mr. willis, as you and mr. newman know, we invited representatives from anadarko and the other company to join us. they declined. this is an invoice, of bill that the federal government center responsible parties on june 2 asking for reimbursement of some $69 million. anadarko and the other name are right here on the front alongside bp and transocean. outyear companies do their role in paying for this disaster -- how do your company'ies view thr role in paying for the system faster? have you communicated with them? >> mr. chairman, our commitment from the very beginning of this incident was to make sure that any legitimate claim or costs associated with this bill, that we honor that obligation and our commitment to make those payments. my focus says being involved in claims process has been on making sure that when something is submitted to us and when it is substantiated that we pay those bills quickly. but this has not been at this point on working through any issues with partners but making sure that we as b

mr. willis? >> that is correct. >> so there are other entities, including two who refuse to testify here today, that may have some liability. what are we going to go to find out who is responsible and the extent of their responsibility? mr. newman, it appears that they're not going to be liable for anything, so to speak. >> senator, under opa, if we get the payment, we do not look beyond that. i suspect the administration and the department of justice will be following up with the investigation on all of those questions and looking at that. >> mr. chairman, i think they ought to get some understanding of the liability. if they are the only ones paying the bills and there are others who were involved, maybe some of them should be paying some of the bills, too. you share that view, ms. fleming, or is that about your pay grade as well? >> i think the biggest concern that we do not know what the true cost of this bill are going to be. we're dealing with an unprecedented -- >> that was my next questio

mr. willis' folks. i want to see some denials because certainly when we start getting claims as well the controls to make sure there is no abuse. i don't think it is an indication that they are not acting on it. they are just bending over backwards to make sure before they deny the claimant really did understand and have all of their ducks in a row. >> thanks for that clarification. back to the conversation i had this morning with the folks in the u.s. claims monitoring team earlier today. they told me of some concerns they had involving the lack of denials. we talked a little bit about this here. specifically they have -- there are reportors individual who is have come to b.p. with a claim that are being told that the claim -- told up front that the claim won't be covered so they never file it. some of these cases they might be claims that they are actually coverable stand so, we are not really getting an accurate picture of the claims being accepted or denied. people are hearing their claim is not cov

mr. darrell willis. he is here t assist me in answering questions on claims. >> you mentioned that you put out a certain amount of room out there, i forget the specific amount. sounds to me like that has not been adequate since the oil is getting onto the shorelines of the various states of the gulf coast. one of the previous witnesses said that someone was putting up the wrong kind of boom. did you hear that comment? did you have any comment about that? >> chairman, i did hear that comment. i understand the concern, but i think it is important to recall the description of the area contingency plan putting forthh plans and intentions for the way that we will protect the coast line. contingency plans were developed in cooperation with state, county, and local officials, plans identifying the sensitive areas. the area of unified command is responsible for making the decisions to deploy the boom. to your question, i expect that unified command is learning what a lot based on what has occurred since our resp

mr. chairman. i know you need to go. i apologize for -- i think i should wrap up, please. >> i'm reminded of the question and i whispered to senator whitehouse when willie sutton who was arrested from bank robbery spree. asked, why do you rob banks? that's where the money is. why do you drill deep? that's where the oil is. >> mr. chairman, may i ask that two documents, one, a letter to me from john tor combmbings gan from rhode island, and the other a letter from professor susan feredy be made part of the record in this proceeding? >> without, objection. if the senators have follow-up questions or if the -- any of the three testifying wish to add to their answers they'll get to do that. we stand in recess. i thank you very, very much. >> thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> cleanup crews continue to -- affected by the gulf of mexico oil spill which has reached more than 100 miles of beach. this was at the fort jackson bird rehabilitation center in venice, louisiana. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite

mr. chairman. i apologize for -- i think i should wrap up here, please. >> i'm reminded on the question that i whispered to senator whitehouse. when williewas arrested, he said he robbed the banks because that's where the money is. why do you drill deep? because that's where the oil is. >> may i ask that two documents. one a letter to me from john torgon and another, a letter from a professor susan farraday at the marine affairs institute be made a part of this proceeding? >> without question. if anyone has further questions of if any of the three people >> this was costing medicare over all about $18 billion, every year. that is billion with a "b." part of the way we pay for improved benefits was to say we will take some of that money from insurance companies. they will still be able to make money. seniors who are under a medicare advantage plan that is doing a good job have nothing to worry about. if you are signed up with medicare coverage program that is wasting money, we will tell those insurance companies to stop wasting money. that is something i think everybody expects us to do -- over seek a program so that it lasts over the lon