[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 17227]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--H.R. 5481

  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 442, H.R. 5481, 
a bill to give subpoena power to the National Commission on the BP 
Deepwater Horizon Oilspill and Offshore Drilling; that the bill be read 
a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider be laid upon the 
table, with no intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, I will not 
object if the Senator would kindly amend her request to include a 
substitute amendment with a Barrasso proposal to establish a National 
Commission on Outer Continental Shelf Oilspill prevention.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Does the Senator so amend her request?
  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I think we should have as many eyes 
looking into this issue as possible, and as a member of the Energy 
Committee I supported the Barrasso amendment. But the issue before us 
today right now is that we already have a bipartisan commission 
appointed by the President. The commission is up and running.
  The President's commission will issue its report in January, and the 
President's commission needs subpoena power to do its job right now. 
This was the largest environmental disaster in our country's history. 
It is important we get to the bottom of it.
  I am disappointed that, once again, we are hearing our colleagues on 
the other side of the aisle who are objecting to giving the President's 
commission subpoena power.
  Mr. COBURN. Mr. President, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from New Hampshire.
  Mrs. SHAHEEN. The BP oilspill was an unprecedented disaster--lives 
were lost, and the gulf region will suffer the environmental and 
economic consequences for years to come. We cannot turn back the clock 
and stop what happened. But we can prevent future disasters by finding 
out exactly what went wrong. We need to investigate this spill, and we 
need to make sure it never happens again.
  That is why the President appointed a commission to investigate. But 
without subpoena power the commission cannot do the job they were 
appointed to do.
  Already, we have seen reports that some witnesses are stonewalling 
the commission. Former Senator Graham and former President Nixon's EPA 
Administrator, William Reilly, who are cochairing the President's 
commission, told the press yesterday that investigators have 
``encountered resistance to full responses to their questions.'' That 
is unacceptable. We cannot let BP and Transocean cover up the truth. 
The American people deserve answers.
  This is the fourth time I have asked for unanimous consent on the 
Senate floor to pass a bill giving the BP Oilspill Commission subpoena 
power. Unfortunately, as we saw, this is the fourth time the 
Republicans in the Senate have objected.
  This should be noncontroversial. In the House of Representatives, 169 
Republicans voted in favor of this bill in June. It is outrageous that 
this simple bill is being obstructed here in the Senate. A thorough 
investigation is needed, and it is needed now.
  Commission cochairman William Reilly, who used to sit on the board of 
ConocoPhillips, even said yesterday that it is ``unjustifiable'' for 
Congress to not provide the commission with all of the tools they need 
to resolve this disaster. I could not agree more. I am totally 
disappointed in what we have heard from the other side.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, will the Senator yield for a brief 
question? I know my colleague is waiting to speak.
  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Yes.
  Mr. DORGAN. I want to make the point--and then ask a question--this 
is probably a fitting description near the end of at least this portion 
of this session of the almost total lack of cooperation that exists in 
this Chamber. The House of Representatives passed this almost 
unanimously. On commissions that are important--the Three Mile Island 
Commission, the Commission on 9/11, the Financial Crisis Commission--
they were all given subpoena power. Why? Because you need that if you 
are going to force and compel people to produce the records.
  I was on the Energy Committee, and we heard the three parties that 
were out there drilling in that well site: BP, Transocean, and 
Halliburton. They were all involved. All of them were pointing at each 
other. The only way this commission can function is with subpoena 
power. What on Earth can they be thinking of to block subpoena power 
for this commission four successive times?
  I would ask the Senator--first of all, I thank the Senator for doing 
this. Second, it is unthinkable to me that we see continued blockage. 
It represents a complete lack of cooperation. They did not do that in 
the House of Representatives. The minority was very interested in 
seeing that this works. Here the minority seems very interested in 
seeing that the commission cannot work.
  I would ask, is this not the fourth occasion on the floor of the 
Senate that the Senator has made this request, and on four successive 
occasions the minority has objected, in some cases for other--they have 
a new excuse each time--but isn't this the case that four times the 
Senator has asked for this consent and four times it has been denied?
  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Absolutely. I appreciate the Senator from North Dakota 
pointing this out, and also pointing out what has been a bipartisan 
history in the past when we have dealt with these kinds of disasters 
and tragedies in the country, that this used to be a bipartisan effort, 
and how sad and disappointing that now it has come down to partisanship 
rather than working together.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.

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