[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Pages 11169-11171]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             GULF OILSPILL

  Mr. LeMIEUX. Mr. President, I just want to make some brief remarks 
this afternoon concerning the ongoing tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico and 
the Deepwater Horizon response.
  Sixty-one days ago is when the tragedy started. We are here, 61 days 
later, and we still have this tremendous pouring of oil from the bottom 
of the sea floor into the Gulf of Mexico. In fact, the amount of oil 
that is coming into the gulf now equals the size of the Exxon Valdez 
oilspill every 2\1/2\ days.
  Yet while this oil continues to gush, and while we have hope that the 
containment dome will capture more and more of this oil as it comes 
from the bottom of the ocean, we are still seeing a weak, at best, 
response from the Federal Government in trying to keep this oil from 
coming ashore.
  Last week--a week ago tomorrow--I met with the President of the 
United States and Admiral Allen in Pensacola. At the same time, I 
raised the issue of skimmers. Why are there so few skimmers in the Gulf 
of Mexico? Why were there only, at that time, 32 skimmers off the coast 
of Florida? The President and Admiral Allen told me they were making 
every effort they could to get more skimmers to the gulf and that they 
were welcoming skimmers from foreign countries coming to our country to 
aid in the effort.
  I told them at that time there was a State Department report saying 
that 21 offers of assistance have been made from 17 foreign countries, 
and they had been refused. I was informed back that, no; that is not 
the case and in fact we are using skimmers from foreign countries. I 
came to find out, through discussions with my office, there are still 
offers and there have been offers from foreign countries for skimmers 
and, in fact, those offers were refused.
  I will come to the floor tomorrow to talk about that in more detail.
  But the state of affairs is there are now only 20 skimmers off the 
coast of Florida, when there were 32 last week. There are now just 20, 
while there are 2,000 skimmers available in the United States alone. 
That number comes from Admiral Allen. I spoke to Admiral Allen last 
week, along with my colleague from Alabama, Senator Sessions, and we 
said: Where are the skimmers?
  I showed him information like I have today, which is the Deepwater 
Horizon response report from the incident command in the State of 
Florida. Then it showed 20 skimmers. Today it still shows 20 skimmers.
  I asked him to reconcile this for me. If we are asking for all these 
skimmers, if we are calling for all of them to come here, where are 
they? The response is anemic at best. So today I have sent a letter to 
Admiral Allen asking for an inventory of the 2,000 skimmers that he has 
said are available in the United States of America.
  When I talked to the President and Admiral Allen about this last 
week, they said: Look, some of these skimmers are not available because 
we may need them for an oilspill. Well, we have an oilspill. Just 
because they may be required to stand on watch somewhere in case an 
oilspill happens someplace else, that is like saying to the people of 
Pensacola: Your home is on fire, but we can't send the fire engine 
because there may be a fire someplace else. It does not make any sense.
  So, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this letter be 
printed in the Record, as well as this report from the State of Florida 
about the 20 skimmers off the coast of Florida.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                                                  U.S. Senate,

                                    Washington, DC, June 21, 2010.
     Admiral Thad W. Allen,
     Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard,
     Washington, DC.
       I am tremendously concerned over the lack of skimmer 
     vessels responding to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the 
     Gulf of Mexico. It is clear that we are facing a disaster of 
     unprecedented size that requires a response with an 
     unprecedented scope. As a result, every available skimming 
     resource should be responding to the Gulf to combat the 
     encroaching oil that is befouling Gulf beaches--including 
     Florida's.
       As of June 20, there were only 20 skimmers responding to 
     the oil spill in the waters off Florida's coast, yet you have 
     stated that there are approximately 2,000 skimmers in the 
     United States alone. For Floridians, these numbers do not add 
     up.
       I respectfully request that you provide me with a current 
     inventory of all domestic skimmer vessels, including their 
     current locations and operational responsibilities. Also, 
     please detail whether each of these skimmers has been 
     solicited by the Unified Command to assist in the ongoing oil 
     response.
       Also, I am troubled by the apparent lack of communication 
     between the Unified Command and elected officials regarding 
     the actual location of skimmers responding in the Gulf on a 
     daily basis. As a result, I respectfully request a daily 
     update via e-mail as to the number and location of skimmers 
     throughout the Gulf region and specifically off Florida's 
     shores.
       More and more environmental and economic damage is being 
     wrought on the Gulf with each passing day. These damages 
     should not be further exacerbated by a lack of appropriate 
     response vessels or poor communication between response 
     leaders. I appreciate your continued leadership in this 
     unprecedented effort and look forward to your prompt 
     response.
           Sincerely,
                                                George S. LeMieux,
     U.S. Senator.
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  Mr. LeMIEUX. I again call for the fact that every skimmer in the 
world that is available should be welcomed by this government. They 
should be steaming toward the Gulf of Mexico, and we should be doing 
everything we can to make sure we are cleaning up this oil before it 
gets on our beaches, before it gets into our estuaries and our coastal 
waterways. It is beyond belief we are not doing more. It is beyond 
belief this administration has no sense of urgency about stopping the 
oil from coming ashore.
  I ask, Mr. President--and I will continue to come every day to the 
floor to ask the question--where are the skimmers? Where is the help? 
Where are the domestic skimmers? Why aren't we doing the job we should 
for the American people to protect our beaches, our waterways, and our 
estuaries?
  Thank you, Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I see our distinguished colleague from 
Pennsylvania on the Senate floor, and I know he expects to speak for a 
little more extended time. He has graciously allowed me to go first.

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