[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 89 (Tuesday, June 15, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H4446]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1245
                     DISASTER RECOVERY IN THE GULF

  (Mr. SCALISE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I spent this last Friday on Grand Isle, 
South Louisiana, which is at the epicenter right now of this battle 
against the oil which is coming into our marsh. The anger and 
frustration I heard from official after official on the ground was that 
they are spending more time fighting the Federal Government and BP than 
they are fighting the oil. This is unacceptable.
  It still goes on day after day, 57 days in, and the President 
continues to refuse to lead on this crisis. He has let BP be the 
gatekeeper for our local officials who have plans to protect our marsh. 
Yet they now have to go through BP instead of having the President have 
a real command structure that holds people accountable.
  The latest plan by the President is to actually have this ban on 
offshore drilling that actually punishes everybody--people who haven't 
done anything wrong and who have much safer records than BP. Now, over 
40,000 people are going to be put out of work by the President's 
arbitrary ban, which actually goes against the recommendations of his 
own scientific panel. So now he is placing politics in front of 
science.
  When is the President going to meet his obligations under the law to 
lead and to be responsible for the disaster recovery with BP's paying 
the bill instead of allowing BP to call the shots on the ground?

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