exxon said all of these many of these same things during exxon valdizz and litigated all the way to the supreme court and it took 20 years and individuals fell off who were damaged because they were not able to sustainette. is unlegitimated liability available under state law for the spill? it seems to allow state lainlt beyond the cap but says "within such state." would a still like this in federal waters be considered a discharge within a state allowing increased state liability? >> i think certainly a significant amount of damage ste coastlines and wan certain distance of the coastline would be damage to that state. i think there will be on the outer continental shelf the rules will be different. >> but there is nouestion that this is a discharge, not within a state but in the territorial waters over the united states and federal waters. is that correct? >> that's where the initial discharge occurs but there is no question as we see every day there is tremendous damage being done to the coastline. >> i have no disagreement with that. my point is when we go to state liability it is a

deputy secretary, following the 199 exxon valdizz spill we heard -- wa that did to shift responsibility to these companies putting the federal government on a back step if you will as far as having that direct involvement. learning from that, how can we eninsure the future that the federal government will take care of cleanup efforts whether it is establishing technical expertise from the private sector to drive this home and make sure we're doing the things we need to be doing right off the bat? >> congressman, i think that will be part of our debrief after this incident has been controlled. i think a lot of the confusion is -- is more in terms of the relative roles. i mean, the oil pollution act, you're collect, did make it scleer that the companies have -- clear that the companies have responsibility, b.p. in this case along with some other parties have to open their checkbooks and have to make it happen but the reality is that the federal government the primary role of telling them what they have to pay for and that's what we're doing but like everything else associated with this in