[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15261-15262]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      MORATORIUM IN THE GULF COAST

  Ms. LANDRIEU. Mr. President, I know there are Senators who wish to 
speak, but I have one more subject to speak about before I yield the 
floor.
  In addition to fighting for Main Street, I am going to come back here 
in September--and continue through the August recess with many hearings 
in my State and meetings in my State--to fight for justice for the gulf 
coast.

[[Page 15262]]

  I have not spent a lot of time in the last week or two here on the 
floor on this issue because I have been handling this small business 
bill, but I have been spending an awful lot of time on the phone, in 
meetings, and in Louisiana and will continue around the country to talk 
about this tragedy that has occurred.
  As shown on this chart I have in the Chamber, this is what the gulf 
coast looked like before the moratorium was put in place--this blanket 
moratorium, unnecessary moratorium--by the administration. We had 33 
deepwater rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. As you can see, many of them were 
off the coast of New Orleans and Louisiana.
  As shown on this other chart, this is what it looks like today. 
Nobody is working. There is one rig being drilled. It is the Deepwater 
Horizon current site of the relief well. Everybody else has been put 
out of business in the Gulf of Mexico. This represents, at a minimum, 
40,000 direct jobs--40,000 direct jobs.
  I want to show you a picture of the shallow water. This other one is 
of the deep water. That is what it looks like shut down. This one is of 
the shallow water. There is no moratorium in the shallow water. But 
before the moratorium, there were 55 wells in the shallow Gulf of 
Mexico. These wells--each one of them--represent hundreds of people 
supporting them and on the shore supporting them. We are down to 13. 
And I have to fight so hard to get one permit issued by MMS.
  I am proud, very proud, that my colleague in the House of 
Representatives, Charlie Melancon, did what I did not believe was even 
possible: he got the entire Democratic caucus on record asking the 
President basically to lift this moratorium. Yes, there was some 
language in there. I would have liked it to have been immediately. But 
the fact that we have now every Democrat and every Republican in the 
House of Representatives on record lifting this moratorium and helping 
us get back to work in the gulf is really extraordinary.
  I am looking forward to coming back to lead the effort in the Senate 
to follow the lead of the Congressman from the district that is most 
affected, Mr. Melancon, to get the gulf back to work. There are 25 idle 
rigs, there are 5 nondrilling operators, one Deepwater Horizon, and 2 
wells being drilled. We have to get the gulf coast back to work.
  So in addition to passing the small business bill that we have to 
pass for the whole country, we have work to do along the gulf coast. We 
have a liability issue to settle. We are working on a compromise. I 
have a justice for the gulf document I am going to submit, a bill I am 
going to ask to be filed right now so that we can work in earnest.
  I hope that before we get back here, the President will 
administratively lift this moratorium. That is what he should do. We 
have put new safety requirements in. BP is going to pay the fines, 
billions of dollars of fines. They put $20 billion in escrow. Claims 
are being paid. That part is working fairly well. What is not working 
are the people in the gulf of Mexico. We do not want handouts. We do 
not want welfare. We do not want food stamps. We want to go back to 
work, and that is what we are going to work on.
  So this Senate has some work to do. The House has done its job in 
this regard. I hope, Mr. President, you and your team and the Secretary 
of Interior will think very hard about the economic damage that is 
being done right now. I understand safety is at issue. I understand we 
want our oceans clean. Nobody wants them cleaner than those of us who 
swim in the gulf, live in the gulf, fish in the gulf, and have for 
decades and centuries. But enough is enough. We have to get back to 
work. There are things that can be done, and I submit the bill at this 
time.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to address 
the Senate for up to 10 minutes as in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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