our first witness is christopher jones, currently the partner at keough, cox and wilson in baton rougeana. more important than his professional background, he's the brother of gordon jones, one of the 11 rig workers who lost their lives the day of the explosion. gordon jones is survived by his wife michelle, young sons stafford maxwell. one of the sons i understand was born very shortly after the accident. is that correct? >> yes. >> mr. jones, please go aled. the floor is yours. >> chairman leahy, ranking member sessions and other members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. my name is chris jones, seated behind me is my father, keith jones. gordon is my only brother. he is survived by his wife and two sons, stafford is two and max was born three weeks ago. gordon is survived by a mother, sister, in-laws and other family members and friends who miss him very much. words cannot describe what gordon meant to this family. i appear before you as a representative of only one family affected by this accident. unfortunately, there are many more. i stood

christopher jones, whose brother was killed when the doomed rig exploded in april, said he couldn't understand why a company with so much money can't stop the gusher. >> it's mind boggling how they can throw up their hands and say that they could not have anticipated this or not have had the resources in place to prevent it. >> lehrer: officials hope the containment cap's performance continues to improve. bp plans to switch to a larger one soon in an effort to capture even more oil. president obama will make another visit, his fourth, to the gulf next week. according to a white house statement released late today. more on the liabilities question now from tracy hester, a professor of environmental law, director of the university of houston's law center's environment, energy, and natural resource center. and noah hall, a professor of water and environmental law at wayne state university law school. professor hester, in general are there any real limits on bp's liability for this oil spill? >> well, there are limits for one particular sub set of claims to be brought against bp, which would be $7

our first witness is christopher jones. mr. jones is currently a partner at the law firm in baton rouge, louisiana. more important than his professional background, he's -- he's the brother of gordon jones who is one of the 11 rig workers who lost their lives the day of the explosion. gordon jones is survived by his wife michelle, two young sons, stafford maxwell -- stafford and maxwell, one of the sons irk understand, was born shortly after the accident. is that correct? mr. jones, please go ahead, the floor is yours. >> chairman leahy, ranking member sessions and other members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. my name is chris jones, seated behind me is my father, keith jones. gordon is my only brother. gordon is survived by his wife and two sons, stafford and max. stafford is 2. max was born three weeks ago. gordon is also survived by a mother, sister, in-laws and other family members and many friends who miss him very much. words cannot describe what gordon meant to this family. i ap