[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 75 (Tuesday, May 18, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H3489]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    NO WORD FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ON THE GULF COAST OIL SPILL

  (Mr. BURGESS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, last week, our committee on Energy and 
Commerce, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, held the 
first of what is likely to be many hearings into the events going on in 
the Gulf of Mexico. So far, the hearings and investigation have been 
decidedly ``asymmetric.'' My committee demanded and obtained thousands 
of pages of documents and testimony from the four companies involved in 
the spill, but virtually nothing--nothing--from the administration. In 
fact, my committee made no document requests and asked for no testimony 
from the administration.
  The Federal role would appear to be an integral part of this story. 
We should have representatives from the Department of Interior and the 
Minerals Management Service explain why in March of 2009, in the 
Initial Exploration Plans for Deepwater Horizon, a blowout scenario was 
simply not contemplated, and why the Department of Interior did not 
require a site-specific oil spill response plan.
  We've had no word from the Federal Government and related agencies. 
When will the administration begin to work with Congress, rather than 
against Congress and against the American people?

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