mr. oberstar: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and clue extraneous materials on h.r. 3473. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. oberstar: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. oberstar:irst i'm grateful for the indulgence of our colleague on the committee and ranking member, senior republican, . mica, for responding so quickly to the action of the other body. we are unacustomed to -- unaccusted to such prompt, unanimous acon in th other bodybut they did pass by unanimous consent the bill before us. now s. 3473 in response to request of the partment of homeland security, secretary napolino, and admiral allen, the national incident commander following up on the may 12 request of the administration to -- for legislative changes to "speed assistance t people in need in response -- close quote, in response tthe deepwate hori

mr. oberstar should be commended for that reaction. that's what we're asking for the entire government to do. let's react positively. let's work as a team. let's quit blaming previous administrations. let's go to the -- do the job to clean this mess up. i thank you very much. my good friend from texas who lives in the heart of all -- of oil country, u.s.a., houston, texas is in my way of thinking, the center of the universe for the oil industry. my good friend, pete olson, is one of our members of our houston delegation, very knowledgeable in this area. he has some legislation and maybe other things he wishes to talk about so i yield to my friend, pete olson, the member from sugarland and all points south, talk to us about how he feels about what's going on today. mr. olson: thank you for hosting this special order tonight on such an important issue for the american people. i'd like to thank my colleague from florida for coming by and give his per spictive on how this disaster is affecting florida. i was in the navy for 10 years, naval

mr. oberstar. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to join the compliments to the panel for their splendid testimony. vice-president roche, your very personal witness, i remember your experience well. st. louis did in the out as well as kansas city and the result of the acquisition meant that the sale of their nonstop service between san louis and london heathrow, which mr. icahn sold to american airlines for $400 million. it should never have acquired value in that marketplace. this is given in the public interest. this is not for personal enrichment of the carrier. american made that money back in about a year. st. louis lost its connection to the world beyond. a lot of people lost their jobs in the process. ultimately, when twa was absorbers' by american, they now have to beg o'hare for service to the whole country. that is the or encapsulated view. too big to fail. this would control one-fifth of the domestic market share, $115 billion available seat miles. that is enormous capacity. i asked several years ago and some of yo

mr. oberstar, to susndhe rules d pass s. 3473, on which the yeas and nays were order. the clerk will reporthe title ofill. thclk: senate 3473n ac to amend the oil pollution ac of 1990 to authorize advances om oil spill liability trust fund for t deepwater hozon oil spill. the eaker pro mpore: the question is,ill the house suspend thrules and pass the bill. members will record their tes electronic device. this shall be a five-minute vote [caponinmadeossible by the nationalaptioning institut inc.ooperation with the united states house of representatis. any use of the closed-captioned covege of thhouse oceengs for political or commeral purposes is express ohibited by the u.s. hou of representatives.] the speaker o tempore:n this vo the yeas are 0 an none in the gative and two recorded present. 2/3 havingespond in the affirmae rules are suspended, he bill is passed. for what purpose does the getleladfrom california rise? ms. waters: i ceive recognition fotwo unanimou consent requests. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewomans regned. ms. waters: thank you, mr. speaker. mr.

mr. oberstar, and my colleague, mr. mica from florida, have been working on this conference and on this legislation now for longer than we would have liked. it's too bad we have to do what will be our, i guess, 14th or 15th extension of the existing law, but it's unfortunately necessary to do that to give us time to complete work on the conference which actually is well under way. -- underway. in way of last year we passed the re-authorization act of 2009, h.r. 915. this markser march the -- march the senate passed its own bill which the house took up, amended, passed, and sent back to the senate. while a conference has not been called, staff from both chambers have been in informal discussions for months to reconcile the two versions of the bill. all these discussion vs. led to tentative agreements on the vast majority of provisions, and have been -- there have been good work on both sides of the aisle on this. the number of controversial issues have stalled progress on a final agreement. disappointed myself that sever

mrs. capps: madam speaker, i rise in strong support of this legislation to give the national commission on the b.p. oil spill the power to issue subpoenas. i want to thank three chairmen, chairman rahall, chairman oberstar and chairman conyers. i really appreciate the tireless effort of chairman markey who has worked with me on this bill and the earlier bill which was the basis for president's order to set up the commission in the first place. i also appreciate the speaker and the majority leader for bringing h.r. 5481 before us today. as we witnessed the continued disruption affecting the livelihood of gulf residents and the environment, a full and thorough investigation must be conducted. the american people want answers from those responsible for the devastating oil -- gulf oil spill. providing subpoena power to the commission will ensure that no stone goes unturned. and it will enable the american people to get the full truth about how and will this disaster occurred. while the president has committed full -- the full cooperation of the federal government to the commission, he doee not have the authority to give it subpoena power. congressional action is required. with the investigation expected to