mr. perrelli. i appreciate your comment about that, and i will leave it to the experts to try to get this spill stop and get everything under control. -- stopped and get everything under control. ok, this happened because people were lax, that is the headline that senator grasso quoted. even the company was lax or the regulators were lax, or both relax, and therefore, if we tighten up all of the procedures, nothing of this sort will ever happen again. the other view is, hey, accidents happ. we have drilled thousands and thousands of these wells without any incident, and statistically, this is a very small percentage, of difficulty, and accidents happened with automobiles. accidents happen with airplanes. accidents are going to happen anytime you have a large number of activities of this kind. i would like reactioto that. is this just a very small percentage, that accidents happen, so we can go, statistically, as far into the future as we have in the past before we get another ooe of these? or is th

mr. perelli, -- perrelli, let me start with you.dreds of billio of dollars are going out to the financial sector at this time. weave seen this enormous spree of ripfs, investment schemes, frauds. you have looked at what your predecessors in the bush administration had done in the financial fraud area. what will you do specifically to change the bush policy and beef up the fight against white- collar fraud? >> i appreciate the question, and i agree that in the current phase of the economy, we need to be extraordinarily vigilant both in the civil and criminal side enforcing the law against those that would defraud consumers as well as defraud the government. as the attorney general, most of the jurisdiction of the components that i would supervise is focused on the civil enforcement. there is criminal jurisdiction overcams that come out of the ftc. those are import -- enforced by the civil dision. we talked a lot about the need for enhanced fbi additional fbi agents to focus on white-collar crime because over the last several years,he

mr. perrelli. i appreciate your comment about that, and i will leave it to the experts to try to get this spill stop and get everything under control. -- stopped and get everything under control. ok, this happened because people were lax, that is the headline that senator grasso quoted. even the company was lax or the regulators were lax, or both relax, and therefore, if we tighten up all of the procedures, nothing of this sort will ever happen again. the other view is, hey, accidents happen. we have drilled thousands and thousands of these wells without any incident, and statistically, this is a very small percentage, of difficulty, and accidents happened with automobiles. accidents happen with airplanes. accidents are going to happen anytime you have a large number of activities of this kind. i would like reaction to that. is this just a very small percentage, that accidents happen, so we can go, statistically, as far into the future as we have in the past before we get another ooe of these? or i

mr. perrelli you said the intercept is under unlimited. >> where deep water unlimited. he may be deep water $10 billion. if that was in effect today can this new law that we will consider whether it is unlimited as you have recommended or the administration or $10 million as senator menendez, does that go into efft for b.p.? can we be retroactive in our laws? >> congress could indeed provide a retro active law >> you believe there are constitutional rounds to be retroactive. do you think in the administration's view that you should have a different cap for deep water, shallow water or -- because you know this drilling can occur in 10 feet of water, 1,000 feet of water, which is considered shallow and then deep, which is 1,000 to 5,000 and ultradeep over 500 and the risks of course larger. so how is the admistration thinking about this because it is very important to thousands of people in the industry that don't drill in deep water but have been drilling fairly safely in shallow wells, what are you -- are you thinking about the effect of your proposal on the industry as

mr. perrelli, senator. it's always good to pay attention to your lawyer. >> let me ask you, both of you have stated this morning and certainly your boss, mr. hayes, secretary salazar, has made very, very clear that b.p. is the responsible party will be paying and that b.p. doesn't expect to be held to the cap. so if, in fact, it is correct here that there's no doubt that the responsible party is going to be held fully accountable for this particular spill, does the administration think then that we need any specific legislation to make this true? to ensure that this is in fact the case? >> i think we are going to continue to work to ensure that b.p. lives up to its commitments. so they have made that commitment. we take it seriously, and we will work with them to ensure that they do. so i think our focus on the legislative proposal is transition into a new liability regime. >> so basically going forward? >> we're focused on going forward. >> let me ask about that, because as the $75 million strict liability

mr. perrelli, i have a few questions for you thank you -- for you. thank you. >> you are the most important member of the committee to me, at least today. the department of justice -- >> the department of justice is implemented a lot of our nation's top exploitation laws. the one thing that i think the attorney general and dulles got right was establishing -- attorney general gonzales got right was establishing these. we enforce these -- will you enforce these or seek to make changes? >> with respect, it is likely that the responsibility of that rule does not fall in my purview. in terms of enforcement of the act as well as defense of the act, in the event that is challenge, which may well come under this, i would seek to enforce the law. i would defend a lot of any reasonable argument could be made. i've done that in the past. i have depended most of these statutes. we defended the child online protection act, for example. >> the same would apply to that act and the act from 1988. >> to the best of my knowledge, we would be most likely -- those woul

mr. perelli, -- perrelli, let me start with you. hundreds of billions of dollars are going out to the financial sector at this time. we have seen this enormous spree of ripoffs, investment schemes, frauds. you have looked at what your predecessors in the bush administration had done in the financial fraud area. what will you do specifically to change the bush policy and beef up the fight against white- collar fraud? >> i appreciate the question, and i agree that in the current phase of the economy, we need to be extraordinarily vigilant both in the civil and criminal side enforcing the law against those that would defraud consumers as well as defraud the government. as the attorney general, most of the jurisdiction of the components that i would supervise is focused on the civil enforcement. there is criminal jurisdiction over scams that come out of the ftc. those are import -- enforced by the civil division. we talked a lot about the need for enhanced fbi additional fbi agents to focus on white-collar crime because over the last se

mr. perrelli, i am pleased to have decided to return to the department of justice. i want to follow up on the state secrets document issue. i didn't -- i have been concerned by the invocation of those. courts tend to be very deferential to these privilege claims. there is an opportunity for abuse. yesterday, there was a press report that the department of justice has told u.s. court of appeals for the ninthircuit that it will continue to assert its state secret privilege against five men who cling to be the victims of rendition -- to claimed to be the victims of rendition. -- who claimed to be the victims of rendition. justice department to ensure the privilege is not invoked to hide from the american people information about the government's action that they have a right to know. this administration will be open and transparent with our national security obligations. i am glad to hear this review is underway. i will follow this issueery closely. i will not ask you about this case. but will you commit to me that if you are confirmed, you'll arrange for a classified