There's no excuse for that.

The spill is in his backyard, and he arrived armed with a powerful picture: a brown pelican.

I want to ask you: Who is in charge on the ground?

All they're being told from both BP and the federal government is no.

It's taking five days, is what most leaders are telling me.

Our local leaders seem to be the only ones who are coming up with ideas to protect our marsh from the oil.

I mean, look, Anderson, one of the big frustrations is, our local leaders seem to be the only ones who were coming up with ideas to protect our marsh from the oil.

I still, to this day -- for over a month now, I have not seen a sense of urgency from BP or the federal government in the fact that you need a change -- chain of command where decisions can get made quickly.

All they're being told from both BP and the federal government is no.

They have literally just underestimated and downplayed the severity of this damage from day one.

There's no excuse for that.

If they would have said from day one that 60,000 barrels of oil was the worst-case scenario that was coming out of this well...

It's taking five days, what most leaders are telling me.

I wanted to see a sense of urgency from Tony Hayward.

There is a de facto moratorium right now because the Administration is not prepared to take new permit applications under their new rules yet.

I am also concerned, as I know you are, by the enormous hit small business is facing by the drilling moratorium.

The Federal Government is the only entity, in stark contrast to BP, whose sole responsibility is to the public interest of the American people.

Mr. President, that is a modest wage and a decent wage. But it gets a lot more complicated than that. There are boat captains who were getting their business back after Katrina and Rita, recreational boat captains, fishing captains. Unlike…