difficulties with the draft and the angle with which to deploy. there was something on up in the arm. i am not sure what. there was a terrible and between the rig and a laugh last -- and the life raft.

eventually, they got him loaded and there was a crowd of folks trying to get into the small opening. i remember grabbing two people and backing them up against of walter we had a 20 football kid behind us that would shield us from the derek -- i remember grabbing two people and back them up against a wall. we had a bulkhead behind us that would shield from the derrick. the smoke and heat are intense. there was some type of backdraft occurring underneath the vessel and it was starting to wraparound and feed itself. at that point, i was not sure that the right -- the life raft was going to survive. there was so much heat coming up that i thought the life raft

might pop or melt and the people inside would cook. as we were waiting for an opening to develop for us to get into the life raft, when the whole finally developed and everyone had gotten in, the life raft deployed. there were three of us with no life raft and no lifeboats. there are two more life rafts at our disposal, but as long as it took the first one to deploy, i honestly did not feel like we would survive trying to deploy a second one. i did not know if we could successfully deploy another lifeboat in our condition. it was at that point that i am informed the other two individuals that we can stay here and die or we can jump. i remembered that in our training, they teach you to reach your hand around july traffic a run your life jacket

and take one step and fall. the problem is, there is no life raft at the bottom. -- there was a life raft at the bottom. we could injure somebody. i remember telling a young woman that we would have to run and jump. i remember her responding that she could not jump to rid -- could not jump. i remember the other individual jumping and told her that he just did it, that she had to do it. she said that she could not do it, so i told her to watch me. i cleared the life raft by a pretty good ways. once i hit the water, when i came back up, i could not see anything again. now i've got a new set of problems. i have a hydraulic fluid,

gasoline, diesel, what ever it is that is on the water is now burning my entire body. i cannot hardly breathe. i could feel the heat from the fire underneath the vessel. i started backstroking with the one arm and one leg that would work until i it remember feeling no pain, no heat, and i thought that that was it, that i had died. some time later, i felt the heat again and i kept thinking that i had to swim. i heard something in the distance. i heard, "over here, over here.

i did not know what it was, but i started swimming as hard as i could towards it. at one point, i did not hear the noise anymore or feel the pain anymore and then i felt something start lifting the about of the water. a small, orange rescue craft had grabbed me and flipped me over into the boat. i remember telling him that we need to give away from this fire. i was letting him know that the situation that we were in is normal. i said that i could not leave, that i still saw more lights. we retrieved a person, which was the dynamic position operator. at that point, i asked if we could leave.

they said that there was a raft in the water and there were more lights on the water. we proceeded to go back towards the rig again. now, we are close enough and i can feel the heat again. i see the life raft, and it is literally still under the rig's and i could see people outside of ththe life raft. we get up to them and throw them a line and i realize one of the man is the chief electrician -- mint is a chief electrician. i told him that i did not have a nice. our policy was no pocket knives. as we pulled the life raft away from where it was, it was still

tied off. there is a cutting device inside of the raft to cut the pager line. in the panic in the darkness, they could not find this cutting device. as we try to pull the life raft from the rig, it was not moving. we were simply stuck. finally, one of the gentleman that was in the life raft had a pocket knife and we got it to them and they cut loose and we pull ourselves over. >> thank you. just to go back, you had mentioned that there were several alarms going off indicating that there was a high gas levels when you are on the phone with your wife. is that right? >> that was a high gas little alarmed that came over the intercom system.

>> do you know at what level? >> at 200 units of gas, that is where all her work has to cease. >> use said you started hearing panel alarms. what were you referring to? >> there are operating stations for vessel control systems and those are the local panels. that is where they get all their data and that is how the control functions on the rig. >> did you hear any alarm that would indicate a general muster? >> never. >> are you familiar with the alarm that i am referring to? can you explain to me how that is set up as far as your knowledge as to how it is set up? what's the general alarm is set

up to inform the entire risk of any of three conditions, number one, fire, no. 2 combustible gas, and toxic gas. each alarm has a particular town. there is a red, yellow and blue color code. you get an audio tone and a visual tone with every general alarm. >> digit either one of those alarms -- did you get either one of those alarms? >> no sir. >> the you know why you did not? >> yes, they were bypassed. how do you know that they were bypassed? >> because i saw it on the screen. the correct word is inhibited.

>> can you explain what inhibited means? >> you have four states of alarms. if you have normal operating conditions, and inhibited condition, which simply means that the sensor is active, it is sensing, and it will give the information to the computer, but the computer will not trigger an alarm for it. it will give you an indication, but it will not trigger the actual alarm. there is an override condition which means that the computer will not consider that sensor for any purpose. >> were there any alarms that were in the override position? >> none that i am aware of. >> this, and i am not familiar with the deepwater horizon's alarm system, if you did it in

one area, what it shut in the air intake or black? >> that would be a bad analogy because there are no sensors in the engine room. how a system works is that there are several toxic and combustible gas sensors located in key areas. mainly around the drilling package. the drilling package being the key. secondary is all the air intakes. that could be from accommodations to engine rooms to machineries bases, anywhere that fresh air flows. all spaces are controlled with a band that forces air e.m. so that you can consistently circulate air.

and when you get this in one zone, the zone should trip an emergency shut down and you should sound of the general alarm. -- sam the general alarm. -- a sound of the general alarm. >> do you know whym this was inhibited? >> i had inquired about a year ago, and the answer i got that -- was that they did not want people woke up at 3:00 a.m. in the morning due to false alarms. >> did you voice a concern to anyone about the possible safety issues of that? >> yes, i did it, to the senior

officer on duty and my supervisor. >> who were they? >> one was tom fields, the supervisor that is no longer employed with transocean. the other one was steve, i would have to look at my notes for his last name. >> did anyone else know that the alarms were inhibited? >> in his normal course of duties, he would not see that page. >> who on the raid was in charge of that system? -- on the rig was in charge of that system? >> the operators were the first level. the second level would have been senior dp's . the third level would have been the chief mate. the next level would have been the captain and then often leave

the oim. >> were the all aware that the systems were inhibited? >> yes, sir. >> if the systems were not inhibited, would have prevented the initial explosion in your mind? i know that this is your opinion. i am not saying you know the cause of the incident, but if these were in place, would it have allowed personnel to get into an area that was safe and would have caused an explosion on the engines? >> objection, i do not know that this person has the capability to -- >> when you get two detectors to go high in one zone, that is

zone should trip. that will control the fire dampers in your power and your 11 switchboards. all of those things should trip. air supply for that affected zone should trip. also, you would sell the general alarm did it is how the system is designed. >> do you know, from your position, if the coast guard had ever given approval to have the systems inhibited? >> i do not know. >> i am going to move onto another subject. yesterday, we had a witness that referred to this well as the " wealth from hell from hell."

is this common on the rig? ? >> yes, it is. we have experienced a well very similar to this where we got stuck and had to have wild well control come out and we have to sever the pipe by putting a shot into the pipe. we lost it will completely. -- the well completely. now we are in another quarter of another zone, but this well exhibited those same characteristics. we were getting tons of gas back all the time. we got stuck. we have to sever the pie. it was deja vu all over again.

if i remember correctly, it was steven curtis who coined "the well from hell." he is now deceased. >> how long were you on the deepwater horizon? at any time did you hear a bp leader request that a driller bump it up? was he referring to? what's he was talking about the red of penetration -- >> he was talking about the break of penetration. within days, we blew the bottom of the well. >> the drill actually

penetrated? >> yes. >> i think you had indicated that you saw chunks of rubber. is that correct? >> yes, it is. >> can you explain that? >> prior to the accident, which would have put it back about five weeks, i was in the central shaft -- in the drill a shafshf. while troubleshooting and working on that system, a representative walked into the back of the doghouse and he had in his hand a double handful of

rubber. the only thing they're at that time is the only thing that is rubber down there and that is the annular. as he delivers these chunks of annular rubber, a look at the senior supervisor -- i look at the senior supervisor and i asked him what the hell that was. he said it is no big deal. that is normal. >> who is that? >> that would demarcate -- mark hague. it took me a few days to understand or to formulate why we were getting chunks of rubber back. there was an incident prior to that when we were in testing

mode and the annular was in close around the drill pipe. i got a call from the nighttime tool pusher to come investigate whether or not there was an input to the stick to hoist the block wall the annular was closed a. he said that the blockade moved 15 to 20 feet. we need to know why. myself and the electrical supervisor conducted an investigation. it was an informal investigation. we got into the chair log data and dissected the data. what we determined was that one of the styx was moved into

positive direction. we could not positively determined which stick. the tax system inside the log was not accurate enough. it's an awfully -- it simply said joy stick a and joystick b. we did confirm that there was joy stick input. -- joystick input. we confirmed that it was pushed but we could not confirm which stick. one of them have been given an input demand -- command. the annular was closed prior to chunks of rubber coming up. >> who is tommy daniels?

>> tommy daniels is the electrical supervisor. keeping on the topic, on the panel, was there ever a problem with a pressure regulator valves? >> yes sir, there was 3 >> could you elaborate? >> at about the same time of the inadvertent stick movement, and there was an issue with the bop control panel purge system. how that system works is the dog house is purged, so it is positive pressure and the panel inside the dog shaq is also purged, so that you have two

purged systems working simultaneously. another tool pusher had held the back door open to the doghouse for an extended period of time in the drilling shaft lost purge. -- and the drilling shaft lost purge. during this extended time frame of him having that door open, someone had opened both of the glass access doors to the b of the control panel, and it lost purge. i got a call from the ad on tower which was also one of the deceased, dawn clark. i was told that i was needed to the record immediately, that the panel was dead. buy it -- before i got up there, marquette already

arrived -- mark had already arrived. i informed him that i had worked on that system on the last rig moved and that i had discovered what the issue was with it. i told him i could get it started an automatic so it would work properly. -- in automatic so it would work properly. the repair that i made was really not a repair. it was a true to the system to give it to start an automatic mode. once it started, it would keep running until it lost purge. when it loses purge, the whole purpose is to power it off because it thinks that gas may be in there or something that is combustible.

i had trusted to run on automatic, so it was running in automatic mode for a period of weeks. it was not until it lost birds that turn itself off and i asked mark if he wanted me to started back in automatic. his exact words were, "no, and the damn thing has been in bypass four years. why did you even mess with it? as a matter of fact, the entire fleet runs in bypass." >> earlier, when i ask you a question about the chunks coming up, you made reference to

another problem. >> yes. >> can you tell me what was going on? >> that system is located in the doghouse. it is the main operating point for the driller to control drilling functions. it controls everything from mud pumps to top drive, hydraulics, it controls everything. for three or four months, we have had problems with this computer simply locking up. we even coined a of the term " blue screen of death." inside the doghouse, there is "b chair."

there are three chairs. we had ordered replacement hard drives from the manufacturer. we had actually ordered entire nearly new system -- an entirely new system to upgrade from the operating system that it was using. those computers were actually used on a very unstable platform. between the manufacturer and the rig, they could not get the bugs worked out of the new operating system. they could not get the old software to run correctly on the new operating system. our sister raid was going through those growing pains for a spirit we have already ordered the equipment, we were just waiting for them to make it

work. in the meantime, we were limping along with what we have. we ordered a new hard drives. they came in and wee got them back running. the chair would run for two or three days, and then it would crash again. tommy daniels was instrumental. i cannot tell you how many hours or days he spent focused entirely on getting these chairs resolved. be new to his position as a logical supervisor, he took it upon himself that he would resolve the issue. -- as electrical supervisor, he took it upon himself that he would resolve the issue. >> the correct -- do you

recollect if there was ever an incident when the "a chair" was down? >> not to my knowledge. >> do you know how long ago that incident was? >> not exactly. >> but it was down during an incident. >> it was discussed that the chair crashing caused the kick. the loss of the medications to the drilling package. they have no way to monitor any thing for several seconds. before they could get the "b chair" up, they got a kick. >> i want to go back to something we talked about earlier. when you talk about the pressure regulator valves, you said that

it was a policy that it be in bypassed for the entire fleet. >> yes. >> the know anything about the inhibited alarms on the other fleet. is there any thing you can think of? >> when i was on the deep water millenium, i was dirt out of bed by an alarm. -- i was jerked out of bed by an alarm. >> thank you. we reviewed a few audits on the maintenance of the deepwater horizon. can you touch upon the pipe wrecking system -- racking system? >> yes.

>> what was the condition of that? west german. >> jumpe-- junk. >> junk? >> yes. >>that was our number one downte caused. >> in some of your testimony, you said that it had been indicated that the raid had been scheduled to go to the shipyard for repairs. were you aware of that? >> yes, i was. >> were you going to be involved in that? >> my part of it would have been the complete rewiring of both pipe racking systems, top to bottom. >> who was on that to you?

>> it would have come down from the electrical supervisor. >> were you aware of an audit that occurred? >> i was, but i was not a part of it. >> did anyone present those items to you? >> no, they didn't. >> one thing that the audit also mentioned was that there was a personnel retaining issue on board the deepwater horizon. is that accurate? >> yes. >> due to have any issues within your means responsibilities because of that? -- do you have any issues within your responsibilities because of

that? >> no. >> whatever works have come and assist with maintenance was needed? >> yes sir. >> were they as confident as those others on the rig's? >> to my knowledge, yes. >> where did they come from? >> displaced from other rig's ad new hires. >> or the familiar with the systems they were working on under your supervision? >> the last two that i got from there were not. they were familiar with the electronics, but not our specific electronics. >> do you know who had control over personnel issues? >> no, i do not. >> thank you, sir. i have no further questions. >> mr. williams, just a couple of follow-ups. were you on the rig in 2008?

>> yes sir, i was. >> were you familiar with the brown out of that occurred? >> yes, i was. >> can you explain what happened? >> i cannot. i was part of the deck crew, then. it was light outside for us. the only thing that we knew was that the crane shut down. >> you worked on the emergency disconnects system? >> no sir, i have not. >> no more questions, thank you. >> good morning. i just have a few questions. you indicated that you were familiar with the censors. >> yesterday >> would to be familiar with the location of those sensors on the vessel? >> yes sir. >> will be familiar with the

locations of the intakes and automatic shutdowns on board the vessel? >> i could find everyone of them. >> you also indicated you were familiar with the pds system as well -- the eds system as well. >> yes. >> i have a couple of schematics of would like to put up and i would like you to go to those and indicate the location of where they are. >> yes sir.

[no audio] >> i am going to give you a blue pin. just for purposes of identifying [audio difficulties. >> the diagramming that we have a pierre is the deepwater horizon safety plan.

i would like you to go up to that diagram and take the blue marking pen and draw a circle around the gas sensors that you know are located on that level and around the engine room. >> can we pull this out further? >> certainly. >> that's better. >> the engine rooms themselves do not have gas detectors in them. >> are there some located on that level of the deepwater horizon?

>> yes. >> can you circle where those locations are? . . >> the main debt vince up here on both sides of the rerig -- te

main deck vents up here on both sides of the rick, we are not seeing that shell shakers on this level. >> when those alarms activated, where were you see the indication that they had activated? >> you would see the indication at that ccr and the ecr. >> could you take that blue pen and also draw locate -- -- >> circle around those locations as well? >> thank you, sir. he may sit down. -- you may sit down. i am going to ask a little more information about the gas

detection system which you previously described as you experience it on the evening of the 20th. can you take is in a step-by- step fashion and describe how the gas detection system is set up. what happens when an alarm activates, and then the sequence of events that is set in motion by that alarm. >> any detector that is in a normal state can go to a high stake are eight high-high stake, depending on the level of gas or toxins that are present in the atmosphere. when you get to those detectors to go high-tide in one designated zone, or if you get one detector in two adjoining zones, the system esd's at that point should trip, shutting down the air and electricity to that

space. at the same time, the general alarm should sound and individual alarm panel said in the ecr and ccr should also sound. >> or the engine rooms in a single zone or are there separate zones for each individual engine room? >> in regards to the fire and gas system, the engines only had a thermal detectors in them. they did not have a gas detector actually in the engine space. the only thing -- the only gas detection had for those is for the air intakes. the index had the gas sensors mounted to them. >> of each individual air intake has a gas sensor? >> not exactly. >> please explain. >> the two circles that i drew on the port and starboard side of the rig, those were " consider the main air intakes for the injuns basis.

one side -- for the engine spaces. >> i believe we have been told that each one of the engine turbos has a separate air intake. is that correct? >> yes. >> does each one of those have a separate center? >> no sir, they do not, not to my knowledge. >> when you describe that you basically have to have to alarms activated the hi-fi state within the same zone, what would set that in motion in this series of events that you described on the 20th? >> what would set the alarms in motion? >> you explain that you started to hear the engine over speed and you had heard the gas alarms triggered. >> what i heard were local alarms on the panel. i had no idea what type of alarms they were. i could just to the beep, beep,

beep on the panel. i did not know what alarms they were. i did not assume anything. i just knew i had a bunch of alarms coming in one on top of the other. as fast as i could acknowledge them, another one was going off behind it. >> you are not aware of for those alarms were going off as far as location? >> no idea. >> i believe you indicated that the gas detection system is also tied into the ventilation system automatic shutdown process. is that correct restore >> yes, sir pickett could you describe in more detail how that happens? >> we have 30 esd panels located throughout the rig. they are stand-alone, manually operated panels. there is i want to say between 12 and 14 buttons on that panel. each button corresponds to a set of functions that are going to

occur if you press it. emergency shutdown for say the drilling package was esd no. 4. i am familiar with that because we just recently tested it. it would have shut down the power to the rich lore, basically, shut down the air- conditioning, hydraulics, the block, it shut it all down. and it shut down the air intakes. so it functioned in manual mode. we never tested the automatic feature, to my knowledge. i never tested the automatic function of it. we did not go introduce gas somewhere to see what it would do. it was just understood that it would work. >> you indicated that when this series of alarms would go off, if you had to in the same zone, it would trigger that esd

system. with respect to shutting down a main engine, can you describe the sequence of events that would happen if those alarms triggered? >> if the fire dampers close, you lose your air intake to the engine and the engine would suffocate for lack of oxygen. i can say that thomas daniels explain to me one time that an esd got rid of him accidentally and shut down an engine ventilation intake, and it's up to the fire doors off the hinges in the engine kept running. it was looking for air, and it just literally sucked the doors off the hinges. so those esd's were never tested because of that risk. so the function of them was to snuff out the engines. if it cannot get air, it cannot run.

>> are you familiar with the term read saver? kent -- rig saver? >> i honestly do not know. >> we had some testimony from the trechief engineer. is it your understanding, and i refer to that -- i believe is termed a standby generators. what is the difference between a stand by an emergency generator? >> an emergency generator would give you entire read power, where a standby generators is available to do very little, honestly. is there to assist you to get your main generators back on

line. >> are you familiar with what happens if you have an engine running and a generator running, and for some reason it trips off the line, is there a standby ready to pick up the load all the time? in this case here, if the no. 3 engine tripped off the line and exploded for whatever reason, there was a designated secondary engine that should have started and picked up the load. >> correct. >> if in fact that secondary engine does not start, what happens? >> within 10 minutes, the standby generators should have cranked. >> he said within 10 minutes. i believe that is also what [unintelligible] explain to us. is it your impression that that restart within 10 minutes is basically automatic, that no one needs to push additional bonds or switches are turnabouts or anything else to make that happen? >> that's how i was b.g.e. that is how i was explained that the

system worked. the only testing of the standby generator, to my knowledge, was a manual start, just make sure it would crank and run. >> when the chief engineer was here, he explained to us that when you all went down to the backup generators location to try to start, that he switched it from automatic imanuel. do you recall that happening? >> yes, sir. >> would that be the normal process as far as you understand it to start that generator? >> yes, sir. >> would that be because 10 minutes had not elapsed since the main shutdown -- since the shutdown of maine power plant gregoire >> we did not care about that. we wanted the generator on line. >> thank you.

thank you, sir. i have no further questions for you at this point. >> mr. williams, he recently stated a few moments ago the outboard air intakes on the port and starboard side cover all three engine rooms on each side crest or >> yes, sir brigance we have received testimony earlier in the second hearing that there are two air intakes located under the risers feet engine room 3 and 4. are you familiar with those caused more >> yes, sir. they are directly under the riser stake. >> what do those vents fee? >> they are also feeding into the engine spaces. >> you have to import into out war on each side? >> yes, sir. >> all right, thank you. -- you have to importwo in boaro

outboard on each side. >> the p a system would be the only other men'means of communication. it was anyone else monitoring at from the bridge? >> there was personnel on the bridge. >> so the people on the bridge, if they saw high-high alarm would then notify the people in those zones that there was a gas situation? >> that was their plan, yes. they were going to be the ones to interpret what the gas alarms did and make the determination themselves to sound the alarm or not. that is the way it was explained to meet your >> who were those people? what position did they hold? >> dpo and senior dpo.

>> you indicated that there were some alarms that were bypassed, is that correct? the vessel has a bypass log that is maintained? >> not to my knowledge. >> so who tracked these bypasses? >> the inhibited alarm? to my knowledge, no one track it. >> so if there was other safety devices that was bypassed on the deepwater horizon, to your knowledge, there is no procedure in terms of documenting and remove it -- approving them, closing them out? >> there was for individual detectors. >> but there is no one bypass log that is maintained to track all the items? >> there was a log for

individual detectors and sensors, a hand written log. as they would get an erroneous reading or a fault condition that would display, they would write in the logbook and they would call me so i could put it on my list. as far as the general alarm, no law that i am aware of. >> -- note lono log that i am a. >> should they approve these bypasses before they bypass? [inaudible] >> thank you.

i was just asking was there a procedure to spell out how these bypasses are documented and tracked. >> just so we are clear on terminology, he is not using the word bypasses. i just want to make sure we are all on the same page. >> is just a general term i use, when the safety device or alarm is not in the proper condition, that some action is taken to bypass or inhibit it, or whatever it is. >> i am just concerned that there are two different modes, one being bypassed and one inhibited. we are talking about an inhibited alarm condition at this point. your question is whether the oim or the vessel master should know about this condition? >> these discrepancies, and how they are followed up and closed out.

if there is one that you know. [inaudible] >> when i started in the et schaub officially in april of 2009, the fire and gas system was a wreck. there were several detectors that were faulty, overridden, and completely ignored out of the system due to lack of maintenance. i took it upon myself and my assistant to rectify that, and we got the fire and gas system back up to stufsnuff.

i made a point every pitch, when i got out there, the first thing i did was go to the station and see how many detectors were inhibited, how many senses were inhibited, how many were overridden, how many were faulty. because that was my primary concern when i got to the rig, was my own safety. during on it, bp audit, i guess it was august of 2009, they discovered how terrible the fire and gas system was, and it was brought up in their audit. it was actually noted. during that time, there was no tracking of the fire and gas system, to my knowledge. there was one dpo done it this way and another when done it

another way. there was no standard procedure for tracking fire and gas. after the audit came the log book. we had an actual, physical block that the senior dpo was the only one to write in it. he or she would write in it when the alarm faulted, what zone, location, everything, and then when it was repaired and who was repaired by, and the date, so that we cannot let fire in gas get in the condition it was when i started. does that answer your question? >> it helps paint a picture here for me. >> you mentioned the bp maritime insurance on it. did you participate in an audit?

>> no sir, i did not participate. >> have you ever participate in any external audits or surveys? >> one, abs. >> can you elaborate on that? >> an abs represented came out and my entire function with him was fire and gas. he allowed me to pick which smoke detectors i wanted to put smoke to, which toxic and which combustible. he also ensured that we tested all six of the infrared they are located in the engines basis. we did test each one of those. it was not a pick and choose, we tested all the engines. he was satisfied with the results of the test. >> do you know whether that was

for a class survey or was it relating to regulatory -- you don't know. the first part of your answer, something about he allowed you to pick and choose which ones to test customer >> yes, he did. he told me to pick, i recall six smoke detectors, and he gave me general areas of where to pick them, one from accommodations, one from a -- -- machinery space, one from an office space. he let me pick the numbers, and he stood by on the bridge while i went and shot smoke to it to make sure we would get the indication and get the alarm. >> if the abs surveyor was conducting that activity on behalf of the [unintelligible] do you think it was appropriate for him to allow you to pick and choose? >> i thought it was a little

strange for him to allow me to pick the ones i wanted. it sure made it easier on me, i picked the easiest ones to get to. >> indicated that during the event when you were up on the bridge and you were asking the captain about starting the standby generators, and he was asking you what about the generator? >> no one asked me anything about the generator. >> he said what does the generator due, is that correct? >> the capt. inquiry about would give us fire pumps, a way to fight fire. >> should he have known that before hand? >> there are a couple of cab

drivers out there we could ask the same question to. >> i appreciate that, sir. >> this is not something this man can answer. he cannot judge the captain. [inaudible] >> there is no reason for that. >> your objections are noted. please sit down, please. now, let's back up a little bit. who is responsible for the safety of the vessel and the personnel aboard the vessel, as you understand? >> it depends on whether we are latched up or under way. >> let's say, when you are on the way, who is responsible for the vessel and the personnel on

board the vessel? >> the master. >> to the master of the vessel -- should the master of the vessel know what the standby generators is capable of supplying? >> i have not looked at his job -- it was something i heard him ask out loud. it was not directed at me. >> a lot of the testimony we have received relating to the problem incidence of the vessel. has america, how long have you serve that seek -- as a mariner, how long have you served at sea?

>> just the three years with transaction. >> are you familiar with international said he management -- saved the management -- how long were you serving on the deepwater horizon? >> just shy of two years. >> did have a safety management system aboard the vessel? >> we had the hs manual. >> can you describe to me what you know about the hs manual? >> help, safety and environmental -- they changed it to h and s menu. that was our bible. that laid out what we could and could not do. >> what is in that? >> a little bit of everything.

it is a very thick -- several hundred pages. >> does it describe the relationship between who is in charge, under what conditions they are responsible for that role in that manual question or >> i never read that page, if it is in there. >> any references on the vessel that relate to who is in charge? >> not to my knowledge. >> how about in the hs manual, does it describe how equipment discrepancies it documented, attract, and resolved? -- help equipment discrepancies get documented, track, and result? >> can you rephrase the question? >> does it describe how

equipment failures it documented, track, and resolved? >> not to my knowledge. >> how about equipment maintenance schedules press mark >> no, that is not in there. >> so is there any guidance on board the vessel with regard to -- a lot of these maintenance issues, equipment discrepancies, a lot of people side as the reason it is in order. a lot of items did not been completed in that period of time. i just wonder whether there is a system that really documented and follow through on some of these items. so to your knowledge, there is not, on board the vessel?

>> the rms system was the forum that i used to track my workload and to document what i have done for any system i have worked on. >> that is the rig management system. so you have the hs manual system that use and then the rate management system, but as for a juneau, in terms of the safety management system on board the vessel, you are not familiar with that quiz more cracks not a stand-alone document, no. >> so the risk-management system, he testified there was not a perfect fit. is that your experience also

question or >> yes, it was overwhelming. >> it did not match up with the system on board the vessel, is that correct? >> a lot of the equipment they wanted us to do maintenance on, we did not have. some of the equipment that needed maintenance was not included. there was a lot of redundancy from the impact system, which was the previous maintenance system. when they did the merger, they imported all the data from the impact system, and the corporate [unintelligible] a lot of times would be identical to the ones that came over from impact. sometimes we would have four different listings for the same job. there was a lot of that that we were still working through. i personally put in probably 100 change requests over the

previous three or four months, to eliminate some of our work load that was redundant or did not apply. >> so you got this rig maintenance system deployed on the vessel that was not a perfect fit. i understand from the testimony this morning about the software that also had problems. >> yes. those are not related, though. >> i understand, the overall picture of -- >> the chairs themselves work completely independent and isolated from the entire river network so there was no chance of infection, virus, hacking, there was no opportunity for that. >> and there is no system to track some of these bypasses or

abnormal conditions of the system. do you think some of these things, these examples, resulted in the condition that you found with regard to the condition of the gas and fire system when you took over, or do you think there is another reason why the conditions that she found -- that you found -- >> i think it was a combination of reasons. >> i just have a couple of questions. i should have addressed this earlier. you indicated you are familiar with the damper assistance and

in particular concerning the engine rooms. if i ask to go up to the diagram, could you indicate the position of those dampers? could you just go up there encircle the location of those dampers for me, please? thank you, you can sit down. >> are there any on the turbos? fire dampers? >> there are, across the back deck, but there is no fire and gas -- there are no detectors

that it is back there that i am aware of. >> in the course of your responsibilities in respect to maintenance, did you have any duties with respect to maintaining the fire dampers? >> yes. >> what are those responsibilities? >> ensure that the signal given to open or close the deborah was received and that the actuator function. >> how frequently did you test those mechanisms? >> i did not, the marine department did. >> so you are responsible for the censors but not with respect to activation? >> yes. >> thank you. it has been about

.

>> next, a rally in louisiana to lift the moratorium on off-shore drilling. then president obama discusseses new regulations law and other matters. after that, house majority leader steny highwayer -- hoyer talks about the economy and job creation. today on "washington journal" -- we look at whether using contractors to pursue intelligence compromises national security. "usa today" reporter fredreka schouten examines how much has been spent on house and senate races through the end of june. and erik telford, executive director of the right online conference, describes how onlean social network and media

sites are used to promote the conservative agenda. "washington journal," live at 7:00 a.m. eastern, on c-span. >> this weekend, former "new york times" public editor on the changing world of the newspaper industry. >> i worry about some of the standards and maintaining journalistic integrity as we move from one media world to another. >> clark hoyt, sunday night on c-span's "q&a." >> a rally was held wednesday in lafayette, louisiana, to protest the federal moratorium on drilling in the gulf of mexico. speakers discuss the economic impact on their lives and businesses. in this portion, you'll hear from the wife of an off-shore oil worker, a former president of shell oil, a petroleum consultant, and the c.e.o. of the louisiana restaurant association. this is about 50 minutes.

>> in three years, we were able to turn our financial situation around. i got a job working for the local paper, and we set about making a new beginning for us. we worked really hard, and we saved. and recently we were able to again buy a home for our family. my husband is an off-shore oil worker. he works hard for us. and by the calluses of his hands -- by the calluses of his hands and by the sweat of his brow, he keeps this nation moving from coast to coast.

every 14 days we kiss him goodbye, well understanding that he may not come back to us. that's a decision that he made for our family and for our people. this is the firefighter, the policeman, and the soldier who makes a decision to protect and serve, so does my husband. my husband is a hero. three days after we signed closing papers on our new house, the moratorium hit. my husband was again without viable work and essentially spent every ounce of our savings for our new home we met with the devastate being reality that once again we were back to square one. my husband went immediately to work in his company shop making $10 an hour with mandatory no overtime, and now that little job i took to save for our house is all that stands between us and losing our new home. i put a claim in to b.p..

that was almost eight weeks ago, and i've left no less than 10 messages. when i did finally get through, i was gven a list of things i need to provide to them and told to wait for the adjuster to call. to date, no one has called me. the list included a letter from my husband's employers explaining that our government had ended our income and left my family to ruin. unfortunately, our company still has contract with b.p. and their lawyers are not sure if it would be good for the company to write such a letter. but we have to wait. for how long? i don't know. recently i had the opportunity to go to louisiana with the louisiana press association. i didn't have to go, but i wanted to go because i wanted to see for myself what the circumstances were on our coastline, and i did see. i saw a parrish president who was screaming for help for his people, for our people. i saw exhausted louisiana wild life and fisheries workers torn

up over the grief of the loss of an entire ecosystem. i saw our governor, bobby jindal, worn out from a never-ending mount of federal and b.p.-related incompetence, and yet he still took the time -- [applause] -- he still took the time to hold my hand and talk to me. together, we shared grief for my family and for our coastline. i looked straight into the eyes of the brown pelicans and other wildlife who are lost and dripping with the blood of our mother earth. but the most startling thing i saw that day is not what i saw, it's what i heard. nothing. on a boat in a marsh that should have been crawling with life, i heard nothing, no birds, no insects, nothing. the earth is dead there. the plant life soaking in crude is dead or dying. upon returning i couldn't get the images out of my head of what i witnessed.

the voice of this generation's fishermen, who are the sixth generation of son setting his feet left over in an uncertain future, the waves with oil rising and falling, the collective sound of a culture and a people crying out for assistance while fingers are pointed and hearings are held. to what lasting effect the oil spill will have on our people and environment, that remains to be seen, but i say, let that effect be the story of not only survival, but of overcoming, just as the story has always read, there are other things i saw that day, things that made me swell with pride to live among the disease, those who keep working without respirators, without the equipment they need, without hope for a paycheck in the near future, true stories of the warriors of this nation, the fishermen, the crabbers, the shrimpers, the oystermen, the

off-shore oil worker, those who carry the torch of the day in their back pocket. those who, in the words of bobby joinedal, will not wait to save our coast. they will not wait to save their families. they will not wait to offer their hands to the service of our people. let us serve our alarm -- we will not go softly. we will come forth by the thousands, and we will reclaim all that we have lost. we will not let our wildlife be destroyed. we will not let our livelihoods be lost. we will not let our people in any form be alone. i challenge you all on this day to stand, find your cause, find

your courage, find yourself, find your god, and be an author of aid in faith, because in this war, we must all be warriors. god bless us. god bless the state of louisiana. >> thank you. you know, when i visit across the nation with folks and they ask me, as a heartbroken or am i heartbroken, my response is,

every louisianan look at the b.p. oil spill and it makes us sad. but the moratorium makes us mad. let me hear you if you're mad. our next speaker, before his retirement from shell oil company in 2008, he founded citizens for affordable energy, a public policy education firm that promotes sound u.s. energy security solutions for the nation. this speaker just doesn't talk the talk, he walks the walk, perhaps the biggest corporate sponsor of save america's town day, please welcome a great friend of louisiana, former c.e.o. of shell oil company.

>> mr. president, i listen to you. i believed your message. i worked for you. i voted for you. i didn't expect -- i didn't expect -- i didn't expect the boots of your secretary on my neck and the industry that i love when i did that. and even more, mr. president, i did not expect your boots on the neck of louisianans. you're making the mistake of the seven predecessors that you

have followed, mr. president. you are doing exactly what they did, which is leading this country toward an energy abyss. you are turning energy into politics. we cannot have a nation, we cannot have the world's largest economy and turn energy into simple day-to-day, flavor of the day politics, mr. president. i sat through six congressional hearings in my tenure as shell president. i have the tongue lashing still on my back because your senators, your congressmen put

them there, asking why oil prices, why gasoline prices were so high in 2006 and 2007 and 2008, and i told you then, when you were a senator, and i told your colleagues then -- if you don't allow the american industry and the workers of the oil and gas industry to drill, you will have high gas prices. but you're not listening. you are stopping the drilling that's taking place today. that will ultimately save this country hundreds of billions of dollars of otherwise buying foreign oil. that drilling will put tens of billions of dollars of royalties, hundreds of billions of dollars of hard-earned tax money into the american

economy, but you don't want it. it's time for common sense. it's time for common sense. to make gulf sense. and common sense means we produce our own energy in this country. we don't buy other people's energy. 9.2 million people go to work in the oil and gas industry. everybody should know that. don't lay off the 50,000 people that are working on those rigs, to support those rigs, and to build the equipment for those rigs. it's time to change the game. it's time to bring common sense to the american discussion on

our energy future. we have three enemies that are attacking us as we live here. the first enemy is misinformation that you are perpetrating. the second enemy is disinformation, which your colleagues are perpetrating. and the third enemy is lack of information, which you are not sharing. as dan said earlier, 10,000 gallons a second -- 10,000 gallons a second. the east coast anti-drillers and the west coast anti-drillers apparently mean more to you than the gulf coast drillers. and it's costing us all our

dignity in addition to our paychecks. here's what's wrong. what's wrong is that the partisanship that is taking place inside the beltway today is paralyzing this country from making any decisions in the interest of the people. the partisan paralysis of the right wing or the partisan paralysis of the left wing are hurting the americans, i'm of whom live in the middle between this left and right-ring government. but it's worth. and mr. president, you're part of this problem. you made promises you're not delivering. here's the problem. the problem is, in your own executive branch, which i've dealt with for years and years, why do you have 13 executive

branch agencies who miss manage the energy of this nation? we know from can a tree, we know from rita, we know from all of the zast there's we have suffered across the gulf coast, these 13 agencies cannot work together. they do not work together. they will not work together. and we suffer the consequences. but it's worse than that. can we please have an answer? can the american people please have an answer? why do we have to have 26 congressional committees and subcommittees governing our energy? why 26? why not one or two? why 26? they're mismanaging it also.

we have a situation, ladies and gentlemen, as sure as we're sitting here, our united states government is dysfunctional, it's broken, and it is unfixable in its current form. i started citizens for affordable energy for a very simple reason. citizens for affordable energy nationwide, grass roots, every day people, the simple reason is, ladies and gentlemen, i've given up on the federal government fixing itself.

we've been promised energy independence by a president. we've been promised energy independence by 18 congresses. they have not delivered. we are more dependent today, especially with this moratorium, than we ever were in our history. so now is the time, and we have the ability to do this, and you know where i'm going. you know where we're all going. we're going to take our country back, ladies and gentlemen. the citizens of this country are taking our country back.

the moratorium is a needle in our eye. question don't need a needle in our eye. we need jobs, we need paychecks, and we need energy. we do not need politicians playing politics with the energy and the jobs that make this nation what it is. what we need are citizens who will tell the government who works for who. we are thousands strong today. in lafayette, louisiana. we are hundreds of thousands and millions and tens of millions of people strong when we tell the truth to our elected officials in november. we want to take our country back.

we have more energy in this gulf of mexico, we have more energy in this united states of america than this nation will ever need. let us produce it. and the jobs and the lifestyles and the network of all the companies, we will pay down the deficit that you have created. because energy is at the base, energy is at the heart of our nation's economy. it's not only the gasoline in our tanks, it's not only the diesel in our trucks, it is also the clothes we wear, the homes we live in, the toys we play with, the electronics that we use. mr. president, don't forget, energy and oil and chemicals

touch us, everything in our lives. let us produce it, please. but if you persist, if you continue to play politics with people's lives in louisiana, there will be a congs. and that congress will show up and it's called pain at the pump. and in 2012, mr. president, when the gasoline price is $5 a gallon, your administration on all of your dreams are toast.

please listen. please listen and learn from the people of your country. the citizens of the united states of america can have, should have, must have affordable energy to keep this nation strong. thank you, ladies and gentlemen. >> thanks, john. and thanks to the thousands of jobs you have helped create in our state and our region in your time at shell oil company. our next speaker, mr. c.j. mcdonald, grew up in our oil fields. he's a regular guy that has continued in that tradition as a petroleum consultant, working his way up the ladder. he's not only held many different positions in the

industry, he's helped develop equipment and train countless workers who are still in the oil field today. let's hear from a guy who does it every day, c.j. mcdonald. >> i'd like to offer condolences to the members of the families, the deep water horizon. many of us are close to the situation like that. i'd like to thank everyone who's riisen to the call today to support by industry and all effect. during the first meeting we had, mr. don briggs asked us all in the room that were present, can we really do this? could we pack this dome? get our message out to the

nation? and could we get every american to realize that this moratorium does affect us all? every one of us. this would need to be a lasting commitment. we would not start on this road. looking around, seems like we've done that. we've built this place up. you all fill it up. everybody supported us. we realize the moratorium on deep water drilling could support our way of life, our fruits. it's rather a direct message to the president, to the rest of the nation that we are too important to ignore. we matter. it will not end when we all end here today. we must continue to spread this message that this moratorium must be lifted, protect all

that are special to us. we've all been complacent by electing people to positions and allowing them to make decisions that affect our everyday lives and the fruits of our children. i've been blessed for 27 years in the oil field. industry has been very good to me, my family. i have family in the sea food industry. this has been a good industry for many of us around the world. we've sacrificed much of our family lives to support our families, our state, and our nation. we've gone without seeing our families for long stretches of a time, missing our children's first step, missing their first words, their birthdays. we don't complain because we built an industry that brought technology and wealth to our region, to our nation, and to many other nations around the world.

we had the satisfaction that knowing this has brought many to the lives of our people. why has all this good exchange brought about one decision made for someone who knows nothing about how we make our living? leaving many of our freedoms have already been chiseled little by little. this decision here has caused a much larger piece of our freedom than many realize. we're not blind to what brought us here today. we as an industry take responsibility for our action. we hold ourselves accountable when mistakes are made. we are witnessing how one company's bad decision affected an entire ecological system, the gulf coast states, and the nation. mistakes were made, but seasons may not have been followed, but none of us in this entire industry would kill any of our

co-workers. we operate daily in a safe environment. we have proper procedures to follow, and we do it. we watch out for our brothers working next to us, as a team on every rig on our land. few people that choose to take shortcuts and not follow our industry. we make every effort ourselves. after all, i enjoy living. we all do. we all look after each other. we as americans have to make a stand, make it very clear to washington and all of our elected officials that they work for us.

we pay for, we vote them into positions to handle our affairs. we ask due diligence to go into the voting machine and weeding out those that are there for personal gain at the expense of our livelihoods and our way of life. washington and everyone concerned needs to hear and realize the message from the gulf states and all of us here at the day june dome, the moratorium impacts every aspect in the industry. one of our world's best ways of life is at risk. it is time that we are heard. no one should ever have the power to diminish the freedoms and liberty that is we enjoy, that so many of us have died for.

we are not perfect, but we are important, because we touch every industry in the world and every household in america throughout the world. we want this ban lifted. we want our jobs back. we want our freedoms restored. we want to hand down our way of life, a good and honorable life to our children. we realize we have a new charge going forward. we need to bring up a new generation of workers that work hand in hand of bringing us to the forefront of a greener planet. we must depend less on the rest of the world for our energy, go back to being self-made americans. this moratorium must be lifted now. thank you.

>> thanks, c.j., for those great words. our next speaker knows a thing or two about our great louisiana seafood brand. understand that we will get ready to hear from a speaker who makes a living promoting louisiana seafood, and he's here at an oil and gas rally to lift the moratorium. that tells thaw this is a unique slice of america where we can have it all, where we can fish, hunt, and at the same time, find america's energy, there's no doubt about it. this next speaker has the responsibility of leading the state deficit and make sure that every restaurant in the world knows that if it comes from louisiana, you can bet it's the best. please welcome the executive director of the louisiana seafood promotion and marketing board and producer of the great

american seafood kickoff at arizona food network, mr. smith. >> whose mama knows how to cook louisiana seafood in the room? the rallies for economics should not be held right here in new orleans. it should be held -- it could be held in detroit. it could be held in fresno. it could be held in carson city, nevada. see, the unemployment rate this those areas are over 12%, and we're historically below 4% or 5%. the president is piling one crisis on top of the other and going to kill us. it's absolutely going to kill us. i want to ask you all a couple of questions. i've been listening to the other speakers speak.

and it got me thinking. so he want you all to simply answer yes or no. and i want you all to say it loud to the people in d.c.. are you with me? are you with me? does the president really care about our oil communities? does the president care about our fishing communities? does he care about the people of louisiana, mississippi, alabama, florida, or texas? does he understand the profound impact he's going to have on this country, the economy of this country? you see, folks, we're facing two challenges. the louisiana industry is facing two challenges. they both come from the federal level.

let me talk about the safety of seafood for a second. every agency that we work with, e.p.a., nooa, all those agencies have given us a clean bill of health. and we're waiting on f.d.a. f.d.a. is simply holding us up by protocol. if they let us get back to work, we could get back to work. our fishing communities could be back at 86% of our shorelines, but we're not there. some of the city are coming this week, they're going to start having a hard time getting products because of the f.d.a. sitting on their hands. and, of course, the other challenge is why we're sitting here today. and i'll be very candid. when i learned about the moratorium, like probably everybody else in this room, you all probably said, is that for real? really?

our fishing communities and what a lot of people don't understand is people have a hard time relating to it, because they're far away from us. but our fishing communities and our seafood communities coexist. everybody understands that. it's our brothers, it's our aunts, it's our uncles. some people, like c.j., have family members that do both. they may be fishing part-time. they may it be on an oil rig part-time. a friend of ours, a.c. cooper down in louisiana, 18th generation shrimper, his father was a shrimper, and he hasn't been able to go out shrimping like so many people in this

room go out shrimping. his wife and he have a restaurant down in very much is, louisiana. anybody that's down to venice, you know that is an oil city as well. their business is going to suffer. these two businesses are like this. again, we're tied together. this story can be told thousands of thousands upon times. the ripple effect in our own state, our own fishermen who have been knocked down to their knees, and now the president and his administration are putting the foot on their necks, and it's going to kill us. i got a homework assignment for you all. you got an iphone with you, blackberry with you, pen and paper, take this email down.

louisianaseafoodnews.com. one thing we do in louisiana, we come together as a community. louisiana seafood board, our job is to make sure the markets are available for our fishermen. they bring their product to market around the country. following katrina, by the way, folks, we got the best chefs in the world. louisiana, we got the best product in the world to work with in louisiana. but we come together, we come together as a community, and we come together in spirit, and we fight to survive. what i need your help with, that website i just mentioned, we hired a former cbs news correspondent, and he's got a team of reporters on the ground writing stories about real people in louisiana, real people in louisiana, both in every industry that it's going to affect, including the oil industry, because this is the relationship we have with our restaurant industry, the layers

go on and on and on as you all know. so y'all could do me a favor, our fishing communities a favor, your communities a favor. get on that website, send it to everybody you know. 20,000 people could affect 40,000, 80%, and on and on, the reach will be tremendous. now, i'm going to close with a quote from the president. everybody's been following the unemployment issue, and this is what the president said on monday. you all ready for this? it's time to stop workers being laid off in this recession hostage to washington politics. all along, it's time to do what's right, not for the next election, but for the middle class.

we mentioned some of our relatives and cousin that is we were talking about. i got to throw in others, all your oyster families. folks, we are the people of louisiana. it's the spirit of louisiana, the president just needs to let us go back to work. the president needs to let us see americans, the president needs to let us be americans and do our job and let us do our job now. thank you all. thank you, thank you so much. and we're going to continue to remind the country that we can do two things at one time in louisiana. we can fish, and we can drill. i want to acknowledge and thank the members of the louisiana legislature that are here today. hold your applause. they have been great supporters

of this industry. we have representative nancy landry, representative paige, representative fred mills, senator troy ebert, represent sive simon, representative gordon dove, representative joel, and please join with me in thanking them for being a part of today. we're getting very close to the end. our next speaker understands very well how the moratorium is impacting one of our proudest parts, one of the proudest parts of our louisiana economy, our restaurant business. he has dedicated his life to making the louisiana restaurant experience among the best in the world. please help me welcome the president and c.e.o. of the louisiana restaurant association. >> hello!

how are you doing? i have the pleasure of the last 29 years and six months and a few days to work for the best restaurants of the world, and many of them are located right here in louisiana. you know, we all talk about restaurants. we all talk about eating in restaurants. and we talk around here about who has the best oyster, who has the best shrimp poor boy, what was the size of them oysters, was they salty. you know, that's what we take as our heritage. zpwiths we're really proud of, our seafood, our way of life, and our restaurants. restaurants are big business in this state, particularly in this area. in the five congressional districts, there are over 105,000 people that are employed directly for restaurants.

so if this moratorium comes to pass, if we don't stop it, it's going to have a detrimental impact on your favorite restaurants. i just want to try something real quick. everybody on this side of the room, just this side, if i ask you to send us and say holler your favorite restaurant's name on three, will you do it? ok. stand up. and even -- there are a lot of restaurants that closed today just to come to this business. go ahead and brag on your restaurant. here we go. you people be thinking about your favorite restaurant. one, two, three. ok, let's try the middle section.

stand up. think about your favorite restaurants. and on three, ready? one, two, three. wow. ok. i don't know if this side can be as loud as this side and that side or not. you can? ok, be thinking real hard, your favorite restaurant. all right. on three, stand up. here you go. y'all can do it. on three. one, two, three. wow. that's great. you know, hearing the gentleman a few minutes ago talk about burnt toast, maybe we could get our restaurants to have a burnt toast day in honor that have

guy in the white house. you know, we're really concerned about this and the restaurant industry is doing everything we can to support our oil industry, and we will continue to do so. i would just like to close with one question -- two questions actually. if anybody in the room is for the moratorium, stand up and say yes. on three. one, two, three. ok. all opposed to the moratorium, stand up and say no so loud they can hear it in the white house. stand up. all right, one, two, three. no! thank you.

>> and our final speaker, want to thank jim funk for being here and showing the nation as we speak to the nation today and let us not forget we are speaking to the nation today that we had folks from the seafood industry and the restaurant industry who want to help us. our final speaker began his career in the oil and gas industry some 45 years ago and can currently serving as the president of the louisiana oil and gas association, spending every day striving to make will you please will you a state where the oil and gas industry was willing to spend its money and we can enjoy the frulets of this hard work, at the same time making sure we do it in harmony with the environment. please put your hands together for one of the organizers of this event, the president of the louisiana oil and gas association.

>> well, i'm pinch-hitting. and i'm not going to use it. i always speak from my heart, so that's what i'm going to do with you right now. you know, i was reminded of a quote from andrew jackson. he said where one man has courage, you makes the majority. well, in here today, we've had 12,000 people with courage. today, we have right now over 3,000 people watching this on the internet through our website. and millions watching it on television. you know, when we sit back and look what's happening to us, it

you know, we think about our courage, we remember the mid 198 's in this state, in our community in the south. and we knew the courage that it took for us all to stand up, pull our boots back on, because we lost literally thousands and thousands of jobs throughout our country and throughout our state. today, you think about all the people in this room, in the next few weeks, in the next month, in this stadium, we'll represent the easy, the number of jobs that we will have lost at least 10,000 to 12,000 people here in the next few months. you know, it's a shame to say that that it's politically safer to drill in angola, mr. president, than it is in our own gulf of mexico. it is hard to believe that prior to this moratorium that

85% of our natural resources in the united states were off limits for drilling. today, 99.9% of everything is off limits in the united states to drill. hard to believe. so all i can say is this -- we're in a fight, and we're going to make it a good fight. and we care, we love our country, we love our state, and we love the industry and our community that we're in. and mr. obama, lift that moratorium. thank you. >> before i close, i also want to recognize from the state legislature, state representative taylor, state representative jonathan terry, and state representative johnny ginn. please join me in thanking them for being here as well.

in addition from our statewide officials, just like you heard earlier, we have u.s. senator david vitter with us. thank you, senator, for being here, as well as an attorney general who won't stop fighting for the people of louisiana, a great guy, attorney general buddy carwell, and the secretary of state, jay caldwell. thank you, gentlemen, for being here with us today. today we heard from our governmental leaders and other business people, restaurant people, energy, oil people, all individuals whose livelihood depends on this industry. and they depend on us all to send a message that we're louisiana, and this 18th state of the union will not back down. we will work together.

we do know how to persevere. we will find solutions. and yes, we will get back to work. our governor has made it clear that we don't want to happened out. our governor has made it clear we want to go to work. so now that you've attended the rally. you've made your voice heard. you've been a part of this historic event here in louisiana. what is the next step? you haven't joined the gulf economic survival team and sign the petition to president obama and the united states department of interior urging them to drop this moratorium and let us get back to business, then it's time for you to get on board with the 168,000 people from across the country to already join this effort and turn the gulf coast back to work. visit www.gest.la.gov to become a member and add your name to the petition. you also, through that site,

can write a letter to president obama and to interior secretary ken salazar, reminding him that louisiana's gulf coast does play a major role in the industry independence and security of our nation. most importantly, you must take the energy and enthusiasm of today's rally and continue to push forward, continue to work together, continue to persevere, and continue to make your voice heard. the great coach, vince lombardi, once said that individual commitment to a group effort is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, and a civilization work. this is your opportunity to make an individual commitment to a massive group effort, to save our industry, to save our economy, our way of life, and to get the folks of coastal louisiana back to work. as wlee today, let us always remember those who perished in the deep water horizon rig on

april 20. always remember to keep their families in your thoughts and prayers. i believe we live in a country where we can do two things at one time. but it takes hard work. is it's time to roll up our sleeves and let's go to work. mr. president, we need to you work on this job as you did trying to get this job. thank you! [captioning performed by national captioning institute] caps [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010]

>> 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. >> now president obama speaks about three new bills he signed into law is this week, an overhaul of financial regulation, an effort to reduce wasteful government payments, and an extension of unemployment benefits for the unemployed. he also calls on congress to send them a pill to help

struggling small businesses. this is about five minutes. >> first, i signed a wall street reform bill that will protect consumers and our entire economy from the recklessness and irresponsibility that led to the worst recession since the great depression. it's a reform that will help us put a stop to the abusive practices mortgage lenders and credit card companies and ensure that people get the strength, unvarnished information they need before they take out a loan or open a credit card. it will bring the shadowy deals that caused the financial crisis into the light of day. and it will end taxpayer bailouts of wall street firms and give shareholders a say on

executive compensation. the need for this reform, by the way, was underscored by the report issued by ken f.b.i.berg this morning, identifying a number of financial companies that continue to pay out lavish bonuses at the height of the financial crisis, even as they accepted billions of dollars in taxpayer assistance. second, i signed a law that will improve our ability to crack down on improper payments made by our government. every year, the government wastes tens of billions of dollars, taxpayer dollars, on erroneous payments to companies that haven't paid their taxes or prison inmates or even to people who died a long time ago. today we have the technology to block these payments, and the law i signed will give us new tools to do so. a set of targets to save at least $50 billion by 2012, savings that are more important today than ever because we simply don't have any money to

waste. third, we finally overcame the procedural blockade of a senate to restore unemployment insurance for about 2.5 million americans who are out of work and looking for a job. so taken together, we made enormous progress this week on wall street reform, on making sure that we're eliminating waste and abuse in government, and providing immediate assistance to people who are out there looking for work. but ultimately, our goal is to make sure the people who are looking for a job can find a job, and that's why it's so important for the senate to pass the additional cuts that i've asked for and expand lending for america's small businesses, our most important engine for hiring and for growth. and a small business jobs bill that contains these measures may come up for a final vote in the senate in the next few days. with this small business

business bill, we'll send up a fund to offer small business been and them the loans they need to grow and hire. we'll start states encourage more private sector loans to small businesses in industries like manufacturing or construction that have been especially hard hit by this recession. we'll more than double the size of loans our small business owners can take out. and to unlock the growth of our entrepreneurs. we'll finally do what i've been advocating sense i rinse for president, which is to eliminate capital gains taxes entirely for small businesses. last night, after a series of delays, the senate took an important step forward by supporting a lending fund in the overall small business jobs bill. i want to thank senators mary landreau and george lemieux for their leadership and advocacy on behalf of millions of small business people for whom this will make a meaningful

difference. i was heartened that the senators brought the party lines to help pass this provision last night, and i hope we can now finish the job, pass the small business jobs plan without delay and without additional partisan wrangling. you know, the small businessmen and women who write to me every day, folks who i've met with across this country, we can't afford any more political games. they need us to do what they sent us here to do. they didn't send us here to wadge a neverending campaign. they didn't sudden us here to do what's best for our political party. they send us here to do what's best for the united states of america and all its businesses, whether democrats or republicans or independents. in other words, they sent us here to govern, and that's what i hope we will do in the remaining days before the congress takes its august recess. thank you very much.

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> now house majority leader steny hoyer outlines the democrats' legislative agenda heading into the november midterm election. he also talks about democratic initiatives for the u.s. manufacturing sector and contrasts democratic and republican economic policy dating back to the great depression. the center for american progress action fund hosted this 50-minute event. american progress action fund posted this month. >> i am the executive vice president. but to me say we are very honored to have house majority leader steny hoyer with us here this morning to talk about the and number one question in the country today. what is the best plan to create high-quality jobs and long-term economic growth? a poll found that half of

americans surveyed across all the political spectrums as the most important problem facing the country today. 31% said the economy and 22% saying unemployment in dodd and sing their problem. the economy is job one projec. >> it was one on progress on every single indicator. the bush era was one of flooding returned. in contrast to the $22 million a create a climate of growth under the bush administration was worst in any positive cycle in 60 years even for the onset of the great recession