[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 108 (Wednesday, July 21, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H5912-H5917]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1900
                           THE GULF OIL SPILL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Richardson) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.


                             General Leave

  Ms. RICHARDSON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
be given 5 legislative days to enter their remarks into the Record on 
this topic of the gulf oil spill.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from California?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. RICHARDSON. I appreciate the opportunity to anchor this special 
hour tonight. My name is Congresswoman Laura Richardson, and I 
represent California's 37th Congressional District which includes the 
cities of Long

[[Page H5913]]

Beach, Compton, Carson, and Signal Hill. It's adjacent to the ports of 
Long Beach and Los Angeles, the largest port complex in the United 
States and the third-largest in the world.
  For starters tonight, I want to take a look at what we're going to 
talk about in the report that I've prepared to present to the American 
people. As a Member of Congress, I'm a member of the Committee on 
Homeland Security, and I'm the subcommittee chair of Emergency 
Communications, Preparedness and Response, and so because of that, I 
felt it was important to share with the American people the information 
and the observations of what I'm now calling the people's Congress.
  I'm here tonight to present to the United States Congress and the 
American people my report, my observations, and my recommendations 
regarding the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It includes the responses 
that have been taken and the recovery that's needed for us to move 
forward.
  So let's start with what happened back on April 20 at 10 p.m. Tragedy 
struck in the Gulf of Mexico. Just 42 miles from the population of the 
people in Venice, Louisiana, there was a fire, there was an explosion, 
and the Deepwater Horizon oil rig began to be engulfed in flames. After 
trying to quench the flames, people came from all over the country, 
even Holland, attempting to figure out how to put the fire out on this 
rig. After spending much time and much energy, 115 crewmembers were 
rescued and evacuated.
  Eleven crewmembers, unfortunately, tragically died. These eleven men 
lost their lives: Jason Anderson, Dale Burkeen, Donald Clark, Stephen 
Curtis, Gordon Jones, Roy Wyatt Kemp, Karl Kleppinger, Blair Manual, 
Dewey Revette, Shane Roshto and Adam Weise. These 11 gentlemen were 
men. They were men who were fathers, brothers, sons, and uncles, and on 
behalf of myself and the House of Representatives and Americans, we 
express our prayers to their families and friends and commit to study 
the situation and not to repeat it again in the future.
  So, in order for us to do that, we first have to understand what is 
the magnitude of this problem. Throughout the evening on April 20 and 
into the next day, gallant efforts were made, as I mentioned, to still 
save, even into the second and third day, the 11 missing men and to put 
out the fire that could be seen for miles. The men who were coming to 
put out this fire, they could see the fire on this rig for 2 hours 
prior to getting to the actual site. That's how large it was. Some say 
the fire was as high as 200 feet into the air.
  So 2 days later, after they made very many attempts to be able to put 
the fire out, the heat was just entirely too hot and the metal began to 
collapse, and the platform and the rig collapsed, 5,000 feet to the 
floor of the ocean.
  As the fire began to subside on April 24, just two short days later, 
it was reported that oil was flowing into the ocean at a rate of at 
least 5,000 barrels per day. The United States has over 63,000 Federal 
onshore oil and gas wells. Having leaks and spills is also not 
something new to our country, but what is is the size and the 
magnitude.
  Since 1990, there have been a total of 5,601 major pipeline 
incidences reported. That represents over $4 billion in damage. 
Previously reported, the worst spill was in 1989 by the Exxon Valdez in 
Bligh Reef, in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The flow rate technical 
group of the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Exxon Valdez 
spilled approximately 750,000 barrels of oil. Now, let's put that in 
perspective.
  The oil spill from the Deepwater Horizon has continued for over 80 
days, although it has passed at this point, and it is believed that the 
Deepwater Horizon will supersede the Valdez by several times. How could 
that be? If the Deepwater Horizon is leaking at anywhere between 
10,000, as has been reported, and as high as 65,000 barrels a day, and 
if you multiply that by a minimum of 80 days, you're talking about a 
range of 800,000 to 4.8 million barrels of oil.
  Now, the Deepwater spill took place 42 miles from Venice, Louisiana, 
which has 572 miles affected out of 7,721 miles. Those are shoreline 
miles, and so what that's saying is the impacted area is approximately 
7.4 percent. In Mississippi, they have over 108 miles that are affected 
out of 359 total tidal shoreline miles, which brings it at 
approximately 30 percent. Alabama has over 67 miles of coastline 
affected out of 607 total tidal shoreline miles, approximately 11 
percent. And Florida has over 69 miles affected out of 5,095 total 
tidal shoreline miles, approximately 1 percent.
  So when we consider the damages that have happened so far with this 
Deepwater Horizon spill, some of the damages that are caused are to the 
beaches that we will talk about tonight, to fish, to birds, the 
environment, other wildlife, the ecosystem, tourism and the economy, 
marine life, livelihoods, jobs, lost productivity, and let's not forget 
public health.
  In light of the loss of life, the unusual depth of drilling, and the 
immediate disaster implication, responses from all levels were 
immediately activated. President Obama and the administration, through 
working with the U.S. Coast Guard, is historically the primary 
responder to U.S. coastal waters. The U.S. Coast Guard responded to the 
BP oil spill within hours. The Coast Guard began immediately operating 
an emergency search-and-rescue mission.
  Leadership was established on April 21, less than 1 day later. On 
April 21, a day after the explosion, pursuant to the National Oil and 
Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan, Rear Admiral Mary 
Landry was made Federal on-scene coordinator.
  On April 22, less than 2 days later, after the explosion, the 
national response team, led by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet 
Napolitano, was activated along with additional regional response 
teams. These regional response teams are formed for many reasons. The 
teams typically include a United States Coast Guard representative, 
someone from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of 
Homeland Security, the Department of Commerce, the Department of the 
Interior and State and local representatives. The purpose of these 
regional response teams is to coordinate, to partner, to communicate, 
and to respond.
  The regional response teams began developing plans, providing 
technical assistance and access to resources and equipment from its 
member agencies, as well as overseeing BP's response. Some workers, 
like Jay Harper from the Department of Homeland Security, have been 
working since day one, which is now 91 days straight, in response to 
the Deepwater Horizon spill. In this picture you see Jay and I viewing 
the source site, and he's pointing out information to me of where the 
actual source is, where the burns are taking place, and the whole 
aspect of what we could view from the plane.
  On April 23, an incident command system stood up and was in 
accordance with the national response framework and the NCP. The 
purpose of the incident command system is to provide a common method 
for developing and implementing tactical plans to efficiently and 
effectively manage a multiagency response, and certainly this was it. 
The ICS organization for this response included incident command posts 
and unified commands at the local level, as well as a unified command 
at the regional level.

                              {time}  1910

  The next step was on April 29, just 9 days from the explosion, 
Secretary Napolitano designated the oil spill as a spill of national 
significance. This designation enabled Secretary Napolitano to appoint 
then U.S. Coast Guard Commander Thad Allen to serve as the National 
Incident Commander, the lead national coordinator in charge of Federal 
efforts.
  On May 21, 2010, President Obama issued an Executive order creating 
the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and 
Offshore Drilling to respond to this spill. Further, President Barack 
Obama simultaneously has made four trips to the gulf to oversee the 
spill and to supervise the cleanup efforts.
  On June 9, The New York Times reported that Rear Admiral James A. 
Watson, the on-scene coordinator of the Unified Command overseeing the 
response effort, wrote to British Petroleum, giving the company 3 days 
to provide plans. Among the requirements are that any new method, most 
importantly, that would contain the leak would be devised to reduce 
disruptions from a potential hurricane, which we are now approaching 
that season.

[[Page H5914]]

  The letter came amid continuing questions about how much of the 
leaking oil was being captured by BP's latest containment effort, what 
we now know to be called the top hat. Also, there were questions of 
whether the company could be collecting more and what other processes 
could be used.
  Finally, there were concerns about whether BP had failed to provide 
enough surface equipment. So when I had an opportunity to go to the 
gulf, and having read all of this, these were the things that I wanted 
to see. When you look at the source site of the Deepwater Horizon 
spill, what you will notice is there are multiple platforms, multiple 
vessels that are used to all coordinate in one sync to eliminate the 
gushing of oil that was coming into the gulf. And this was the scene 
that I saw just 1 week ago.
  So when Rear Admiral Watson directed his letter, the things that he 
wanted to make sure that we were considering is incorporating the 
hurricanes, because the gulf is very much an area--as you can see, the 
waters are very calm here, but given very high winds and higher seas, 
these platforms and these vessels could easily be submerged as well.
  When we talk about some of the things that have been done and when we 
look at the cleanup, 5.4 billion barrels were spilled into the gulf it 
is potentially believed; 2.6 million barrels were either evaporated or 
degraded; 823,000 barrels have been siphoned, and these are some of the 
various devices that helped to do this; and 262,000 barrels have been 
burned off, which is what you see of this flame. This is not the rig on 
fire. The rig had already collapsed into the ocean. This is to be able 
to pull the oil and to be able to burn the excess area, and 100,000 
barrels have been skimmed.
  Now, when we go to June 15, 2010, President Obama used his first Oval 
Office speech to address the Nation for 18 minutes and to talk about 
the oil spill that was carried on prime-time television to many TV 
networks. President Obama emphasized that we will fight the spill with 
everything we have got for as long as it takes.
  When I participated in a hearing just a couple weeks ago, that was 
the question that the mayor asked us, Will you be here for as long as 
it takes? President Obama also said that he wanted to make sure that BP 
paid for the damages that had been caused, and he also stated that 
whatever was necessary to help the gulf coast and its people recover 
from this tragedy, we would do.
  On June 16, 2010, BP agreed to create an independent $20 billion fund 
to pay the claims arising from the oil spill. The company also said it 
would suspend paying dividends to its shareholders for the rest of the 
year and would compensate workers for their lost wages.
  Now, let's talk about the congressional action and the things we have 
done in this House in relation to the Deepwater oil spill. In relation 
to the administration's response, Mr. Speaker, Congress has taken 
significant actions since the oil spill to respond to this crisis.
  Over the last 93 days, the U.S. Congress and the Senate have 
conducted over 24 Washington, D.C. hearings. We have conducted two 
field hearings, 75 on-site Member of Congress or Senate visits. H.R. 
5503, the SPILL Act, last month was passed by the House, and it was 
passed in order to reform maritime liability laws.
  Those laws were impacted by the Death on High Seas Act, the Jones 
Act, which we have heard much discussion about, and the Limitation on 
Liability Act. This bill is intended to ensure that the families of 
those who were killed or injured in the BP spill and other such 
tragedies are justly compensated for their losses.
  On July 1, this House passed the 2010 supplemental appropriations 
bill, which includes aid measures requested by the Obama administration 
in response to this disaster. Included in this bill was funding for 
agencies that are working in the gulf to monitor the water, the air 
quality, the seafood safety, and worker health.
  The bill also extends the time that the Secretary of the Interior 
would have to review an offshore drilling application. Current law only 
allows the Secretary 30 days to review the process, which is way too 
short of a time to complete a full review of increasingly complex 
drilling plans associated with deepwater drilling.
  Then, H.R. 5481 was passed by this House to give subpoena power to 
the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and 
Offshore Drilling. This is a bipartisan commission that our President 
formed. It's chaired by former Senator Bob Graham of Florida and former 
EPA Administrator William Reilly, and it was established on May 22. Its 
task is providing recommendations on how we can prevent future spills 
from originating from offshore drilling and mitigate any impact.
  Then we have gone to S. 3473, which is access to the trust fund, and 
it impacts the liability trust fund. The purpose of this bill is to 
ensure that we have the tools necessary to respond to the BP oil spill. 
Last month, Congress passed S. 3473 to permit the Coast Guard to obtain 
one or more advances from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund to 
underwrite Federal responses and activities related to the BP Deepwater 
Horizon oil spill.
  Under the law, the Coast Guard can only withdraw up to $100 million 
from the fund to finance emergency response efforts. After an accident 
and that money has run out, that can become a problem.
  The trust fund was created by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 and is 
funded by an 8-cent fee that is paid by all of the oil companies on 
each barrel of oil. This legislation has been signed by the President.
  Finally, the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act. That act 
was passed and the House enabled it so that it would protect the 
coastal economies by ensuring that oil companies would pay to 
strengthen the solvency of the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund instead 
of passing the buck onto the taxpayers. That measure will raise the fee 
of oil companies that they will pay per barrel and increase the current 
$1 billion cap on individual claims against the fund to $5 billion, and 
increase the $500 million cap on natural resource damages assessment to 
$2.5 billion. Currently the trust fund has a balance of roughly $1.6 
billion.
  Now, let's talk about my observations. We have talked about the 
tragedy that happened. We have talked about what the administration has 
done, and we have talked about what Congress has done in terms of 
legislation.

                              {time}  1920

  So now let's talk about some of the things that I've seen.
  I've made two trips to the gulf. Both trips were with the 
jurisdiction of the Homeland Security Committee of Government Oversight 
and Emergency Preparedness and Response. After viewing the news 
updates, I'll be honest, I anticipated seeing thousands and thousands 
of miles of oiled water. I expected to see every marsh covered in oil. 
I expected to see birds everywhere covered in oil. I expected to see 
sandy beaches covered in oil. And I expected to see no fishermen 
allowed to fish, and certainly no New Orleans businesses.
  Indeed, it is true, over 500 miles of oil has gone onto the beaches 
in the gulf. This is a picture that shows the work that was done on the 
beaches. Now, you can actually see the work area in that far right 
section. You can see the booms that have been laid out. You can even 
see the restroom for the workers to be able to use as they clean the 
beaches. So you can see the booms, the nets, and even on this farther 
picture, you can see where the previous oil had gone across on the 
beaches. There are 3,617 birds have been rescued, 2,333 birds died, 
thousands of fishermen have been without work. And an 83,927 mile area 
has been disallowed for fishing.
  The destruction has been immense, and the final estimates are far 
from being in. However, many of the challenges involved in reporting 
and responding have been overcome in the last 40 days. That's why I 
wanted to speak today, because I've been watching the news on a regular 
basis, hearing every single night of the individual incidents that have 
occurred, but we've heard very little about what our government and our 
representatives and the people who have been working every day have 
been doing.
  Typically what happens on a daily basis is the planes go out, they 
survey the area, and they look at their various radar to see where the 
oil spill locations are. Once they observe them from

[[Page H5915]]

the air, they send the boats out, which then move forward and put the 
various booms out to either do burning or skimming. And then you also 
have some of the things that many of the elected officials in the local 
area had asked for, and that was the dropping of the sandbags. You can 
see this area where the sandbags were put in to prevent the oil from 
coming into the marsh area. Also, if you look very closely here, you 
will see the booms that were set in order to prevent the oil from 
coming into this marsh area.
  Men and women are working around the clock. The administration has 
authorized and deployed 17,500 National Guard troops of which 1,580 
have been activated. Approximately 45,000 personnel are currently 
responding to protect the shoreline and the wildlife and cleanup of our 
vital coastlines. And while there have been delays in equipment supply, 
the Coast Guard and Federal Government have been diligent in working to 
get the equipment that we need.
  More than 6,800 vessels have responded on site, including skimmers, 
tubs, barges, and recovery vessels, all set to assist in the 
containment and the cleanup effort. In addition, hundreds of aircraft 
make the trip daily, as I said, remotely operated vehicles, and 
multiple mobile offshore drilling units to be able to clean up the 
disparate oil that has hit our shores.
  Currently, approximately 572 miles of the gulf coast shoreline has 
been affected directly by the oil spill; approximately 328 miles in 
Louisiana, 108 miles in Mississippi, 67 miles in Alabama, and 69 miles 
in Florida. What many hardworking people have done is to set up 17 
staging areas to protect many of our sensitive shoreline areas. This is 
an area where you can see actual workers where they go out; they 
actually go into the marsh area. You can see the pattern of where the 
oil has come in and where they're working to actually remove the oil. 
You also can see at this point some of the different--this is a boom 
that they're using in this area, and you can see inside in the marsh 
area where there is a tremendous amount of oil that had been spilled, 
but on the inner part it is still green and we hope will still survive.
  Approximately 83,927 square miles of Gulf of Mexico Federal waters 
remain closed to fishing in order to balance the economic and public 
health concerns. We hope that soon those areas will be open once we can 
validate that in fact the fish that are living there that would be 
fished will be safe for consumption for people to eat.
  Now, what was interesting to me is that when I was watching all the 
news about the oil spill, I just simply didn't understand why they 
didn't just put a boom around the entire source site. It seemed to me 
it wasn't that big and it would have prevented the oil from going to 
all these other States that we've talked about. Well, this is why--and 
I had no idea, and this is why I wanted to be here tonight so we could 
educate the American public because we're not seeing this on the news 
of why just having more boom is not fixing the problem.
  When you look at the boom here, you can see that just by a simple 
small wave of not even one foot actually goes over and covers the boom 
area. So that's why whether you have six miles of boom or 10 miles of 
boom, it can only cover so much. Now, here you have workers who were 
actually collecting the boom that has collected some of the oil, and we 
can see how it has worked. But unfortunately it takes a lot of boom, 
and it takes completely replacing it.
  More than 3.2 million feet of containment boom and 6.6 million feet 
absorbent boom have been deployed to contain the spill, and 
approximately 875,000 feet of containment boom remain. So as they watch 
where the oil is moving, they will have boom to move to that section.
  One of the things I heard a lot about was something called ``the 
whale.'' They said it's large, it's from Taiwan, and it would be able 
to pick up all of the oil. This is a picture of the whale, as they call 
it. And as you can see here, here is some of the oil that the whale is 
picking up. Now, this whale is 1,150 feet long. It's quite an amazing 
site, but it's only one indication of the 20-plus international 
partners that we have had that the administration has been able to 
leverage with assets and skills from numerous foreign countries and 
international organizations as a part of this historic all-hands-on-
deck response. Some of those countries are Belgium, Canada, China, 
France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, 
Qatar, Russia, Spain, Tanzania, United Kingdom, United Nations 
International, and then some.
  So let's talk a little bit more about some of the particular sites. 
You're seeing kind of the aerial view, but we had an opportunity to 
actually go to some of the parishes and to see some of the impacted 
areas in addition to the marsh area. One of the places we went to was 
St. Tammany Parish. I visited this area, and they already had an 
operating emergency operation center, and there I met Commander Dan 
Precourt. Commander Precourt is the parish liaison officer for St. 
Tammany Parish. His position is important because what we learned from 
Hurricane Katrina, one of those most important lessons, was that there 
simply was not enough communication between local officials and the 
public during that disaster. But at the St. Tammany Parish Emergency 
Operation Center, there is a Coast Guard liaison, there is Commander 
Precourt, as well as a representative from BP, and many other people 
who are working there, working together to talk about how the agencies 
can solve this problem.
  The public liaisons are meeting with someone face to face so that 
they can respond to their problem or can direct them to someone who 
can. Support is coming from California, Alaska, Massachusetts, and many 
other States. What I found interesting that we don't hear so much about 
with this whole spill situation is that these people are working 7 days 
a week, oftentimes coming in at 6 a.m., leaving anywhere between 9 and 
10 p.m., and many of them actually worked on Father's Day.

                              {time}  1930

  I was there on Sunday evening at about 8 o'clock, and there were 
still over 10 people there, working.
  Tammany Parish is not one of the centers of the oil spill. In fact, 
it was particularly alarming to me, because I have friends and know 
people from Louisiana, when I heard that oil was found at Lake 
Pontchartrain. I thought, ``Oh, no.'' Most people know and enjoy the 
area of Lake Pontchartrain, but fortunately and actually--and what 
wasn't told and why we wanted to talk about this tonight--oil was 
discovered at the initial pass, which is called Rigolets Pass. At this 
time, the lake is fishable. We want people to know that. They are 
fishing in Lake Pontchartrain, and no oil has been found west of the I-
10 bridge.
  Thousands of men and women depend upon fishing for their livelihoods. 
As was said in one of the local shows this morning, we have to make 
sure that people know that people are still fishing, that people are 
still living, that people are still eating, and that they are still 
vacationing on the coast. The Coast Guard is trying every feasible 
option available to stop this spill.
  Next slide, please.
  Now, before I visited and when I looked at some of the things that 
had been said, one of the things we heard people talking about were the 
impacts on wildlife and the environment. I had an opportunity to go to 
the wildlife fisheries with representatives both from the State of 
Louisiana and the United States, and we got a chance to see where they 
had taken many of the birds so they could be cleaned and could get 
extra help.
  This picture is of a very dedicated veterinarian who had worked very 
long hours to help aid and assist the birds. This is the team that 
actually put up this system, which was pretty much out of wire and 2 by 
4s. I mean it really was a very, what I would say, kind of archaic 
system, but it was working to help with the birds.
  You see me there. We are talking about the pelicans that have been 
cleaned, how they are recovering and how soon we expect them to be 
returned to the wild.
  Next slide, please.
  Some of the beauties of the Gulf of Mexico are the marshes, the 
wildlife, and all the incredible things that you see. This is one of 
the dedicated gentlemen whom I mentioned who works for U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife, Jack Bohannon. He is on the water boat, and this is what they 
do. They survey the marsh

[[Page H5916]]

area to see if oil has gone into that section so they know where to put 
the boom or where to make replacements.
  Here you see the Coast Guard commander of this particular area. It 
was the protected area, the marsh section called Pass a Loutre. This is 
Commander Claudia Gelzer, and she has been working very hard to keep 
the oil out and to minimize the damage to this much protected area.
  Next slide, please.
  It is somewhat hard to imagine, when you think of the oil coming in, 
how you would possibly stop it, or as I would kind of say, ``corral 
it,'' to be able to put it into a section where it could be safely 
burned and evaporated. This is an example of where you see a marsh area 
where the boom has been laid. They went out, and they found out there 
was an area where oil existed. They corralled it, brought it into the 
section. Then this is how they were able to safely set it afire.
  This is another example of what I wanted to show of how you have the 
boom area protecting the local coast section. Very low down here, you 
can see where some of the oil had initially come, and that is why they 
have the boom area protecting this section, which is to keep the oil 
out.
  Next slide, please.
  Now, to talk about Pass a Loutre, not only is it an incredible area 
in terms of marshland, of over 115,000 acres of marshland, what is also 
particularly important about this is that it is a preserve area as 
well. Unfortunately, it was right in the eye of the storm of the 
Deepwater Horizon, and for the oil that came out, this was one of the 
first spots that it came to.
  What we are showing you here are the first initial marsh areas. What 
I want the people to see is that not all of the marsh areas, not all of 
the 115,000 acres, are filled with oil. That is something that I didn't 
particularly understand as I was watching some of the news results. You 
look at our going out to the boat area. You see some of the low areas 
where some of the oil has come. Here you see it a little bit higher. 
Then, in this area, you see where oil very severely came in and 
impacted the marsh area.
  Next slide, please.
  This area is characterized by river channels with attendant channel 
banks, natural bayous, and manmade canals, which are interspersed with 
intermediate fresh marshes. Hurricane damage and subsidence have 
contributed to a major part of the vegetation and the marshes not being 
as strong as they had been in the past.
  So, in this area here, I found this interesting. I rode on a 
helicopter for about 45 minutes and then on a boat for about 30 minutes 
to be able to finally get to the spot where the worst amount of the oil 
impacting the marshes had taken place.
  So the message of what I want to say tonight is, yes, a horrible 
thing has happened, yes, to many areas that we love, have gone to for 
generations, and have cherished. But the important thing to remember is 
that it is not in a position where we cannot fix it with the work and 
the commitment to do so.
  So what you see here is I'm reaching in and touching some of the oil 
that has accumulated here in this section. Then, on this portion here, 
is the actual entrance into one of the marsh canals. You can see 
literally where the oil just kind of traveled inside, came in and 
basically accumulated in this section here of what you see.
  Next slide, please.
  So we look at these marsh areas and what we can do to fix them. Some 
of the complaints that were made were: Why didn't we have enough boom? 
How come we couldn't get the boom out there quickly enough? This is 
what is very important for people to see.
  Here you can see the boom is normally a yellow color. This is where 
oil has come over, and you can see it only takes about half of a foot 
of a wave or a foot of a wave to be able to go in. Here is where they 
are replacing it and putting new ones out and trying to keep it out, 
and then, of course, they are using the booms farther out in the area.
  Next slide, please.
  This, I think, was important to show in that, as the booms are 
collecting oil, they become filled with it. Then you have to go back 
out and remove them and place more in their place. So here you can see 
a tremendous amount of oil that had accumulated. It has been absorbed 
in these booms, and then they will be going out to these areas to place 
new ones.
  Then one of the things that is also important to understand as to why 
the booms alone are not the answer is that, with the wind and with the 
waves, it begins to move them into the marsh areas, so it actually 
moves them out from protecting the outer area. So that's why the booms 
are not the permanent solution to this problem.
  Next slide, please.
  As I prepared this report, what I call ``the people's Congress,'' I 
would be wrong not to acknowledge the efforts of Secretary Napolitano 
and Chairman Thompson for providing the access, for demonstrating 
transparency, and for showing a willingness to consider all of the 
options on the table for the betterment of America and for the American 
people.

  In order to improve even further, here are some of the lessons that I 
learned from some of the things that I've shown you tonight:
  Elected officials in the local area talked about the fact that we 
have had past exercises. We have had national exercises in the gulf 
regions, and so you would ask the question: Why were there some of the 
problems we experienced?
  Some of the things they talked about were their still not being 
connected on the calls, the daily calls, until a couple of weeks into 
the situation, and the impact on the local economy, when many of the 
areas really were not having an extensive amount of oil. You also had 
people sounding the alarm, expressing their concerns of how were we 
going to pay for all of the recovery that was going to be required. You 
had others who said we weren't moving fast enough and that we needed to 
do more. Still others said the teams should be changed.
  Though I want to talk about another area that also became very clear 
to me, a lesson learned.
  One of the recommendations I made when we had our hearing was to say 
to the Coast Guard and to the Department of Homeland Security that we 
need to also have our own message, which is why I am here tonight. We 
need to make sure that we are showing the American people, as they also 
have an opportunity to watch, that, yes, many marsh areas have been 
damaged. Yes, beaches have had oil come upon them. But yes, there are 
many other areas where they can still come, where they can enjoy, and 
where we hope that our marshes will survive.
  When you look at some of the reports and when you look at the current 
state of the situation--and even in the hearing they acknowledged--
things have gotten better. A lot of that is due to now being included 
in those calls, it is due to the transparency of what has been 
happening, and to the daily updates from Rear Admiral Allen. One of the 
key things they talked about was having a message that was 
understandable and in layman's terms.
  So that is why I came here tonight, because what the public had been 
asking for and what some of the elected officials had been asking for 
is just to show us what you are seeing and what we are doing in just 
regular terms. It is something very simple, but it basically conveys 
the message of what has happened.

                              {time}  1940

  When you also look at some of the improvements and what we've learned 
and with being the subcommittee chair of Emergency Communications, 
Preparedness, and Response, and it's very important to look at these 
things. How soon was the 1-800 number up? How many claims have been 
filled? You look at where did the boom come from? How long did it take 
it to get there? How much did we already have? How many skimmers did we 
have? How many do we still need?
  These are all the things that we have now learned and we've learned 
in previous spills, as well, that we need to do to be prepared for a 
spill, unfortunately, of this size.
  Now, when we talk about layman's terms, one of the key things that I 
think is important to acknowledge is the Gulf of Mexico. This is a 
picture of a very sensitive area. You can see that the marsh is not 
very deep, but it's pretty much covered all the way around with boom. 
It's green. The

[[Page H5917]]

water is blue. But we are fighting on a daily basis to keep it that 
way, and we have 45,000 personnel who are working to fix the problem.
  So when we talk about the clear lessons, some of the other things 
that I think that should be considered are: one, we need to make sure 
that as we consider how we respond to a spill, that we're prepared to 
make the adjustments in a hurricane season as well.
  I showed you pictures of the bird estuary and where they were 
cleaning up the birds. They are actually in the process of moving from 
that area because it's not stable enough. So if, in fact, a hurricane 
were to come, we would lose many birds as well from that experience. So 
we have to be including different agencies in that emergency process 
and to ensure that those places are set up throughout the region so 
that they're ready if something like this crisis does, in fact, occur.
  Another thing that we also have learned is that when we talk about 
communication, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is 
predicting an active to extremely active hurricane season for 2010, 
with a chance, 70 percent chance for 14 to 23 named storms. So the 
clock is ticking, and that's why people are working so hard to be 
ready.
  Another key point that is very important to consider has to do with 
legislation. Now, I mentioned earlier some of the legislation that the 
House has already passed, but there are other suggestions that should 
be considered as well.
  One of the things that we found, in terms of response and who's in 
charge, is that when you looked at the marsh area, the Louisiana 
Wildlife individual felt that if you had oil in the marsh, that you 
should leave it there and allow it to eventually work its way out. The 
United States, at the Federal level, said it's better to go in to cut 
it open, to flush some water to go through to remove the oil and to get 
it out from just sitting there. So they were having to make those 
decisions.
  And I would venture to say that we should actually have those kinds 
of plans in advance. We should know that for certain parts of our 
country, we have marsh areas and that if, in the event there are oil 
spills, and I already mentioned to you that there's been 6,000 in our 
period of time here in the United States, that we should already have 
an adopted policy that we agree to of how we get the oil out of the 
marsh. Do we leave the oil in or do we open it up to be able to flush 
clear water through? That was one of the things that I asked at the 
hearing that we had.
  Another important thing to consider with legislation is to make sure 
that it would have proper mitigation, and that's what I'm talking about 
with the marsh. We should already determine what the potential costs 
are. We shouldn't be waiting until something unfortunately happens and 
then we're trying to guesstimate.
  We should also make sure that mitigation includes natural resource 
restoration. When you look at mitigation, it's loss of life, loss of 
limb, loss of property. But it's also, we have grown to know, it's a 
loss of our natural ecosystem as well. So when we consider funding 
that's available for mitigation, we need to make sure enough is there 
for that restoration as well.
  We also need to make sure that we have adequate information that's 
prepared independently, not of a particular independent private source, 
that will actually provide us the information and say what would be 
required to restore our ecosystem to its natural level.
  Sensitive natural resource areas can be identified early, and they 
can be done so to adequately protect them from an oil spill and also 
help with associated cleanup operations. The damage impact assessment 
should be thorough and it should be accurate and it doesn't have to be 
late. Habitat restoration is the preferred method to mitigate for 
impacts of natural resources from an oil spill and associated cleanup 
activities. A detailed mitigation plan should be prepared.
  These are the things that I saw and that I learned that I plan on 
bringing forward with my colleagues to consider on this very floor.
  When you talk about adequate funding for restoration activities, it 
should be provided based upon the actual cost and not what we think it 
might be. We should have to have time lines. There should be strict 
penalties, feasible objectives. There should be separate oversight from 
the initiators and the implementers, and, certainly, there should be 
periodic updates.
  So when you look at the Oil and Fuel Spill Readiness Act, another 
piece of legislation that I think this House should consider, we 
shouldn't have to, when we have a spill, scramble for a couple of weeks 
and try and get enough boom and try and get enough skimmers and try and 
get enough of everything to deal with an incredible disaster. These are 
things based upon the depth and the amount of oil that's being pulled 
from the ocean floor that we should be able to consider what would be 
needed if, in the event, a disaster were to occur.
  A readiness act would be able to have lessons learned from this 
Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It should include objective academic minds 
and expertise. It should include standards and require all emergency 
planning. And it should also include, as I've said, environment and 
wildlife as well.
  Now, as we talk about what I call the people's Congress, this House 
is one where we have an opportunity to represent approximately 650,000 
Americans, and I happen to be fortunate enough to be one of those 
people. And so, as I rise today and I talk about this Special Order, 
one of the things you find quickly being a Member of Congress is that 
it's your area that you represent, but you also represent--you're a 
United States Representative, which means you're not only looking for 
your district but for other districts as well.
  And so when this incident happened and it fell within the committee 
of jurisdiction of my particular area, I felt, really, it was a 
responsibility because we have oil wells and pipelines in my area as 
well. And what happened in Louisiana could happen in any coastline in 
this country, and so it behooves us to be prepared and to learn our 
lessons.
  As I've explained tonight, we can start looking forward in a 
constructive way. We can work together with Federal, State, and local 
elected officials and agencies and private partners on solving these 
problems. Millions of people depend upon the gulf for their livelihood, 
for family history, and it is home to valuable animals as a part of 
their families, plants, and environments.
  I am optimistic. And while this is certainly one of the biggest 
challenges this Nation has ever faced, one thing we know for sure about 
the United States is that we're always ready to rebound. We don't see 
things as insurmountable, and we do believe that they can be made 
right.
  The last slide I am showing you tonight is not the marsh area before 
the oil spill. In fact, it's after. What you see in this marsh area is 
that it is in its full and beautiful state. It's perfectly green. You 
see the canals that are there supporting it. As we continue to work to 
respond to this oil spill and we put the recovery things in place, we 
can ensure that the rest of the 115,000 acres can look again like this 
particular section does as well.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to be able to share my 
thoughts, kind of a testimony of what I saw in the gulf, painting a 
picture for the American people of what is really happening and what so 
many incredible people are doing to really restore and to fix something 
that was originally a disaster that I think can come back to look like 
this particular slide does.
  With that, I am appreciative for all of the efforts, as I said, of 
Chairman Thompson on our committee, Secretary Napolitano, of her 
working with all the Members of Congress and Senate to visit the gulf. 
We look forward to continuing to work, to do our lessons learned, and 
to put better systems in place so that we won't repeat the Deepwater 
Horizon oil spill.

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