[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 12725-12726]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        THE REMEDIES ACT OF 2010

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, among the many challenges of 
this Nation is the ongoing oil spillage in the gulf, a region that I 
come from.
  I also happen to come from the city of Houston and represent a number 
our large energy companies, along with wind and solar and natural gas. 
We truly need a seamless energy policy, but our consuming 
responsibility is to stop this oil spillage and to stop it now. And I 
believe it is important that we do it with an understanding of a long-
range strategy to address this crisis.
  Right now, as I speak, Hurricane Alex has made its way along the 
gulf. And during this hurricane season, we don't know how many other 
hurricanes will come and disrupt the clean-up actions that are going 
on.
  So today I've introduced H.R. 5676, the Right to Equitable Means of 
Ensuring Damages for Injuries are Efficiently Secured Act of 2010, or 
the REMEDIES Act. And I rise today to introduce this to address the 
many issues created by the recent disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
  For over 2 months the blown-out wellhead beneath the wreckage of the 
Deepwater Horizon platform has spewed tens of thousands of barrels of 
crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico and the gulf coast communities on a 
daily basis. The initial explosion killed 11 people, seriously injured 
17 others, and destroyed a multi-million dollar platform. But the 
extent of the damage done is far, far greater. The disaster and its 
aftermath have wrecked local industries and polluted or outright 
destroyed precious natural resources, and people are unable to work and 
to earn the money to pay for food, mortgages and other basic expenses.
  And in my visits to the gulf region, these people were unattended to; 
oystermen, fishermen, shrimpers, restaurants not having any way to 
access a quick and immediate response.
  Oh, yes, you see now a claims system in place. You see that there is 
now an established $20 billion fund that I am grateful to our President 
for establishing. But look how long it took because there was no 
structure in place.
  It is obvious that the existing body of law is antiquated and, 
therefore, inadequate to cope with the current situation. The liability 
caps under the current law will allow the responsible parties to pay 
just a mere fraction of the damages they have inflicted on the people 
of the gulf. Legislation enacted in the early part of the last century 
does not properly cover all the workers in the contemporary industry, 
and BP and other oil industry entities need to be able to address this 
question.
  My bill would establish a tiered liability system so that we would 
provide a structure to provide coverage, yet protect the smaller and 
independent operators. The REMEDIES Act will also make some needed 
changes to 1920-era laws such as the Jones Act and the Death on the 
High Seas Act, to ensure that family members can recover, such as 
mothers and sisters, brothers and wives, which is not the case at this 
point. The language suggests that it will be a personal representative.
  In addition, my bill would cause the end of lax permitting of the 
Minerals Management Service and the Department of the Interior and 
would require that if you had five safety violations, you would 
immediately put a moratorium and shut-down of the deepwater drilling.
  My bill would also increase the oil spill liability trust fund from 
$1.6 billion to $10 billion. The money would be standing there now.
  In addition, the Federal Water Pollution Act would be amended, as I 
said earlier, permitting, requiring that any permit would require you 
to establish a vetted recovery plan, so that if your BOP did not work, 
you had a back up plan that had been vetted and assessed as workable.
  In addition, as I mentioned, if you had any violations, as these 
companies have been known to have, but, in particular, this company, 
you would immediately be shut down.
  When I asked one of the new members of the MMS why BP wasn't shut 
down with the enormous list of violations that it had, the question 
was, not to the fault of the person who answered the question, but it 
was, We just haven't looked at that now.
  My amendment, or my legislation, will call for the Secretary of 
Homeland Security to establish a separate claims process under their 
jurisdiction. This legislation will ask the President to establish an 
emergency spill coordination team led by the commandant of the Coast 
Guard, along with the EPA, and the Secretary of Energy.
  My amendment would also establish a research and development fund 
funded by the industry up to $1 billion to be able to design the most 
sophisticated technology for recovery, research, and remediation in an 
oil spill.
  And my amendment would require immediate post-traumatic stress 
disorder counseling for all of the people who we are not even 
addressing the pain or the mental distress that is being caused.

[[Page 12726]]

  I ask my colleagues to review H.R. 5676, the REMEDIES Act, so that we 
can go forward and establish a pathway to solve this problem and not 
have it happen again.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce a far reaching, comprehensive 
piece of legislation to help address some of the many issues created by 
the recent disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the ``Right to Equitable 
Means of Ensuring Damages for Injuries are Efficiently Secured'' Act of 
2010.
  For over two months, the blown out wellhead beneath the wreckage of 
the Deepwater Horizon platform has spewed tens of thousands of barrels 
of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico and Gulf Coast communities on a 
daily basis. The initial explosion killed eleven people, seriously 
injured seventeen others, and destroyed a multi-million dollar 
platform, but the extent of the damage done is far, far greater. The 
disaster and its aftermath have wrecked local industries and polluted 
or outright destroyed precious natural resources, and people are unable 
to work and to earn the money to pay for food, mortgages, and other 
basic expenses.
  It is obvious that the existing body of law is antiquated and 
therefore inadequate to cope with the current situation. The liability 
caps under current law will allow the responsible parties to pay a mere 
fraction of the damages they have inflicted on the people of the Gulf, 
legislation enacted in the early part of the last century does not 
properly cover all the workers in the contemporary industry, and BP is 
nickel and diming the people its recklessness has put out of work.
  Damage from the oil spill in the Gulf region will almost certainly 
total in the billions of dollars, but current law caps liability for 
damages at $75 million. While that seems like a huge number, it is less 
than 20 percent of the cost of the platform itself. My bill would 
establish a tiered liability system, so that the oil industry pays all 
the costs for cleanup and damages caused by the spills it creates, 
while still allowing independent operators to stay in business. This 
provision would be retroactive.
  The REMEDIES Act will also make some needed changes to two 1920's era 
laws regarding injuries or death at sea. It will change the Jones Act 
so that the engineers and others who were killed or injured on the 
Deepwater Horizon, but who were not technically ``seamen,'' will be 
covered, and allow actions against anyone whose acts or omissions were 
a cause of those deaths or injuries.
  My bill will also amend the Death on the High Seas Act, so that 
victims or their survivors will be able to receive compensation for 
their suffering, or the loss of their loved ones' companionship, rather 
than just the economic damages allowed under current law. It will also 
allow for punitive damages in cases involving gross negligence.
  Of course, part of the cause of the explosion was the lax permitting 
processes. In 2008, the Minerals Management Service, MMS, and 
Department of the Interior changed regulations so that BP was not 
required to file a detailed blowout plan, and simply accepted BP's 
assertion that it was ``unlikely that an accidental surface or 
subsurface oil spill would occur from the proposed activities,'' and 
allowed the project to go forward. The REMEDIES bill will change that, 
requiring that operators file detailed spill mitigation and recovery 
plans, and detail their backup plans as well. Those plans would have to 
be vetted by impartial experts instead of simply rubber-stamped by 
industry insiders.
  Under my bill the MMS will be allowed to suspend permits and cease 
operations when specific operators' safety records show that they are 
so focused on production that they risk the safety of their workers as 
well as the environment. Since 2007, BP had over 872 serious safety 
violations--a staggering 97 percent of the serious violations in the 
entire industry--at just two of their refineries.
  BP is currently facing a criminal investigation for possible similar 
violations on the Deepwater Horizon platform, and new information 
strongly suggests that BP consistently made decisions that increased 
risk in order to save time or costs. While nobody wants to shut down 
such an important sector of our economy, it is important to make sure 
that the penalties for blatant disregard of our safety laws and 
regulations are strong enough to be taken seriously, rather than just 
paid as the cost of doing business. Making the continuation of 
production contingent on good safety records should be something BP and 
others commit to wholeheartedly. My bill imposes such requirements.
  While there is now a $20 billion escrow account for third party 
claims against BP, administered by an independent third party, that 
took months to establish. Before that, the process BP had set up for 
the people of the Gulf Coast communities was a disgrace. BP's claims 
department engaged in a process in which people who are out of work 
because of the disaster on the Gulf Coast received some compensation, 
but by BP's own estimates, roughly twenty thousand of the forty 
thousand claims that have been filed had not been paid. The $5000 
payment that most claimants have received was barely a drop in the 
bucket against the payments on loans for boats and other necessary 
equipment, and small business owners had frequently been given the 
runaround as to what exactly a ``legitimate'' claim was under BP's 
standards. Under my bill, the Secretary of Homeland Security will have 
the power to require businesses responsible for claims for oil spills 
to set up a more streamlined process, with guidelines for the proof 
necessary, so that legitimate claims are no longer delayed or denied.
  In addition to the various provisions already identified, my bill 
will prevent unnecessary delays in the legal process for claims arising 
from this disaster. Under current class action law, BP and other 
defendants are allowed to have lawsuits brought against them by the 
states and municipalities it has harmed removed to Federal courts. 
While our federal judicial system is more than competent to handle 
these claims, it is also overloaded. By having cases filed in state 
courts removed to Federal court, defendants would be able to greatly 
and unfairly delay every step of the process, prolonging the damage 
their recklessness has caused and possibly pushing many to settle for 
less than they are fully entitled to. The REMEDIES Act will create a 
carve-out for cases brought by states and their subdivisions on behalf 
of their citizens, allowing them to remain in state courts and acted on 
quickly.
  There has been overwhelming legislative action surrounding the oil 
spill by various Committees of this House with jurisdiction over this 
issue, including the Judiciary Committee of which I am a Member. I am 
an original co-sponsor of H.R. 5503, ``the Securing Protections for the 
Injured from Limitations on Liability Act,'' introduced by our 
distinguished Chairman John Conyers, and supported by Representative 
Charlie Melancon. My bill adds a new dimension to the debate and to the 
evolving legislative process. In this regard, I plan to work closely 
with Members from both sides of the aisle to forge an effective legal 
response to address this crisis and to prevent similar disasters in the 
future, and ask my colleagues to join me in my efforts.

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